
In Wuzhen, China, on Thursday, Googleās AlphaGo artificial intelligence beat the worldās best (human) Go player in theirĀ second consecutive match, making the computer program the current champion of humanityās most complex game.
AlphaGo has now won two matches against 19-year-old Ke Jie, who has been ranked as the worldās number one Go player and won four international tournaments since 2014. The mini-tournament is a best of three and if Jie overcomes the AI in their final match, it would still be a 2:1 win in AlphaGoās favor.
Created by DeepMind, Googleās AI division, AlphaGo isnāt officially ranked as a player, but the string of victories is a landmark moment for AI development. Go is an immensely complex game that requires shifting strategies, foresight in anticipating and responding to your opponent, and a certain degree of unpredictability so that youāre not outmatched. AlphaGo was able to both mimic human patterns and search through an astounding 10 to the power of 700 possible variations moves in the game to determine the best way to beat Jie.
This is an enormous achievement in the AI field, though itās at least a little terrifying to think that computer programs can play even our hardest games better than we can.
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[Mashable]