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A Poker-Playing Robot Goes To Work for the Pentagon (wired.com)
In 2017, a poker bot called Libratus made headlines when it roundly defeated four top human players at no-limit Texas Hold 'Em. Now, Libratus' technology is being adapted to take on opponents of a different kind -- in service of the US military.
From a report: Libratus -- Latin for balanced -- was created by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University to test ideas for automated decision making based on game theory. Early last year, the professor who led the project, Tuomas Sandholm, founded a startup called Strategy Robot to adapt his lab's game-playing technology for government use, such as in war games and simulations used to explore military strategy and planning. Late in August, public records show, the company received a two-year contract of up to $10 million with the US Army. It is described as "in support of" a Pentagon agency called the Defense Innovation Unit, created in 2015 to woo Silicon Valley and speed US military adoption of new technology.
[...] Sandholm declines to discuss specifics of Strategy Robot's projects, which include at least one other government contract. He says it can tackle simulations that involve making decisions in a simulated physical space, such as where to place military units. The Defense Innovation Unit declined to comment on the project, and the Army did not respond to requests for comment. Libratus' poker technique suggests Strategy Robot might deliver military personnel some surprising recommendations. Pro players who took on the bot found that it flipped unnervingly between tame and hyperaggressive tactics, all the while relentlessly notching up wins as it calculated paths to victory.
From a report: Libratus -- Latin for balanced -- was created by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University to test ideas for automated decision making based on game theory. Early last year, the professor who led the project, Tuomas Sandholm, founded a startup called Strategy Robot to adapt his lab's game-playing technology for government use, such as in war games and simulations used to explore military strategy and planning. Late in August, public records show, the company received a two-year contract of up to $10 million with the US Army. It is described as "in support of" a Pentagon agency called the Defense Innovation Unit, created in 2015 to woo Silicon Valley and speed US military adoption of new technology.
[...] Sandholm declines to discuss specifics of Strategy Robot's projects, which include at least one other government contract. He says it can tackle simulations that involve making decisions in a simulated physical space, such as where to place military units. The Defense Innovation Unit declined to comment on the project, and the Army did not respond to requests for comment. Libratus' poker technique suggests Strategy Robot might deliver military personnel some surprising recommendations. Pro players who took on the bot found that it flipped unnervingly between tame and hyperaggressive tactics, all the while relentlessly notching up wins as it calculated paths to victory.
We all know Donald Trump works for Russia.
August 29, 1997...
1990s rap superstar Robert Van Winkle, AKA "Vanilla Ice", died today in a single vehicle crash on Route 80 between Morristown and Roswell. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics responding to the vehicle accident and was identified by photo ID found on his body. Alcohol and drugs do not appear to have been a factor in this accident.
I'm a little uneasy about this. I'm also uncertain as to how you necessarily go about training this. With poker it's not particularly hard to find real opponents who will legitimately play their best. With this it seems like all you really do is train to to be really good at beating your own army.
Which one would win?
But how much did it lose?
All hail President Libratus
Obviously I have very little idea of how poker works.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Sometimes I feel like the generation in power in both Silicon Valley and Washington, DC have forgotten (or never watched enough) dystopian 1970s and early '80s sci-fi.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Gaming in the casinos of Las Vegas is better than the military contract.
The best way to win is for both sides to lose, leaving the computer with more power than humanity and ushering in our cyber overlords.
Poker seems as good a place as any. But I hope we've learned not to give it the keys to the nukes.
Sorry, but that's a misleading summary for technical news. Libratus did some pretty good playing, but saying it beat four top human opponents is extremely misleading.
What it did do was play thousands of rounds one on one. With exceedingly large bankrolls compared to the size of the big blind that were reset after every hand. In other words, it never had to play with short stack, never had to worry that the opponent couldn't cover it's own bets, and that really long shots (which are easier for a computer to calculate) can be made to pay off if hit because of the size of the bankrolls were much larger than usual for the size bets being made. And was only one on one, so it had a minimum of unknown information, betting and bluffing. Hold 'em, so 5 common cars and only two hold cards it doesn't know. And thousands of rounds each, so any small edge would have time to multiply.
Now, it did do this against four top players (each against their own copy of Libratus). It really was quite an accomplishment. But it's not nearing the general poker imperfect-information feint-analyzing multiple-unknowns that the summary makes it out to be. Come on /., be News for Nerds. Get the tech details right.
LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? C. MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
[...] at no-limit Texas Hold 'Em. Now, Libratus' technology is being adapted to take on opponents of a different kind [...]
This sounds like a sentence rather than two unrelated apostrophes. Just saying.
For 20 Years the Nuclear Launch Code at US Minuteman Silos Was 00000000
Put those poker bots to work in online poker rooms!
Put those poker bots to work in online poker rooms.
*presses big red button*
Errr, no thanks.
we get both skynet & wopr irl
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Sorry but the picture you paint is a nightmare waiting to happen. Making an army entirely beholden to one person's will without anyone anywhere being able to delay, question or even subvert their orders if they give illegal ones is a disaster waiting to happen. It may only be required in exceptionally rare circumstances but a human knows that, under those circumstances, they can almost certainly get away with disobedience (or may just be willing to suffer the severe consequences of disobedience regardless) whereas a computer may not.
Knowing that a general may well refuse to follow an illegal order and may publicise the order s/he was given also helps prevent politicians from giving those orders in the first place. Having everything under the absolute control of one person is a well-known recipe for disaster. By all means have AI providing advice but unless we have people, with all the flaws and problems you mention above, in command, we will have a disaster far worse than the problems you are trying to fix.
Where are the large on campus protests demanding this CMU faculty member resign or be fired for taking military money?
Oh yea the liberal arts college is told to not protest what brings in money to the university
You're the reason we can't have nice things. You took a game, something that's supposed to be just a fun, relaxing diversion from daily drudgery and turned it into a mathematical min/max algorithm to maximize your profits. Your type ruins every game. World of Warcraft being a prime example for the computer gaming market.