OpenAI Gym, a toolkit for developing and comparing reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms, is now in beta. It consists of a suite of environments that can be used for comparing and reproducing results, as well as creating situations that an AI can learn from.

Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk teamed up with Y Combinator president Sam Altman and former Google Brain Team scientist Ilya Sutskever to launch OpenAI, a US$1 billion nonprofit organization. Now that developers have access to the free toolkit, they can train their own AI bots with games and other challenges.

Currently, OpenAI is compatible with algorithms written in frameworks like TensorFlow and Theano, and its environments are written in Python. According to an OpenAI blog post, the environments will soon be able to use any language.

Some of the environments that an AI can learn from OpenAI Gym include classic control problems like driving a car uphill, and Atari games like Asteroids. Other environments cover algorithms, where the AI can learn tasks purely from examples. There are also board game and 2D or 3D robot environments.

Over time, the OpenAI Gym is expected to see a collection of other environments, and contributions are accepted, according to the blog.

SQL Server 2016 available this June
Microsoft has announced SQL Server 2016 as a way to deliver end-to-end data management so businesses can get insights on their data on any device. This solution will be generally available on June 1.

The SQL Server 2016 allows businesses to build intelligent applications on secure databases, their highest-performing data warehouse, end-to-end mobile BI on any device, and in-database advanced analytics, according to a SQL Server blog post.

SQL Server 2016 manages relational and beyond-relational (Hadoop, JSON and XML) data, and it integrates structured data with Hadoop data. Also, it seamlessly integrates on-premises data with cloud data, according to the blog.

SQL Server 2016 can be used for:

  • Mission critical intelligent applications
  • Enterprise-scale data warehousing
  • Applications requiring high levels of security
  • Business intelligence solutions on mobile devices
  • New Big Data solutions that require combining relational data
  • Hybrid cloud solutions that can reduce storage costs, improve high availability and simplify IT operations

Developer installs Windows 95 on Apple Watch
By following a few steps and modifying the software, a developer was able to install Windows 95 on his Apple Watch.

Nick Lee, a partner and CTO at Tendigi, found that the Apple WatchKit SDK wouldn’t allow access to user touch locations directly, which meant it was possible to patch certain files within a WatchKit app to load his own application code rather than Apple’s, he wrote in a Medium post.

Lee modified Apple’s development software, which allowed him to turn Windows 95 into a Watch app, forming the environment for the operating system to run on. He said that it takes an hour to boot up, but after that, the watch’s specs are that of a standard Windows 95 computer.

Some hurdles that he had to jump through included setting up a motorized tube that turns the Apple Watch’s crown, which prevents it from falling asleep, he wrote. His code can be found on GitHub, but he said that developers will need to source the files that show up in red because they aren’t redistributable.