![[article image]](https://cacm.acm.org/system/assets/0004/0204/061521_Yeow_Hui_Ho_-Alamy_digitalplayers.large.jpg?1623780961&1623780960 "Digital soccer players.")
An artificial intelligence (AI)-trained computer learned to play football from scratch, using digital players.
Researchers at Alphabet's U.K.-based AI subsidiary DeepMind used motion-capture data from real players to teach the digital footballers to get up and run.
They became more skilled in specific training tasks, like dribbling a ball to follow a target, or kicking a ball to a target, via reinforcement learning.
The digital players engaged in a series of 45-second matches, and after 24 hours became quite adept; after a further training period of up to 10 days, they were able to consider future actions and work as a team.
Sebastian Risi at Denmark's IT University Copenhagen said although the system lacks full automation, it is "an exciting open challenge how we can learn complex tasks such as football end-to-end through more open-ended approaches that would discover the necessary stepping stones by themselves."
From New Scientist
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2021 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
