WATCH: How a Poker-Playing AI Could Change the World (Really)
Liv Boeree is one of the most prominent figures in poker, known as a PokerStars Pro and EPT and WSOP champion with more than $2 million in lifetime tournament winnings … and counting.
She is also a model and guitarist, and and has a degree in astrophysics from the University of Manchester. Seriously, she can do it all.
That’s why Great Big Story released a video earlier this week featuring Boeree to talk about how a supercomputer-driven AI can solve some of humanity’s biggest problems.
How Does It Work?
If you recall, Libratus is the Artificial Intelligence that surprised the poker world by besting some of the best online players in Texas hold 'em.
This supercomputer-driven AI system is based in intricate mathematical algorithms which can be applied to poker. And that is basically the main reason Boeree considers poker such a stunning and unique game, because in her words, “that’s what I love about the game, being as methodical as you can but also adding this sort of intuitive flair of how to read humans as well”.
From then until now, Libratus, the AI created by Dr. Tuomas Sandholm, a professor in computer science at Carnegie Mellon, has evolved, and nowadays is able to answer some of the most complex questions about the nature of the universe. It is now capable of much more than mastering a mathematically-complex card game.
It has been discovered that the algorithms of Libratus could potentially be applied to improve precision in medicine, global hunger, environmental damage, and perhaps help in answering some of the other most enduring and complex questions about the nature of the universe.
The possibilities are truly endless, as Boeree’s stated: “Like you can apply science to poker, you can apply science to fixing the world’s problems”.
Of course, what Liv Boeree is most excited is about “the application of supercomputing in AI to solve questions about the nature of the universe itself."
