
Google DeepMind could play StarCraft - wwilson
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-deepmind-could-play-starcraft-2016-3
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xofspades
Wouldn't DeepMind have an unfair advantage, since the best human players are
restricted by how fast they can use the mouse and keyboard (measured in
actions per minute / APM), whereas DeepMind can easily outperform a human in
APM?

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Joof
So far this hasn't mattered much because it's a very difficult game to play.

Honestly, if it can play top tier StarCraft matches, I'm willing to be we
could apply it to the vast majority of things humans can currently do;
although I'll rule out creative tasks for the time being.

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nickpsecurity
I call massive bullshit until I see it. StarCraft was one of my favorite games
ever due to good design of course but also all skills required to be good at
it. There's literally so many ways to approach an AI with humans stomping them
in hilarious ways basically every time.

They'd benefit best by categorizing attack strategies, counter strategies,
aspects/units on map, and so on. The DeepMind system would do all that in a
way that converts raw data into small, actionable information. Traditional
methods could do pathfinding, buildup, time-limited decisions, micro-ing, and
so on. A hybrid system seems best here.

They're not just going to throw DeepMind at it and beat good humans. We'll
find its patterns, then outsmart it. Especially the pro's.

Competitions with bots and humans below:

[http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~cdavid/starcraftaicomp/report...](http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~cdavid/starcraftaicomp/report2015.shtml)

Great survey of the problem domain and various techniques here:

[http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~cdavid/pdf/starcraft_survey.p...](http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~cdavid/pdf/starcraft_survey.pdf)

EDIT to add:

I suggest a title change along the lines of "DeepMind will try to beat
StarCraft next." That's more accurate in terms of both reality and original
article.

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pixl97
>We'll find its patterns, then outsmart it. Especially the pro's

And then it will learn our patterns and use them against us. AlphaGo for
example, uses the patterns of millions of matches and builds on them.

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nickpsecurity
Go and Atari games aren't anywhere near as complicated as a RTS. Plus, players
create new patterns on the fly. Even if it wins, then it won't have beaten us
by far any more than it does with Go. I didnt have to see a million pro games
to win at StarCraft or any other strategy game. I improved with thought, some
tips from pro's, and limited amount of experience.

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tonyle
I have a feeling that it would just have one main strategy and micro it's way
out of any situation. Imagine a computer version of polt or marineking.

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arcanus
Think the title means to say 'starcraft'.

Interesting how deepmind started with atari, moved to go, and is staying on
mastering games.

