Of course it's a good move. Millions watched AlphaGo, many of whom have never played Go before. Millions, almost every single gamer will watch AI vs Dota that will be amazing marketing for Valve.
I'm talking mid to long term here. To rephrase, is there a sizeable amount of players who will stop playing, knowing that they cannot ever be the best? Because when AI beats one, I don't believe there is a coming back.
For the concrete AlphaGo example, of course it was hugely popular but I would be interested in the evolution on the number of players, how many of those viewers started playing balanced by how many existing players lost interest following the matches (excluding GO researchers :) ).
I don't think it will matter at all. Literally, zero impact.
Chess computers crush the world's best humans, yet here we are in meatspace, still vying to win the human world chess championship.
Also, 99.99999% of players realize they'll never ever be close to being the best in the world, yet they still play the game because it is inherently fun.
the problem is that players will use those bots against other players, just like they do in online chess. The burden of reporting them will be too much for online play probably. It's the ultimate cheat.
