The International 7 was the first time OpenAI was showcased playing a game as complex as Dota 2 with its variable factors, no set rules and the necessity to make real-time decisions. These decisions can have innumerable outcomes depending on various nuanced factors such as creep equilibrium and damage dealing capability amongst thousands of other combinatorics.
When OpenAI was able to not only play a 1v1 matchup in Dota 2 but do so at a level where none of the pro players could defeat the bot, it was quite jaw-dropping. Many speculated that OpenAI was the future of Dota 2, but some in the community were quite cynical and commented on how Dota 2 in its essence is a 5v5 game which is infinitely more complex and that a bot winning in a 1v1 competition does not truly exemplify how intelligent the OpenAI actually is.
But it looks like we might have a chance to take a look at how far OpenAI has advanced since that 1v1 competition soon. OpenAI has hinted upon a 5v5 – Player vs AI contest during this year’s international. The match, if it happens, will be a monumental one in the history of the development of Artificial Intelligence.
Of course, we are all basing this on a cryptic tweet by the Co-Chairman of OpenAI, Sam Altman.
When people at OpenAI say “we’re playing well” they mean the human team, except the Dota programmers who mean the AI team... pic.twitter.com/ox1bkDpf5H
— Sam Altman (@sama) April 9, 2018
It could turn out to be nothing, but that doesn’t mean we are any less excited about what OpenAI is bringing to the table at The International 8. There we will find out whether us humans still have a while before we have much to worry about.