Finally, Machine Learning to Get Excited About

Machine learning is popping up everywhere these days, but it’s always felt a little impractical. I’m glad that there’s finally an application of machine learning that we can all get excited about.

MarI/O is a small LUA project based on the ideas in Evolving Neural Networks through Augmenting Topologies. Trained over a 24-hour period, MarI/O is capable of playing through one level of Super Mario World totally on its own.

If you haven’t seen the video before it’s definitely worth a watch, the author is careful to mention the current limitations, but given the speed of progress in the world of computing I could see some much more powerful implementations in the near future.