AI beat 8 world champions at the same time

An artificial intelligence program wins over world champions in bridge game that requires many skills only found in humans.

French startup NukkAI announced the victory of its artificial intelligence (AI) program on March 25, at the end of a two-day tournament. The NukkAI challenge requires world champions to play 800 consecutive games divided into 80 turns, 10 games each.

Nook knows his opponents well and can explain game decisions.

Each champion and their partner must play against a group of 2 other opponents. These opponents are the best world champion robots ever. They have defeated many rival robots but cannot play as well as humans. NukkAI's AI software called NooK also plays the same player with the same deck and the same opponent. NooK won 67/80 turns (83%).

Jean-Baptiste Fantun, co-founder of NukkAI, said the company has been developing the software for five years. AI researcher Véronique Ventos, the company's remaining founder, calls NooK the new generation of AI because it explains each decision during gameplay. "In bridge, you can't play without explanation. The game relies on communication between the participants," Ventos said.

The win marks a new milestone for AI as bridge players have to process incomplete information and react to the behavior of other players, a situation very similar to human decision-making. . Instead of learning how to play through billions of rounds, NooK first learns the rules of the game, then improves the gameplay through practice.

Nevena Senior, the British multi-time bridge world champion, finds that Nook understands his opponents better than humans and can make better use of their mistakes. "This is something humans can only do with enough experience and I was surprised to see such a robot mimicking a common human skill," said Senior.