Section 1 : Optimal decisions in games

Commentary

Section Goals

• To discuss the basic concepts of adversarial search problems (i.e., games).
• To introduce the components needed to search for game problems, and the optimal strategies for two player MAX and MIN games.

Learning Objectives

Learning Objective 1

• Explain the following concepts or terms:
  • Adversarial search and games
  • Mathematical game theory
  • Perfect and imperfect information
  • Game tree
  • MAX and MIN in games with two players
  • Minimax value
• Outline the components of search problem for games.
• Exemplify the minimax-value function.

Objective Readings

Required readings:

Reading topics:

Games, Optimal Decisions in Games, Optimal Strategies (see Sections 5.1 and 5.2 of AIMA3ed).

Supplemental Readings

AI Topics: Games

Objective Questions

• What is the difference between mathematical game theory and the AI games introduced in this unit?
• How can search be used for game programming, and what makes a game search different from a single agent search?

Objective Activities

• Try to find some books on AI Games or Game AI, and compare them with games presented in this course.