The words ‘artificial intelligence’ are widely used these days. However, courses on AI usually are quite boring. What about a crash course using the most popular game of the year? Even if it might seem as a ‘game for children’, Minecraft AI bots are currently being used for research by big, serious companies, besides all level students.

1. NOEMI FERRERA
Esta foto de Autor desconocido está bajo licencia CC BY
Music by C418: https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/C418

2. Who am I?
@TheTestLynx
(Minecraft!)
noemiferrera.com
@TheTestLynx

3. Agenda
1. Definitions & purpose
2. How to program in Minecraft
I. Minecraft Challenges
II.Minecraft Makecode
3. How AI works in Minecraft
I. Rules and goals of Minecraft
II.Machine learning paradigms
III.Project Malmo

4. What’s Minecraft?
@TheTestLynxEsta foto de Autor desconocido está bajo licencia CC BY-SA-NC

5. What’s Minecraft?
 Sandbox construction videogame
 2011 Mojang – 2014 Microsoft
 Best selling videogame of all time
 Collect, assemble & destroy blocks in 3D
@TheTestLynx

6. What’s a Minecraft Mod?
Independent, user-made
modifications to the game
that extend or modify the
original
@TheTestLynx
https://www.planetminecraft.com/resources/mods/

7. What’s AI?
1. a branch of computer science dealing with the
simulation of intelligent behavior in computers
2. the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent
human behavior
@TheTestLynx
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artificial%20intelligence

8. Photo by Alex Knight from Pexels

9. Why do I care?
 Trending in IT Software
 Trending in testing
 Automate the unthinkable
 The future
 Visual based testing
 Automatic inference
@TheTestLynx

10. Example
@TheTestLynx
This picture of unknown author is under license CC BY-NC Thia picture of unknown author is under license CC BY-NC

11. Why Minecraft?
 Easy to understand
 Fun
 Goal based
 Widely used – great dataset
 Backed up: Microsoft, Carnegie
Mellon University, Facebook
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12. Minecraft challenges
@TheTestLynx

13. Minecraft challenges
@TheTestLynx
Elements not
retrievables
Precondition
for all tests
Could not be
the first
screen

14. Minecraft challenges
@TheTestLynx
Multiple users for
functions like online
gaming and chat
Written using different
technologies

15. Automating Minecraft
@TheTestLynx
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16. Preparation
1. Install Minecraft (30€ / 72 BYN)
2. Install Code Connection
3. Create a Minecraft world with
cheat mode turned on
4. Start Code Connection
@TheTestLynx
Minecraft.makecode.com

17. Example : Agent digs
@TheTestLynx

18. Example : Agent digs - JS
@TheTestLynx

19. Example : Agent digs - Python
@TheTestLynx

20. Example : Agent digs
@TheTestLynx

21. Example : Agent digs
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22. Example : Agent digs
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23. AI with Minecraft
@TheTestLynx
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24. Building manual
https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Beginner%27s_guide
@TheTestLynx

25. Rules for survival
@TheTestLynx
1. Fall damage can kill you
2. Lava can kill you –> never dig
straight down
3. Monsters can kill you
4. Monsters appear at night or in
caves
5. Being underwater can kill you
6. If you don´t sleep 4 nights in
a row, flying monsters attack you
7. Hunger can kill you
8. You get hungry with time and
movement
9. Some creatures can become
hostile
10. Careful with food and potions
…

26. Rules for starting
@TheTestLynx
1. A hole in the ground could be a shelter
2. Collect wood
3. Make a pickaxe
4. Collect wool
5. Make a bed
… goals?

27. Achievements guide - goals
https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Achievement_guide
@TheTestLynx

28. Rules based system
@TheTestLynx
[…]Set of "if-then" statements that uses a set of assertions, to
which rules on how to act upon those assertions are created. In
software development, rule-based systems can be used to
create software that will provide an answer to a problem in
place of a human expert.[…]
https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/rule_based_system.html

29. Machine learning
Arthur samuel
@TheTestLynx
Field of study that gives computers the ability to
learn without being explicitly programmed.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/jfp/entry/What_Is_Machine_Learning?lang=en
Field of study that gives computers the ability to
learn without being explicitly programmed.

30. Machine learning paradigms
@TheTestLynx
Supervised learning
Unsupervised learning
Reinforcement learning

31. Supervised learning
@TheTestLynx
These pictures are from an unknown author under license CC BY-SA-NC
 Training
set

32. Unsupervised learning
@TheTestLynx
These pictures are from an unknown author under license CC BY-SA-NC

33. What’s an intelligent agent?
@TheTestLynx
This picture of unknown author it’s under
license CC BY-SA-NC
An autonomous entity which acts,
directing its activity towards achieving
goals (i.e. it is an agent), upon an
environment using observation through
sensors and consequent actuators (i.e. it
is intelligent)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_agent
autonomous entity
goals
achieving
using observation

34. Reinforcement learning
@TheTestLynx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement_learning
Area of machine learning concerned with
how software agents ought to take actions
in an environment in order to maximize
some notion of cumulative reward.
This picture of unknown author it’s under
license CC BY-SA-NC
Area of machine learning concerned with
how software agents ought to take actions
in an environment in order to maximize
some notion of cumulative reward.
Area of machine learning concerned with
how software agents ought to take actions
in an environment in order to maximize
some notion of cumulative reward.
Area of machine learning concerned with
how software agents ought to take actions
in an environment in order to maximize
some notion of cumulative reward.

35. Project Malmo
@TheTestLynx
Java8 JDK, python3, git
https://gym.openai.com/
NumPy, Pillow, lxml
AI experimentation & research built on Minecraft
https://github.com/Microsoft/malmo

36. Project Malmo
@TheTestLynx
Sending your code to the gym
Observation
Reward
Done
Info
This picture of unknown
author is under license CC
BY-SA-NC

37. Project Malmo
@TheTestLynx
https://youtu.be/iOWbeMvml3M

38. Project Malmo - challenges
@TheTestLynx
2017 - The Malmo Collaborative AI Challenge
https://www.crowdai.org/ - Crowdsourcing AI to solve real-world problems
MARLO 2018 - Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Minecraft
NeurIPS 2019 : MineRL Competition

39. Recap
What’s AI
What are Minecraft mods
Tool to learn/teach code with Minecraft
What makes a system good fit for AI
What’s Machine learning
ML paradigms
Reinforcement learning & Intelligent agents
Where to find AI projects to join
@TheTestLynx

40. Thank you!
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@TheTestLynx