Since ‘proper’ (yes, we know it is not proper) AI appeared at the tail-end of 2020, entire industries have been completely ravished, with many companies seeking to replace some of their workers with a cheaper AI alternative. There’s no debate about that. What there is a debate about, however, is the extent to which AI can take over the world of poker. Is AI even in a position to gain a stranglehold on the poker business? There are two ways of looking at this.
Argument 1: AI is Primed to Take Over the World of Poker
A survey found that over 70% of poker players believe that AI will eventually take over poker. They believe that AI will get so good at poker that it will be nigh on impossible for a human player to beat it. 22% of people on that survey stated that AI is the reason they win when they play poker online (although, we can’t imagine they were winning every single time).
What we can tell you is that AI is pretty smart and exceedingly fast. Give it a list of the cards in your hand, and the known cards elsewhere on the table, and AI can give you advice on how to play. It can give advice that the average player wouldn’t ever be able to think of. Because of this, many people are not using AI explicitly to win, but as a way to refine their poker player strategies.
Many people have stated that the use of AI to put together playing strategies has helped them become better players. It is in this area that we believe AI really can thrive on the poker scene. AI has the potential to be a better teacher than any professional poker player could hope to be. So, we are all for using AI in this circumstance. However, we think this is about as far as current tech AI can go. More on that soon, though.
We do want to point out that AI has proven its worth on the poker scene many times over. There have been competitions where AI has been a top 6 player at the table but, in its current state, it doesn’t really seem as if it has a chance of overcoming some of the best players in the world. However, we cannot stress enough that this is AI in its current state, which leads us neatly to the next section.
Argument 2: AI Isn’t Ready for the Poker Scene
Poker isn’t like a sport or any other game of chance. While you can always broadly predict what hand another player may have from a statistical standpoint, there are other factors at play. Poker isn’t just a game of chance, it is a game of bluffing. Not only do you need to accurately predict what hand an opposing player may have based upon the information you have available to you (which AI can do), but you also need to read the emotions of the other player to know whether they are telling the truth. This is where AI may end up struggling, at least for the foreseeable future.
However, there is every indication that AI may, eventually, be able to read the emotions of people. ChatGPT has already demonstrated this by having a small grasp of the nuances of a person’s voice to read how they may be feeling (although, it isn’t always accurate).
This means that AI may really struggle in a real-world game of poker, i.e. with everybody sitting around a table. This is because it cannot possibly read the emotions of people to know what they are thinking, and it could end up being rather easy to fool the AI because of this.
That being said, it may work a little bit better in an online poker setting where there are no emotions to be read. You’re just interacting with a player digitally. In theory, AI could read how the opposing player is playing and get an idea as to their ‘emotion’. However, we doubt this is happening on a large scale at the moment and, honestly, as soon as it does, we think the vast majority of online poker rooms will completely ban the use of AI (as far as we know, no major online poker room currently bans the use of AI as it isn’t a real threat).
So, for now, most people are arguing that AI may be good at the statistical analysis of poker, but it can’t possibly be a good poker player as it cannot do the whole emotional thing, and it probably won’t be able to for quite some time.
Our Thoughts
AI does have a role in the poker scene right now. It is helping players become better. It is certainly primed to do that. However, beyond this, we don’t think AI is currently set to take over the world of poker. It won’t be for some time yet. Other games of chance? Yes. Poker, where you need emotional intelligence? Not quite.
Article by Nathan Saunders