Last month, Google's GameNGen AI model showed that generalized image diffusion techniques can be used to generate a passable, playable version of Doom. Now, researchers are using some similar techniques with a model called MarioVGG to see whether AI can generate plausible video of Super Mario Bros. in response to user inputs. The results of the MarioVGG model--available as a preprint paper published by the crypto-adjacent AI company Virtuals Protocol--still display a lot of apparent glitches, and it's too slow for anything approaching real-time gameplay. But the results show how even a limited model can infer some impressive physics and gameplay dynamics just from studying a bit of video and input data. The researchers hope this represents a first step toward "producing and demonstrating a reliable and controllable video game generator" or possibly even "replacing game development and game engines completely using video generation models" in the future.

OpenAI wanted to advance artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning research in a more creative way, so they trained their new bot to play Minecraft using over 70,000 hours of gameplay footage from YouTube. The bot utilized the gameplay actions and tutorials to learn how to execute complex in-game sequences that would take a normal player around 24,000 individual actions to accomplish. Their behavioral cloning model accomplished many tasks including learning how to chop down trees to collect logs and then craft those into planks. This sequence would typically take a human Minecraft player approximately 50 seconds or 1,000 consecutive game actions. Additionally, the model performs other complex skills humans often do in the game, such as swimming, hunting animals for food, and eating that food.

We introduce the problem of generating Let's Play-style commentary of gameplay video via machine learning. We propose an analysis of Let's Play commentary and a framework for building such a system. To test this framework we build an initial, naive implementation, which we use to interrogate the assumptions of the framework. We demonstrate promising results towards future Let's Play commentary generation.

Here's how to solve all of Fortnite's week 7 challenges plus a round-up of all the map changes and updates you need to know about. Another week of Fortnite news, challenges and map changes is almost behind us. The fourth season of the game's Battle Pass is in its seventh week, with Week 8 challenges dropping early Thursday morning. As is the case every week, this post is designed to round-up the biggest Fortnite: Battle Royale stories of the week and help you mop up any challenges you might still be facing. This past week was a big one for Epic Games and the Fortnite community.

AIs aren't just getting good at playing video games -- they are teaching themselves about how they work under the hood based on nothing more than video footage. Over the past few years, we have seen various attempts to teach an artificial intelligence how to play a video game. Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Interactive Computing published a paper outlining a method of teaching AI how to learn a game engine. In previous projects, the AI has only been instructed on how to excel at a particular game. This study goes one step further, aiming to instill a deeper understanding of the mechanics at play, rather than just the fastest route to success.