At Dota 2’s The International event in Vancouver this week, teams of (human) pro gamers are taking on a band of bots in a best-of-three contest. On Wednesday night, the humans emerged victorious in the initial battle, although the lead switched hands several times during the game.
The AI bots were built by OpenAI, a non-profit company researching artificial intelligence that has been set up and sponsored by organizations such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, and individuals such as SpaceX founder Elon Musk and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. OpenAI’s mission aims for it to act “in the best interests of humanity throughout its development,” but it is fighting against humans in Dota 2 as a way to “capture the messiness and continuous nature of the real world.