Mario AI Competition

togelius writes "We're running a competition to see who can program the best AI for a version of Super Mario Bros. It's about deciding what to do at each time step — run, jump, shoot etc. — based on a description of the platforms, items and enemies around Mario. This is hard. It's so hard we believe that some sort of machine learning algorithm will be necessary to reach good playing performance. But really, any approach is fair game. We welcome hard-coded submissions, commercial AI programmers, academics and amateurs alike. Whoever wins, it will be really interesting. The competition is associated with two IEEE conferences, and there are cash prizes available for the best submissions."

Comments

This is hard

[phantomfive]

This is hard. I think if I were going to do it, I would break it up into steps.

First, I would teach the AI to move around on flat surfaces. Then I would teach it how to navigate over holes. Then I would add pipes and things it would need to jump over. Finally I would add random bricks. These are hard because if you jump underneath them, you might bump your head and change your trajectory.
Secondly I would start adding bad guys. Start with goombas, then add green turtles, then red turtles, then piranha plants, then bullets.

This is hard, the AI will need to learn to recognize certain features of the landscape, which is something humans are really good at doing. It will have to learn things like, "if I stand next to a tube, the piranha plant will not come out." It will have to learn that sometimes a short hop is appropriate, and sometimes a long jump is better. It will have to recognize that if a red turtle is on a ledge, it doesn't need to worry about it falling, and it can run underneath at full speed.

Heh, maybe I'll enter. How hard can it be?