Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are running away with a poker competition, thanks to their Liberatus AI. The program is pitting itself against four professional players, playing heads-up (two-player), no-limit Texas hold’em, at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, in a test that is being hailed as a significant step forward for AI. We came across the news in the MIT Technology Review, although we missed the first announcements in the blaze of CES news at the beginning of January. As it stands, Liberatus is up $800,000 at the half-way point in the competition, and while an errant all-in could scupper its chance of success, Liberatus is putting on an impressive display – although it has a noted rival in…