One of the main reasons that people have problems when operating a computer or some unfamiliar gadget is their reluctance to read the manual. I’m pretty sure all of us have been told at some point in our life to RTM (Read The Manual) whenever we had trouble figuring something out. Most of the time we end up figuring what’s wrong and get the problem solved.
Well, some researchers at MIT have decided to take these rarely touched manuals and make them useful again – by teaching computers how to read and understand them. The researchers then put the computer to the test by giving it instructions on Microsoft’s website as well as the gameplay manual for the game. The computer managed to figure out how to install the game on the computer, and even learn to play the game successfully!
In addition to being able to play the game, the computer managed to win 79% of the games it played – talk about impressive. Especially when the only help it received to play the game came from the game’s manual itself, it didn’t get help from anywhere else. While this is only one example of a computer being able to learn how to install and play a game, can you imagine the possibilities of what else can be done in the future? Soon we’ll have computers being able to replace any human at his/her job as long as there are instruction manuals for it.
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