When it comes to the video game character Mario, you can be quite sure that this rotund, mustached plumber is well known all over the world. In fact, it would be anathema to say that you are a video game fan, and yet have never played a single title of Mario at all your entire life. Having said that, Mario is as skilful as you are – at least until now, where a team of German researchers have actually worked together to allow gaming’s most famous Italian plumber figure things out for himself.
Known as the Mario A.I. Project, this artificially intelligent Mario is aware of himself and his environment, and will be able to respond to spoken instructions even. In fact, the enlightened Mario is capable of making decisions on what step to take next, depending on what he has learned so far. Mario can be taught that should he jump on a Goomba, it will die, and he can also respond to his “feelings”, having been programmed earlier on with several “internal emotive states”. Should he be hungry, he will go collect coins, and if his curiosity is piqued, he will explore the Mushroom Kingdom.
With all the the “intelligence” that Mario has received, one has but to wonder – has he figured out why no matter how many times he has rescued Princess Peach, she somehow prefers to get captured by Bowser and stay in his castle?
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