A new Artificial Intelligence program has been beating some of the top poker professionals. And beating them badly.

Computer programs have been able to beat human experts playing games like backgammon, checkers, and even chess, but all information in these games is obvious and available.

Not so in poker.  It’s a card game that involves purposeful deception as well as incomplete information, and those are characteristics that computers have had trouble with.

The journal Science says the development and testing of a new Artificial Intelligence – or AI — program is underway, and that it’s been winning in games against some of the top poker players.

Scientists involved in the research say it goes beyond just winning poker hands.  They see it tackling “information asymmetry” in many real world problems.