Poker: Computer beats five poker pros

Poker’s about courage, bluffing and probabilities.

Can computers do everything too? So far, there has been software that wins against a single opponent. Now, for the first time, a program can reliably beat several professional poker players. This is more difficult because the computer has to calculate many more possibilities. A computer science professor and a Facebook researcher are behind the Pluribus program.

The software trained against copies of itself, in No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker. That was enough to beat record poker players, writes the research team in the journal Science.

The scientists themselves speak of a milestone in the development of artificial intelligence. Not all experts in the field want to go quite that far. But much praise the technical success.