The age of AI is almost upon us. Soon it will drive your cars, manage your investment portfolio, and maybe even create the magic pill that will cure cancer.
There are plenty of ways for Artificial Intelligence to impact our daily lives in the future. But for now, it is being used to beat humans in their own game. I'm not talking ominously yet, I'm talking about that AI created by Elon Musk's team, which beat Dendi, a professional Dota 2 player.
Some Context
I believe I don't need to give an introduction for Elon Musk. Most, if not all of you should have heard about him by now. He is the Nikola Tesla of our time, and I'm just glad we have someone like him in my lifetime.
DOTA 2 is a competitive video game (a.k.a. electronic sports game), where 10 people split to 2 teams aim to destroy each other's base. This game is currently THE biggest e-sports game to date. Their largest yearly tournament, known as "The International", has an annually growing prize pool.
This year, it went up to $24.58M dollars, with over $10M of it going to the overall champions alone. I believe DOTA 2 has been shown on National TV before, but it will surely gain more popularity if it gets accepted as a medal sport for the 2024 Olympics.
Read: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/aug/09/esports-2024-olympics-medal-event-paris-bid-committee
Pic from s.stefantsov.com
Danil "Dendi" Ishutin can be called the poster boy of the game. He started rising into pro player popularity in the original DOTA back in 2006. He started playing DOTA 2 in 2011, and has since garnered international fame after bringing his team to the top of the Champion's stage of many tournaments.
Always a crowd favorite, this man has the charms and the skills to rightfully be the most-known face in the sport.
And Now, Some 2-Weeks Old Robot Defeated Him 1-v-1
DOTA 2 is known for its very steep learning curve, taking months to actually become a decent player. This is due to the large number of "heroes" (characters that you control throughout a game) to use, items to build for each hero, familiarity with the map, and the countless strategies that are and will be.
The game actually already has its own bots, which players can use for practice when they're not playing with actual people. But these AI are just there for sparring. A decent player can defeat a bot in the hardest difficulty setting with relative ease.
But not Elon Musk's OpenAI Robot.
Pic from madkudu
In this year's The International 7, there was a segment where they pitted Dendi and OpenAI against each other. Of course, the crowd was cheering for someone with the same race (the living, breathing, human Dendi, of course). But they can't help but gasp in astonishment as the AI harasses their favorite.
Early on, the AI has been overpowering Dendi, causing the latter to fall behind in terms of XP and Gold (in-game currency). Not long after the game starts, a "kill" has been witnessed.
It Wasn't Dendi Who Made the Kill
Despite being one of the most highly-skilled players on the whole world, he was not able to hold his own against an AI that has apparently been trained for just 2 weeks.
And even with the rematch, the bot was still able to dominate his human opponent. That is amazing and scary at the same time.
When asked if it felt like he was playing against another human, Dendi gave a straight "no", meaning either
- He has noticed that the bot he was playing against was too "robotic" and you can tell when it is performing its calculations, or
- The bot is too "perfect" and you can tell that the one he is playing against is devoid of any human error.
Whichever it is among the two, I think it is safe to say that we have to be more gentle with our computers, and we need to start the habit today in case AI becomes our overlords in the future.
Fellow Dota 2 player? What do you think of this new AI? Do you think that artificial intelligence is a threat to people? Let's talk in the comments. Upvote if you liked the story!