Last week, MIT showed off Smashbot, an AI trained to beat humans at Super Smash Bros Melee. Playing as Captain Falcon, Smashbot beat a number of highly-ranked players. Smashbot was built by a team led by Vlad Firoiu. Through a combination of deep learning algorithms and practice against the in-game AI, Smashbot has learned how to play the game from scratch. It's not a real surprise it can outdo humans, as it has faster reaction times.

AI has earned another victory against humans, this time in Nintendo fighting game Super Smash Bros. Melee. A team lead by Vlad Firoiu at Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained an AI to play the game using deep learning algorithms and then pitched it against ten highly-ranked players. The AI came out on top against every one of them. Super Smash Bros. is a cult Nintendo series where players battle classic video game characters like Super Mario and Zelda. The aim is to knock out (KO) the opponent by sending them out of bounds. The Super Smash Bros. Melee game was originally released in 2001 for the Nintendo Gamecube console.