During Valve's yearly Dota 2 $24 million tournament, a surprise segment introduced a bot from Elon Musk-backed startup OpenAI. Engineers from the nonprofit said that the bot learned to beat Dota 2 professional players in just two weeks of real-time learning.
But that two weeks, according to the engineers, the AI has amassed "lifetimes" of experience.
Live on stage at The International, the first character who scored two kills or destroyed an in-game tower would be the winner. In the first game, OpenAI’s bot appeared dominant professional gamer Danylo "Dendi" Ishutin in a surprise, and Dendi appeared flustered by its capabilities.
The AI scored first blood against Dendi fairly early on, and the two subsequently traded kills, crowning the bot the winner. The first match lasted about ten minutes. "Please, stop bullying me," said Dendi, who is estimated to have earned $735,449.40 in winnings in his career, said to the bot during the match.
In the second game, the bot scored a kill on him early. Dendi resigned from the match, and declined to play a third.
Dendi that forfeited future matches with it, expressed surprise that a bot could outplay a human.
He said the bot "feels a little like [a] human, but a little like something else." He's also not entirely convinced that it's impossible to beat, stating he'd "need more time" to observe the AI's weaknesses, patterns and flaws.
Dota 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It's a complex game in which two opposing sides should compete to siege and destroy the opposing team’s base. The game features 113 playable heroes who each possess unique abilities, as well as dozens of items that be enhanced to extend each hero's capabilities.
What this means, the varieties and the game's possibilities are virtually incomprehensible, at least to a player with human limitations.
OpenAI’s system also remained undefeated against a group of top players, including Artour "Arteezy" Babaev and Syed "Suma1L" Hassan.
Elon Musk founded OpenAI as a nonprofit venture to prevent AI from destroying the world. Musk himself has expressed his concerns about AI and how it can overturn the table on humans. In July 2017, he a group of U.S. governors that AI represents a "fundamental risk to the existence of civilization."
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