Computer program watches YouTube, creates Super Mario levels

ATLANTA, June 26 (UPI) -- Georgia Institute of Technology researchers announced a computing system learned to build Super Mario Bros. levels from watching YouTube videos.

The researchers said their artificial intelligence program watched video clips from the original Super Mario Bros. on YouTube and Twitch before using what it had learned to design its own levels for the game that fit with the aesthetic and playability of the Nintendo classic.

"An initial evaluation of our approach indicates an ability to produce level sections that are both playable and close to the original without hand coding any design criteria," Matthew Guzdial, the team's lead researcher and a computer science Ph.D. student at the school, said in a news release.

The team unveiled their study, titled "Toward Game Level Generation from Gameplay Videos" earlier this week at the Foundations of Digital Games Conference in Pacific Grove, Calif.