Google-owned artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepMind has developed a new software program that learned by itself how to play the ancient Chinese strategy game Go in just three days.
The AI is so powerful that, having been told only the rules of Go, it derived thousands of years of human knowledge of the game before inventing better moves of its own.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
And the software could be reprogrammed to discover information in other fields, such as “drug discovery” and “particle physics”, says The Verge.
DeepMind’s chief executive, Demis Hassabis, told BBC News: “We’re quite excited because we think this is now good enough to make some real progress on some real problems, even though we’re obviously a long way from full AI”.
Project leader David Silver told the news site that he hopes AI programs similar to AlphaGo Zero can be used for “advancing the frontiers of science and medicine”.
But while such technology could solve some serious global problems, humanity needs to “keep a close eye on the ethical dilemmas” that come with a machine that can think for itself, warns BBC technology reporter Rory Cellan-Jones.
However, there are “ few signs that AlphaGo Zero and its ilk will either steal our jobs or threaten to make humanity obsolete”, for now, at least, he adds.
-
Albania’s AI government minister: a portent of things to come?In The Spotlight A bot called Diella has been tasked with tackling the country's notorious corruption problem
-
South Korea's divide over allowing Google MapsTalking Points The country is one of few modern democracies where the app doesn't work
-
The tiny Caribbean island sitting on a digital 'goldmine'Under The Radar Anguilla's country-code domain name is raking in millions from a surprise windfall
-
GPT-5: Not quite ready to take over the worldFeature OpenAI rolls back its GPT-5 model after a poorly received launch
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust rulingSpeed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
The jobs most at risk from AIThe Explainer Sales and customer services are touted as some of the key jobs that will be replaced by AI
-
Why AI means it's more important than ever to check terms and conditionsIn The Spotlight WeTransfer row over training AI models on user data shines spotlight on dangers of blindly clicking 'Accept'
