---
title: "Facebook’s “Superhuman” Poker AI Out-Bluffs World’s Top Players"
description: "An AI called Pluribus, created by the AI lab at Facebook and Carnegie Mellon University, just beat a team of the world's best human poker players."
date: "2019-07-12"
modified: "2019-07-12"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-pluribus-poker-ai-bluff"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "ai"
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "facebook"
  - "poker"
  - "the digest"
---

# Facebook’s “Superhuman” Poker AI Out-Bluffs World’s Top Players

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

## Pokerface AI

An artificial intelligence called Pluribus, created by Facebook's AI lab and researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, [just beat](<https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/cmu-cma070819.php>) a team of 12 of the world's best human online poker players.

The AI won an average of [five bucks](<https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/11/20690078/ai-poker-pluribus-facebook-cmu-texas-hold-em-six-player-no-limit>) per hand, cashing in roughly a grand every hour.

"It’s safe to say we’re at a superhuman level and that’s not going to change," Noam Brown, a research scientist at Facebook AI Research and co-author of [the paper](<https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/07/10/science.aay2400>) that was published in the journal *Science* today, [told *The Verge*](<https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/11/20690078/ai-poker-pluribus-facebook-cmu-texas-hold-em-six-player-no-limit>).

https://youtu.be/BDF528wSKl8

## World-Class Bluffer

To get to that extraordinary level of complexity and competency, Pluribus first learned how to play against — and beat — versions of itself. Rather than getting caught up trying to predict its opponent's moves all the way to the end, the AI focused on only two or three upcoming moves.

"The AI doesn’t see bluffing as deceptive. It just sees the decision that will make it the most money in that particular situation," Brown told *The Verge*. "What we show is that an AI can bluff, and it can bluff better than any human."

**READ MORE:** [Facebook and CMU’s ‘superhuman’ poker AI beats human pros](<https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/11/20690078/ai-poker-pluribus-facebook-cmu-texas-hold-em-six-player-no-limit>) \[*The Verge*\]

**More on game AIs:** *[Hellishly Hard New Game Is Specifically Designed to Confound AI](<https://futurism.com/unity-video-game-ai>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)