Is AI training being done all wrong ? Researchers at the Allen Institute for AI think that may be the case , and have put forward an alternative means of training machine learning algorithms – hide and seek .

What ’ s wrong with the way we train AI now ? Most AI training is done with training data or in virtual environments .

So we should build a physical house for AI ? Of course not . You just make it bigger , more like a ‘ sandbox ’ environment in a video game . The Allen Institute set up a virtual environment invitingly dubbed AI2-THOR that has hundreds of flats containing virtual rooms .

Sounds nice . The AI must be happy there . They are . The AI in the virtual environment play Cache , aka hide and seek . One AI hides something ; the other has to find it .

Just like children do ? Exactly . And , just like small humans , the AI learn mapping , exploration , perspective , hiding , seeking and object manipulation . The researchers hope to develop a whole new set of skills and usher in a new era of artificial intelligence .

� INSITRO The San Francisco startup , which is applying machine learning to drug discovery , raised a bumper $ 400mn Series C round .

� WORKFUSION Industry-specific automation firm was in part spurred by workplace changes from the COVID-19 pandemic as it raised $ 220mn .

� BYTEDANCE AI CHIPS With the world ’ s semiconductor supply bringing some companies to a grinding halt , China ’ s ByteDance announced it would make its own .

� AI BIAS AI algorithms are often accused of replicating the biases of their creators , with the EU suggesting all AI should be trained with unbiased data sets .

� AI WEAPONS A report commissioned for the US President advocated rejecting calls for a global ban on AI and autonomous weapons systems .

aimagazine . com 9