Monkey Business: Using AI to Train Rhesus Monkeys to Play Pac-Man and Unraveling the Secrets of Animal Learning and Behavior

The classic video game Pac-Man has been a favorite among gamers of all ages for years. In this popular game, players navigate through a maze while collecting dots and avoiding capture by ghosts. Now, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have conducted a study where they trained two rhesus monkeys to play Pac-Man.

The monkeys were rewarded with juice for successfully collecting all the dots in the maze and evading the ghosts. They were also rewarded for getting Pac-Man to eat the ghosts after consuming a special dot that made them vulnerable. Researchers found that an artificial intelligence system was able to accurately predict how the monkeys played Pac-Man and mimic their eye movements during the game.

This study highlights the potential for AI technology to better understand and replicate the behavior of animals in various tasks. The results could have implications for fields such as robotics, where machines could be trained to perform complex tasks with greater accuracy and efficiency. Additionally, this research could help us gain a better understanding of how animals learn and adapt to new environments, potentially leading to new insights into cognitive development and behavioral psychology.