What just happened? OpenAI bots thoroughly defeat a team of Dota 2 veterans in a best-of-three series. This is yet another instance of bots using machine learning to drastically increase skills to defeat human opponents. Be very afraid.
Another day, another article about advanced AI beating a human professional in a game. This time, a team of OpenAI bots took on a team of former Dota 2 professionals in an exhibition match in what should've been pretty competitive...it wasn't.
This past weekend, the "OpenAI Five" competed against four pro Dota 2 players and one commentator in a best-of-three series. The OpenAI Five won the first two matches pretty convincingly. In fact, the humans were unable to destroy any of the OpenAI towers in the first match. The Dota 2 pros were able to save face a little by winning the third round. Some of the constraints of the competition included limiting the pool of Dota heroes to just 18 instead of the entire 100-plus heroes and the reaction time of the OpenAI Five was increased from 80ms to 200ms to give the poor humans a fighting chance.
Never felt more useless in my life but we're having fun at least so I think we're winning in spirit.
--- Cap (@DotACapitalist) August 5, 2018
Sure aren't winning in-game
The human team consisted of former pros Ben "Merlini" Wu, William "Blitz" Lee, and Ioannis "Fogged" Lucas. Current pro David "MoonMeander" Tan and commentator Austin "Capitalist" Walsh rounded out the rest of the team.
The bots are a product of OpenAI, a research non-profit co-founded by Elon Musk. The organization started teaching the bot to play Dota 2 last year using machine learning. The bots were trained by completing matches against itself with a rate of an astounding 180 years of playing per day. Eventually, the OpenAI bot was able to defeat pro gamers during one-on-one combat including well-known pro Danil "Dendi" Ishutin at The International 2017.
The OpenAI Five seem to have made insane progress this year. The bots were losing to amateurs in May of this year. In June they were able to beat more competent players. The ultimate challenge will be at 2018 The International later this month where the OpenAI Five will take on the best of the best in a side event. In the meantime, watch our future overlords destroy the competition below.