Remember Montezuma’s Revenge and Pitfall? Well, these classic 80s video games are back in the news, though, the reason for it is astounding. The video games have helped Uber develop a new algorithm for its AI Lab.
“Although deceptively simple, both Montezuma’s Revenge and Pitfall! have been immune to mastery via reinforcement learning, a technique that’s otherwise adept at learning to conquer video games,” according to TechnologyReview.
“DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet focused on artificial intelligence, famously used it to develop algorithms capable of learning how to play several classic video games at an expert level.Reinforcement-learning algorithms mesh well with most games, because they tweak their behavior in response to positive feedback—the score going up.”
With these algorithms produced by studying both Montezuma and Pitfall, researchers found that there is a potential for machines to do plenty of useful things by simply teaching themselves to do so.
“The new algorithms come from Uber’s AI research team in San Francisco, led by Jeff Clune, who is also an associate professor at the University of Wyoming,” according to the report.
“The team demonstrated a fundamentally different approach to machine learning within an environment that offers few clues to show an algorithm how it is doing.”
The company’s AI research is being used to help better its business through these applications. To learn more about how these classic games influence the way researchers discover new algorithms, click here.
