300 Million Steps And A Flagpole. Or How I Taught Machines Super Mario

It&rsquo;s-a me!! Almmost anyone who grew up in the 80s can beat World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros in their sleep. This level was the rite of passage that taught a generation where jump buttons belong. So when I set out to teach a reinforcement learning agent to finish it, I expected a long afternoon and a short victory lap. Instead I got days of training, a laptop that doubled as a space heater, and…