DailyDirt: Computers Like To Sit In Front Of Computers And Play Games All Day, Too
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Artificial intelligence software has been getting better and better over the years at beating humans at their own games. Games like Connect Four and Checkers are already solved, and while we humans might like to point out that there are games like Othello, Go, Diplomacy and Calvinball that still favor human players, it may only be a matter of time before computers outwit us at those games, too. Check out a few more games that algorithms are learning to play better than human brains.
- A specific version of Texas Hold ’em (heads-up limit Texas Hold ?em) will likely be dominated by computer players now that an algorithm has minimized a “regret” function for playing it. Poker hasn’t been solved, but humans better watch out when playing online to make sure their opponents are actually other humans (if it’s even possible to tell). [url]
- A computer simulating ant behavior has found almost half a million novel solutions to the “knight’s tour” problem in chess. This isn’t really a game, but it shows how AI can use some pretty wild strategies to solve game-related challenges. [url]
- The game of Go (aka wei qi) isn’t going to be solved by a computer any time soon, but Go-playing software is getting better against human opponents. To make move decisions, advanced Go AI programs play randomized simulations of entire games to try to pick between move options. That’s not quite how humans play the game, but apparently it’s a somewhat winning strategy to use against human players. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: ai, algorithms, artificial intelligence, chess, game algorithms, games, go, knight's tour, poker
Comments on “DailyDirt: Computers Like To Sit In Front Of Computers And Play Games All Day, Too”
Hey, that sounds a lot like last week’s episode of Person of Interest! đ
Re: Re:
And from the article:
Yeah, Person of Interest did that (it actually involved 4 levels, and the people in question were operatives, not cowboys, but still) in the episode from two weeks ago.
There was no Go involved, but the show is about AIs. Kinda makes you wonder…
Crossing paths
Years (well, a few decades) ago, when I was much better at Go than I am now and computers were much worse, I used to give the computer a big handicap and still spank it handily. Nowadays, the Go program on my iPhone easily humiliates me when I have the nerve to actually play it — and I’m the one who needs the handicap.
Try chinese checkers...
…and tell the computer to play all 6 positions. Sit back and watch. More often than not you will get the last 2 moves to be infinate loops!
Take home lesson
Never play heads up limit Hold ‘Em for real money online.