Researchers Build AI That Outperforms Humans Cooperating

A team led by Iyad Rahwan (MIT) and Jacob Crandall (Brigham Young) developed S Sharp, an AI program that outperformed humans in cooperative games, including the prisoner’s dilemma and a block-sharing task. Tested in computer–computer, human–computer, and human–human pairings, the system learned to cooperate once given communication channels, enabling pairs of AIs to form stronger teams than human pairs.