In Wuzhen, China, on Thursday, Googleâs AlphaGo artificial intelligence beat the worldâs best (human) Go player in their second consecutive match, making the computer program the current champion of humanityâs most complex game.
AlphaGo has now won two matches against 19-year-old Ke Jie, who has been ranked as the worldâs 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 AlphaGoâs favor.
Created by DeepMind, Googleâs AI division, AlphaGo isnât 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 youâre 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 itâs 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]
