REDWOOD CITY, Calif.- AI technology is progressing faster than ever before. As it turns out, the Madden CPUs are actually kinda good at basketball too!

Last week, Madden programmers put the football computer players on a basketball court just to see how they would do. Surprisingly enough, they held their own! Of course they lost to all of the NBA teams, but they were able to beat some of the NCAA computer teams.

EA reports that their Madden CPUs were actually able to beat the Florida Gators in “NCAA March Madness 2005” for the Play Station 2. In fact, EA simulated an entire March Madness bracket, and the Madden CPU team almost won its first game! St. Louis won the whole bracket, to no one’s surprise.

This is exciting news for the growing field of artificial intelligence. Computer football players have gotten so advanced at their craft that they not only beat the NFL teams they were trained to beat but also 13-year-old college basketball teams.

One can only hope that EA makes further progress on the Madden AIs by next year. Maybe soon enough we’ll see Madden CPUs doing other human things like brushing their teeth and opening bank accounts.