If there is anything that might be the real life equivalent to Skynet, it is Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence machine. DeepMind has a close relationship to games, having learned how to effectively navigate Atari classics like space invader, and has even defeated the world champion of board game, “Go”.

Google and DeepMind have decided to take their gaming to an entirely new level, through a partnership with gaming titans, Blizzard Entertainment. The teams are working on an algorithm to allow DeepMind the ability to play famous strategy game, StarCraft.

StarCraft will push the limits on the system’s ability to pivot strategies in response to their adversaries, as it will have to calculate and make decisions based on multi-tiered process previously unseen in an artificial intelligence. According to DeepMind, “An agent that can play StarCraft will need to demonstrate effective use of memory, an ability to plan over a long time, and the capacity to adapt plans based on new information”.

While DeepMind is hoping that this will expand their research into reinforcement learning, we’re just hoping that the system doesn’t decide that I wants to play a real game of global thermonuclear war. Obviously, the height of self awareness comes with teaching the AI to talk smack about your mom.

Do you think system will favor Zerg, Protos, or Terran? Let us know if you think that this is the beginning of the end in the comments!

And in other StarCraft news, check out the final expansion to hit the world-wide success Blizzard title straight from BlizzCon here.