Microsoft's AI Is Playing Minecraft to Learn How the World Works

Microsoft is using an experimental version of its game Minecraft to test the limits of artificial intelligence. Called Project Malmo (named after a Swedish city, as Minecraft originates out of Sweden), the new version of the game allows reinforcement-learning algorithms to control a character. Reinforcement algorithms, which are inspired by psychology, focus on putting artificial intelligences within a specific environment and letting them figure out how to gain further rewards. By making those rewards incremental, Microsoft researchers believe they can train the AI to learn goals. Minecraft's sandbox nature could turn it into the perfect training ground for AI.