Microsoft has developed an artificial intelligence capable of playing sandbox exploration and building game Minecraft all on its own. Rather than inputting actual commands to the onscreen avatar via a controller or keyboard, the AI can reportedly act of its own free will when given "natural language commands," such as telling it to build or dig.
While other attempts have been made in the past to teach an AI to play Minecraft — PC Gamer reports the company has been trying since May of last year — they have been met with varying results, largely due to the multiple possible ways Minecraft provides to complete almost any given task.
According to Semafor, the news outlet that originally reported on the AI build, one of Microsoft's previous attempts to teach an AI to play Minecraft, conducted last year, involved having it "watch" more than 70,000 hours of actual gameplay performed by human players. After receiving the input, that AI had been able to perform more simple tasks, such as constructing tools.
Some tasks in Minecraft are simple and linear, like constructing a wooden sword by combining pieces of wood in a specific pattern on a grid. But, as explained by Semafor, other commands, such as building a car, are much more complex, because there is no correct way to do it, and an AI's interpretation could potentially produce something that actual human players haven't been able to conceive yet.
The AI program is not being made publicly available to Minecraft players, so you won't be able to use it to harvest resources automatically or see what architectural constructs it can come up with in your game world. Likewise, Microsoft has not announced plans for precisely what it intends to do with the fresh technology.
Semafor, which has not revealed the identity of its source close to Microsoft, also postulates that the technology's development could be tied to Microsoft's embattled acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. At a price tag of roughly $68.7 billion, the deal is the largest, monetarily speaking, in gaming history, and it has been met with opposition from competitors and national regulation authorities.