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Scientists Create Unbeatable Poker Computer

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Scientists Create Unbeatable Poker Computer

Trending News: Scientists Have Created A Computer That Can't Lose At Poker. Next Stop, Judgement Day

Why Is This Important?

Because not only can it take all your money in a game of poker, but this technology could pretty much be applied to every situation that requires an important decision to be made.

Long Story Short

Scientists have developed an algorithm that enables a computer to beat anyone it plays in a game of Texas Hold’em poker. 

Long Story

It seems hard to believe, but the great game of chance and skill and people-reading that is Texas Hold’em poker has met its match. A computer has been built that, astonishingly, perfects the art of playing poker. It can even bluff with the best of them. 

Artificial Intelligence in gaming has been around since the 1970s, when the first games were staged between human chess masters and computers. The program developed then was based on a "perfect information game," meaning that each player, both human and computer, knew everything that had happened in the game up until the next player's move. 

Poker is different however, because some of the information is shielded from other players, meaning your decisions are based on a combination of luck, statistical knowledge and your ability to read other people. This computer doesn't need any of that.

There are a couple of catches though. The algorithm that has been generated only works with two player limit Texas Hold’em and, before you start counting scores, it doesn’t win every hand it plays. 

"What we’re saying is that, in the long run, if you looked at all the hands that could happen and you averaged all of those, then the computer can’t be losing, at a losing rate — it has to be either breaking even or winning," says Michael Bowling, co-author of the study, which was published in the journal Science. 

So how do you create a perfect algorithm to win at poker when you don’t have all the information? The process was rather simple actually; just have the computer play a few games of poker. Actually, a lot of poker. Billions of hands in fact. 

Here's how it works: The computer plays the game over and over, and records all the mistakes it makes, listing them as regrets. It records what moves it makes that lead to a win, and what moves force a fold or a loss. Gradually as it progresses, it slowly chips (pun intended) away at the list of regrets until there aren't any left. By reducing its regrets to zero, it learns what the best move to make in any given situation is, thereby achieving perfect play. 

Its creators are saying the algorithm could serve many purposes outside the game of poker. Because it's an algorithm based on strategic play, they speculate that it could be applied to any decision-making scenario, essentially treating real world designs as a game.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: If this algorithm can, over time, effectively eliminate human error, will we even need people in power to make important decisions for us in the future?  

Disrupt Your Feed: This needs to stop. Progress is great and all, but some things — poker included — are sacred.

Drop This Fact: In total, the amount of storage space needed for the research and building of the algorithm was 520 Terabytes. 

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