A group of experts wants to study the brain waves and eye movements of people playing a video game in order to build an advanced AI that could coordinate the actions of military robots. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, awarded a team from the University of Buffalo’s Artificial Intelligence Institute a $316,000 grant for the study.

H/T: New York Post

“The idea is to eventually scale up to 250 aerial and ground robots, working in highly complex situations. For example, there may be a sudden loss of visibility due to smoke during an emergency. The robots need to be able to effectively communicate and adapt to challenges like that,” the grant’s principal investigator, Souma Chowdhury, told UBNow.

“We don’t want the AI system just to mimic human behavior; we want it to form a deeper understanding of what motivates human actions. That’s what will lead to more advanced AI.”

Scientists are building AI to control swarms of up to 250 drones using data from how people play video games like StarCraft and Company of Heroes https://t.co/AJRa5UGgnn — DeepClips (@DeepClips) February 12, 2020

DARPA has also been testing an internal program designed to control and coordinate large groups of drones.

OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) envisions swarms of 250 collaborative autonomous systems providing critical insights to small ground military units in urban areas where vertical structures, tight spaces, and limited sight lines constrain communications and mobility.

Watch a video about the program below.