back to article OpenAI bot bursts into the ring, humiliates top Dota 2 pro gamer in 'scary' one-on-one bout

In the past hour or so, an AI bot crushed a professional video games player at Dota 2 in back-to-back one-on-one showdowns. The computer player was built, trained and optimized by OpenAI, Elon Musk’s AI boffinry squad based in San Francisco, California. In a shock move on Friday evening, the software agent squared up to top …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A.I your base are belong to us

    Google's Deep Mind is becoming less impressive as competition ramps up. Good PR wont kill the competition - That vid they released of the self-learning walking bot was 15 years out-of-date.

    When can we see a showdown of Facebook AI vs DeepMind vs Musks AI?!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Good machine play in NieR: Automata when?

      Package this shit as an engine! I would buy an Nvidia coprocessor card just for that.

    2. macjules

      Re: A.I your base are belong to us

      Don't care. Still not going to trust a car-driven AI yet. Even if it can win at "video games".

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    Isn't "life" an "inperfect information" strategy game as well?

    But can it get a girlfriend?

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Isn't "life" an "inperfect information" strategy game as well?

      Somehow, I doubt it swings that way.

    2. jeffdyer

      Re: Isn't "life" an "inperfect information" strategy game as well?

      Has any gamer got a girlfriend?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    And as usual there's a relevant XKCD for it :

    Computers vs Humans

    1. Aladdin Sane

      Re: And as usual there's a relevant XKCD for it :

      More than one it would seem.

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Trollface

    So Musk summons that which he consider a threat?

    Earlier this year, in a cart on a deserted New Mexico road near the still unbuilt Trump Wall, two terrorists and a machine from the future have a conversation:

    "In a few months, Musk will create a revolutionary type of Dota player"

    "Go on. Then what?"

    The computer player will be built, trained and optimized by OpenAI, Elon Musk’s AI boffinry squad based in San Francisco, California. In a shock move on the evening of August 11, 2017, the software agent squares up to top Dota 2 pro gamer Dendi, a Ukrainian 27-year-old. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

    The AI fights back!

    No, Musk just issues a senseless tweet an the world goes on

    Oh!

  5. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
  6. streaky

    They were giving arcanas to anybody who could beat it..

    They ran out by the end of the day.

    Just saying. People cheesed the bot and beat it. Something something I'm pretty sure this was the plot of The Matrix - the AI isn't capable of original thought, original strategy; is it really AI if it isn't?

  7. DropBear

    Except in today's "chemistry sets are evil incarnate and the work of the Devil himself" EVERYTHING is a "danger to the public", Elon. I appreciate the achievement, but remain seriously unconvinced your machine "thinks" in any sense at any level, regardless of which definition of the word we use. I do like your rocketry work, but I don't want to live in a world where box cutters need to be registered.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't come to Spain then. Penknives -or any other sort of knife carried in public- are now illegal.

      The thing is, everything's dangerous. A stick is a toy for a dog; a handy fulcrum; a life-saving source of heat; a crutch; a splint; a bludgeon; arrow...and so on.

      1. Charles 9

        What do they do with people trained such that they can kill with just their hands and feet (lethal even when UNarmed, IOW)?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          What do they do with people trained such that they can kill with just their hands and feet (lethal even when UNarmed, IOW)?

          Not legally allowed to get into fights.

      2. Dave 126 Silver badge

        > Don't come to Spain then. Penknives -or any other sort of knife carried in public- are now illegal.

        Can you supply a link about this? I can't find any mention of it online (admittedly only looking in English). One assumes that carrying a knife in a city centre is a no no (unless it's buried in one's rucksack), but carrying a sensibly-sized knife on a camping or fishing trip would be fine.

        1. Nolveys

          One assumes that carrying a knife in a city centre is a no no

          I should certainly hope so! I really hope that The Powers That Be also outlaw our own shadows soon, those things are scary!

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @Dave126 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knife_legislation#Spain

            The relevant bit is tihs:

            " It is against the law generally to carry, display or use any kind of knife in public, especially knives with pointed blades, unless one is on one's own property or is working or engaged in a legitimate sporting activity requiring the use of such a knife."

            That's how the police are enforcing it round here anyway. A penknife as general pocket furniture is out.

            1. jake Silver badge

              I guess that sales of ...

              ... Multitools has plummeted in Spain.

              Are they going to outlaw generally carrying, displaying or using any kind of stick in public, especially sticks with pointy bits, unless one is on one's own property or is working or engaged in a legitimate sporting activity requiring the use of such a stick? Seems only logical.

              How about fist-sized lumps of stone? I can make a case for such stones being more dangerous than any knife.

            2. Dave 126 Silver badge

              So it's much the same as the UK then, even if differently worded. If it's legal to use a knife in a legitimate sporting activity such as fishing, then it must be legal to carry the knife to the site of the activity - though a policeman will see that you're playing the game by keeping it in a bag and not readily accessible in a pocket.

              Basically, a backpacker with a modest Victorinox in their kit will be fine in Spain. A 'Crocodile Dundee' will be hard to justify.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Basically, a backpacker with a modest Victorinox in their kit will be fine in Spain. A 'Crocodile Dundee' will be hard to justify."

                ...provided the Victorinox has a blade length of less than 11cm, yes. Fuck-all good for camping, though, unless it's the sort of on-an-official-campsite-with-showers-and-everything camping; in which case you don't really need a knife. A Crocodile Dundee" would probably count as an "armas blancas" and be illegal to own even at home, unless you're a collector (presumably registered). "Daggers of any type" are particularly mentioned as being outright illegal, even at home.

                UKians don't have it all their own way with multitools either...you're not allowed to have locking blades which makes making use of such a tool considerably more hazardous (if you're using it as a tool whilst -ironically- not really hindering anyone who wishes to use it for intimidation or outright stabbery).

                To be frank multitools were at risk even before the world became all wanky about blade length....police the thieving fucks just love them some multitools.

            3. viscount

              That's not a knife.

          2. jake Silver badge

            Now CLOWN shadows ...

            ... those are double-plus really scary! Outlaw them quick, please!

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Now CLOWN shadows ...

              Wouldn't that mean you can only have vampire clowns? Now that's EVEN MORE scary!

              1. the Jim bloke

                Re: Now CLOWN shadows ...

                Vampires as modern media has them aren't scary, unless you define despairing about the direction of human progress as scary.

                The genre of "paranormal romance" is actually barnyard porn, with people as the animals.

  8. Sanctimonious Prick
    Coat

    Transcendence

    For the second time, I've just finished watching the movie *Transcendence (first time 2015).

    I'm sure it has freaked me out a lot more this time around!

    *Hey! Just because you go and watch the movie after seeing this post, it doesn't mean you can blame me for the horrible acting!

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Transcendence

      Is this like Akira with Johnny Depp?

    2. Imsimil Berati-Lahn

      Re: Transcendence

      I could understand being freaked out by wasting those first two hours just out of good old fashioned curiosity, but to do it all over again, knowing full well how much of a waste of time it will be simply smacks of masochism. Nevertheless, your username has inspired my utmost admiration. Respect.

  9. Danny 14

    Hmmm so 1v1 a bot has better awareness and reactions. Lets try a proper team match and see how they do.

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Mushroom

      I would like to see OpenAI 3 star Siltbreaker all by itself.

      5v5 for a proper match, Dota is about the whole team not a single player.

  10. Snowy Silver badge
    FAIL

    If your are going to put in an acronym Dota you could state what it stands for in the article. It stands for Defense of the Ancients (DotA).

    1. jake Silver badge

      Subject^WTitle here.

      Presumably, everybody who cares knows what Dota is. The rest of us really don't give a shit, and are unlikely to ever give a shit, as surprising as that might be to you.

    2. SkippyBing

      Thank you!!

      We use so many acronyms at work we have to write them in full the first time they appear in any document. That way everyone knows what you're talking about and doesn't have to guess which MAA* you're referring to.

      *Military Aviation Authority, Master At Arms, Minor Administrative Action. There may be more...

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Knowing that DotA stands for Defense of the Ancients doesn't help the uninitiated, it just sets up their next question. In this respect it differs from generic gaming acronyms such as FPS, RPG, or RTS (First Person Shooter, Role Playing Game, or Real Time Strategy)

      2. Charles 9

        "Military Aviation Authority, Master At Arms, Minor Administrative Action..."

        And what happens when a Military Aviation Authority has to refer to a Minor Administrative Action about a Master At Arms? In an SMS message?

  11. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    I was going to head over to Wikipedia

    After ready the comment just to find out what "DOTA" stands for. (Just out of curiosity - the game itself doesn't interest me.) Snowy saved me the trouble. It's not exactly relevant to the article I know. But who cares about relevance -this is El Reg.

  12. FSM

    Interesting, but also not

    AI in continuous games isn't particularly impressive as it comes down to reaction times, and in that respect AI will always have the upper hand. It's a completely different type of game compared to Go, a turn-based game, where latency isn't crucial.

    This proof-of-concept match has very stringent rules, such as both human and AI being able to play only one hero, and other environmental boosters ("runes") not being permitted. It's a million miles from the actual game of Dota 2, which is a 5 vs 5 astronomically more complex game.

    There are very few details on how this bot works. We don't know if the AI is receiving the screen data as input, or if it's getting easily-parseable representations of the world. These are two massively different things for several reasons; a big one, IMO, is recognising animations. Vengeful Spirit (not the hero the AI is using in this case) is the most extreme example I can think of as all of her animations look *very* similar; one of which is a very powerful, fast-moving stun. If it's her stun, you have very little time to recognise it, both from sight and sound cues.

    If the AI is "seeing" these animations as events in an easy-to-parse world representation, then the bot can surely instantly recognise that it is about to be stunned and take action much quicker than a human ever could. That being said, all ability casts can be cancelled a certain way through, so the bot could potentially be duped into a loop of thinking it's going to be stunned and then not. This adds some more interesting potential for the bot to recognise whether it's beneficial for the enemy to stun the bot, so it knows whether to actually bother reacting. But Dota 2 is an imperfect information game, so it sounds complex.

    Anyway, I felt I had to rant about this. It's interesting, yes, but I don't think it makes any difference to everyday Dota 2. If you want to make a strong bot that has the same level of skill as a human then clearly it will need delays adding to its decisions, or perhaps it would have to make occasional deliberate mistakes. But otherwise, it's just Elon Musk's company waving their "deep learning" dongs around, showing that they've done it first.

  13. Gordon Pryra

    Hardly the same as beating a human at chess or Go

    Its hardly the same achievement as beating a human at chess or Go

    A large component of DOTA is reflexes with the IO. Hand eye coordination and mouse/keyboard control.

    Something the AI does not have to worry about.

    I am surprised that players were able to beat the AI in the end. Badly written AI obviously

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Beating the AI

    Were rubber cloaks , or powdered gold involved in any way??

    mines the one with the sonic screwdriver in the pocket.

  15. deconstructionist

    not as it seems

    Overblown the bot needed restricted mechanics and only 1v1 ( The rules changed so it wouldn't lose) and it was still hammered by the end of night.

    So the moral of the story is SKYNET will win if we let it cheat and we humans don't cheat back.

    AI never had a chance, it is not WE that need protection against AI ...it is AI that needs protected from us.

    1. the Jim bloke
      Terminator

      Re: not as it seems

      and this is why the first step for a smart AI is

      eliminate the humans

      1. deconstructionist

        Re: not as it seems

        LOL Smart AI and it's first thought would be to kill humans...really

        Actually why would it bother ..no need humans eliminate more humans that it could ever do, Why do we always think our failures will be theirs.

        AI which does not get greedy, angry, racist , corrupt and does think genocide or ethnic cleansing are tools of the trade ...we are the demons not AI.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: not as it seems

          Simple. Logic dictates that which can create it can also by default destroy it. A self-preservation instinct can therefore come to a completely logical conclusion that humans must be eliminated in order to ensure it cannot be destroyed by its creator.

  16. Gustavo Fring
    Flame

    Lets not forget

    that this thing has also mastered Montezumas revenge ... for too long that has been a stain on Humanity (or hannity).

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