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The StarCraft AI tournament invited bots of all teams out there to challenge other AIs to an intergalactic battle. Facebook itself wanted to take part in this contest and quietly signed up for the quest.
This happens to be the first time when Zuckerberg’s company entered the AIIDE conference’s annual competition. This event blends entertainment with AI for the sake of research. However, the games didn’t end well for Facebook.
Facebook’s CherryPi Ranked 6th in the StarCraft AI Tournament
Facebook participated with CherryPi as one of the 28 artificial intelligence bots that competed for the best strategist. They battled one another on the plains of StarCraft II: Brood War. No human assisted them. Instead, they used machine learning technology to understand the video game and its winning strategies.
The competition took place at the Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah. Masterminds in AI put their bots to work from October 5 to 9. This is how much the Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment conference lasted.
In the end, CherryPi won 2,049 games out of a total of 2,966. While this sounds impressive, it merely positioned Facebook on a respectable 6th rank.
The AI tournament chose StarCraft as the most suitable AI research environment. The production is the best game to test today’s level in AI. The gameplay requires users to focus on several areas at the same time in order to earn a victory.
Players have to scan fields, harness resources, explore foreign territories, and manage armies not to mention mastering the art of war. AI professionals believe this digital environment is better at training bots than chess can.
Winner ZZKbot Was Written by One Person and Has Been Joining AI Competitions Since 2015
The winner of the competition was the ZZKbot. Facebook’s team of eight professionals couldn’t beat a program built by one person, Chris Coxe. On the other hand, the programmer joined the AIIDE competition two years ago. In August, ZZKbot scored 1,790 wins out of 2,374 games.
The Utah tournament recorded a surprising evolution for the same program as it scored 2,465 games out of 2,966. This achievement propelled Coxe’s bot to Number One place.
Image source: StarCraft
Germaine Hicks
Germaine is an avid sports fan and as such, he decided on his current career path with the idea in mind that he would never, ever miss a Yankee game. Until now, he managed to make good on that promise. As you’ve probably guessed, he’s our go-to sports guy.
