Archive for the ‘Discussion’ Category

Uncertainty and Knowledge in AI: Looking back at AI Challenge 2011

Saturday, May 31st, 2014

I’m almost half a decade late, but I recently read xathis’ postmortem for his entry into the Google-sponsored AI Challenge 2011, where contestants pitted their AI ants against other AI ants in a bid to dominate a small, grid-based map with static obstacles (water tiles). He had a very clear approach to the whole thing, and I enjoyed reading the postmortem, but as I watched the replay, I noticed he underutilized his ants, even though he eventually won hands down. Especially for some early skirmishes, he loses ants or halts progress due to stalemates on account of poor tactics (or rather, a failure to prioritize engagements in his strategy) because some ants decide to wait for food spawns around the hill instead of pushing outward or securing a frontline. (more…)