Betting On Poker Is The Latest Victim Of An AI Victory

Mark Zuckerberg, mastermind behind the fake news spreading social manipulation platform Facebook, insists “We're still figuring out what real intelligence is” (and in his case that could take quite a while) But as a computer program goes betting on poker in Pittsburgh and wins against human beings isn't our development of AI now just hastening our own descent into nightmare dystopia?

“Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution,
couldn't compete, and would be superseded.”
Stephen Hawking

It's not often Pittsburgh makes US gambling news headlines but line a computer up against some top of the line poker players and of course the world is going to take an interest, after all, there's nothing like watching science help forward the progress of humanities destructive inclinations whilst betting on poker. So-called AI computer programs have already shown their superiority at Chess and Go, but is the buff-&-call world of poker really something they can master? And if so, aren't we all doomed?

“I mean with artificial intelligence
we're summoning the demon.”
Elon Musk

Unfortunately for you and I, my puny meatsack-esque friends, the Liberatus program developed by Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science has indeed bested the human players (to the tune of some $800,000 so far) in the Brain vs Artificial Intelligence competition at the Rivers Casino, and thus has continued the march toward a time when betting on poker will seem small potatoes compared to dodging the android death patrols as you scrabble in the wastelands for anything approaching water.

Liberatus Gives Lounge Lizards A Lesson In Poker Playing

Alright, so maybe I'm not being entirely fair, perhaps my view of Artificial Intelligence has been tainted over the years by its portrayal in science fiction, and I should not be quite so alarmed at Jimmy Chou and co betting on poker against a calculator and losing, but anyone in the US gambling laws on the development of AI will prevent a SkyNet or a Colossus (from the Forbin Project) occurring might well be being just a tad cavalier. Even some of the major players in the business are worried about it.

“You have no idea how fast it is growing,” Said Elon Musk of AI development, “at a pace close to exponential. The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year time frame. Ten years at most.” Which tallies nicely with Stephen Hawking who has stated to the BBC “The development of full AI could spell the end of the human race.” Leaving me, for one, wondering why on earth we are developing the damn things and teaching them to bet on poker. Isn't this just self-harm?

Betting On Poker Just The Latest Triumph For AI

Deep Blue beat Kasparov back in 1996, Lee Sedol was taken down at Go by Google's DeepMind just last year and now betting on poker has fallen to the marching armies of technology in the shape of Liberatus, the question thus becomes what will the next challenge be for AI? And just how many challenges are there until evolution is the only game left in town to win? You may think it's cute to have a PC that likes to bet on sports in the US at Bet365 or whatever right now, but cute can grow up mean.

“I'm increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure we don't do something very foolish.” Insists Elon Musk, “I mean with artificial intelligence we're summoning the demon.” Which is nice and dramatic and precisely the sort of sensible thinking that will be ignored as we laugh at the computer betting on poker in Pittsburgh and all pretend we're not skating ever closer to enslavement by its successors.