Even though it's more than ten years old, with the alpha originally coming out in 2009, Minecraft is still a huge talking point when it comes to gaming. Not all of this is good, however, as Mojang said it would not go back on its new controversial reporting system, despite a lot of backlash from the community. That ugliness aside, it's still one of the biggest games in the world at the moment, and one fan wonders whether it would be possible to update the game through artificial intelligence.

As spotted by PCGamesN, YouTuber SystemZee has used machine learning to add some new assets into Minecraft. Turning to a piece of AI for some ideas by asking what should be added to the game, the result is some pretty interesting things being implemented. One such example was a grappling hook, which helps the player get around the map much quicker. There was also a bow that fired lava instead of arrows, an elephant, a man-eating plant, and an Enderman that's actually a Creeper. All of this was done through suggestions from the artificial intelligence.

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Some of what SystemZee implemented could easily be something that would suit the vanilla game, such as a giant sea turtle that players can ride on. This is also not the first time something like this has been done. Recently, YouTuber Mysticat set about adding their own Minecraft textures that have been designed through artificial intelligence. The result in this instance was a little more horrifying than this more recent example, but both ideas give an indication of how far machine learning has come.

In fact, things get even more interesting when a research team taught AI to actually play Minecraft in a way that would be almost indistinguishable from a human player. Over 70,000 hours of watching online videos, the algorithm was able to replicate the basics of the game, but eventually was able to do more complex tasks, such as search villages for items, make a crafting table, and even make a diamond pickaxe from diamonds it had mined.

Given that Mojang's open-world sandbox IP is a game that doesn't need a high-end PC, it's not surprising that so many people are still playing it to this day. It also seems as though artificial intelligence is getting in on the act, and it will be intriguing to see what else machines can do in Minecraft, or even whether they can be taught to play other games.

Minecraft is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Source: PCGamesN