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Characterizing finding diamonds as "mastering" Minecraft is extremely silly. Tantamount to saying "AI masters Chess: Captures a pawn." Getting diamonds is not even close to the hardest challenge in the game, but most readers of Nature probably don't have much experience playing Minecraft so the title is actually misleading, not harmless exaggeration.

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> Getting diamonds is not even close to the hardest challenge in the game

Mining diamonds isn't even necessary if you build, e.g., ianxofour's iron farm on day one and trade that iron[0] with a toolsmith, armourer, and weaponsmith. You can get full diamond armour, tools, and weapons pretty quickly (probably a handful of game weeks?)

[0] Main faff here is getting them off their base trade level.

True, and if the objective is to get some raw diamonds as fast as possible demonstrating mastery of the game, I'd expect a strategy like making a boat, finding a shipwreck and then a buried treasure chest. Takes just a few minutes usually.

Really though, if AI wants to impress me it needs to collect an assortment of materials and build a decent looking base. Play the way humans usually play.

I agree with you, this is just the start and Minecraft has a lot more to offer for future research!

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