Animal AI Olympics.

Machine intelligence is moving ahead very quickly, and machine agents have capabilities that are often comparable to insect intelligence (navigation, exploration, swarms, object recognition), though not always in 'real time'.

Perhaps certain tasks and trials that household pet animals can accomplish may soon be replicable by machine intelligence. The Animal AI Olympics competition is creating a virtual pet assault course where different approaches can be tested in a simplified yet realistic 3D environment with accurate physics.

This research will be very important for the creation of advanced robotic pets for people who lack the resources or capabilities to ethically care for an organic pet. Such a virtual sandbox can provide opportunities to learn and test new approaches before deploying them in a physical world.

An embodied intelligence – a robot – that is able to simulate a virtual version of its environment and agents therein, and use that simulation to explore potential tactics prior to making a decision, would essentially have a basic Pre-Frontal Cortex.

The PFC in our brains (with more simple versions in mammals and birds too) is our inner simulator. It enables us to plan and strategise, and crucially, to model other beings and their needs and preferences, an essential component in empathy and pro-social behaviour.

Such technology, empowered by a data-set of simple pro-social behavioural norms such as EthicsNet.org aims to provide, can enable machine intelligence that is socially aware and perhaps even – dare I say it – able to express a distinct personality akin to our furry companions.