The year 2010 seems a long time ago now, but it was then that Claude Sammut, a computer science and engineering professor in Australia, made the bold claim that 2050 would be the year that robot footballers would supercede the abilities of mere humans. It's safe to say that, since then, the fears over job automation that keep supermarket checkout workers lying awake at night have not done the same for Lionel Messi. Or, for that matter, Steve Sidwell. Aside from the slightly wacky nature of the claim, there's another problem – who would pay to watch robot footballers? It would be quite easy to develop a robot that could beat the world's best at snooker or darts, but who would be watching?There is one sport, however, where that doesn't matter, because it would be difficult to detect whether the player was a human or a robot at all. It is a mind sport where the level of money involved is vast, and only peripherally linked to the amount of people watching. It is, of course, poker, and the start of the year saw one of the most significant developments in the game and artificial intelligence.Everybody's heard of Deep Blue beating Garry Kasparov, but chess is a game of complete knowledge, where everything is known and there are clear mathematical lines to follow. Poker is the complete opposite – a game of limited knowledge, bluffs, pattern recognition and psychology, where the mathematics and logic involved are there to be wilfully manipulated. It should have been considered a far more earth-shattering moment, then, when a poker AI, Libratus, soundly and comprehensively defeated a selection of the world's best players in a lengthy series of heads-up, one-on-one games.Read more on VICE Sports.
Advertisement