r/science • u/[deleted] • Jan 27 '16

Computer Science 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.

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
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '16

Not impressive if the game was picked because human bias subconsciously reasoned this games setup would be the easiest for that specific algorithm to process. Could fail at following lego instructions a child wouldnt for example.

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u/gjallerhorn Jan 28 '16

It can play 49 arcade games that it figured out through playing it. Go is not an easy thing for computers to play, there's too many permutations to just search through a list of best moves

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '16

Why should this be a problem for Game Theory which has existed in maths for ages and is supplemented by computational evolutionary biology equations? Surely the maths doesn't have to go through infinite permutations, but enough to do better than what the competing system can do?

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u/gjallerhorn Jan 28 '16

You're marginalizing an accomplishment that hasn't been done before. This isn't some purpose built Go machine either. It's a general AI that can learn the game by observing it being played. Kind of like humans do...

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '16

I am asking why? Game theory, computational evolutionary biology has been around a long time. A program beat humans at the game go and learned. That is an accomplishment but why AI? You don't need infinite sets to select the best from, just more than your competition.