Open AI has created a bot that is taking down top Dota 2 players at The International Dota event held by Valve.
This year’s big Dota 2 tournament is currently in its second to last day with only four teams remaining in the competition. Between the event’s official games, Valve always includes some fun show matches, and this year it brought in Open AI‘s aforementioned Dota 2 b to face off against the game’s most famous player, Danil “Dendi” Ishutin, live on the main stage.
Open AI said the 1v1 bot has learned from playing against itself in a lifetimes worth of matches. In a promo video shown before the match, we see the bot besting some of the game’s top players, including Evil Genius’ cores Arteezy and Sumail.
In the live Shadow Fiend mirror match against Dendi, the bot executed an impossibly perfect creep block, perfectly balanced creep aggro, and even recognized and canceled Dendi’s healing items. The bot quickly bested Dendi in two matches, leading Dendi to say it’s “too strong!” Footage of those matches can be found on Dota 2 Rapier’s YouTube channel.
Open AI says their next goal is to get the bot ready for the infinitely more complex 5v5 matches, noting it might have something ready for next year.
