AI from Elon Musk’s startup defeats one of the best Dota 2 players

Tesla CEO says it is the first time AI was able to defeat pros in competitive e-Sports

There’s a lot of debate revolving around artificial intelligence learning capabilities and AI robots’ abilities to compete against humans. The debate has picked pace since Google’s artificial intelligence programme, AlphaGo, defeated Chinese Go master Ke Jie, forcing the top-ranked Go player to admit human beings are no match for robots.

After Google, a bot from Elon Musk-backed startup OpenAI took on human competitors, this time in Valve’s annual Dota 2 tournament. The bot was able to defeat Dota 2 pro Danylo “Dendi” Ishutin in a live 1-vs-1 match, prompting the pro to say that some of the bot’s manoeuvres looked eerily human.



After suffering the crushing defeat at the hands of the bot twice, Dendi forfeited future matches with it. Expressing his amusement that a bot could outplay human, he said, the bot “feels a little like [a] human, but a little like something else.”


Engineers from OpenAI claimed the bot gathered enough knowledge in just two weeks to defeat Dota 2 pros. However, they said it amassed 'lifetimes' of experience, likely using a neural network judging by the company’s prior efforts.



Boasting about the success of OpenAI, Tesla CEO said it is the first time AI was able to defeat pros in competitive e-Sports.

OpenAI first ever to defeat world's best players in competitive eSports. Vastly more complex than traditional board games like chess & Go.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017

This article originally appeared on The Verge

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