Poker AI takes out pros in six-handed game

Known as Pluribus, the AI was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with Facebook AI. Over the course of 10,000 hands of six-player poker against a rotating cast of 13 professionals - each with career winnings in excess of $1m - Pluribus came out on top. 

In a separate experiment, the AI took on Darren Elias, who holds the record for most World Poker Tour titles, and Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, winner of six World Series of Poker events. Playing 5,000 hands ‘heads up’ (one on one) against each pro, Pluribus again emerged the winner. But it is the multi-handed victory the researchers are heralding as most significant. 

"Pluribus achieved superhuman performance at multi-player poker, which is a recognised milestone in artificial intelligence and in game theory that has been open for decades," said Professor Tuomas Sandholm,( below, credit: Carnegie Mellon) from Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department.