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He's the generally agreed world's best player (and only 20-years-old). but he might not have seen the true strength of AlphaGo. After analyzing the games, it's apparent that AlphaGo only tries to win, and does not try to win by a large margin. Translate that strategy into game play, AlphaGo seems to always try to stay ahead of its opponent by a few points, and often trades an optimal move by a less-profitable one but one that's much safer. So even though the two games with Lee have been close, no one has any idea how strong AlphaGo really is.



I'd describe that a little differently: I think AlphGo's choosing safer moves shows strength. In go you don't get any extra credit for winning by more; a win by 0.5 is equivalent to a win by 50.5. As such there is no incentive to fight for wins at a higher margin. If a more aggressive move is riskier or harder to read (it usually is) there is actually a disincentive to play it. I can't tell you how many games I've lost because I misread a complicated variation which I could have avoided entirely when I was ahead.


>"a win by 0.5 is equivalent to a win by 50.5 It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning."

Which reminds me of some wisdom from Dominic Toretto "It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning."


“The secret [to motor racing]”, said Niki Lauda, “is to win going as slowly as possible”


>"I can't tell you how many games I've lost because I misread a complicated variation which I could have avoided entirely when I was ahead."

Isn't that Go in a nutshell though.


I'm sure this has been discussed, but why not have two AlphaGo play each other?


That's, in effect, how they train it -- they've done literally thousands of these. What they haven't done (yet) is published the moves of those games for external review.


This was being discussed on the radio the other day. They stated it had played 30 million games against itself.


because it would create a singularity that would swallow the known universe.


To be pedantic - he was born in 1997 so he is 18 or 19 years old.




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