Every month, 112 million people around the world sit down at computers and video game consoles to play Minecraft. There’s no pre-defined goal to the game or levels to beat. Its popularity lies in the fact that players can create almost anything imaginable using blocks of materials, like brick, wood, steel, glass, and wool. They can construct an Eiffel Tower, a space shuttle, or even an entire city. Players navigate their characters through Minecraft’s virtual 3-D world as they build. Along the way, they encounter a variety of objects, creatures, and other players—one of which might soon be an artificial intelligence, or AI.
An AI is a computer system capable of performing tasks normally associated with the human mind, like understanding language, making decisions, and solving problems. Even if you haven’t met an AI in Minecraft yet, you may have interacted with one elsewhere, perhaps without realizing it. Self-driving cars rely on intelligent software to navigate without a driver’s input. Smart thermostats use AI to detect when people are home or away and adjust temperatures to keep residents comfortable while saving energy. Electronic AI assistants like Siri and Alexa respond to voice commands to find information, play music, or make calls.