Forty-two years old Kanzi has become an internet sensation and is touted as the best ape video gamer. The Bonobo displayed amazing Minecraft skills after being taught by YouTuber, ChrisDaCow. The YouTuber first reached out to Des Moines’ Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative and invited Kanzi to be part of a revolutionary Minecraft project.
Kanzi was taught to play Minecraft at the US research facility. ChrisDaCow uploaded a 23-minute video of the ape that showed how he started getting familiar with the use of arrows for pointing to loot on the ground. As the video progressed, Kanzi started getting familiar with the game and could easily navigate his way around and break walls.
At a point, the ape video gamer tapped too hard on the screen and broke it and the study had to wait a little longer for the screen to be fixed. ChrisDaCow continued to modify the game to the point where Kanzi could easily navigate through the game with minimal assistance.
Kanzi’s progress in the game has stunned those that followed his progress since his arrival at the military facility. To reinforce his good actions or progress, the ape was gifted with his favorite snacks (apples, grapes, and peanuts) each time he broke a loot box.
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Dr. Jared Taglialatela noted that Kanzi enjoys playing Minecraft and enjoys it even more when people play with him or watch him play. TommyInnit, another YouTuber, was lured in by ChrisDaCow to play Minecraft with the ape just to see if a human could tell the difference between playing with a human and an ape.
How TommyInnit was tricked into playing with the ape video gamer
TommyInnit is a Minecraft sensation that has invested an insane number of hours in the game. ChrisDaCow was able to trick TommyInnit to play with Kanzi—even TommyInnit could not believe he had been playing with an ape and showered praises on the ape video gamer.
Regardless of Kanzi’s sensational Minecraft skills, he is a long haul from being as good as humans. However, the experiment so far shows that apes may not be as primitive as we thought of them. They may be more teachable than humans give them credit.
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With more practice, the ape video gamer may get to the point where he can creatively build worlds as well as get addicted to mining Diamonds like every other Minecraft addict. If you are yet to experience Minecraft, you can get it on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The game recently received a facelift with drastic graphics improvements.
Elon Musk ‘created’ an ape video gamer in 2021
Kanzi is not the first ape video gamer we have seen. In 2021, Neuralink, a computer-to-brain interface firm owned by Elon Musk, released a video that shows a macaque monkey called Pager playing Pong (a video game) with its mind. According to the company, the ape’s brain signal was wirelessly sent to the game through an implant.
The plan of the company is to one day use the interface to aid people with neurological conditions to remotely operate computers and phones. Experts hailed Neuralink at that time because of the absence of wires. However, they stressed that more data was required to really access its impact.
Initially, the researchers taught Pager to play the game using the joystick and offered rewards in the form of fruit smoothies. The Neuralink device was used during the learning process to record which neurons were firing to control different movements. Subsequently, the joystick was disconnected, and the ape video gamer was allowed to control gameplay with its mind.
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“Our mission is to build a safe and effective clinical BMI (Brain Machine Interface) system that is wireless and fully implantable,” the researchers wrote in a blog post. “Our first goal is to give people with paralysis their digital freedom back, to communicate more easily via text, follow their curiosity on the web, to express their creativity through photography and art, and yes, to play video games.”
The researchers also said that Neuralink may get to the point where it would be “used to restore physical mobility”. The plan was to use the link to monitor brain signals for the potential stimulation of muscles and nerves in the body. To get there, the researchers noted that the process must be refined.
In 2016, there was an orangutan video gamer in Melbourne
At a zoo in Melbourne, Australia, orangutans were given access to video games, according to a CBS news report. The program was heralded as the first of its kind and allowed the animals to play several purpose-built interactive games.
One of the games involved projecting a series of photos to the orangutans to identify. The other involved moving 3D light and color beams. The technology makes use of a laptop, parts of an Xbox, and a projector. In all, the entire equipment used in the project cost less than $1,000.
The aim of the activity was to keep the animals more engaged, which will prevent them from feeling sad, bored, or trying to escape. Zookeepers think that one day the orangutans may be able to play games with visitors.
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“We’re trying to find ways to give all the animals more choice because that means more positive welfare,” Rachel Lowry, a zookeeper, told Trent Dann of News 10. “They love interacting with our visitors, they choose to come up and interact with our visitors, so we want to test, do they actually want to share this with the visitors?”
Video games have become an important educational tool over the years to train and entertain animals. Will ape video gamers ever beat humans? That is highly unlikely! Nevertheless, the progress Kanzi has made proves that video games are treasured assets in our shared existence.
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