[kappaloris]

yes, but the point is also that the program doesn't really know the goal, it just tries to increase bytes that look like counters. that's the fun thing.

you should compare it with a game whose rules you don't know, being able only to understand your score. like trying to play spider solitaire on windows without knowing how the game works (it allows you to undo your moves).

[jal278]

i agree that it is an interesting result, however having access to everything is weird from an AI point of view and really muddies any conclusions to be drawn; the headline seems to make it sound like this is a breakthrough in AI, when it is using a cheat that won't apply to any sort of real situation.

notice that in your example of solitaire, knowing the values of hidden cards really changes the nature of the game and makes playing the game much less strategic

[shrikant]

Not sure why TechCrunch made it seem that way ("a breakthrough in AI"), when the author explicitly says he's submitted this to SIGBOVIK 2013 -- an April 1 conference that usually publishes fake research. (http://sigbovik.org/2013/)

It is clearly an April Fool's hack.

[hamidnazari]

Good, I'm not the only person who suspected that.

This is from the paper. "I tried again, and it was a huge breakthrough: Mario jumped up to get all the coins, and then almost immediately jumped back down to continue the level! On his first try he beat 1-2 and then immediately jumped in the pit at the beginning of 1-3 just as I was starting to feel suuuuuper smart (Figure 7). On a scale of OMFG to WTFLOL I was like whaaaaaaat?"