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IT Infrastructure

Super Mario Bros Illustrates How Artificial Intelligence Learns

Turns out Super Mario Bros is popular among artificial intelligence too, thanks to a YouTuber that shows how artificial intelligence learns.

January 18, 2018 Jonathan Blackwood 3 Comments

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Artificial intelligence is pervading everything from the workspace to our personal devices. The most important part of AI is the intelligence, and it gains that intelligence through a process of machine learning. Want to know how artificial intelligence learns? A YouTuber explains with the help of popular gaming franchise Super Mario Bros.

SethBling, a competitive gamer that holds the record for speedrun in Super Mario World, became interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He married his two interests and came up with MarI/O, an artificial intelligence program that taught itself how to successfully complete the first level of Super Mario World.

Starting from absolutely nothing, the AI was tasked with teaching itself to traverse the level without dying. The machine could die thanks to falling down holes or running into enemies. The only information the AI was given was the buttons that cause Mario to move left, right, or jump.

Related: How One Company Successfully Integrated Artificial Intelligence Into Business

The learning method SethBling chose for MarI/O was a neural network that could evolve through different generations of gameplay. According to Hackaday:

A neural network simply takes an input, in this case a small graphic representing the sprites in the game it’s playing, sends that input through a series of artificial neurons, and turns that into commands for the controller. It’s an exceedingly simple neural network – the network that can get Mario through an entire level is less than a dozen neurons – but with enough training, even simple networks can accomplish very complex tasks.

So the neural network experiments with different buttons in order to avoid obstacles and finish the level. At first, the AI doesn’t move at all. After learning that not moving will get it killed, it begins to move. When it encounters an obstacle that destroys it, it starts over and attempts a new sequence of buttons to avoid the obstacle. The AI continues to build on its knowledge until it finds the sequence to avoid all obstacles and complete the level. After 34 generations the AI was able to complete the level without dying.

It’s relatively rudimentary, but a great example of how artificial intelligence can be put into niche and unique processes in order to automate them. An AI is able to teach itself though this neural network process and learn the best ways to complete tasks. Your organization might not need AI to play video games, but think of how it could be taught to navigate customer service requests, organize and order supplies, and more.

Just make sure you give it some time to learn first.

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Jonathan Blackwood
Jonathan Blackwood

Jonathan Blackwood is the Editor-in-Chief of TechDecisions. Jonathan joined TechDecisions in 2014 and writes about technologies that help to innovate and improve practices for companies of all sizes, K-12 and higher education, government, healthcare, hospitality, retail and large venue spaces. He is especially interested in the future of work and education and the Internet of Things. Follow him @BlackwoodTweets.

Tagged With: Artificial Intelligence

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Grass_girl says

    February 22, 2018 at 7:00 am

    Great post. Just wonder if AI can potentially harm human one day?

    Reply
  2. AI Training says

    October 25, 2018 at 3:35 am

    Thank you for sharing useful information for all the candidates of Datascience Training who want to kick start these career in this field

    Reply
  3. Irene Elain says

    November 19, 2018 at 11:01 pm

    Super Mario 63 is really a product of artificial intelligence. The first time I play it on freegames66.com, I cannot believe how can they creat a wonderful game like that.

    Reply

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