[extropy-chat] Humans and computers compete in virtual creature game

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From the New Scientist: An online game that lets contestants build and race
virtual beasts is being used to pit humans against a variety of artificial
intelligence algorithms. The objective of Sodarace, which started at the end
of November, is to construct a two dimensional creature that can travel over
a certain type of terrain in the shortest possible time. Each creature is
constructed of "mass", muscles", "limbs" and "joints" which control the way
it moves. These creations can then be raced over a piece of terrain.
Creatures can have many limbs or none at all and can walk, wriggle or even
jump along.
It is relatively simple to construct a creature by hand. But the game has
been written so that a creature's key parameters can easily be fed into
another computer program and artificial intelligence (AI) programmers are
being invited to take part. So far, Sodarace has attracted thousands of
contestants from around the world. These include hobbyists and professional
AI researchers. In the first round, a human player was able to outwit
competing computer algorithms to develop the fastest creature.
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