OpenAI has developed an AI that teaches itself the block game “Minecraft” with the help of YouTube videos.
Enlarge
OpenAI’s AI can play “Minecraft”.
© Mojang Studios
The AI research organization OpenAI, founded by Elon Musk, has taught an artificial intelligence to play Minecraft like a human. In a blog post, the scientists explain that they used a technique called “Video PreTraining (VPT)”. In order to show the AI how the block game works, 2,000 hours of gameplay material was collected, in which, among other things, the correct key control and the correct mouse movements are explained.
AI can hunt and swim
The researchers then trained an inverse dynamics (IDM) model to predict future actions that players would take in the gameplay videos. Last but not least, the IDM model was fed with 70,000 hours of “Minecraft” gameplay videos from the video platform Youtube. As a result, the AI was able to cut down trees in the game, collect the logs and use them to build a tool bench through the crafting menu. The artificial intelligence also took other actions from the videos and was able to carry them out independently, including swimming, hunting and eating. She even masters the technique of “pillar jumping,” where players keep themselves in the air by repeatedly jumping and placing blocks under their feet.
Masterpiece Diamond Pickaxe
Researchers found that more gameplay footage made available to the AI led to the execution of more complex game mechanics. Through “reinforcement learning”, the AI was repeatedly rewarded for mastering difficult tasks. This is how she was eventually able to craft a diamond pickaxe in the game.
