Has AI passed a new milestone? It's beaten human players at poker, say researchers ZDNet

Beating expert poker players differs from past AI successes against human competitors in games such as Jeopardy and Go. Researchers behind a poker-playing AI system called DeepStack say it's the first algorithm to have ever beaten poker pros in heads-up no-limit Texas hold'em. The claim, if verified, would mark a major milestone in the development of artificial-intelligence systems. Beating expert poker players differs from past AI successes against human competitors in games such as Jeopardy and Go because each player's hand provides only an incomplete picture about the state of play and requires a program to navigate tactics, such as bluffing, based on asymmetrical information. DeepStack is the work of a collaboration between researchers at the University of Alberta and two Czech universities, who say in a new non-peer reviewed paper that it's the "first computer program to beat professional poker players in heads-up no-limit Texas hold'em".