Do you like machine learning? Do you like cats? If you said no to either of those questions, then good news! Neither is required to enjoy playing while True: learn(), though both help significantly.

What is while True: learn()?

while True: learn(), aside from being one of the most annoying titles to memorize the game is a programming puzzle game about sorting inputs to generate the correct outputs. It is very similar to other assembly line puzzle games, such as TIS-100 or even Satisfactory. Hidden within these puzzles is an educational game that will teach how machine learning works and how it is often utilized.

The plot of while True: learn() is that you are a fairly inept computer programmer, but your cat is a programming genius. Unfortunately, your cat does not speak English. So you set out to build a program to translate from cat to English.

Unfortunately, building a cat translator is not an easy task and you don’t really understand the basics of these tasks. So you take to internet forums to slowly learn the scope of the problem you’re attempting to solve, from recognizing that a cat is on the screen to determine its emotional state.

In learning how to solve the cat translator problem, you perform coding side jobs to make money and teach you the different programming algorithms. These jobs make up the core gameplay of while True: learn(). You are given some context for the task, provided with the nodes that can be used on the job, and then rewarded based on how well your program functions.

while True: learn() provides a remarkably accurate representation of what it is like to work with machine learning systems. Different algorithms are expressed through nodes which describe how data is sorted by the system. The visual programming style of the game perfectly parallels how machine learning systems are often used. The entire system is not programmed from start to finish, but instead, a known algorithm is downloaded and used to solve a unique problem.

Education

while True: learn() isn’t a tool designed explicitly for teachers to use in the classroom. That said, it could be an incredible way to give students interested in machine learning and artificial intelligence opportunities to learn how it works and how it’s being applied in the real world. For really motivated students, the game also offers extensions to much deeper learning on the topic. The game shows us some websites where we can dig deep into different topics of interest. This game is excellent for kids who are interested in programming and have good English skills. There are other languages for the game but they are a bit lacking.