In the ieee Spectrum, there is a story about a team of computer scientists whose program can beat 99 percent of all human fantasy football players. In case you're unfamiliar, fantasy football players create teams from all players in a sport, and when the actual player makes a play the fantasy player is awarded points for the team.
That still leaves the 2500 players the system *can't* beat, and these people must be serious fantasy football players. Now, whether or not this is an AI or an expert system would depend on how it was programmed, how its rules are implemented, and how it makes its choices, it could even be a combination of principles from both.
It's when any of the following start to think for themselves that we're in trouble:
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| This is just a picture, but the terror is very real. |
Too bad it's only for soccer. I could really use the advise of this machine when fantasy football season comes next month. My first thought was that humans usually have inside information regarding injuries but i was surprised to see that they account for that sort of information as well.
ReplyDeleteThe first year I played fantasy (American) football, I accidently forgot the draft night and let the computer pick my fantasy football team. It picked players that I would have never picked like Cam Newton, LeSean McCoy, and Mike Wallace. It ended up being a great season for me and I ended up being 13 and 1 and was got first place in my league. Having the computer draft my players was actually quite helpful. I have not done this the last couple years because to me it kind of felt like I was cheating and wanted to do what I thought was best. I ended up getting second and third place the last couple years and I am thinking about letting the computer chose my players again.
ReplyDeleteI would say robots would do a better job playing fantasy football. They are obviously better programmed with all the necessary stats that make them effective players. This question is almost similar to asking if you would get random picks for the lotto. I prefer that route because I alleviate myself from the pressure of having to pick. the.....numbers.
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