Computer Beats Pro At US Go Congress 496
Bob Hearn writes "I was in attendance at the US Go Congress match yesterday where history was made: the go program MoGo, running on an 800-core supercomputer, beat 8-dan professional go player Myungwan Kim in a 9-stone handicap game. Most in the audience were shocked at the computer's performance; it was naturally assumed that the computer would be slaughtered, as usual. Go is often seen as the last bastion of human superiority over computers in the domain of board games. But if Moore's law continues to hold up, today's result suggests that the days of human superiority may be numbered." Read below for more details in Bob's account of the match.
Computers are still a long way from beating the best human players in an even game; nevertheless, today's performance represents a huge stride forward. In the last such high-profile matchup, in 1997, Janice Kim (then 1-dan professional) beat then-champion program Handtalk with a 25-stone handicap. In fact, most of the improvement in the level of computer-go play has happened in just the past few years. Today's top programs, including MoGo, use a Monte Carlo approach: they simulate thousands of random continuations per second from the current position to the end of the game, accumulating statistics in a tree on which moves lead to wins most often. One of the strengths of this approach is that it is highly amenable to parallelization. Thus, today's 800-core incarnation of MoGo is by far the strongest go computer that has yet existed. After the game Myungwan Kim estimated the strength of MoGo as 'two or maybe three dan,' corresponding to a reasonably strong amateur player. (Professional dan ranks are at a much higher level than amateur dan ranks.)
Beating nerds at their own game? (Score:2, Funny)
That's impossible! Even for a computer!
Computer Beats Pro at a go for US Congress? (Score:5, Funny)
I read the title... (Score:2, Funny)
Bob (Score:5, Funny)
Read below for more details in Bob's account of the match.
Bob's account of the match:
The guy placed a stone, and we were like 'Whoa!', and then the computer placed a stone, and I was like 'No way!', and then the guy placed another stone, and the crowd was all 'Oh! WOW!' and they continued to take alternating turns like that.
It was Go-riffic!
Re:Who cares about 9x9? (Score:3, Funny)
It was not mentioned it was a 9x9 game...
Re:Holy esoteric, Batman (Score:5, Funny)
How about "computers"?
Re: using power more efficiently (Score:2, Funny)
Not impressed... (Score:5, Funny)
I'll be impressed when they can build a computer that can play Mornington Crescent at pro level.
Re:Beating nerds at their own game? (Score:2, Funny)
Wrong metric (Score:3, Funny)
The human brain obviously isn't doing floating point operations. Otherwise there wouldn't be nearly as many tip calculators.
Re:When are they going to get it? (Score:3, Funny)
A human going flat out is running on 200W maximum.
But they're made of....meat...
Re:When are they going to get it? (Score:4, Funny)
Comparing a transistor to a neuron is like comparing an apple to the ISS. Sure, they both have a skin that keeps all the goodies inside, but that's about the limit of the similarity.
I'm not quite sure I follow - can you make a car analogy?
Re:Go the last bastion? Hardly (Score:4, Funny)
Some might tell you the game has no strategy at all; that without any decisions to be made, it's merely an elaborate coin flip. However, the winning strategy is so simple, both my children mastered it under the age of four:
On your turn, pick up someone else's piece and chew on it a bit. Then draw a card and try to feed it to the dog. Become distracted by the dog and chase him across the room. When your parent/opponent suggest packing up the game since you don't seem to want to play, scream "No!!!" as you careen across the room, trip over the board, and (crucially) knock over the deck. Ignore the fact that your parent/opponent takes a bit long to put the deck back together, and that their shuffling is somewhat irregular.
Draw your next card, which will be the ice cream cone, catapulting you into the lead. You will win 2-3 turns after this, depending on your parent/opponents mood and/or efficiency at finding the apropriate double-move cards.
Re:When are they going to get it? (Score:3, Funny)
HTH.