Simply put, “artificial intelligence” has become so commonplace
in our everyday lingo, perhaps even more so than “cryptocurrency,” that you’d
have to be living in a soundproof enclosure not to have heard it.
But what exactly is artificial intelligence and should it
really be called artificial intelligence? Even though I have little knowledge
beyond the basics, I am not so sure.
Artificial intelligence is most commonly described as: intelligence demonstrated by machines, as
opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by humans or animals. That
point is easy enough to understand. But the further you delve into it, the more
confusing it gets, as shown by this sentence: Artificial intelligence can be defined as the study of intelligent
agents: any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize
its chance of achieving its goals. And finally, a third definition of AI is:
a machine or series of machines that
mimic cognitive functions that humans associate with the human mind, such as
learning and problem solving.
Okay, hold on a second! For those of you getting impatient
with me and wondering what all this intellectual crap has to do with AI in
casinos, I will get there. Just please hear me out on this first!
In the above descriptions of what AI is and actually does,
there are two words in those paragraphs that grab my attention. One is “humans”
and the other is “machines,” and there’s nothing really artificial about
either. And the reality is that humans create all machines, whether or not
they’re “artificial,” if that makes any sense. That said, my biggest problem
with the name AI is that if human intelligence is what creates artificial
intelligence, then how can that created intelligence be artificial? Simply,
it’s not, in my opinion. It’s not the same as an artificial lake, which is
artificial mainly because it wasn’t there in the first place. But the
intelligence in and around what is now called AI has always been there, albeit
in a pristine state. The difference is that this original intelligence has been
enhanced by the process of gathering and processing human intelligence.
I think that this field, which is becoming so integral to
the casino industry, or at least that seems to be what we think, might better
be named “Enhanced Human Intelligence”, or maybe just plain old “Mechanical
Intelligence,” although I much prefer the former.
Okay, I’m done! Let’s go back to calling it Artificial
Intelligence. So what do I think of AI effectiveness in casinos? Is it all it’s
purported to be? I think it is. After seeing presentations by casino industry AI
experts such as Malcolm Rutherford of eConnect, I am convinced that AI is
capable of enhancing the surveillance and security operations of casinos. But
does that mean AI cannot be beat by casino cheats and dishonest casino
employees?
Absolutely NOT!
If you’ve been wondering why I went on with all that IC…yes,
“Intellectual Crap”…now I will tell you. Remember how I was stressing that
artificial intelligence is a creation of human intelligence? Well, you can’t
dispute that. And as that is true, whom do you think is capable of beating,
bypassing, or rendering artificial intelligence useless in casinos to some
degree?
The answer is simply the human beings who created it, or
human beings who didn’t create it but still have enough human intelligence to
outsmart it to a certain degree.
Now, don’t take me for someone who knows much about AI, but
I do know a lot about HI…you guessed it: “Human Intelligence.” And I will be
happy to use the cliché: The technology
is only as smart as the humans who created it and as effective as those who are
implementing it. In other words, you can take artificial intelligence,
facial recognition and RFID technology and throw them all out the window, or
the windowless casino, if you don’t have the human brainpower to analyze the
data and make the correct strategic decisions based on the “artificial” data
given to them. And that goes for all industries, not just casinos. I mean, if the
world’s militaries had a bunch of unintelligent people working in Intelligence,
what good would the data be if they couldn’t interpret it correctly and apply
it where needed?
You understand that, and to close I will give you some
casino examples of how AI and other technologies associated with it might be
skirted.
Let’s start with RFID technology in casino chips. One of its
security features is that it protects casinos against pastposting and other
kinds of chip manipulations intended to increase or decrease wagers after the
outcome is already determined. I was asked at one of my game protection seminars,
“Isn’t RFID 100% effective in preventing a pastposter from increasing his bet
after the outcome is known?”
I replied, “In a perfect word, probably. In the real casino
world, absolutely not.” And I went on to explain that all the RFID does is
transfer the data of amounts of money bet by the players at a table to a
monitor according to the RFID chips embedded in the casino chips. That part of
RFID is pretty flawless.
But….and this is a BIG but. What about the human minds that
are using that technology? If the pastposting cheat has added a higher
denomination chip to his bet that RFID says wasn’t legitimately bet before the
outcome, does that mean the casino is going to deny the pastposter’s claim to
be paid the higher amount? Well, it should but it doesn’t unless the casino
employee empowered to pay or not pay the pastposter for the added chip properly
reads the data and utilizes it effectively.
And this is where the highly non-artificial-intelligent human
casino cheats go to work in order to compromise that proper employee performance
needed to protect casinos. I cannot get into all those details here, but
suffice it to say that through set-ups and behavioral psychology, skilled
cheats are able to convince casino personnel that their large pastposted bets
were actually legitimately placed even though the technology infallibly proved
they weren’t. This does not happen often but it does when casinos let their
human guards down and depend solely on the technology.
What about Facial Recognition? Is it beatable or can it be
skirted? I would give the same answer as I did for the RFID example. If the
humans receiving the data are not up to par, then FR can become vulnerable as
well.
So that’s my mumble jumble on the subject.
You know what? After writing this article, I’m only sure of
one thing….that is that I’m not sure about everything I said here, but it all makes
for interesting conversation.
And speaking about what has been known as, and will
undoubtedly continue to be known as Artificial Intelligence, three global industry
experts in the field, eConnect Executive Vice President of Strategic Operations
Malcolm Rutherford, Mirage Resorts Corporate Vice President of Surveillance Ted
Whiting, and SBK FanDuel Director of Surveillance Sam Kljajic, will be presenting
must-see sessions on Artificial Intelligence at the first Global Table Games
and Game Protection Conference in Las Vegas February 14-17, 2022.
I am hosting this event and hope to see you there!
Conference website https://richardmarcusbooks.com/?page_id=49478
Posts
