AI Wins $290,000 in Chinese Poker Competition (bbc.com)

An AI program has beaten a team of six poker players at a series of exhibition matches in China. From a report on BBC: The AI system, called Lengpudashi, won a landslide victory and $290,000 in the five-day competition. It is the second time this year that an AI program has beaten competitive poker players. An earlier version of the program, known as Libratus, beat four of the world's best poker pros during a 20-day game in January.

Comments

No Human Element?

[mykepredko]

I thought Poker was a game of understanding your opponents not only based on past actions with cards but also by looking at facial expressions, body language and determining whether or not they have a good hand. Along with that, a big part is developing subtle gestures to throw your opponents off.

Without this information, isn't this win somewhat random or "lucky" and not really indicative of how the AI can play against other humans?

It's interesting that the AI can develop a database on other player's styles and I'm sure professional players would be interested in the algorithm used to do that but I wonder how many times the AI would win after ten games of playing professional players.

Who gets the prize?

[petes_PoV]

the prize money will go to Strategic Machine, a firm founded by the duo.

That seems a little unfair. If I had won, the prize money would not have been given directly to my parents. If a machine wins, it should receive the prize. If it cannot actually spend it, then that would appear to be a rather basic limitation to its AI-ness. But it wouldn't be a problem for the competition or whoever awarded the prize.

You would also hope that the authorities would keep an eye on the money to ensure that whoever had access to the AI didn't defraud it of its winnings. Maybe it is time for machines to have property rights. And if they are going to be awarded assets, maybe they should be taxed on them, too.