Machine finally gets the upper hand in poker

Artificial intelligence has made history, for the first time beating humans at poker — the last remaining game in which humans had managed to maintain the upper hand.

Libratus, an artificial intelligence robot built by Carnegie Mellon University, racked up over $1.7 million worth of chips against four of the top professional poker players in the world in a 20-day marathon poker tournament that ended on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

While machines have beaten humans over the past two decade in chess, checkers and, most recently, in the ancient game of Go, Libratus’ victory is significant because poker is an imperfect information game. It is similar to the real world, where not all problems are laid out, and the difficulty in figuring out human behavior was one of the main reasons why poker was considered immune to machines.

“The best AI’s ability to do strategic reasoning with imperfect information has now surpassed that of the best humans,” said Tuomas Sandholm, the professor of computer science at CMU who created Libratus with PhD student Noam Brown, on Wednesday.

The victory prompted inquiries from companies around the world seeking Libratus’ algorithm for problem solving, which, according to Sandholm, “can be used in any situation where information is incomplete, including business negotiation, military strategy, cybersecurity and medical treatment”.

One of the main reasons for Libratus’ victory was the machine’s ability to out bluff humans.

“The computer can’t win at poker if it can’t bluff,” said Frank Pfenning, head of the Computer Science Department at CMU.

“Developing an AI that can do that successfully is a tremendous step forward scientifically and has numerous applications,” he added. “Imagine that your smartphone will someday be able to negotiate the best price on a new car for you. That’s just the beginning.”