The main protagonist in Minecraft is able to make tools, explore wonderous caves and vast lands. He is also able to cut wood, mine ores and craft amazing structures. However Steve, the Character itself does not know and understand that these are just preparations to harvest Diamonds and eventually beat the ender dragon.
Artificial intelligence is a thrilling area of computer science, enabling technology to go places no one ever imagined. Artificial intelligence‘s ramifications will influence every corner of society, including government, business, and environmental protection.
Professors from Penn State University received a $900,000 grant from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research to make Steve smarter. The two professors are Alan Wagner who is an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and Sarah Rajmajer who is an assistant professor of information sciences and Technology.
Construal Level Theory
Wagner devised a theory which suggests that people create mental representations to pursue plans and goals of future events in order to find a solution to multi-step objectives. It was labelled as the Construal Level Theory.
The theory suggests that people process and think of events in the future when they are conscious or unconscious. They use their experience and memories to create plans and actions for a situation that may occur in the future.
Wagner and Rajtmajer are planning to develop and AI that can do what humans do and plan future events ahead of time. They want to test their AI by utilizing Minecraft as the main platform.
Wagner stated; “We will create an app that will be able to direct agents to complete certain complex tasks, and then integrate that app into Minecraft to run tests on the software,”. They ideally want to make Steve be able to think about solutions ahead of time before the problem even happens.
Project Malmo
Artificial Intelligence research is gaining attention from many organizations, including Microsoft. “Project Malmo” is a Minecraft-based study project in which artificial intelligence agents are trained. Project Malmo is a mod for Minecraft that allows computer scientists to use the game’s worlds as a testing ground to advance their AI.
As a result, artificial intelligence researchers can use Minecraft to explore limitless possibilities, from simple activities like looking for treasure to more complex ones like constructing a structure with a group of teammates.
Consider, for example, that you’re creating a robot and attempting to teach it to climb a hill. You may do so first in Minecraft and avoid having to repair or replace the robot with another costly machine every time it falls into a river!
The robot starts out with no knowledge of its map, surroundings or what it is supposed to accomplish. It must master its environment and figure out what’s essential, such as avoiding certain dangers. Determining what isn’t worth spending time on, like whether it’s day or night, would also be necessary.
It must withstand a lot of trial and error, including numerous waterfalls and lava pits. It also must be able to tell when it has completed all or part of its objective.
Advancement in Robotics and AI
Ali Ayub, the creator of the program, developed a clustering approach for generating various degrees of AI abstract thinking as part of his doctoral dissertation. He called this method centrally based concept learning, or CBCL.
According to the inventor, AI software developed by his research may help advance robotics, logistics management, air pilot problems, space construction and flight transformation.
Minecraft being just a merely sandbox game to some has already contributed so much to the world. With the Construal Level Theory being put to action through the AI and the game, time could only tell how efficient this game has become in helping create smarter computers.
