The game requires intuition, strategising, character reading, along with vast numbers of moves and permutations. According to legend, it was invented by a Chinese emperor to teach his subjects balance and patience, qualities unique to human intelligence.
3. This week a computer called AlphaGo defeated the world’s best player of Go. It did so by “learning” the game, crunching through 30 million positions from recorded matches, reacting and anticipating. It evolved as a player and taught itself.
That single game of Go marks a milestone on the road to “technological singularity”, the moment when artificial intelligence becomes capable of self-improvement and learns faster than humans can control or understand.