Researchers from Facebook Inc. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working together on an artificial intelligence assistant for the popular online video game “Minecraft.” The goal: to create an AI system able to perform a wide variety of tasks, rather than one that’s “superhuman” at a single activity.

MIT Technology Review reported today that a team of MIT and Facebook researchers is building an AI assistant that can interact with “Minecraft” players and then perform a wide range of tasks upon request. The assistant then learns from these interactions and develops new skills that can be applied to different tasks.

The researchers said they chose “Minecraft” because it’s one of the most popular games in the world with more than 90 million people playing it every month. Not only that, but the game environment offers “infinite variety” with players able to explore, build, craft and fight each other, while adhering to “simple and predictable rules.”

“The opportunities for an AI to learn are huge,” MIT Technology Review reported. “Facebook is setting itself the task of designing the AI to self-improve … the researchers think the ‘Minecraft’ environment is a perfect one to develop this kind of learning.”

The ultimate goal of the researchers is to build an AI assistant that can help people with everyday tasks outside a gaming environment.

But doing so is challenging. After all, even a simple request such as “build a tower 15 blocks tall” requires that the AI assistant understand what a tower is, know how to build one, understand and measure height, and be numerically literate. Those are the kinds of things that the AI assistant will be able learn over time, however.

Indeed, the researchers say there’s a huge opportunity for the AI assistant to learn inside “Minecraft” and that it should eventually evolve to a point where it can ask human players to help it acquire more knowledge.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said it virtual worlds such as Minecraft’s are a great learning ground for AI processes as they help them to understand humans and capture intent from language.

“The key is the self learning, and ideally deep learning approach to these AI assistants as this is what accelerates automation benefits,” Mueller said. “It’s certainly a smart move to use Minecraft as the platform, not only for the creative side of it, but also for the millions of teenagers who may have the free time to help get this assistant up to speed.”

The researchers have posted a comprehensive whitepaper on their “Minecraft” AI assistant online and have also made it available to download on GitHub.

Image: Katty Jackson/Flickr