Elon Musk’s AI program dominated professional Dota 2 players in an exhibition match streamed on Twitch.
The AI bot, named OpenAI, has been developed specifically for Dota 2 since last year’s The International 7. In the match, OpenAI went up against a team of five highly-skilled human players including Ioannis “Fogged” Loucas, William “Blitz” Lee, Ben “Merlini” Wu, David “MoonMeander” Tan, and Austin “Capitalist” Walsh.
The human team consisted solely of players within the top 1% of skill level, with many having previous experience as pro players. MoonMeander, in particular, is a two-time Valve Major winner and a veteran of The International. The three-game match ended with OpenAI securing the first two victories in less than an hour of game time.
Prior to the match, OpenAI was programmed with several restrictions. It had the ability to choose only 18 out of the 115 available heroes, while the human team had complete freedom in hero selection. OpenAI was also limited in its ability to make certain in-game purchases and use certain game mechanics. Despite these handicaps, OpenAI demonstrated exceptional coordination and strategy throughout the first two games.
OpenAI has accumulated over 10,000 hours of Dota 2 playtime, allowing it to formulate advanced strategies that professional teams utilize. This is in contrast to Valve’s basic training bots, which are typically no match for human players.
In the future, OpenAI is scheduled to compete against an active professional team at The International 8, which starts on August 15th. The exact date of the showmatch has not been announced.