SHANGHAI, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can match the skills of some of the world's top mahjong players, the U.S. tech firm announced Thursday.

The mahjong AI system Super Phoenix, or Suphx, was developed by Microsoft Research (MSR) Asia, it was announced at the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) being held in east China's Shanghai.

Suphx is designed to self-learn mahjong strategies, tactics and subtleties by playing on Tenhou, a Japan-based online mahjong competition platform with more than 300,000 members, according to Microsoft.

After 5,000 games in four months, Suphx became the first AI system to compete at Tenhou's "10th dan" ranking in June, a feat achieved by only 180 people. There are only a dozen human players in the "10th dan" ranking on Tenhou.

"Mahjong is more complex than other board games, so playing mahjong is an art as well as a science. Good mahjong players rely on a combination of observation, intuition, strategy, calculation and chance that presents unique challenges for an AI system," says Hsiao-Wuen Hon, corporate vice president of Microsoft Asia Pacific R&D Group and MSR Asia.

Hon said as the decision making in playing mahjong is more similar to what people face in real life, and mahjong AI research can push the boundaries of AI technologies to solve complex real-life problems.

Harry Shum, executive vice president of Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence and Research Group, said Suphx can effectively deal with the high degree of uncertainty in mahjong, showing human-like intuition, prediction, reasoning, vague decision-making ability and the awareness of the overall situation in the game.

The 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai brought together more than 300 domestic and overseas enterprises, an increase of 50 percent over the previous year. More than 70 AI and 5G projects will be signed at the conference, including Huawei's 5G innovation center and IBM Watson Build artificial intelligence innovation center.

At the conference, Microsoft also announced it would establish the Microsoft AI Business School together with Tsinghua University, the China Europe International Business School and the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Enditem

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