AI trained to slay players in a computer game could one day lead to killer robots

Two students have built an AI that could be the basis of future killer robots. In a controversial move, the pair trained an AI bot to kill human players within the classic video game Doom. Critics have expressed concern over the AI technology and the risk it could pose to humans in future. Devendra Chaplot and Guillaume Lample, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh trained an AI bot - nicknamed Arnold - using'deep reinforcement learning' techniques. While Google's AI software had previously been shown to tackle vintage 2D Atari games such as Space Invaders, the students wanted to expand the technology to tackle three-dimensional first-person shooter games like Doom.