---
title: "Google Teaches AI to Play Stratego and It Becomes One of the World’s Top-Rated Players"
description: "DeepMind's latest artificial intelligence called DeepNash has beaten a human player at a game of Stratego, a strategic war game."
date: "2022-12-04"
modified: "2022-12-04"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-teaches-ai-play-stratego-top-rated-players"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Google"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "DeepMind"
  - "the digest"
---

# Google Teaches AI to Play Stratego and It Becomes One of the World’s Top-Rated Players

![DeepMind's latest artificial intelligence called DeepNash has beaten a human player at a game of Stratego, a strategic war game.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/google-teaches-ai-play-stratego-top-rated-players.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: DeepMind\</em\>*

## Stratego AI

DeepMind's latest artificial intelligence, DeepNash, has learned how to beat almost all human players at Stratego, a war game that involves two players attempting to capture the enemy's flag.

It's yet another fascinating — and impressive — instance of AI learning how to play a game and sharpening its skills enough to become of the top-rated players in the world.

https://twitter.com/DeepMind/status/1598392039992958982

## Imperfect Information

Stratego requires players to figure out the identity of each other's 40 game pieces, which are hidden from sight. That makes it considerably different from other board games like Go and chess, which previous DeepMind AIs have [learned to master](<https://futurism.com/deepmind-never-found-the-limit-of-alphago-zeros-intelligence>) as well.

Stratego is a "game of imperfect information," as DeepMind explains on [its website](<https://www.deepmind.com/blog/mastering-stratego-the-classic-game-of-imperfect-information>), which means each player needs to "balance all possible outcomes when making a decision."

That makes it more complex than other games, the researchers say, including chess, poker, and Go. In numbers, Go has ten to the power of 360 possible game states — far more than both poker or chess — while Stratego has ten to the power of 535.

According to DeepMind, DeepNash has become so good at Stratego that it's "reached an all-time top-three ranking among human experts on the world’s biggest online Stratego platform, Gravon."

## Bluff Champion

The AI developed an "unpredictable strategy" to make sure its human opponent was kept guessing, which involved making decoy deployments to shake them off its path. It even learned how to bluff its opponent by playing low-ranking pieces as if they were worth far more.

"The level of play of DeepNash surprised me," said Vincent de Boer, coauthor of a [new paper](<https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add4679>) about the AI published in the journal *Science*, who also is a former Stratego World Champion, in [a statement](<https://www.deepmind.com/blog/mastering-stratego-the-classic-game-of-imperfect-information>). "I had never heard of an artificial Stratego player that came close to the level needed to win a match against an experienced human player."

**READ MORE:** [Mastering Stratego, the classic game of imperfect information](<https://www.deepmind.com/blog/mastering-stratego-the-classic-game-of-imperfect-information>) \[*DeepMind*\]

**More on DeepMind:** *[Google Scientists Create AI That Can Generate Videos From One Frame](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-deepmind-video-single-frame>)*

## 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>)