Victory marks milestone for AI as bridge requires more human skills than other strategy games
An artificial intelligence has beaten eight world champions at bridge, a game in which human supremacy has resisted the march of the machines until now.
The victory represents a new milestone for AI because in bridge players work with incomplete information and must react to the behaviour of several other players – a scenario far closer to human decision-making.
1996: IBM’s Deep Blue chess machine wins a game against world chess champion Garry Kasparov but loses the match 2-4. A year later, Kasparov loses the rematch.
2007: Checkers is solved by researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada. After sifting through 500bn positions, they build a checkers-playing computer programme that can’t be beaten.
2011: IBM’s Watson computer defeats TV gameshow Jeopardy! champions Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, claiming the $1m first prize.
2016: Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo defeats Korean Go champion Lee Sedol 4-1. The Korea Baduk Association awards AlphaGo the highest Go grandmaster rank, an honorary 9 dan.
2022: NukkAI’s bridge-playing computer NooK defeats eight world bridge champions in Paris.
