There's a long history of using bots (they weren't really smart enough to be called AI, but they did "learn") to play games like this.
Long before Nethack there was Rogue. And then, 37 years ago, there was Rog-O-Matic. As Wiki describes it:
Rog-O-Matic is a bot developed in 1981 to play and win the computer game Rogue ...
Described as a "belligerent expert system", Rog-O-Matic performs well when tested against expert Rogue players, even winning the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rog-O-Matic
There's a long history of using bots (they weren't really smart enough to be called AI, but they did "learn") to play games like this.
Long before Nethack there was Rogue. And then, 37 years ago, there was Rog-O-Matic. As Wiki describes it:
Rog-O-Matic is a bot developed in 1981 to play and win the computer game Rogue ...
Described as a "belligerent expert system", Rog-O-Matic performs well when tested against expert Rogue players, even winning the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rog-O-Matic