'Self-aware' Super Mario with artificial intelligence can play the game by himself

German researchers have used Artificial Intelligence to create a ‘self-aware’ version of the popular video game Super Mario. This way, the character can respond to commands and play the game on his own. A report by Trusted Reviews stated that this version of Mario can detect hunger when he hasn’t collected coins and will automatically go and search for them, effectively meaning that he has begun playing the game himself. The project, created by a group of researchers is a part of AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) video competition, showcases videos annually from various scientists and researchers from all around the globe. These researchers demonstrate videos, which showcase exciting artificial intelligence advances in research, education, and application. The ‘AI’ version of Mario can explore various levels on his own which help him gain knowledge about various items around him. The report further stated that once Mario is informed that he has to jump on a Goombah so that he can kill it, he can then do that for himself.

Researchers at the University of Tubingen in Germany have given Mario the ability to understand and respond to vocal commands and questions too. “We took a Mario clone that has been developed by others and then we gave the agent basic knowledge of what his behaviour does,” says Martin Butz, head of cognitive modelling at the University of Tubingen told Newsweek. He also stated that while this project started as fun, it also illustrates how these principles can be implemented and used to generate live agents that are autonomous, curious, interested about their world and are then able to communicate.