Microsoft is reportedly working on an AI system that can let you play Minecraft by simply telling the game what to do.
This tech lets you give Minecraft natural language commands, according to a report from Semafor. So you could tell the game to go build a fort, offer a few examples of the features you want to see, and watch the game go and build it. These commands use natural language interpretation, similar to ChatGPT. This AI model is said to be built in partnership with OpenAI, like the Prometheus model now used in Bing, though there's no direct connection between the two projects.
This is just an internal demo at Microsoft and there are no immediate plans to implement it in the versions of Minecraft that you and I are playing, according to the report.
- Xbox's new gaming AI aims to "help you get good" at everything from Overwatch 2 to Minecraft by watching you play and giving you advice
- Xbox has officially opened the generative AI floodgates, and Phil Spencer wants to use it for game preservation and save titles that "were maybe tied to unique pieces of hardware"
Minecraft has been used in AI training experiments for some time. Last year, OpenAI publicly broke down how it trained an AI model to play Minecraft by having it watch 70,000 hours of YouTube videos about the game. At the time of that blog post back in June 2022, the AI was already able to quickly collect the materials necessary for a diamond pickaxe starting from nothing on a fresh world.
Whether or not this Minecraft AI ever reaches normal players, AI tech implementation in video games seems inevitable. One Chinese MMO has already added ChatGPT natural language interpretation to let you have more responsive conversations with NPCs - and even break up their marriages.
Minecraft is getting a new biome in its next big update - but more importantly, it's getting pink wood.
