During the summer, Facebook Inc., created an artificial intelligence program that had the ability to beat 5 poker players in a Texas Hold’em Tournament, at once! In the past, artificial intelligence programs have had the ability to beat a poker player one-on-one, however, this is a big step up considering the uncertainty of poker. AI has to consider strategies in poker like bluffing while battling against live opponents, especially because each opponent contains information about the cards that the other does not (what they have in their hand). Now, I can understand why this may seem like a silly venture for Facebook to undergo considering the issues they have with explicit content on their website, “fake news,” and the numerous privacy issues that have come to light over the past couple years. However, there are practical applications to this technology. The group that created it, which includes a research group from Carnegie Mellon University as well, is looking to apply this technology in other fields. Since poker is such an intricate game, the act of considering other users information and balancing this with a strategy to win is what the researchers strive to apply to various technologies. We have begun to see self-driving cars breach the market, and perfecting this type of artificial technology could be a step in making AI more prevalent in society. What other types of technical applications could you see a technology like this being used for?
“An Artificial Intelligence Program Just Beat 5 Poker Professionals in a Texas Hold’em Tournament:” https://time.com/5624968/facebook-ai-beats-professional-cardplayers/
I think that its fascinating that AI has come so far so quickly. There have been many recent developments where artificial intelligence have mastered online and in person games, such as Go, poker, and capture the flag. The algorithms used all observe and quickly learn the patterns of the game and the actions of other players. Even though these are impressive feats, artificial intelligence is far from as advanced as the media portrays it. These games all have strict rules and premises, which means is relatively easy to create an algorithm that functions purely from reasoning and deduction. Another reason that the rate of AI dominating games is growing exponentially is because the cost of training algorithms are decreasing.
Source:
https://www.technologynetworks.com/informatics/news/why-a-gaming-ai-is-the-best-spy-327496
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/12/21010671/ai-index-report-2019-machine-learning-artificial-intelligence-data-progress
It is impressive how through advance enough AI, humans are simply unable to compete against an AI that is able to do near instant complex calculations to decide the best move. This remind me of a topic I learned in a different class about the concept of solved games. The factor that makes a solved game is that there is a mathematical formula that will always result in a win if played correctly. Examples of solve games would be tic tac toe, connect 4 and checkers. But through AI even complex games that were thought not to be able to be solved like chess are now being challenged. The Korean game of Go is considered one of the hardest games to solve. Until recently it was thought it would be impossible for an AI to beat a human in Go but that has been proven wrong. AI has got so advance that it is easily able to defeat Go champions to the point they are forced to retire. This is a bit worrisome If you consider the possibility that these AI will become advanced enough to automate even complex jobs like doctors.
Reference:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/27/20985260/ai-go-alphago-lee-se-dol-retired-deepmind-defeat
I remember reading about how people started creating an AI that could beat a real poker player one on one, but I did not know that we had the technology now to create an AI that can win a game of Texas Hold’em against five other real players. This is fascinating to me, but I am also not surprised at all. We discussed in class all year how fast technology is growing and how we are creating more and more advanced products each year with technology. We also specifically talked about AI’s and how we are creating robots do be able to do a lot of human needs and how they are becoming more advanced, which is why an AI that can win a game of Texas Hold’em is cool, but does not surprise me.
I could definitely also see AI’s being used for other professional games like baseball or football. People have been talking for years about how umpires and refs and sports can just never be 100% accurate and missed calls happen all the time, which loses teams games. Talk has been going around saying if we programmed AI robots to umpire or ref they would never get anything wrong and would make the correct call every time. I do not know if we would ever try this in a professional sport, but I could see technology like this being used in a situation like this just like it was for poker.
https://sports.yahoo.com/robot-umpires-debuted-in-the-atlantic-league-all-star-game-heres-what-happened-041511972.html