After 50,000 hours, this AI can play Pokémon Red

techcrunch.com:

Almost ten years ago, the online phenomenon “Twitch Plays Pokémon” convened over a million people to play Pokémon Red at the same time, with each player’s keystrokes registering as commands for the one pixelated avatar. Now, like a Magikarp growing into a Gyarados, the evolution of technology begs a new question: can AI play Pokémon?

For the last few years, Seattle-based software engineer Peter Whidden has been training a reinforcement learning algorithm to navigate the classic first game of the Pokémon series – in that time, the AI has played more than 50,000 hours of the game. Whidden posted a thirty-three minute YouTube video telling the story of the AI’s development, and after nine days, the video has amassed 2.2 million views.

“What’s been super fun to see is how many people are engaging with it,” Whidden told TechCrunch. He uploaded the code he used to GitHub, along with instructions on how to operate and train the AI. “There’s a ton of people that seem really interested in actually doing this process of creating or designing.” One fan was able to apply his code to Pokémon Crystal, another retro Game Boy installment.

The AI’s reinforcement model is Pavlovian, giving the AI point-based incentives to level up Pokémon, explore new areas, win battles and beat gym leaders. Sometimes, these incentives don’t perfectly align with progression in the game, yet the failures of the AI are weirdly charming, which is probably why Whidden’s video has gone viral.

In one of the AI’s attempts, it simply stops to stare at the water in Pallet Town – the first place you visit in the game – and never moves. It gets stuck in an area with animated water, grass and NPCs who pace back and forth, meaning that every individual frame seems like a