{
  "id": 10969842,
  "title": "This game-playing AI is the new champ at Stratego",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/this-game-playing-ai-is-the-new-champ-at-stratego-10969842",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-30T15:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MIT News AI",
    "slug": "mit-news-ai",
    "url": "https://news.mit.edu/2026/game-playing-ai-stratego-new-champ-0930"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new artificial intelligence system, developed by researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, and Stanford University, has proven to be the top competitor at the board game Stratego, a game of imperfect information. This AI system, named Ataraxos, outperformed top human players and achieved a dominant 15-1-4 record against the world's best Stratego player. Stratego, which involves two players and a large number of possible piece configurations, is often used to test the strategic thinking abilities of AI models. The researchers employed self-play reinforcement learning and efficient algorithms to create Ataraxos, enabling the AI to learn a strong blueprint strategy and refine its moves during gameplay using decision-time planning. This innovative approach allows Ataraxos to efficiently navigate the complexity of Stratego's hidden information, making it a valuable tool for tackling real-world problems with similar challenges.",
  "summary": "Able to defeat top-ranked human players and more efficient than other models, the new system could help decision-makers in military maneuvers or business negotiations.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "MIT News Research",
        "title": "This game-playing AI is the new champ at Stratego",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/this-game-playing-ai-is-the-new-champ-at-stratego",
        "published": "2026-09-30T15:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}