Wired: Humans No Match for Go Bot Overlords

From the grab bag:

Wired Science has an interesting article on the progress computer programmers have made in the last 20 yeras in playing the Game of Go.

Using Monte Carlo algorithms they have been able to beat professional players six times. While this in itself may not impress, once you understand the complexities of the game, with the number of Go’s end-states — 10¹⁷¹ — a number almost inconceivably smaller than the 10¹¹⁰⁰ different ways of getting there, you begin to be amazed that we can play this well at all.

For the last two decades, human cognitive superiority had a distinctive sound: the soft click of stones placed on a wooden Go board. But once again, artificial intelligence is asserting its domination over gray matter.

Just a few years ago, the best Go programs were routinely beaten by skilled children, even when given a head start. Artificial intelligence researchers routinely said that computers capable of beating our best were literally unthinkable. And so it was. Until now.

I consider myself an intermediate player, having played the game for the past 30+ years, yet there is much more for me yet to learn, than what I have learned so far. That's what makes it interesting.