Computer Conquers Texas Hold ‘Em, Researchers Say
Advances in Artificial Intelligence Allow Program to Play Poker Almost Perfectly, New Paper Asserts
Artificial intelligence experts said they have developed a computer card shark that plays poker almost perfectly, having mastered a version of a popular game called Texas Hold ’em.
While playful at heart, their advance in the computational mathematics of game theory may lead to broader innovations in military strategy, national security, medical decision-making, complex contract negotiations and auctions, experts said.
The basic poker game “has been essentially solved,” said Tuomas Sandholm, director of the Electronic Marketplaces Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, whose own poker-playing program won a 2014 world championship. He wasn’t involved in the project. “This is a breakthrough.”
In recent years, high-powered computer programs have outmatched top human players in chess, checkers, Scrabble and the quiz game Jeopardy, but the uncertainties of poker—where so much information about the state of play is hidden—until now had defied the efforts of dozens of research teams.