Find: Tom Murphy's Unique Mario AI Plays Like a Human. Kind Of.

Wired UK reports on an AI program created by Tom Murphy that is capable of "solving" Super Mario Bros. -- to an extent.

The video starts off fairly dry, but if you can handle the tech talk Mr. Murphy drops some interesting AI philosophy that a layman such as myself can more or less keep up with.  Around the six minute mark is when the AI begins playing Mario along to Murphy's narration.

What makes this video fascinating is witnessing the learning process of an automaton.  Murphy's program does not destroy Super Mario Bros. like some tool-assisted speedrun.  Instead, the AI displays erratic habits, casually manipulating obscure game glitches yet struggling to learn how to jump over a pipe or pass under an easily avoided wall.

Murphy goes on to exhibit his AI within the boundaries of other games such as Bubble Bobble and Karate Kid, but I found the Super Mario Bros. display the most impactful for its nostalgia factor and the occasional performance of almost-human play.

Wired UK's source article clued me in to another interesting find: the annual Mario AI Championship.
"This is not the first example of a Mario AI, and there's actually aMario AI Championship that takes place every year. Contestants get given a Java clone of Super Mario Bros. and can enter several competitions relating to gameplay, level generation and, for the first time in 2012, a Turing test. The audience watches footage of both AIs and humans playing the game, voting on which they think is the AI -- the winner is the programmer who fools the most people."


Check out Wired UK for the full story.  Be sure to give us your thoughts in the comments!