Minecraft Is Getting An AI Assistant From Facebook, MIT

Facebook and MIT are working on an AI assistant for Minecraft that can interact with players and then perform a bunch of tasks on request. "The assistant can also learn from these interactions, and develop new skills," reports CNET. "They chose to use the game Minecraft for the project because it has 'infinite variety' but simple and predictable rules." From the report: "The opportunities for an AI to learn are huge," the blog post said. "Facebook is setting itself the task of designing the AI to self-improve ... the researchers think the Minecraft environment is a perfect one to develop this kind of learning." MIT said it's a challenging process, because even a simple request like "build a tower 15 blocks tall" requires the AI assistant to understand what a tower is, how to build one, how to measure the height, and to know what 15 is. An early version of the AI assistant is already available to download. The paper detailing the project is available on ArXiv.org.

And yet, Minecraft is a Microsoft product...

[tambo]

So, Microsoft owns Minecraft.

And Microsoft has been investing a ton of R&D into machine learning and digital assistants... like Cortana.

So isn't it a little bit weird that Facebook is the one bringing a digital assistant to Minecraft?

It will *not* be named Clippy.

[fahrbot-bot]

In the running are: Snippy, Diggy, Buildy, Helpy, Helpery and Steve.

Re:

[pslytely psycho]

But, what about Bob?

Re:

[sheramil]

But, what about Bob?

www.subgenius.com

"AI" hype is just tedious enough in its opaqueness

[Empiric]

MIT said it's a challenging process, because even a simple request like "build a tower 15 blocks tall" requires the AI assistant to understand what a tower is, how to build one, how to measure the height, and to know what 15 is.

And it actually understands none of the above.

So let me get this straight

[Opportunist]

I can get an AI that does tasks for me in Minecraft? In other words, I can get a computer to play a computer game for me?

That's like buying two chess computers so they can play chess against each other while I watch a movie.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Those of us on high latency satellite links might enjoy having more going on in game. I'm also thinking it would be fun to play mc wholly through an "AI" player.

Re:

[Iamthecheese]

I'm a gamer. My experience with companions in games is that they all suck due to shitty AI. Just like other NPC's they have shitty pathing, nonexistent tactical ability, predictable attacks, and are otherwise dumb as a stump. This is holding back single-player gaming to an enormous degree. It's also a key development needed for effective companion robots in the real world, for ALL the uses those will be put to. A minecraft robot that knows about what kind of tower I want is using the same kind of intellige

Planning algorithm

[thereitis]

I see in the video the bot simply flies to place the blocks. If the aim is to demonstrate an "AI", it should do everything in survival mode (not creative mode where you can fly) and find out how to obtain its own blocks as well. The early version looks like a 3D version of Turtle, just moving the "pen" around and drawing. Neat, but not intelligent.