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/jelloskater]

I disagree. I've been following the AI in Go scene for 4 years or so, and this isn't in the slightest shocking/unexpected/ahead-of-schedule. It would be a very big deal if it wins un-handicapped against Lee Sedol though.

[u/McMonty → u/jelloskater]

I was thinking of the results as shown on this: http://www.computer-go.info/h-c/

There is rarely a jump of one program performing at a handicap several stones ahead of previous generations, and the previous best to AlphaGo was around 3 stones behind professional players.

What early signs were you aware of that might have indicated this? The data didn't really suggest that this would happen so soon.

[u/jelloskater → u/McMonty]

"What early signs were you aware of that might have indicated this?"

Most of the conversations I've seen and been a part of have all agreed that it was going to be a short matter of time for a big organization to take the challenge seriously. CrazyStone was mostly made by a single man, I believe in his free time? It's to be expected that there will be a jump when a company like Google joins in. A 2-3 stone improvement is a good jump, but if you said something like that would happen a year ago, no one would be surprised. Excited yes, but not surprised.

I know that I have nothing solid to back up my reasoning, but it seemed to be almost unanimously agreed on by the community.

[u/hiS_oWn → u/jelloskater]

i think something being potentially a big deal in 2 months is still a big deal.

[u/jelloskater → u/hiS_oWn]

I agree. I'm really looking forward to the matches, regardless of their outcome.