Artificial intelligence is making in-roads into fighting games, with an A.I. from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team taking on, and beating, professional players in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

A group of programmers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has developed an AI that can go punch-for-punch against globally ranked players. It trained a neural network to play by inputting coordinates of all the gameplay items for various levels, such as players and edges. The A.I. acts as an in-game computer player learning from scratch.

“It uses a combination of human techniques and some odd ones too – both of which benefit from faster-than-human reflexes,” team leader Vlad Firoiu told TechCrunch. “It is sometimes very conservative, being unwilling to attack until it sees there’s a opening. Other times it goes for risky off-stage acrobatics that it turns into quick kills.”

The video below shows the AI playing against several ranked players. The A.I. has a problem using projectiles, and it also can't handle players that avoid combat. “If the opponent crouches in the corner for a long period of time, it freaks out and eventually suicides,” Firiou said.

The team has put out a paper on the project and has been submitted for consideration to an AI conference in Melbourne.