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uk Sunday 31 December 2017 Advertisement Google network learns to play Space Invaders in breakthrough for artificial intelligence The DQN network learned how to play classic video games including Space Invaders and Breakout without programming The network mastered the Atari game Space Invaders after being given just minimal information The network mastered the Atari game Space Invaders after being given just minimal information Photo: ALAMY Sarah Knapton By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor 7:18PM GMT 25 Feb 2015 Follow Artificial intelligence has taken a major step forward after Google created a network which learned to play a range of computer games on its own without being pre-programmed.
 The Deep Q Network (DQN) was given just the basic data from one Atari game and an algorithm which learned by trying out different scenarios to come up with the best score.
 Without any further programming the network worked out how to play a further 48 classic video games including Space Invaders and Breakout.
 Demis Hassabis of Google’s artificial intelligence arm DeepMind said the ultimate goal was to create a computer which had the mental capabilities of a toddler.
 “This work is the first time that anyone has built a single general learning system that can learn directly from experience to learn a wide range of challenging tasks,” he said.