A.I. Uses Evolutionary Algorithm to Find Previously Unknown Video Game Hack

An Atari-playing artificial intelligence created by researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany has discovered a never-before-seen bug in the classic game Qbert. Using an inexplicable and seemingly random series of moves, the algorithm achieved an unprecedented high score in a matter of minutes. The researchers explained how they trained their A.I. to achieve an impossible result rivaling James T. Kirk's defeat of the Kobayashi Maru in a paper posted on the preprint side arXiv on February 24. Rather than employing a standard reinforcement learning approach, they used a lesser-known technique called evolutionary strategy. As the name suggests, the method is loosely based of the Darwinian concept of natural selection.