Interesting Times For Chess and Go Players

For the chess fans, the big candidates tournament begins in Moscow tomorrow. Eight of the top players in the world will be competing for the chance to face Magnus Carlsen in a match for the title. As it happens, the US has two representatives: Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Going strictly by ratings, they are the first and third seeds. And they are paired in the first round!

And Go is center stage as well. Hot on the heels of the first-ever victory by a computer over a strong human go player, Google's program AlphaGo is now playing a five-game match with the human world champion Lee Sedol. The computer won the first two games. I watched the live broadcast of the second game last night. The excellent commentary from Michael Redmond (the only non-Asian to achieve professional 9-dan status, the highest title in Go), made the game absolutely thrilling to watch. Though the computer eventually prevailed, the game was very close all the way to the end. Game three is on Friday!

Like I said, good times for both chess and go.

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The dawn of the machines. The dusk of the human race. Arnold where are you?

By Siegfried (not verified) on 10 Mar 2016 #permalink

... listening quietly from the back ...

The dawn of machines was long ago, it remains that only humans can destroy humanity.

sean s.

By sean samis (not verified) on 11 Mar 2016 #permalink

Re. Siegfried @ 1: Not if the humans have anything to say about it.

Since P.Z. Meyers linked to an article on a related topic by the same author, so I assume he (Corey Pein) passed the sniff test. Here's another article he wrote on this subject:

http://thebaffler.com/salvos/cyborg-soothsayers

Pein quotes Neal Jacobstein speaking at a "Singularity University" (SU) event:

"See, in order to contain the unforeseeable side effects of this nigh-infinite computational superpower, Jacobstein went on, society must adapt, and soon. We must have the courage to think up antivirus-style surveillance programs that could, say, be deployed to monitor the world for “anomalies and misbehavior,” preserving order and preventing sabotage.

Notwithstanding the dubious record of desktop antivirus software—and putting aside the contentious matter of what constitutes misbehavior—this struck me as a bad idea. To be sure, I could see the appeal of law enforcement via algorithm, at least from the perspective of the rulers of an inescapable totalitarian superstate. For them, it’d be snazzy."

And...

"Last year, an SU staffer filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to form three separate fundraising committees, each of the kind known as super-PACs. However, the applications were withdrawn after a Center for Public Integrity reporter started asking questions. SU then claimed its employee had gone rogue and filed the papers without permission, contradicting the employee’s earlier statements that SU leadership was on board with the plan."

I'd say that anyone who is watching this Go tournament and cheering for the computer had better be careful what they wish for, because we just might get it.

Better, we should form a Resistance, while we still can.

Core principle: People before things.

AlphaGo also won the third game and the match, (best of five), though they will play the final two games. A good synopsis of the game is here.

I agree with Jason, very exciting games. The innovation and creativity shown by AlphaGo is amazing.