Two new AI systems beat humans at complex games of Stratego and Diplomacy

Two new papers from AI powerhouses DeepMind and Meta describe how AI systems are notching wins against human players in complex games involving deception, negotiation and cooperation. Why it matters: Machine contenders have struggled with games where information is incomplete or hidden from players -- similar to the intentions of humans in daily life and interactions. Driving the news: Researchers from DeepMind outline a new autonomous agent called "DeepNash" that learned to play the game Stratego in a paper published today in Science. How they did it: The DeepMind team combined an algorithm for learning the game through self-play and another that steers that learning toward an optimal strategy. Meta researchers last week described an AI system called "Cicero" that they report can play the game Diplomacy at the level of humans.