{"id":367736,"date":"2017-03-14T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?p=367736"},"modified":"2017-04-22T10:10:40","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T17:10:40","slug":"microsoft-challenge-minecraft-collaborative-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/microsoft-challenge-minecraft-collaborative-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft challenge: Build a collaborative AI in Minecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By John Roach, Writer, Microsoft Research<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-369518\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo2-1024x388.jpg\" alt=\"Malmo Collaborative AI Challenge\" width=\"1024\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo2-1024x388.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo2-300x114.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo2-768x291.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo2.jpg 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A Microsoft Research team has created a competition using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/project-malmo\/\">Project Malmo<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, a platform that uses Minecraft as a testing ground for advanced artificial intelligence research. The team is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/academic-program\/collaborative-ai-challenge\/\">challenging<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> PhD students to develop an AI that learns to collaborate with other randomly assigned players to achieve a high score in a mini-game within the virtual world.<\/p>\n<p>The field of collaborative AI research involves the development of technologies that work with, empower and augment human capabilities. The ability to collaborate is key to the development of a general AI that can mimic the nuanced and complex way humans learn and make decisions. Such an AI would represent an evolution from task-specific AI technologies that recognize speech, translate languages and caption images.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Project Malmo \u2013 Enabling AI technology that can collaborate with humans\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/KkVj_ddseO8?feature=oembed&rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That would allow researchers to develop technology that can comprehend the intent of others, develop a shared problem-solving strategy and coordinate activity to efficiently accomplish a common task. While these problems remain unsolved, recent progress in AI research provides a foundation to begin tackling them, notes the Microsoft team hosting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/academic-program\/collaborative-ai-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\">Malmo Collaborative AI Challenge<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge is open to PhD students worldwide. After <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surveygizmo.com\/s3\/3299773\/The-Collaborative-AI-Challenge\" target=\"_blank\">registration<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, teams of one to three members are supplied a task that consists of one or more mini-games. The goal is to develop an AI solution that learns how to work with other, randomly assigned players to achieve a high score in the game.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Catch the Pig - The Malmo Collaborative AI Challenge\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/iOWbeMvml3M?feature=oembed&rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Participants submit their solutions to <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/Microsoft\/malmo-challenge\" target=\"_blank\">GitHub<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, including a one-minute video that shows off the AI agent and summarizes what is interesting about their approach, all the participant\u2019s code, and a Readme file that explains the selected approach, design decisions and instructions on how to run the code.<\/p>\n<p>The solutions will be evaluated on originality, performance, code quality and GitHub stars, which are a measure of popularity. Three winning teams will receive Azure research grants of US $20,000. Members of three winning teams from the European Economic Area and Switzerland are also eligible to win spots at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/event\/ai-summer-school-2017\/\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft Research AI Summer School<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/academic-program\/collaborative-ai-challenge\/\">Malmo Collaborative AI Challenge<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/next\/2016\/07\/07\/project-malmo-lets-researchers-use-minecraft-ai-research-makes-public-debut\/#sm.00008faiog14uwfa6rfuwomzgxepr\">Project Malmo, which lets researchers use Minecraft for AI research, makes public debut<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/next\/2016\/03\/13\/project-malmo-using-minecraft-build-intelligent-technology\/#sm.00008faiog14uwfa6rfuwomzgxepr\">Project Malmo: Using Minecraft to build more intelligent technology<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>John Roach writes about Microsoft research and innovation. Follow him on <\/em><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/byjohnroach\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Twitter<\/em><span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Roach, Writer, Microsoft Research A Microsoft Research team has created a competition using Project Malmo, a platform that uses Minecraft as a testing ground for advanced artificial intelligence research. The team is challenging PhD students to develop an AI that learns to collaborate with other randomly assigned players to achieve a high score [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39507,"featured_media":378896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194467],"tags":[193706,216014,196511,205487],"research-area":[13556],"msr-region":[],"msr-event-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-promo-type":[],"msr-podcast-series":[],"class_list":["post-367736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artifical-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence-challenges","tag-minecraft","tag-project-malmo","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_event_details":{"start":"","end":"","location":""},"podcast_url":"","podcast_episode":"","msr_research_lab":[199561],"msr_impact_theme":[],"related-publications":[],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-academic-programs":[346139],"related-groups":[],"related-projects":[235753],"related-events":[355304],"related-researchers":[],"msr_type":"Post","featured_image_thumbnail":"<img width=\"655\" height=\"280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo-blog655x280.jpg\" class=\"img-object-cover\" alt=\"Malmo Collaborative AI Challenge\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo-blog655x280.jpg 655w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/malmo-blog655x280-300x128.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 655px) 100vw, 655px\" \/>","byline":"","formattedDate":"March 14, 2017","formattedExcerpt":"By John Roach, Writer, Microsoft Research A Microsoft Research team has created a competition using Project Malmo, a platform that uses Minecraft as a testing ground for advanced artificial intelligence research. The team is challenging PhD students to develop an AI that learns to collaborate&hellip;","locale":{"slug":"en_us","name":"English","native":"","english":"English"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367736"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377036,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367736\/revisions\/377036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-region?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-event-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event-type?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-promo-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-promo-type?post=367736"},{"taxonomy":"msr-podcast-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-podcast-series?post=367736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}