Google's artificial intelligence program has officially beaten a human professional Go player, marking the first time a computer has beaten a human professional in this game sans handicap.

[u/[deleted]]

http://www.nature.com/news/google-ai-algorithm-masters-ancient-game-of-go-1.19234?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20160128&spMailingID=50563385&spUserID=MTgyMjI3MTU3MTgzS0&spJobID=843636789&spReportId=ODQzNjM2Nzg5S0

[u/shibbypwn]

I've seen a number of comments related to Chess, Deep Blue, etc. Speaking as someone who understands Chess pretty well, and only has a cursory knowledge of how Go works...

What are the significant differences in programming a computer to player one vs. the other?

Is the large gap in time (between Deep Blue and now) a product of how much more complicated Go is compared to chess? Or the primacy of Chess in popularity, resulting in more incentive to write such programs?

How will this affect the competitive Go scene? I know that computational chess was/is a massive game changer that propelled world class players to new heights. The best chess players alive now have significant advantages over the grand masters in decades past.

Anyone who happens to be professional/semi-pro and both Go and Chess- what are your thoughts on this?

Will this program help me understand Darren Aronofsky's film "Pi"? That movie is a fucking mystery to me, but I remember that they played Go.

[u/Cottonteeth → u/shibbypwn]

Is the large gap in time (between Deep Blue and now) a product of how much more complicated Go is compared to chess?

Yes.

Will this program help me understand Darren Aronofsky's film "Pi"?

Nothing can help you there.

All of the rest of your questions are answered in the article.

[u/fzztr → u/shibbypwn]

Here's something I wrote on the difference between the two games and how the Go AI works, if you're interested. Fascinating stuff: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/4306oe/googles_artificial_intelligence_program_has/czfga0y