It's-a-me, Mario! And soon I'll be playing my games without your help...

German researchers working on giving Nintendo hero adaptive learning artificial intelligence to become a 'living and conversing agent'

There are gamers who can complete Super Mario Bros in less than five minutes, and gamers who still struggle with the finer elements of mushrooms, pipes and coins. But how would Mario fare playing his own games?

Thanks to a team of cognitive modelling researchers at the University of Tubingen in Germany, we may soon find out. Their latest project: "An Adaptive Learning AI Approach for Generating a Living and Conversing Mario Agent."

The team have entered the annual video competition run by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence(AAAI), publishing a YouTube video explaining their work in the hopes of winning its People's Choice award through public votes

The project is aiming to create a Mario who "gets to know his own world" by becoming "aware of himself and his environment", enabling him to make his own decisions based on his curiosity, hunger, happiness and fear, as well as through voice commands delivered by a researcher

The video shows Mario being taught that if the jumps on a Goomba then it "certainly dies", with his knowledge converted into tags, and then natural speech. It also shows how his inner emotional state can be used to govern his behaviour

"Mario will collect coins if he is hungry, whereas when he is curious, he will explore his environment and autonomously gather knowledge about items he does not know much about yet,"explains the narrator

The Mario agent may not be ready for a five-minute Super Mario Bros run just yet, and it's quite jarring hearing him speak with computer-speech tones rather than the familiar sound of Charles Martinet, who voices him in games

Even so, Mario's popularity should make him a strong contender for the award, even though rivals include self-organised robot swarms, a robot that children can teach to write, and technology to help self-driving cars negotiate crowds of pedestrians

technology to help self-driving cars negotiate crowds of pedestrians

rivals include self-organised robot swarms

Mario's popularity should make him a strong contender fo rthe award

even so

who voices hom in games

rather than the familiar sound of Charles Martinet, who voices him in games

is quite jarring hearing him speak with computer-speech tones

may not be ready for a five-minute Super Mario Bros run just yet

autonomously gather knowledge about items he does not know much about yet

whereas when he is curious, he will explore his environment

how his inner emotional state can be used to govern his behaviour

with his knowledge converted into tags, and then natural speech

being taught that if the jumps on a Goomba then it certainly dies

as well as through voice commands delivered by a researcher

enabling him to make his own decisions based on his curiosity

by becoming aware of himself and his environment

is aiming to create a Mario who "gets to know his own world

explaining their work in the hopes of winning its People's Choice award through public votes

run by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial intelligence

have entered the annual video competition run by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial intelligence

a team of cognitive modelling researchers

how would Mario fare playing his own games

still struggle with the finer elements of mushrooms

can complete Super Mario Bros in less than fice minutes

working on giving Nintendo hero adaptive learning artificial intelligence to become a 'living and conversing agent