DeepMind Go challenge | The Verge

Google’s AlphaGo AI will face its biggest challenge yet next month

2017-04-10T03:00:02-04:00

Ke Jie (far right) explains the beauty of AlphaGo's moves to Google CEO Sundar Pichai

It's just over a year since Google's DeepMind unit stunned the world when its AlphaGo AI beat Go legend Lee Se-dol 4-1 in a five-game match; the result demonstrated mastery of a feat that had eluded computer scientists for decades and sparked a flood of new interest in the field of artificial intelligence. But there was one possible "gotcha" that Go devotees could hold onto: Lee Se-dol was once, but is no longer, quite considered the greatest player on the planet.

That distinction is now considered to belong to Ke Jie, a 19-year-old Chinese player ranked number 1 worldwide. A professional since the age of 10, Ke has beaten Lee several times …

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Google DeepMind’s next gaming challenge: can AI beat StarCraft II?

2016-11-04T14:45:03-04:00

DeepMind, the British artificial intelligence company that's now a part of Google, stunned the world back in March when its AlphaGo AI defeated world-champion Go player Lee Se-dol to achieve one of the most sought-after feats in computer science. The ancient Chinese board game of Go was considered the most difficult "perfect information" game for computers to crack, as the dizzying complexity produced by its simple rules requires a highly advanced degree of intuition to play at a serious level, but AlphaGo managed it with a revolutionary system built on neural networks and machine learning.

Now DeepMind is turning its attention to a game th …

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AlphaGo’s battle with Lee Se-dol is something I’ll never forget

2016-03-15T11:34:52-04:00

Reporting from South Korea on AlphaGo's matches against Go genius Lee Se-dol over the past week and a half has been intense and fascinating. I've written about the results of each game, how Google subsidiary DeepMind achieved them, what they might mean for the future, and more. I expected all this to be engrossing, sure. But what I didn't bargain for was the surreal, often emotional experience it all turned out to be.

Afternoon after afternoon, I found myself in a glitzy sixth-floor ballroom in Seoul's new Four Seasons hotel that had been repurposed as a press room. There was a lot of coffee. Korean journalists took a bunch of pictures of m …

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Google’s AlphaGo AI beats Lee Se-dol again to win Go series 4-1

2016-03-15T05:00:53-04:00

After suffering its first defeat in the Google DeepMind Challenge Match on Sunday, the Go-playing AI AlphaGo has beaten world-class player Lee Se-dol for a fourth time to win the five-game series 4-1 overall. The final game proved to be a close one, with both sides fighting hard and going deep into overtime. AlphaGo is an AI developed by Google-owned British company DeepMind, and had already wrapped up a historic victory on Saturday by becoming the first ever computer program to beat a top-level Go player.

The win came after a "bad mistake" made early in the game, according to DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis, leaving AlphaGo "trying hard to …

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After AlphaGo, what’s next for AI?

2016-03-14T10:02:25-04:00

AlphaGo's victories against legendary Go player Lee Se-dol over the last few days mark a major milestone in AI research. The complex Chinese board game had long been considered impossible for computers to crack, but DeepMind used machine learning and neural networks to give its AlphaGo AI the ability to evaluate and execute strategy at a world-class level.

But you don't put some of the most intelligent people in the world to work on artificial intelligence just to beat board games. DeepMind's work has major implications for the field of AI, and the deep-learning technology it uses has the potential to revolutionize everything from the way y …

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Go champion Lee Se-dol strikes back to beat Google’s DeepMind AI for first time

2016-03-13T04:44:31-04:00

AlphaGo wrapped up victory for Google in the DeepMind Challenge Match by winning its third straight game against Go champion Lee Se-dol yesterday, but the 33-year-old South Korean has got at least some level of revenge - he's just defeated AlphaGo, the AI program developed by Google's DeepMind unit, in the fourth game of a five-game match in Seoul.

AlphaGo is now 3-1 up in the series with a professional record, if you can call it that, of 9-1 including the 5-0 win against European champion Fan Hui last year. Lee's first win came after an engrossing game where AlphaGo played some baffling moves, prompting commentators to wonder whether they …

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Deep Blue developer speaks on how to beat Go and crack chess

2016-03-12T11:00:04-05:00

DeepMind's exploits in South Korea have captivated the world this week, as its AlphaGo program has defeated Go champion Lee Se-dol three times to secure overall victory in a five-game series - something AI experts had previously predicted was decades away due to the ancient Chinese board game's subtlety and intricacy.

Nearly two decades ago, IBM made headlines in much the same way when its Deep Blue computer defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov (above). Murray Campbell was one of the key figures in Deep Blue's development, and is still at IBM today, working as a senior manager in the company's Cognitive Computing division, which handle …

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AlphaGo beats Lee Se-dol again to take Google DeepMind Challenge series

2016-03-12T03:12:32-05:00

Virtuoso Go-playing AI AlphaGo has secured victory against 18-time world champion Lee Se-dol by winning the third straight game of a five-game match in Seoul. AlphaGo is now 3-0 up in the series, but there's no mercy rule here - the remaining games on Sunday and Tuesday will still be played out. AlphaGo is a program developed by DeepMind, a British AI company acquired by Google two years ago.

The ancient Chinese board game of Go has long been considered impossible for computers to play at a world-class level, despite similar breakthroughs in other games like chess and checkers. Go's simple rules and elaborate possibilities have made it one …

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DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis on how AI will shape the future

2016-03-10T09:50:05-05:00

DeepMind's stunning victories over Go legend Lee Se-dol have stoked excitement over artificial intelligence's potential more than any event in recent memory. But the Google subsidiary's AlphaGo program is far from its only project - it's not even the main one. As co-founder Demis Hassabis said earlier in the week, DeepMind wants to "solve intelligence," and he has more than a few ideas about how to get there.

Hassabis himself has had an unusual path to this point, but one that makes perfect sense in retrospect. A child chess prodigy who won the Pentamind championship at the Mind Sports Olympiad five times, he rose to fame at a young age wit …

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Google’s DeepMind beats Lee Se-dol again to go 2-0 up in historic Go series

2016-03-10T03:26:27-05:00

Google stunned the world by defeating Go legend Lee Se-dol yesterday, and it wasn't a fluke - AlphaGo, the AI program developed by Google's DeepMind unit, has just won the second game of a five-game Go match being held in Seoul, South Korea. AlphaGo prevailed in a gripping battle that saw Lee resign after hanging on in the final period of byo-yomi ("second-reading" in Japanese) overtime, which gave him fewer than 60 seconds to carry out each move.

"Yesterday I was surprised but today it's more than that - I am speechless," said Lee in the post-game press conference. "I admit that it was a very clear loss on my part. From the very beginning …

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