AI Robot Bests Marble Maze Game
It’s a trip watching how fast CyberRunner can run a marble through this wooden labyrinth maze.
Labyrinth and its many variants generally consist of a box topped with a flat wooden plane that tilts across an x and y axis using external control knobs. Atop the board is a maze featuring numerous gaps. The goal is to move a marble or a metal ball from start to finish without it falling into one of those holes. It can be a… frustrating game, to say the least. But with ample practice and patience, players can generally learn to steady their controls enough to steer their marble through to safety in a relatively short timespan.
CyberRunner, in contrast, reportedly mastered the dexterity required to complete the game in barely 5 hours. Not only that, but researchers claim it can now complete the maze in just under 14.5 seconds — over 6 percent faster than the existing human record.
CyberRunner was capable of solving the maze even faster, but researchers had to stop it from taking shortcuts it found in the maze. (via clive thompson)
Discussion 2 comments
I wonder whether the AI learned to solve this particular puzzle, or these types of puzzles in general. If the maze changes, would it need another 5 hours, or would it adapt more quickly? How much time would a human need to adapt?
✋who else wants to see how fast the robot can go when it cheats?😅
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