One thing most of us can agree on is that Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents the next logical step on the technological ladder. We’ve seen some really significant progress in the field of AI over the last few years, with AI developers achieving some impressive feats and attaining new goals that were believed to be impossible until relatively recently.
The impact and significance of AI advances are a very broad and complex topic, as these advances are bound to have profound effects in nearly all walks of life, from warfare and medicine to more trivial, everyday things such as traffic regulation.
Therefore, this article will try to focus on a rather narrow aspect of AI and its impact, namely the one it could have on online skill games like chess, poker, and even eGaming stalwarts like Overwatch and Dota.
While this may seem like an irrelevant issue in the grand scheme of things, there is a growing number of people who play skill games for living and artificial intelligence advances could conceivably wipe out the profession altogether.
Skill Games as AI Training Grounds
Ever since people have started working on developing AI technologies, skill games have been their favorite training ground. Because of the logic and rules these games employ, they are perfect for testing various aspects of Artificial Intelligence and challenge its abilities.
For a long time, chess was the big challenge for AI developers, who spent countless hours figuring out algorithms and rules to implement in their software solutions to create an AI capable of defeating the best human players. It took them awhile to do it, but eventually, they were able to build supercomputers that could stand up to chess champions such as Garry Kasparov.
From that point on, it was pretty much game over, as further developments brought us to the point where even the best modern players like Magnus Carlsen openly admit that playing against machines makes no sense, because they make humans “look stupid.”
Recently, Google’s DeepMind AI project decisively bested Go master Lee Sedol in a high-profile showdown. It was the subject of the Alphago documentary, which raised awareness to the fact that humans may have already lost the battle on the game theory front.
Poker as the Ultimate Challenge
Cracking chess took time, but everybody who understands the foundations of Artificial Intelligence knew the day when machines would become superior to human players was bound to come. After all, chess is entirely based on math and the finite (if extremely large) number of possible combinations.
Poker, especially its most popular form – No Limit Texas Hold’em, represented a completely different challenge. Unlike chess, decisions in poker are based on incomplete information, meaning there is no perfect mathematical equation that would solve the game. In fact, the underlying skill has been used to help poker gain legal distinction from other luck-based gambling. In every given situation, poker players can do any number of things, making it increasingly difficult for AI developers to come up with a perfect solution.
The game that incorporates so much decision making based on limited information and best guesses was, thus, the ultimate challenge. While some believed that we’re nowhere close to having the knowledge and technology to do this, others readily accepted the challenge.
After several attempts, it seems that we’re very close to having an AI that can beat any human poker player in heads-up (one on one) play. The poker-playing AI called Libratus squared off against some of the best human players back in January of 2017 and managed to score a fairly decisive victory over a large enough sample to pretty much eliminate the random luck factor.
Should Professional Human Players Feel Threatened?
For human poker players making money playing games this was bad news. Having an AI capable of doing this meant that it was only a matter of time before such poker playing bots would become standard features at popular sites offering skill games for real-money wagers.
Capable of playing the perfect game around the clock and never having to take breaks, these bots would, in deed, mark the end of skill games as we know it.
The only good news in the entire story is the fact that the majority of AI developers aren’t actually focused on creating game-playing bots. Skill games serve as a good testing ground for some real-life situations, but other than that, their time would pretty much be wasted focusing on such a narrow niche.
Online skill games are probably still fine for the next several years at least. Of course, there are already bots capable of playing a pretty good game, so there is no doubt we are getting close to the point where human players will be squeezed out. This may seem like a bleak view, but there will always be live games where you can actually see your opponent’s face and know who you’re up against.
As for the online side, like many other things, it might fall victim of technological advances. In the grand scheme of things, artificial intelligence is a good thing that could make our lives much better, but it could create some casualties along the way – with online skill games being one of the overlooked victims.
