Divide and conquer: How Microsoft researchers used AI to master Ms. Pac-Man - Next at Microsoft

Microsoft researchers have created an artificial intelligence-based system that learned how to get the maximum score on the addictive 1980s video game Ms. Pac-Man, using a divide-and-conquer method that could have broad implications for teaching AI agents to do complex tasks that augment human capabilities. The team from Maluuba, a Canadian deep learning startup acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, used a branch of AI called reinforcement learning to play the Atari 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man perfectly. Using that method, the team achieved the maximum score possible of 999,990. Doina Precup, an associate professor of computer science at McGill University in Montreal said that's a significant achievement among AI researchers, who have been using various videogames to test their systems but have found Ms. Pac-Man among the most difficult to crack. But Precup said she was impressed not just with what the researchers achieved but with how they achieved it.