Google’s DeepMind Artificial Intelligence has conquered Go. Now, it is setting its sights on a new challenge: Starcraft II.
First announced at Blizzcon, Google and Blizzard has entered a partnership that will see Blizzard opening up Starcraft II, alllowing Google to use it as a research platform for its DeepMind A.I. system. “Blizzard will release an API early next year that will allow researchers and hobbyists around the world to build and train their own A.I. agents to play Starcraft II,” says Oriol Vinyals, a research scientist for Google DeepMind.
The obvious end goal with this move is that Google may be able to train DeepMind to be an “unbeatable” A.I. in game, or even make DeepMind into the first A.I. player coach, but this isn’t what Google has in mind. “On a broader scope, these advancements we make in Starcraft might help us when we apply them to the real world challenges we face in science, energy, and other human endeavors,” says Vinyals.
Of course, the more interesting question is whether or not DeepMind could beat a professional StarCraft II player. For now, Google believes that DeepMind is still a long way from being able to challenge a professional human player at the game.
Source: Google DeepMind, Engadget
