Humans can still beat AI at video games

What’s Happening

Real talk: AI may have teams of engineers on its side, but humans have lived experience and better learning skills.

The post Humans can still beat AI at video games appeared first on Popular Science. Life experience comes in fr handy when learning a new game. (wild, right?)

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The Details

Ask someone to chart the progression of AI (AI) models over the past few decades and you’ll likely hear some reference to how good they are at playing games. IBM shocked the world in 1997 when its Deep Blue model vanquished chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov at his own domain.

Nearly two decades later, Googles AlphaGo model trounced a human champion of the game Go , a feat some thought impossible at the time. Since then, increasingly data rich AI models have graduated from board games to video games.

Why This Matters

Various models have used a training method called reinforcement learning —a technique that also plays a key role in training AI chatbots like ChatGPT—to teach machines how to learn and outperform humans at a range of Atari games . More just, reinforcement learning has taught machines how to master insanely complex strategy games including Dota 2 and Starcraft II . But there’s one area of gaming remaining—at least for now—where computers still can’t hold a candle to flesh and bone humans.

Scientists and researchers are watching this development closely.

Key Takeaways

• They are still not solid at learning different kinds of more open-wrapped up games quickly.
• That’s the key argument made in a recent paper authored University computer science professor Julian Togelius and his colleagues.
• They note this distinction isn’t just a pat on the back for Homo sapiens .

The Bottom Line

They note this distinction isn’t just a pat on the back for Homo sapiens . It may also shed light on a key element of what makes human intelligence so unique and why AI still has a long way to go before it can truly claim human-level intelligence—let alone surpass it.

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