Researchers at Germany's University of Tuebingen have been experimenting with AI in Super Mario so the plumber can understand a wide variety of voice commands, process an impressive range of instructions, and adapt to the game environment on his own.
If you tell him it's possible to kill goombas by jumping on them, he'll comment "If I jump on goomba, then it certainly dies." You can also order him to kill a goomba, and he'll figure out how to do it on his own. If the Mario AI becomes hungry, he'll seach out coins and if he becomes curious, he'll begin exploring his world. He'll also figure out the best way to jump around the game world.
Back in 2009, a script effectively completed the game on its own and for several years there as an annual Mario AI competition based on the procedurally generated 'Infinite Mario Bros.' clone, which was created by Markus "Notch" Persson, a developer you may have heard of.
The University of Tuebingen's efforts have been submitted for the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's People's Choice Award later this month. The award will be handed out based on the number of YouTube likes which entry receives and at the moment there's a decent chance Mario will claim the prize and then become Skynet, presumably.
