GPT-6 Astra AI sent to complete iconic mission with GTA: Vice City helicopter, results shown

The developers of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City introduced many diverse missions in the game. One of them became a real nightmare for many players, remembered decades after the game's release.

According to the plot, in the iconic mission Demolition Man, the main character Tommy Vercetti must help Avery Carrington destroy a construction site. To do this, he needs to plant several bombs inside the building under construction, but there's a catch.

Tommy must not plant the bombs himself, but use RC Goblin radio-controlled helicopters to deliver them. The hero himself will be in the Top Fun truck near the construction site at this moment.

Researcher Yuntian Deng decided to conduct an experiment — he tested the capabilities of artificial intelligence in this mission from GTA: Vice City. He sent the GPT-6 Astra model to complete the mission; the gameplay was streamed from the iPad version of the game.

It was noticeable how difficult it was for the AI to cope with the local control physics. Nevertheless, the AI successfully managed to "chop" a builder with the helicopter's rotor and then plant the first bomb. The researcher said that GPT-6 Astra figured out that "GTA can be turned into a turn-based game." As a result, it acted in a cycle: pause — think (analyze the screenshot) — calculate movement — unpause and perform the maneuver, and then the sequence of actions was repeated.

However, even the turn-based mode did not save it from defeat. After planting the first bomb, the AI went back to the van to pick up the next bomb. At this point, the playthrough ended — it crashed into a wall with a bang and exploded, after which the message that many gamers have seen appeared on the screen: MISSION FAILED.

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Источник изображения: yuntiandeng's X account

The experiment showed that even modern AI models, like GPT-6 Astra, still struggle with such complex tasks in video games. The researcher published the project's developments, "Astra plays GTA Vice City," in open access on GitHub in the da03 repository.