Episode 49 - When AIs Compete in real-Time Military Strategy Games (with David Churchill)

Ethics and Video Games Podcast

When we heard that David Churchill hosts an AI competition with the Real Time Strategy game Starcraft, we were instantly fascinated. We wanted to know what cheating concerns a competition among AIs raises, and also what real world implications arise when training AIs to control strategic military assets in a game. Dr. Churchill did not disappoint!

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Our guest, David Churchill, is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Memorial University (MUN), in St. John's, Newfoundland Canada. In 2016 he completed his PhD in Computing Science on Artificial Intelligence for Starcraft, and he’s researching AI and Computer Games ever since. His main research focus is on AI for Real-Time Strategy Games, such as StarCraft.

Since 2011 he’s organized and run the AIIDE StarCraft AI Competition. This competition puts state of the art REAL TIME STRATEGY AI research on display in the form of bots which play the full game of StarCraft: BroodWar. In addition to organizing the tournament he’s also the author of UAlbertaBot, which has been competing since 2010, which won the competition in 2013.

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Hosted by Shlomo Sher, Ph.D. and Andy Ashcraft

Production by Carmen Elena Mitchell

Music and graphics by Daniel Sher