Artificial intelligence can often seem scary. That is not just because these projects could turn out to be far more efficient compared to humans. There is also so much room left for future growth in the field. DeepMind is by far one of the best-known AI solutions to date, and it looks like its developers have been working on some exciting new elements. In particular, it appears they have been working on a new AI which will have an imagination.

An AI With Imagination Could Have Interesting Consequences

Up to this point, every known artificial intelligence solution is fairly limited in what it can achieve. It is often designed to do one thing right and take a very straightforward approach to achieving that goal. There is no degree of imagination since software is incapable of mastering such a trait in its current state. All of that may soon be changed, thanks to a new project developed by DeepMind.

You may have heard about DeepMind in recent months. The company, which was acquired by Google a few years ago, has been developing some interesting AI projects lately. Its latest venture takes the form of an AI which is capable of imagination. That sounds quite strange on paper, as it is nearly impossible to successfully mimic the concept of imagination, especially in software.

The people working at DeepMind came up with a way to do exactly that. Their research is documented in two different papers. In those papers, DeepMind explained how its AI is capable of devising a plan and remembering information which could prove valuable in the long run. Having an AI remember information is unusual in its own right, yet allowing it to devise a plan to achieve its goal based on changing variables is something else entirely.

It is good to see new AI solutions move away from learning accurate and simulated information. Learning a model of the world using sensory data will yield some very different results. The world around us is constantly changing, and ensuring an AI can adapt to these changes will be quite challenging. In that sense, an imagination-based approach could be quite helpful.

DeepMind used video games to test this new imagination-based approach for developing new artificial intelligence projects. In this case, the AI played Sokoban, a complicated puzzle game, without knowing any of the rules or moves. In watching the AI start tackling the problem and determining what needs to be done, it quickly becomes apparent how imaginative this project really is. One also sees a clear evolution as the AI becomes more accurate and completes its moves faster.

The test recorded in the YouTube video below was a success. The AI shows significant data efficiency, robustness, and performance despite not knowing the objective of the game or how it is supposedly played. This is another major development in artificial intelligence. It brings us one step closer to creating software-driven solutions which will enrich our daily lives in many different ways. Only time will tell how far this particular AI project can go, but it sure looks promising.