AI takes on humans in marathon poker game

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>An unusual poker game is taking place in Pittsburgh, pitting human players against an artificial intelligence program.
>The goal is to see if a computer can beat four of the best players in the variant of poker known as no-limit heads-up Texas hold 'em.
>In a similar tournament in 2015, the humans won.

>The algorithm could be adapted for use in medicine, cybersecurity, business and the military, its creators said.

>"Since the earliest days of AI research, beating top human players has been a powerful measure of progress in the field," said Tuomas Sandholm, professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon.
>"That was achieved with chess in 1997, with Jeopardy in 2009 and with the board game Go just last year.
>"Poker poses a far more difficult challenge than these games, as it requires a machine to make extremely complicated decisions based on incomplete information while contending with bluffs, slow play and other ploys."

>Solving the complex game of poker had many real-world applications, Dr Sandholm said.
>"Extending AI to real-world decision-making, where details are unknown and adversaries are actively revising their strategies, is fundamentally harder than games with perfect information or question-answering systems," said Nick Nystrom, senior director of research at Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center .

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38595480