Machine VS Machine, Google DeepMind Is Making Artificial Intelligence Fight Each Other

In a world where it is becoming increasingly clear that the age of artificial intelligence is inevitable, much of the fear directed towards the technology has to do with machines eliminating humans. This hasn’t happened yet, but what better way to speed up the process than by having AIs practice fighting each other first? This is exactly what Google’s DeepMind is trying to do just to see what would happen.

Now, it’s important to keep in mind that DeepMind is not out to create violent robots on purpose. Rather, what it is trying to accomplish is determine how AIs react to particular situations where they are required to engage opposing forces or challenges, Engadget reports.

By pitting two AIs against each other, both of which have differing goals that they need to accomplish, though, not necessarily in direct conflict, it’s important to find out if they decide to fight each other or cooperate. DeepMind is doing this through two games that were created exactly for this scenario.

One is called Gathering and the other is called Wolfpack. The former involves two units tasked to collect apples, thus the title Gathering. The units are also given laser weaponry, which allows them to remove the other from the game in order to collect as many of the apples as possible.

As for Wolfpack, the idea is for the two AIs to work together in order to capture a third unit by navigating a series of blocky obstacles. The idea is to have the two AIs figure out the best way to corner their prey.

So, what were the results? In Gathering, the two AIs displayed high levels of aggression, particularly when the apples start running out. In contrast, the algorithms worked together well in Wolfpack. Interestingly enough, the AIs also became aggressive and cooperative in the two games respectively when given a boost in computation power.

This suggests that with current AI technology, the behavior of the machines will depend largely on the rules imposed on them, The Verge reports. Depending on the context, the machines will either work with others or eliminate them.