'Dota 2' pro destroyed by AI player from an Elon Musk start-up
Elon Musk, noted artificial intelligence worrywart, backs the tech firm behind a robot brain that was smart enough to take down a Dota 2 pro this week.
The showdown took the form of an exhibition match staged on Friday at The International 2017, an annual esports tournament. OpenAI's Dota 2 bot faced off in a series of 1v1 matches against Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, a member of the top-tier team Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) since 2015.
It wasn't even close.
The AI raced its way to two dominant victories before the exhibition ended. It was supposed to be a best-of-five series, but Dendi didn't wait that long to admit defeat.
"I'm giving up," he said with a faint smile before the final moments of the second match had fully played out. "I don't think I'm getting it back. It's over."
Dendi later admitted that while the AI competitor felt distinctly human in the way it played, "at the same time, it's something else."
Chilling.
It's important to note that 1v1 matches operate a little differently than the team-based fights in which Dendi normally participates. Though there's a flip-side to that: OpenAI's bot picked up enough knowledge about Dota 2 to best the game's built-in AI after one hour.
Its debut at The International 2017? That came after two weeks of non-stop training. Compare that to Dendi's years of experience against a variety of players and skill levels in live competitions.
OpenAI robo-brain clearly came out of the exhibition looking like the stronger player, but the tech company isn't quite finished. An accompanying video notes that the bot is still a work-in-progress. The goal is to eventually assemble a full team of AI bots for 5v5 matches and, further down the road, to mix AI players in with human players on a single team.
As you weigh all of this, remember again: Elon Musk, AI fearmonger extraordinaire, is an OpenAI founder.
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Teaching a robot brain to play battle-oriented strategy games... what could go wrong?
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Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
