The mind-set that has dominated the history of computer game playing relies on straightforward exploitation of the available computing power. The fact that a machine can explore millions of variations sooner than the sluggish human can wink an eye has inspired hopes that the mystery of intelligence can be cracked, or at least side-stepped, by sheer force. Decades of the steadily growing strength of computer programs have attested to the soundness of this approach. It is clear that deeper understanding can cut the amount of necessary calculations by orders of magnitude. The papers collected in this volume describe how to instill learning skills in game playing machines. The reader is asked to keep in mind that this is not just about games -- the possibility that the discussed techniques will be used in control systems and in decision support always looms in the background.

A hands-on, application-based introduction to machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) that guides young readers through creating compelling AI-powered games and applications using the Scratch programming language. Machine learning (also known as ML) is one of the building blocks of AI, or artificial intelligence. AI is based on the idea that computers can learn on their own, with your help. Machine Learning for Kids will introduce you to machine learning, painlessly. With this book and its free, Scratch-based, award-winning companion website, you'll see how easy it is to add machine learning to your own projects. You don't even need to know how to code! As you work through the book you'll discover how machine learning systems can be taught to recognize text, images, numbers, and sounds, and how to train your models to improve their accuracy. You'll turn your models into fun computer games and apps, and see what happens when they get confused by bad data. You'll build 13 projects step-by-step from the ground up, including: • Rock, Paper, Scissors game that recognizes your hand shapes • An app that recommends movies based on other movies that you like • A computer character that reacts to insults and compliments • An interactive virtual assistant (like Siri or Alexa) that obeys commands • An AI version of Pac-Man, with a smart character that knows how to avoid ghosts NOTE: This book includes a Scratch tutorial for beginners, and step-by-step instructions for every project. Ages 12+

Summary Deep Learning and the Game of Go teaches you how to apply the power of deep learning to complex reasoning tasks by building a Go-playing AI. After exposing you to the foundations of machine and deep learning, you'll use Python to build a bot and then teach it the rules of the game. Foreword by Thore Graepel, DeepMind Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology The ancient strategy game of Go is an incredible case study for AI. In 2016, a deep learning-based system shocked the Go world by defeating a world champion. Shortly after that, the upgraded AlphaGo Zero crushed the original bot by using deep reinforcement learning to master the game. Now, you can learn those same deep learning techniques by building your own Go bot! About the Book Deep Learning and the Game of Go introduces deep learning by teaching you to build a Go-winning bot. As you progress, you'll apply increasingly complex training techniques and strategies using the Python deep learning library Keras. You'll enjoy watching your bot master the game of Go, and along the way, you'll discover how to apply your new deep learning skills to a wide range of other scenarios! What's inside Build and teach a self-improving game AI Enhance classical game AI systems with deep learning Implement neural networks for deep learning About the Reader All you need are basic Python skills and high school-level math. No deep learning experience required. About the Author Max Pumperla and Kevin Ferguson are experienced deep learning specialists skilled in distributed systems and data science. Together, Max and Kevin built the open source bot BetaGo. Table of Contents PART 1 - FOUNDATIONS Toward deep learning: a machine-learning introduction Go as a machine-learning problem Implementing your first Go bot PART 2 - MACHINE LEARNING AND GAME AI Playing games with tree search Getting started with neural networks Designing a neural network for Go data Learning from data: a deep-learning bot Deploying bots in the wild Learning by practice: reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning with policy gradients Reinforcement learning with value methods Reinforcement learning with actor-critic methods PART 3 - GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS AlphaGo: Bringing it all together AlphaGo Zero: Integrating tree search with reinforcement learning

In this textbook the author takes as inspiration recent breakthroughs in game playing to explain how and why deep reinforcement learning works. In particular he shows why two-person games of tactics and strategy fascinate scientists, programmers, and game enthusiasts and unite them in a common goal: to create artificial intelligence (AI). After an introduction to the core concepts, environment, and communities of intelligence and games, the book is organized into chapters on reinforcement learning, heuristic planning, adaptive sampling, function approximation, and self-play. The author takes a hands-on approach throughout, with Python code examples and exercises that help the reader understand how AI learns to play. He also supports the main text with detailed pointers to online machine learning frameworks, technical details for AlphaGo, notes on how to play and program Go and chess, and a comprehensive bibliography. The content is class-tested and suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on artificial intelligence and games. It's also appropriate for self-study by professionals engaged with applications of machine learning and with games development. Finally it's valuable for any reader engaged with the philosophical implications of artificial and general intelligence, games represent a modern Turing test of the power and limitations of AI.

THE FUTURE OF GAME DESIGN IN THE AGE OF AI: Can games measure intelligence? And how will artificial intelligence inform games of the future? In Playing Smart, Julian Togelius explores the connections between games and intelligence to offer a new vision of future games and game design. Video games already depend on AI. We use games to test AI algorithms, challenge our thinking, and better understand both natural and artificial intelligence. In the future, Togelius argues, game designers will be able to create smarter games that make us smarter in turn, applying advanced AI to help design games. In this book, he tells us how. Games are the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence. In 1948, Alan Turing, one of the founding fathers of computer science and artificial intelligence, handwrote a program for chess. Today we have IBM’s Deep Blue and DeepMind’s AlphaGo, and huge efforts go into developing AI that can play such arcade games as Pac-Man. Programmers continue to use games to test and develop AI, creating new benchmarks for AI while also challenging human assumptions and cognitive abilities. Game design is at heart a cognitive science, Togelius reminds us—when we play or design a game, we plan, think spatially, make predictions, move, and assess ourselves and our performance. By studying how we play and design games, Togelius writes, we can better understand how humans and machines think. AI can do more for game design than providing a skillful opponent. We can harness it to build game-playing and game-designing AI agents, enabling a new generation of AI-augmented games. With AI, we can explore new frontiers in learning and play.

Cognitive Development in a Digital Age James Paul Gee begins his classic book with "I want to talk about video games–yes, even violent video games–and say some positive things about them." With this simple but explosive statement, one of America's most well-respected educators looks seriously at the good that can come from playing video games. This revised edition expands beyond mere gaming, introducing readers to fresh perspectives based on games like World of Warcraft and Half-Life 2. It delves deeper into cognitive development, discussing how video games can shape our understanding of the world. An undisputed must-read for those interested in the intersection of education, technology, and pop culture, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy challenges traditional norms, examines the educational potential of video games, and opens up a discussion on the far-reaching impacts of this ubiquitous aspect of modern life.

With the widespread interest in digital entertainment and the advances in the technologies of computer graphics, multimedia and virtual reality technologies, the new area of “Edutainment” has been accepted as a union of education and computer entertainment. Edutainment is recognized as an effective way of learning through a medium, such as a computer, software, games or AR/VR applications, that both educates and entertains. The Edutainment conference series was established and followed as a special event for the new interests in e-learning and digital entertainment. The main purpose of Edutainment conferences is the discussion, presentation, and information exchange of scientific and technological developments in the new community. The Edutainment conference series is a very interesting opportunity for researchers, engineers, and graduate students who wish to communicate at these international annual events. The conference series includes plenary invited talks, workshops, tutorials, paper presen- tion tracks, and panel discussions. The Edutainment conference series was initiated in Hangzhou, China in 2006. Following the success of the first (Edutainment 2006 in Hangzhou, China), the second (Edutainment 2007 in Hong Kong, China), and the third events (Edutainment 2008 in Nanjing, China), Edutainment 2009 was held August 9–11, 2009 in Banff, Canada. This year, we received 116 submissions from 25 different countries and regions - cluding Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, and USA.