A group of German researchers are conducting a study to develop artificial intelligence (AI) for one of video game cultures most iconic character, Mario of the "Super Mario Brothers". The group aims to create an AI that will teach Mario to converse and develop his own behavior and personality.
The project, aptly named Mario AI, will allow Mario to understand verbal commands from players. It will also give him power to explore the games surrounding on his accord.
One scenario provided by the developers shows Mario gaining experience and making observations then sharing it to the player. It involves asking Mario what a Goomba (the ubiquitous enemy in the Super Mario world) is and Mario responded by saying he doesn't know. However, after encountering a Goomba when asked the same question he would respond by saying "If I jump on Goomba, then it may dies."
The AI also allows Mario to simulate various emotions based on his actions in the game world. During extended playing time Mario can feel hunger and at this point he will search for coins to eat. Mario AI is also programmed to simulate curiosity, during this instance Mario will execute various acrobatic moves, Time reported.
A similar project was presented at the 2013 SigBrovik conference. Scientist Tom Murphy presented a program that can learn to play video games by simply analyzing the games variables like scores and win/fail states. When the program was applied to the "Super Mario Bros" game it was able to finish the first level despite experiencing difficulty at the start of the game, Stuff reported.
The Mario AI project was created by German researchers at the University of Tubingen in Germany and uses a speech recognition program initially developed at the Carnegie Mellon University. The group plans to submit the project as an entry to the 2015 American Association for the Artificial Intelligence Conference to be held on Jan. 25.