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Friday, March 11, 2016

Singularity Approacheth: "Go going gone!"

Lee Se-dol, Professional Go Player
After Defeat at the 'Hands' of a Computer
Yonhap

As everyone knows by now, "AlphaGo defeat[ed] . . . Go champion [Lee Se-dol] in [their] first match" (Korea Herald, March 9, 2016), as reported by Kim Young-won, who quotes Lee:
I was really surprised. I didn't think I could lose . . . . I didn't think AlphaGo would play in such a perfect manner. I [would] like to express my respect to the Google team for making such an amazing program.
That's losing with grace, but the evident strain on Lee will likely grow in the next four matches, for the more AlphaGo plays, the more it learns. One expert commentator observed:
AlphaGo's skill has drastically improved even after its first victory against a human player months ago.
As I noted, the Singularity approacheth. I told my wife that translation programs will soon be competing with us. She thinks that's a long way off, but I think such programs are much closer than most translators think. For some languages, Google Translate is already pretty good . . .

Incidentally,  I've learned in the last hour that Lee lost the second match. That settles the issue. Computers are getting smarter than humans. Moreover, they are learning to defeat us in our own games! They are competing with us and outperforming us.

Ah, the humanity . . . er, robotity . . . uh, androidity . . . um, cyborgity . . .
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:12 PM

    Resistance is Futile! I agree with you that we are much closer to having computers think for us than most people realize. Smartphones, i-this and i-that, self-driving cars, the list goes on, are taking over many people's daily decision making. I know several friends who simply cannot make a simple choice of where to eat without first consulting their smartphone.

    Jay

    ReplyDelete
  2. Horace Jeffery Hodges10:43 PM

    Ashes to ashes,
    And dust to dust.
    If the jihad don't getcha,
    The robots must!

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete
  3. mike roman1:10 AM

    Please define 'smart'.
    Thankyou.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Horace Jeffery Hodges9:35 AM

    Smart Defined

    At times, it means some pain;
    Some say it should mean gain;
    It can mean quite well dressed,
    But I am not impressed.

    It's this fear in my head
    That brings me to the dread
    AI can really do
    What people can do, too!

    Only more fast than us,
    And that's smart double plus!

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete

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