Poker as a group project for artificial intelligence

Abstract

Assigning the development of a poker-playing agent as a group project allows flexibility with respect to the topics and techniques typically covered in an introductory Artificial Intelligence course. A poker agent project also provides students the experience of 'authentic' AI research, due to the status of poker as an 'unsolved' problem in AI. Despite this status, a poker agent project is feasible for a semester, half-semester, or quarter-long group project. Problems in assigning group projects are also considered, as are suggestions for mitigating these problems.