Polaris a poker playing computer program developed at the University of Alberta, was close but not as successful as its checkers playing colleague Chinook. Two world class poker players won 2 of the 4 matches, with Polaris taking the third and the forth declared a draw in a contest of man vs. machine. The contest held in front of the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, was anxiously observed by 1000 attendees. Jonathan Schaeffer from the University of Alberta is one of the brains behind Polaris, he also headed the Chinook project that officially conquered checkers last week. CBC story here.
