New Angry Birds competition for Artificial Intelligence
A field of international challengers are in Sydney today to see who can come up with the best computer program to play the hugely popular game 'Angry Birds'. Computers have been playing chess for decades, but the challenge set up by the Australian National University chose this game because of the millions of different possible outcomes. Competitors have been given five weeks to design a program with artificial intelligence that mimics the decisions and actions of a human player.
Source: AM | Duration: 3min 15sec
TONY EASTLEY: A field of international challengers is in Sydney today to see who can come up with the best computer program to play the hugely popular game Angry Birds.
Computers have been playing chess for decades, but the challenge set by the Australian National University chose Angry Birds because of the millions of possible outcomes.
Competitors have been given five weeks to design a program with artificial intelligence, or AI, that mimics the decisions and actions of a human player.
AM's Martin Cuddihy prepared this report.
(Sound of computer game being played)
MARTIN CUDDIHY: It's either a time killer on the bus or train, or if you're a parent, Angry Birds can be an addictive distraction for the kids.
Players use a catapult to fling birds at pigs, who've hidden themselves behind and under barriers.
The game is played by millions of people worldwide but as yet, no computers.
The Angry Birds AI challenge aims to change that.
JOCHEN RENZ: Playing Angry Birds is a lots of fun and lots of people like playing it and we just want to demonstrate that artificial intelligence can be something fun.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: Associate Professor Jochen Renz is from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University. He has no links to the game but chose it because of its popularity.
There are other examples of computers playing games, one that comes to mind is the chess playing Deep Blue, which played the grand master Garry Kasparov. Is this really breaking new ground?
JOCHEN RENZ: Yeah, I think it is. It's breaking new ground for artificial intelligence because a chess game consists of maybe 100 moves, and for each move you have a number of possibilities that you can do.
Angry Birds is completely different. There you have only a very few actions that you do, Each bird can make millions of moves. You know, you can shoot it from any coordinate in any angle, you can tap at any time.
(Angry Birds sound effects)
MARTIN CUDDIHY: The competition has attracted programmers, scientists and even amateurs AI enthusiasts. As well as local entrants, they're coming from Italy, the UK and Brazil.
John Thangarajah is a senior lecturer in computer science at RMIT University in Melbourne. He's bringing a team of students to Sydney today for the competition.
JOHN THANGARAJAH: When you get students involved with these things, they always start with 'Oh yeah that's quite easy', and then when they start doing that, it's only then they actually realise what a difficult problem it is and you start appreciating even the thinking of even the dumbest humans.
That's the best part of this thing, I reckon.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: The aim of the challenge is not to win but to get more students interested in artificial intelligence.
JOHN THANGARAJAH: People know what Angry Birds is and students get excited about it. So you know, we always sort of teach learning algorithms in our courses and in the classroom and so forth, but nothing gets students more excited about a real world problem that they are familiar with.
MARTIN CUDDIHY: Tomorrow the next challenge begins. The best programs at the end of today will compete against a far more challenging opponent - mankind.
TONY EASTLEY: Martin Cuddihy reporting for AM.