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An AI Learned Magic: the Gathering, Now Creates Thousands of New Cards
merbs writes: Reed Milewicz, a computer science researcher, wowed a major online Magic: The Gathering forum when he posted the results of an experiment to "teach" a weak AI to auto-generate Magic cards. Milewicz had trained a deep, recurrent neural network—a kind of statistical machine learning model designed to emulate the neural networks of animal brains—to "learn" the text of every Magic card currently in existence. Then he had it generate thousands of its own.
He shared a number of the bizarre "cards" his program had come up with, replete with their properly fantastical names ("Shring the Artist," "Mided Hied Parira's Scepter") and freshly invented abilities ("fuseback"). Players devoured—and cheered—the results.
He shared a number of the bizarre "cards" his program had come up with, replete with their properly fantastical names ("Shring the Artist," "Mided Hied Parira's Scepter") and freshly invented abilities ("fuseback"). Players devoured—and cheered—the results.
This seemed cooler than it actually is, as practically everything the program generates is completely nonsensical. As such, the end result does not seem special compared to everything else "AI's" have supposedly created in the past.
Hopefully the randomness hits home a couple of times and gives someone actually useful ideas.
This is exactly why we need a moral framework for AI development.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
-- C.S. Lewis
That is to say, yes. The opinion is changing as the kids who played pokemon and MTG grow up and continue to play, and the people who have apoplectic fits that these adults weren't swilling beer sitting in front of the tv 4 hours a day like "real adults" die off from heart attacks and strokes.
Every time you read about "AI" like this and you dig into the details, you find that the programmer set up so many parameters on it that it is nothing like AI.
I'm betting this one is no different.
Incorrect AC. OI (Organic Intelligence) has boundaries and parameters, so will AI. You can't escape it. Physics means there are limitations to all things in the physical world. Even an AI controlled one. With out rules, there would be no way to accomplish anything.
As for the posting that is referenced, I understand these games of chance which are similar to any other (poker, flipping coins, slot machines, etc all are based on a probability/chance framework). If an AI system designs the probability cards, then it would also be able to calculate the best sequence of cards to own or use to win the game, if that is your goal.
So after the AI creates the game of chance and provides the best sequence to win (or increase your probability to win), what was the point exactly?
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
So with all the recent fuss over AI and some respectable folks being scared to death of it, I happened to stumble on this great article on waitbutwhy:
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/...
It's a long two parter, but well worth the read. If you want the tl;dr part, skip to part 2 and search for "Robotica". With that in mind, we're going to end up with a planet of mile-high stacks of Magic: The Gathering cards.
----- obSig
Get the AI's addicted to cardboard crack like MtG, so they will be distracted from killing us. Roko's Basilisk solved!
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
Are you trying to be funny? Or are you just dumb?
The same question might be asked of you.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
What I thought from the description is that a neural network was taught how to play Magic and somehow generated new cards by trying to play with them. Think for instance of a program that tries to come up with a new chess piece by coming up with a movement pattern, playing games with that piece and trying to figure out whether it'd be useful or interesting to play with.
This on the other hand looks like something like a markov chain generator. Amusing nonsense that can give humans fun ideas.
The AI will run the numbers and realise that with Wizards of the Coast's operating profit, the only way to win is not to play...
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
To bad I didn't stop to think about what I was doing when I threw out my old magic cards I could of dusted off some of those alpha beta and filled up my check book.
Eh, play drafts in whatever the current standard set is. You'll run into a couple hundred cards maximum, all using the same few mechanics, and because everyone's trying to draft out of a very limited pool, you don't need universal knowledge...you just need to understand the game enough to build something with the pieces that are dropped in front of you. Plus it's cheaper and no asshole trick decks. Do it at the start of a block and there's a VERY small set of stuff to learn.
(sure it helps to be aware of what nasty tricks might be available, but it's really not that essential, and you can pick it up real fast)
As far as I'm concerned draft is the only fun way to play, haven't in a while now but still. Like ten bucks will get you a night of 5-10 games on the same level playing field as everyone else. Wizards' business model around draft games is to compete versus movies for friday night entertainment, and it's not really all that exploitative by comparison.
Draft nights are a pretty useful way to go out and be sociable even if you don't have a group of people to go with. So appeal++ for people who don't go out with friends most nights, I guess, but I wouldn't call ccg players social rejects.
I miss my dual lands. Once upon a time they were cheap...
Is it time to sell?
What would be amusing would be to get to the point where a person could generate their own set, print them out with the approximate levels of rarity necessay for a set, and then have a draft with the random cards.
Who wouldn't like a card with MointainSpoink and Tromple?
It would be nice to see the same level of logic applied to scenario generators for games with large, persistent worlds. Skyrim and GTA games are what come to mind soonest for me. It would really pump up replay value. Probably neither of those games really needs it, but it would be a nice feature for a competitor.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm far enough out of the loop that I have no idea about very recent market trends, just that they're higher now than ten years ago and seem relatively stable.
There are a few interesting ways AI can be applied to the game of Magic the Gathering - this is one, and it's cool to see this guy's project, and the results.
I've done a little bit of thinking in this area, but more in the area of making an AI play with the goal of searching for new competitive deck lists.
I posted on my blog about my approach a while back: Getting Your Computer to Make an Awesome New Magic the Gathering Deck
Another interesting tack would be to see if you can write an agent to create single cards with mechanics that actually move second-tier decks into first-tier competitiveness, looking at the current metagame. WotC probably wouldn't take your advice on new cards, though, as they probably prefer to keep card design in-house.
Haven't had the time to actually try to implement something (too busy futzing with Minecraft modding), but maybe one of these days I'll make it happen.
hackshop.com - My tech hobby project hub
No one cares that you are not impressed, and no one cares about impressing you. Please don't bother posting this drivel.
Obviously this is not "real" intelligence. If and when that is developed, you can bet that it won't have anything to do with Magic cards. That you even expected that when reading this story means that you not only have no idea what AI research is all about, or much of an idea about programming in general, but also it speaks volumes about what your actual intelligence level is. Your maturity may also be called into question due to the content of your post.
You'd think with the level of tech expertise on here, you would have fewer people confusing the programming concept of AI with the science fiction concept of AI. If hard AI existed that's what the headline would be about. So far it does not; please refrain from polluting this forum with observations to that effect.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
As a programmer I don't have free time for games so I'm in the dark about them.
I don't see what the one has to do with the other. "As a programmer", I have friends who have been interested in various card games and RPGs for years, and I've also partaken every now and then.
Well I've always heard that these kind of games are classified as being for "social rejects" only.
Classified by whom? None of these games work well for someone who isn't social, since they can't be played alone.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
They are on that list of things I wish I hadn't thrown out along with an unopened millennium falcon model I tossed when I went off to college. The alpha beta and unlimited editions appear to be fetching some good prices if you happen to have a hoard of them you could make out like a bandit.
Why can't I ever think of these snappy comebacks until hours later.
Probably because you're anonymous.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
When I was first learning to code a long time ago I created a D&D character creator program. I thought a cool feature would be having the ability to randomly generate a character including attributes, class, proficiencies, spells, traits - literally everything. It was a lot of fun to start a new campaign and have each player use a randomly generated character. It really took you out of your comfort zone to play a ranger that was a dual wielding specialist with daggers or a wizard with pathfinding skills. It also made for strange parties - not your usual min/max fest.
His next research project is to make an AI that defends against copyright infringement lawsuits.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
I hate to break it to you, but you are unlikely to get a Black Lotus in your random box. In almost all cases when people sell boxes of "random" cards they have taken out all the good ones to sell individually. Just sayin.
Umm... They do on mine? I get notices in the upper-right telling me about messages, I read those messages, and in those messages I get comments from the ACs. Otherwise I would never know when they replied and I would be unlikely to reply to them - and I do.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(there may be some modern-day humans still around, in something like a historical wildlife preserve.....those will be the children of people who can't let go of their familiar reference points in order to reach for something better. In order to fly, the bird must first release the branch.....you cowards who white-knuckle it can live in a zoo and fling poo at tourists).
What makes you think that we are not doing that now?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Huh. I wonder if you could do anything interesting by linking the card database to the various databases of card sellers -- price, stock and sales rate, number of editions in which the card appears.
I noticed that the network, now more fully trained, could generate meaningful, novel cards. However, it also had a knack for generating profoundly useless cards. Here are a few snippets from the output:
* When $THIS enters the battlefield, each creature you control loses trample until end of turn.
Not a bonus, but plenty of creatures have slightly negative effects if they cost less to summon than their positive traits might suggest.
* Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may tap two untapped Mountains you control.
Weird, but if you're prevented from tapping mana sources for some reason...
* 3, : Add 2 to your mana pool.
Useful if you're tricked into a large mana-burn situation. It effectively reduces all mana-burn down to 1.
* Legendary creatures can't attack unless its controller pays 2 for each Zombie you control.
Oddly specific, but not useless.
Roko's Basilisk
1
Artifact Creature - Dragon
For every round prior to summoning Roko's Basilisk, if you did not waste at least 1 mana during each prior round, you lose 1HP per round since the beginning of the game. If no player remembers how many rounds have been played, you lose.
99/99
Mox Ruby | Mox Ruby | Mox Ruby | Mox Ruby | Mox Ruby
You just played five cards of the same type from your deck. You lose by default; you are only allowed a maximum of four cards of any name that is not a basic land.
A software system that's coded to handle many different cases is 100% artificial and 0% intelligence. But it still qualifies as artificial intelligence, since it does combine both aspects of AI.
All that means is that the term "AI" is totally meaningless. A digital alarm clock is 100% artificial and 0% intelligence too.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
We are all going to be cyborgs, and it will be awesome!!!.
No diseases, no handicaps, cheap replacements for whatever gets damaged, superior instrumentality, limitless cognitive abilities, true space travel, mind-machine virtual reality....
It will be amazing. We will transcend every human limitation and become something new entirely.
*THAT* is how A.I. will destroy the human race. Not by genocide, but by helping us evolve into something entirely post human.
(there may be some modern-day humans still around, in something like a historical wildlife preserve.....those will be the children of people who can't let go of their familiar reference points in order to reach for something better. In order to fly, the bird must first release the branch.....you cowards who white-knuckle it can live in a zoo and fling poo at tourists).
Indeed, resistance is futile.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
The term for this technique is 'neural network'. It's one of the oldest concepts in AI research. I don't know what planet you live on that "actual intelligence" is remotely close to being a reality. Doubly so because no one can even define what that is, and the results of all AI research to date are merely defining what intelligence is not. We do not need to invent a new term for people who are so ignorant of the field that they cannot tell it apart from science fiction. Even if "strong AI" existed, neural networks would probably still be considered AI, both for historical reasons and because even something with the intellectual capacity of a jellyfish (or the average slashdotter) still counts as some kind of intelligence. Your replacement term would be what? Artificial idiot, perhaps?
Whether or not neural networks prove a fruitful avenue for AI research, I must also reiterate that this story is in no way an attempt at an advance towards "strong AI". It's something a bored programmer did which happened to have interesting output, for certain subsets of "interesting". For a non-technical forum, somewhere that doesn't get advances in AI research posted regularly, where total ignorance of the field is a given, the confusion of concepts would be justifiable. On Slashdot it's inexcusably ignorant, and being prideful of that ignorance, derisive as the AC I responded to, is frankly offensive.
All that said, and while I do not regret going beyond the bounds of politeness or even snarkiness, I feel that I did express myself badly and hurriedly. I don't think the comment deserves its rating, and that the subsequent AC remarks were better. I should have explained myself more fully.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.