How Smart Are the Robots Getting? - The New York Times

Franz Broseph seemed like any other Diplomacy player to Claes de Graaff. The handle was a joke -- the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I reborn as an online bro -- but that was the kind of humor that people who play Diplomacy tend to enjoy. The game is a classic, beloved by the likes of John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger, combining military strategy with political intrigue as it recreates the First World War: Players negotiate with allies, enemies and everyone in between as they plan how their armies will move across 20th-century Europe. When Franz Broseph joined a 20-player online tournament at the end of August, he wooed other players, lying to them and ultimately betraying them. He finished in first place.