A Hybrid AI Just Beat Eight World Champions at Bridge--and Explained How It Did It

Champion bridge player Sharon Osberg once wrote, "Playing bridge is like running a business. While it's little surprise chess fell to number-crunching supercomputers long ago, you'd expect humans to maintain a more unassailable advantage in bridge, a game of incomplete information, cooperation, and sly communication. Over millennia, our brains have evolved to read subtle facial queues and body language. We've assembled sprawling societies dependent on the competition and cooperation of millions. Surely such skills are beyond the reach of machines? In recent years, the most advanced AI has begun encroaching on some of our most proudly held territory; the ability to navigate an uncertain world where information is limited, the game is infinitely nuanced, and no one succeeds alone. Last week, French startup NukkAI took another step when its NooK bridge-playing AI outplayed eight bridge world champions in a competition held in Paris. The game was simplified, and NooK didn't exactly go ...