This AI Solves A Rubik’s Cube In A Fraction Of A Second

The fact that a new AI algorithm has been developed to solve the Rubik's Cube in less than a second proves that we are a step closer to achieving other AI’s abilities like thinking, planning, reasoning and making decisions in the future.

The study which was published in the Nature Machine Intelligence journal details the algorithm DeepCubeA from the University of California's mathematicians and scientists. DeepCubeA can solve a Rubik's Cube in less than a second with no in-game coaching given by humans and no specific knowledge from any domain.

This is not a simple task. The Rubik's Cube has many completion paths but it only has one goal state. The ultimate goal is to display each of 6 sides with a solid color, which obviously can’t be solved with random moves.

Researchers of the study demonstrated that the DeepCubeA found solutions for 100% of all test configurations. It could figure out the shortest way to reach the mentioned goal state in about 60% of all cases. Moreover, this AI algorithm can be applied to other combinatorial games like Sokoban, sliding tile puzzle, and Lights Out.

The research teams found it interesting to understand how and why AI decided and made its moves and also how much time it would need to improve its method. The researchers claimed that the ultimate goals of different projects, including this one, is to develop the next, more advanced generation of AI systems.