Recent update on "StarCraft II" is involving DeepMind and Blizzard, a California-based gaming company. The move is for both to be in tandem to take on the game.
According to The Guardian, the London-based AI firm is partnering and in collaboration with Blizzard to take on "StarCraft II." "StarCraft II" happens to meet several requirements to be considered interesting by DeepMind to go for. The game also introduces new domains for Deepmind to explore.
"StarCraft II" is a game known to be full of hidden information. Each of the player begins on opposite sides of the map as they are tasked with creating a base. The task also involves training soldiers and beating their opponents.
It is important for players of "StarCraft II" to send units to scout unseen areas for them to acquire information about their opponents and remember the information for long period of time. This makes it even more challenging as the environment becomes observable.
AI also has advantages as well in "StarCraft II." One statistic that players are ranked on is based on APM or Actions Per Minute which is basically the number of instances they click each minute.
With this, DeepMind will be capping the AI as high-level human speed. This also ensures that the AI is not wasting processing power making it possible to have thousands of decisions per minute.
In relation to this, DeepMind is collaborating with Blizzard, the Developer behind "StarCraft II" and will help filter down to any other AI researcher who wants to go perform the same challenge.
In the first quarter of 2017, Blizzard is set to update "StarCraft II" to introduce new AI research environment to the game. It is offering an API that developers can use to obtain more information from the game to teach bots.
As added by Engadget, the partnership is still meant to be seen however, games have proven to be good AI trainers so big improvement is expected. According to DeepMind from their blog, they are still a long way from being able to challenge a professional human player at the game of "StarCraft II."
