AI is learning how to play Super Mario Kart on a real SNES – it’s already better than many of us and you can watch it learn live

Whether the world needs Artificial Intelligence that can play Super Mario Kart is one thing, but SMK expert and SNES hacker MrL314 has set his PC the task of learning to play the game for itself using an evolutionary algorithm he has called LuAEgi.

The program is learning to play Super Mario Kart on a real Super Nintendo by trying, and retrying each corner and straight to find the optimal way through the course.

Ordinarily, we would just hear about these things but this one is different as MrL314 is streaming LuEAgi’s learning process live on Twitch for the next few days, so it’s possible to watch what’s happening in real time. At the moment that is largely watching the PC incessantly crash into a corner and then restart and try again. Interestingly, on occasion, the Kart will get much further and be able to take a couple of corners before coming unstuck.

Meet LuEAgi, a program that learns to play Super Mario Kart with minimal information via an evolutionary algorithm! The best part? You can watch it learn LIVE!

Come check it out, I'll be streaming for a few days so come hang out and watch!

Link to the stream below! pic.twitter.com/qiiC9SQeP3

— MrL314 (#SMKDX) (@LF_MrL314) August 31, 2024

All of this data is then fed back into the PC, analyzed, and adapted for the next attempt, which takes place literally seconds later.

It will be interesting to see in a few days time how far LuEAgi has gotten this down as the way it takes some of the corners is already pretty impressive.

After the news last week of an AI-generated Doom it seems gaming-related AI learning is becoming more popular.

What is an AI evolutionary algorithm?

An evolutionary algorithm is an AI-based application that solves a problem by mimicking a living thing. It typically uses reproduction and mutation in a Darwinian-like selection process where a dataset is obtained and honed by eliminating the weakest solution and retaining more viable, stronger solutions to evaluate in the next run. The end goal is to arrive at the optimal action.

This is what LuEAgi is doing when it seems to be consistently crashing off the track as it takes the data onboard, removes what it perceives as irrelevant, and starts again.

You can watch MrL314’s Twitch stream here.

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