Computer beats human at Pac-Man – world domination next

A team of Hungarian research scientists have created an artificially intelligent computer program capable of outperforming the average human at Pac-Man, New Scientist reports.

The Eötvös University researchers have developed a program that enables a computer player to respond to certain scenarios, such as “if ghost nearby, move away”. It then measures the success of its various responses and develops rules based on those results, and then in turn tests and evaluates the success of competing rules.

The end result was a program able to play Pac-Man just a little bit better than the average human, although it was unable to learn certain sneaky strategies that humans tend to use, such as waiting for ghosts to approach before eating a power dot to maximise its potential effect.

“Games are interesting and challenging for human intelligence and therefore an ideal means to explore what artificial intelligence is still missing,” the researchers say.