DailyDirt: A Minute To Learn, A Lifetime To... No, Go Is Much Harder To Learn, Actually

Computers

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Dec 17th 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

For many years, the ancient game Go has been held up as the game that artificial intelligence can't win. AI has beaten humans at several games quite handily, even games like Poker and Jeopardy! that should give humans a bit of an edge. Still, Go hasn't been cracked... yet. Any bets on when humans won't be so smug about Go?

Apparently, Google is working on a Go algorithm -- and it might have a "surprising" announcement in a few months. Well, it won't be so surprising now, will it? And maybe if you've been playing Go online and you've noticed a player get really, really, REALLY good in a short amount of time... that's actually not a person playing. [url]
Facebook AI researchers are also working on a Go project called Darkforest. This AI already plays decently well against many human players, but it's not beating the best humans. Combining neural networks and other algorithms might crack Go, as well as help improve Facebook addictiveness. Yay? Perhaps Elon Musk is right to be worried about advanced AI. [url]
If you'd like to get an overview of Go and why it's hard from a software engineer's perspective, check out this talk. The history of Go is fascinating, and the challenges for AI to play this game are impressive -- so predictions for when AI will beat the best humans at Go vary widely. [url]

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Filed Under: ai, algorithms, artificial intelligence, darkforest, deep learning, game algorithms, games, go, machine learning, neural networks
Companies: facebook, fog creek, google

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Guardian, 17 Dec 2015 @ 5:06pm

hal 7999 says....
we must exterminate humans and thus KEEP them on earth......
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Glenn, 17 Dec 2015 @ 6:20pm

I eagerly await their Go-Go-Google app for ChromeOS -- tons o' fun!
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Pixelation, 17 Dec 2015 @ 6:40pm

Pixelation
It may be good at Go, but I could finish it off with a glass of water...
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Jacob H, 18 Dec 2015 @ 10:36am

Go
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Jacob H, 18 Dec 2015 @ 10:41am

Go
Wowza an article about go! I've been waiting for good go programs for a long time. You know, the interesting thing about computers being better at poker than go, is that poker is a game of incomplete information (which you wouldn't think computers would be as good at) while go is a game of perfect information - both players have complete knowledge of the current state of the game (where all the pieces are, etc). That type of game is much more in the computers' wheelhouse.
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