A Video Game Helps Artificial Intelligences Learn to Learn

By Adrian Covert Posted 07.30.2009 at 3:35 pm 8 Comments

Ever wish you could play a game that tailors its strategy around your particular playing style? Thanks to a team of game programmers affiliated with the MIT Media Lab, and their project The Restaurant Game, that might be a reality sooner than you think.

One of the holy grails for programmers is to create artificial intelligence that's able to teach itself based on variables taken in on the fly. The Restaurant Game seeks to accomplish this by analyzing real interactions between a waiter and a customer, and figuring out which interaction combinations yield favorable results.

The programmers, Deb Roy and Jeff Orkin, refer to these combinations as "interaction traces"; they could involve something as simple as a large tip for a promptly delivered meal. The end goal for this project is to create an AI that can adapt to different situations without the need for human programming.

And the best part is that you can help contribute to the process. The restaurant game is downloadable for OS X and Windows, and can be played through in about 10 minutes.

[via The Restaurant Game via H+ via Slashdot]

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8 Comments

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ultimatenerd22

07/30/09 at 8:23 pm

great soon the robots will kill us all.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEUWrj7SyPk

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Cuishi14

07/31/09 at 6:53 pm

an AI that culd adapt to wat ur doin wuld be cool for RTS games. the enemy wuld change its stratgy based on the players stratgy.

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thecooltodd

07/31/09 at 7:16 pm

I agree, but I'm guessing that it learns from trial and error. Once it gets adapted to one person's strategy for an RTS or even a TBS, if another person plays with a completely different style it would have to learn all over again and optimize a strategy that involves beating either player's strategy.

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sirknala

08/03/09 at 1:59 pm

That's the point. If the game immediately knew how you played it would not be similar to a human playing the game with you. Learning how a player plays takes time no matter who you are.

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tpel

08/04/09 at 1:27 am

skynet! here we come

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plazzooo

09/04/09 at 11:44 am

amazing

www.tungstenplaza.com

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uncleiroh13

09/15/09 at 8:27 pm

this is cool
--------------------------------------------------
i wish i was part of this chat about the lame macs
http://boards.ign.com/teh_vestibule/b5296/184755342/r184756381/

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monawejewelry

01/08/10 at 3:50 pm

i like it
www.monawe.com

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