Why StarCraft II might be the key to creating advanced AI

Oriol Vinyals, one of the research scientists at Google DeepMind, has opened up about the outfit's recent partnership with Blizzard, which will see his research team work with the veteran game studio to release an API tailored for AI research in StarCraft II. 

In a recent interview with Ars Technica, Vinyals explained the sci-fi strategy title is the perfect testing ground for artificial intelligence because it conceals units, such as terrain and resources, from the API. 

It's a set-up that'll push the API to learn from and imitate human players, who are forced to make snap decisions and form tactics on the fly based on limited knowledge of the map and their opponent.

"We feel that the complexity of StarCraft II enables us to now start testing algorithms that perhaps some years ago we were not ready to tackle," says Vinyals. 

"It is treating the data in the game as a visual format, so that a learning AI can take in this information and actually start playing like a humans. The reason for the excitement is that we’re talking about a neural network and deep learning as the next step. We don't actually know what the outcome will be."

Vinyals hopes the API will eventually deliver something completely unscripted, a move it has learned by watching its human counterparts with eagle eyes. 

Yet, even if it doesn't make the grade right away, he has no doubt that this is the first step towards success. It's about building benchmarks, he says, and given the API's open nature, he's imploring other developers to add their ideas to the process. 

The hear more from Vinyals, check out the full interview over on Ars Technica.