A Minecraft Based Simulated Task Environment for Human AI Teaming

In this extended abstract we present the design, development, and evaluation of a Minecraft-based simulated task environment to conduct human and AI teaming research. With the deluge of AI-driven applications and their infiltration into many activities of daily living, it is becoming necessary to look at ways that humans and AI can work together. There is a tremendous research burden associated with accurately evaluating the best practices and tradeoffs when humans and AI have to collaborate together in completing critical tasks. Minecraft offers a low-cost alternative as an early investigating tool for researchers to build answers to emerging research questions before significantly investing in human-AI teaming activities in the real world. We demonstrate successfully via a simple rule-based AI, insights that could highly influence human-AI teaming activities can be derived to improve practical and viable development of protocols and procedures. Our findings indicate that simulated task environments play a critical role in furthering human AI teaming activities.