Hey there, fellow gamers! Have you heard about AlphaGo and AlphaStar? These are two AI systems that have made remarkable progress in competitive gaming. As an avid gamer myself, I find it fascinating how these AI systems have improved their gameplay over time.

Let’s start with AlphaGo. This AI system was developed by Google’s DeepMind to play the ancient Chinese board game, Go. In 2016, AlphaGo made headlines when it beat the world champion, Lee Sedol, in a five-game match. This was a significant achievement since Go is a complex game with more possible moves than there are atoms in the universe.

What was even more impressive was that AlphaGo was not programmed with any specific strategies or tactics. Instead, it used a machine learning technique called deep neural networks to analyze millions of Go games and learn from them. AlphaGo’s victory over Lee Sedol showed that AI systems could compete and beat humans in complex games.

Fast forward to 2019, and we have AlphaStar, an AI system developed by DeepMind to play the popular video game, StarCraft II. StarCraft II is a real-time strategy game that requires players to manage resources, build armies, and make tactical decisions on the fly.

AlphaStar’s development was a significant challenge since the game had several complexities that previous AI systems struggled to handle. However, the DeepMind team used a combination of supervised and reinforcement learning to train AlphaStar. They also limited AlphaStar’s actions per minute (APM) to match the speed of a human player.

In January 2019, AlphaStar played a series of matches against professional StarCraft II players. The AI system won five out of the six games, including a victory against one of the world’s best players, Grzegorz “MaNa” Komincz. AlphaStar’s victories demonstrated that AI systems could compete and beat human players in real-time strategy games.

The progression from AlphaGo to AlphaStar shows how far AI has come in competitive gaming. AI systems are no longer limited to simple games like chess or checkers. They can now compete and beat humans in complex games like Go and StarCraft II. This progression also shows how AI systems can learn from experience and improve over time.

As a gamer, I’m excited to see what the future holds for AI in competitive gaming. Will we see an AI system beat the world champion in a game like chess or Go? Will we see AI systems compete in team-based games like League of Legends or Overwatch? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure – AI systems are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of competitive gaming.