Have you tried to solve a Rubik’s cube at least once in your life? Did you do well or badly? Did you solve the puzzle faster, or did it take you several minutes or even hours? Did you know that this three-dimensional, multi-coloured Rubik’s cube has been used and played in competition since the 1970s?

There is no doubt that the Rubik’s cube has made many people frown in recent years. But considering that today’s generation is full of inventions, it is not surprising that hyper-intelligent machines can solve the Rubik’s cube in just a few seconds.

The fastest time to solve a Rubik’s cube is three seconds. That is truly amazing. But, what’s more, amazing is that the University of California at Irvine published that there is an AI system that can solve the puzzle in less than a second.

The AI system is called DeepCubeA. It is a machine produced by UCI’s professional mathematicians and computer scientists with a reinforcement learning algorithm. According to the university, this device can solve the Rubik’s cube without knowing how the game works or being manipulated by humans.

What makes it more impressive is that it can perform multiple moves to solve the Rubik’s cube. It can solve six- or even nine-sided puzzles in less than seconds. Do you know anyone who can beat that record?

It is possible for an artificial intelligence system to beat the best human Go and chess players in the world,” said computer science professor Pierre Baldi in a statement published by the UCI, “but we realised that it is possible for an artificial intelligence system to beat the best human Go and chess players in the world. But we realised that the Rubik’s cube and other more complex puzzles are difficult to solve by a single computer. That’s when we thought we could use AI approaches to solve the puzzle. He also added that “they include more abstract, mathematical and symbolic thinking into the system to ensure that the Rubik’s cube is solved in a short time”. This means that there is a possibility that a machine that can solve the puzzle in just one second could become a system capable of planning, reasoning, thinking and making decisions”.

The university researchers published their conclusion in Nature Machine Intelligence. They also noted that the algorithm of the system they made involved more than ten billion puzzle combinations. The main goal of their system is to solve the complicated puzzles in less than 30 moves.

The researchers also added that the DeepCubeA had determined the correct strategy to solve the puzzle in the shortest possible time. In addition, the system also outperformed 100 per cent of the test configurations. They also pointed out that the system could be used not only to solve the Rubik’s Cube, but also in other similar games, such as the puzzles Sokoban and Lights Out.

Only the smartest person can solve a Rubik’s cube with 50 moves. This is amazing, but the AI system will make you more impressed, as it can solve a puzzle using only 20 moves. According to the researchers, the system’s algorithm relies on the neural network. Neural network refers to algorithms aimed at determining the possible relationships of solving a puzzle by understanding how humans ingest and analyse the given information.

In addition, the system also relies on machine learning techniques. This refers to a unique system that allows the artificial intelligence approach to learn more by understanding patterns and utilising their analysis with respect to human interventions.

But considering that the researchers only programmed the AI algorithm to solve complicated puzzles, they do not know the exact reason how it has worked. To make sure the machine will perform its job without problems, the researchers isolated DeepCubeA and trained it for two days. In two days, the researchers had time to hone its skills by solving Rubik’s cubes with various numbers of faces. According to one of the researchers, the machine acts like a self-learning human. He also added that the system’s reasoning ability is very different from that of humans.

According to the World Cube Association, in the early 1980s, the first Rubik’s Cube was solved by a human in 3.5 seconds. Although UCI’s algorithm had impressed many people, it is still not considered the number one for solving the cube quickly. The first robot to solve the Rubik’s cube in just 0.637 seconds was built in Germany and was called Sub1 Reloaded. Last year, this record was broken by the robot built by two American researchers using a Rubik’s Cube Timer showing that the cube was solved for only 0.38 seconds. That was unbelievably amazing!

Final thoughts

In summary, an AI algorithm can act like a human that can create its own strategies for solving a Rubik’s cube, provide suggestions that can improve the plan, mitigate strategies that do not fit the plan, and look for possible alternatives that work. In this way, researchers receive information that could help them determine the underlying process of how DeepCubeA solves a Rubik’s cube in a matter of seconds. The researchers are looking forward to using the algorithm they have created to teach many people the correct way to solve a Rubik’s cube using fewer moves.

The Rubik’s cube is a good puzzle game that is said to improve human problem-solving skills. But, if humans have learned the algorithms used by the AI system to solve the Rubik’s cube using fewer moves, do you still think it can help you improve your problem-solving skills and mental health?

There is no doubt that individuals are so intuitive that they cannot be matched by any artificial intelligence machine. But it is no longer surprising that today’s innovative machines are far better in terms of their algorithmic rigour and computational power than humans.