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it must be exciting for pros now that computers have caught up, it is always fun to play somebody better than you at whatever game as it pushes you to improve,

it must be exciting for pros now that computers have caught up, it is always fun to play somebody better than you at whatever game as it pushes you to improve, and if you're a top level pro opportunities for that seems they would be few and far between, so having a computer opponent always available to try ideas on and help you train would be really good. I just hope that somebody will try their hand at writing software around the engine that dumbs down their play in a "human way", to make beginners and intermediate players benefit also, I wonder if due to the way it works it is possible to do this better than in chess where it doesn't seem engines that play "convincing human strong amateur" play really exist yet

mikeyouse 11y ago
Michael Redmond was talking on the broadcast last night about his childhood and attempting to learn to play Go. He lived in Santa Barbara but nobody near him played Go whatsoever, so he would have to drive hours to L.A. to Koreatown / Japantown when they held tournaments. He also had to regularly fly to NYC to play. All of the difficulty in finding regular matches is what prompted him to move to Japan and become an 'apprentice' (apologies if this isn't the correct terminology). He eventually became extremely proficient and is a 9-dan player now. One wonders how good he might have become if he had access to the internet to play against other strong players from a young age. One further wonders how good he might have become if he could play against an AI of Alphago's capability.
dannysu 11y ago
That's a great point. I think all the professionals are eager to play against AlphaGo, and they're even willing to pay to do so. With the game of Go, two players with drastic different abilities can still play together with the handicap system. The weaker players would get more stones already placed on the board at the beginning. This means if AlphaGo is 9dan professional level, it can give several handicap to advanced amateur players and still make it fun. Also, there are lots of weaker Go AI that beginners and intermediate players can play against already.

mikeyouse 11y ago

Michael Redmond was talking on the broadcast last night about his childhood and attempting to learn to play Go. He lived in Santa Barbara but nobody near him played Go whatsoever, so he would have to drive hours to L.A. to Koreatown / Japantown when they held tournaments. He also had to regularly fly to NYC to play. All of the difficulty in finding regular matches is what prompted him to move to Japan and become an 'apprentice' (apologies if this isn't the correct terminology). He eventually became extremely proficient and is a 9-dan player now. One wonders how good he might have become if he had access to the internet to play against other strong players from a young age. One further wonders how good he might have become if he could play against an AI of Alphago's capability.

dannysu 11y ago

That's a great point. I think all the professionals are eager to play against AlphaGo, and they're even willing to pay to do so. With the game of Go, two players with drastic different abilities can still play together with the handicap system. The weaker players would get more stones already placed on the board at the beginning. This means if AlphaGo is 9dan professional level, it can give several handicap to advanced amateur players and still make it fun. Also, there are lots of weaker Go AI that beginners and intermediate players can play against already.