Microsoft competition asks PhD students to create advanced AI to play Minecraft - TechRepublic

AI has achieved milestones in mastering games like chess, Go, and, recently, poker--illustrating how successful machines have become at completing specific, narrow tasks. But can AI move beyond the narrow, toward achieving more general, human-like skills? On Thursday, Microsoft launched a competition to address this question. Microsoft's Project Malmo, which the company calls a "sophisticated AI experimentation platform," brings researchers together to use Minecraft as a testing tool for developing AI--smart, collaborative AI that can compete in a virtual world. The Malmo Collaborative AI Challenge asks PhD students to enter this world and create AI that can team up with randomly assigned players to compete for a high score in Minecraft.