An Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot beat eight world bridge champions. Technology beat the best.
This impressive achievement is the work of the French startup NukkAI that for more than four years developed the AI bot called “NooK”.
He was trained through the use of a hybrid approach, whereby he first learned the rules of the game and then improved his game through practice.
The bot-championship challenge took place in Paris over two days as part of the Nukkai Challenge tournament. During the match days, the bot won 83% of the 80 sets.
Technology beat the best
The creator company stated that “NooK’s approach seeks to learn in a way that is much closer to human beings”.
On previous occasions, AI bots have managed to beat human players in games such as the ancient game Go or in chess, but this is the first time that AI has beaten 8 champions in bridge.
This is considered a breakthrough in the state of Artificial Intelligence systems, as bridge requires more human skills compared to other strategy games.
For her part, Nevena Senior, world bridge champion for England and one of NooK’s challengers, said NooK’s creators had done a “magnificent” job.
He marveled at the bot’s ability to mimic typical human skills with great ease.