Forget Doomsday AI--Google Is Worried about Housekeeping Bots Gone Bad

Tom Murphy graduated from Carnegie Melon University with a PhD in computer science. Then he built software that learned to play Nintendo games. In some cases, the system works well. Playing Super Mario, for instance, it learns to exploit a bug in the game, stomping on enemy Goombas even when floating below them. It can rack up points by attacking the game with a reckless abandon you and I would never try.