Microsoft's AI just got a perfect score on Mrs. Pacman

By Matthew Griffin Intelligence and the Senses 11th July 2017

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Games and play help humans learn new skills, especially when we’re young, but it increasingly looks like AI’s are the superior game players

Video games are one of the best ways to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) – they offer risk free digital environments for learning machines to learn and make mistakes, but once AI gets good, it can be unstoppable.

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Maluuba, a company that was recently bought by Microsoft, just let loose a learning AI on Ms. Pac Man and eventually it got the highest score possible, 999,990, which, as far as anyone can tell, is the first time anyone, or anything for that matter has aced the game.

You puny human, get out of the office and get back to playing games! Save humanity’s dignity!

Watch Poetry in Motion

Ms. Pac Man, seen here on the Atari 2600, has many variables inside it – there are the dots, of course, and the ghosts tracking the player down. Then there are the ghosts you track down and the pieces of fruit that suddenly appear. The Maluuba team broke these variables down into several agents, 150, to be exact, so the AI could focus on several small tasks as opposed to one large one.

Microsoft's pig wrangling competition is teaching AI's to cooperate

Considering how AI’s have also mastered a mixture of other Atari games, as well as the ancient game of Go, Poker and even pig wrangling, which apparently helps them become better negotiators, they could all probably get together for a heck of a gaming night. That said though Minecraft has proven to be more of a struggle… ha ha stupid AI’s.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.