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Online poker fanatics are nervous about the advent of “poker robots” which, they believe, are destined to destroy online poker as we know it. Fortunately, this does not seem to actually be true.

According to Dr. Darse Billings, Chief Architect of the Polaris poker robot research team at the University of Alberta, poker bots are really no threat at all. His statement comes after a recent competition where Billings’ Polaris II poker bot successfully beat some of the top poker pros at Sloxpoker.com in heads up matches. Following Polaris II’s victory, many in the poker industry have speculated that similar bots will compromise the integrity of the game, such as by having bots enter online poker games posing as real people.

In turn, Billings defended his creation as a product of purely scientific research that would never be employed in actual games. He also pointed to the iron-clad poker bot identification software that top sites like Full Tilt and Poker Stars use, calling it “a ridiculous conclusion” that his or other bots would be able to sneak by. As further evidence, Billings mentioned the easy of detecting bots in online chess games, claiming that it would be similarly obvious to experienced poker players if they truly were competing with a bot.

Still, critics allege that that might change someday. As it is, the Polars is a rather sophisticated, artificial intelligence-enabled bot equipped with adaptive components and the ability to select strategies based on computer modeling of its opponent’s game play. If these capabilities are already available - and beating top pros - could they some day do it without being detected?

Only time will tell. Fortunately, it does not seem like that day will come anytime soon, as the Polaris took over 16 years of research and testing before reaching this point. If nothing else, there will be more demand in the poker bot identification market!