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Oh the humanity! Poker computer trounces humans

in big step for AI
Libratus, an artificial intelligence robot, has won chips worth $1.5m from four of the
worlds top poker players in a three-week challenge at a Pittsburgh casino

Olivia Solon in San Francisco

Monday 30 January 2017 22.00 GMT

very day for the last 20 days, between the hours of 11am and about 10pm,

four of the worlds top poker players have been sitting in a Pittsburgh casino
playing against a software robot called Libratus.
With only a few hours of the Brains vs Artifical Intelligence competition left,
Libratus has won more than $1.5m worth of chips from the humans. It would take
a miracle for the human players, Dong Kim, Jason Les, Jimmy Chou and Daniel
McCauley all specialists in no-limit Texas Holdem, a two-player unlimited bid
form of poker to make a comeback.
Its a crushing defeat for humanity, but a major milestone for artificial
intelligence.
Machines have already become smart enough to beat humans at other games such
as chess and Go, but poker is more difficult because its a game with imperfect
information. With chess and Go, each player can see the entire board, but with
poker, players dont get to see each others hands. Furthermore, the AI is required
to bluff and correctly interpret misleading information in order to win.

The Brains vs Artificial Intelligence competition at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh. Photograph: Carnegie Mellon
University

This challenge is so huge and complicated that its been elusive to AI researchers
until now, said Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science
Tuomas Sandholm who, along with his PhD student Noam Brown, built Libratus.

Sandholm said he wasnt confident at all that Libratus would beat the poker
pros. The international betting sites put us as 4-1 underdog and the humans
expected to win.
Alas, they did not.
They put up the best fight they could, said Brown.

Libratus the AI thrashed four human pro poker players.

They were no match for Libratus, which improved on Sandholm and Browns
previous poker-playing AI called Claudico. Claudico competed and lost against
four poker pros in the same tournament in 2015. Its successor was clearly out for
revenge.
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Libratus not only had more computing power, but an enhanced

algorithmic approach to the game, particularly the way it deals
with imperfect or hidden information.
We didnt tell Libratus how to play poker. We gave it the rules
of poker and said learn on your own, said Brown. The bot
started playing randomly but over the course of playing

trillions of hands was able to refine its approach and arrive at a winning strategy.
Late each day, after the poker play ended, Brown would connect Libratus to the
Pittsburgh Supercomputer Centers Bridges computer to run algorithms to
improve its strategy overnight. In the morning he would spend two hours getting
the newly enhanced bot back up and running.

Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science Tuomas Sandholm who, along with his PhD student
Noam Brown, built Libratus. Photograph: Carnegie Mellon University

At the same time, the humans are playing until 10pm, eating dinner, then
spending a few hours reviewing the AIs hands in the game and tweaking their
strategy, getting to sleep at around 2am.
The schedule has been gruelling for the poker pros.
Libratus turned out to be way better than we imagined. Its slightly
demoralizing, said Jason Les, who also played against Claudico two years ago.
If you play a human and lose, you can stop, take a break. Here we have to show
up to take a beating every day for 11 hours a day. Its a real different emotional

experience when youre not used to losing that often, said Les.

carnegiemellon

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Four of the worlds best professional poker players have been competing
against CMUs AI program, called Libratus, since Jan. 11 at @riverscasinopgh.
So far, its been a tough fight. Tune in at 12:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday for a live
update with CMU Prof. Tuomas Sandholm on the Brains Vs. Artificial
Intelligence: Upping the Ante poker competition.

Instagram

Its not all bad for Les and his team-mates: they get to split a $200,000 prize pot
depending on how well they do relative to each other against Libratus.
They have also learned from Libratus, thanks to the robots aggressive style of
play that sees it make huge bets to win small prize pots.
Its just not something a human would normally do, but it forces you to be on
your toes for each game, said Les.
Its almost like weve been shellshocked into being much stronger players.
Nothing anyone does will seem that crazy any more.
For Brown, seeing Libratus win has induced a proud parent feeling.
When I see the bot bluff the humans, Im like, I didnt tell it to do that. I had no
idea it was even capable of doing that. Its satisfying to know I created something
that can do that.
The algorithms that power Libratus arent specific to poker, which means the
system could have a variety of applications outside of recreational games, from
negotiating business deals to setting military or cybersecurity strategy and
planning medical treatment anywhere where humans are required to do
strategic reasoning with imperfect information.
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Poker is the least of our concerns here, said Roman V

Yampolskiy, a professor of computer science at the University
of Louisville. You have a machine that can kick your ass in
business and military applications. Im worried about how
humanity as a whole will deal with that.

For Brown, Libratus challenges preconceptions about machine

intelligence versus human intelligence.
People have this idea that poker is a very human game and that bots cant bluff,
for example. Thats totally wrong. Its not about reading your opponent and trying
to tell if they are lying, its about the cards and probabilities, he said.
We are seeing a re-evaluation of the types of things machines can excel at
although I cant see a computer writing a prize-winning novel any time soon.
A prize-shortlisted novel, on the other hand

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Artificial intelligence (AI)

Poker

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