3 ms·

'AlphaZero searches just 80 thousand positions per second' As I understand it, we don't really know what AZ does when it evaluates a position. As it was not ex

• tmalsburg2 9y ago
  I was assuming that AZ is using a tree search strategy similar to conventional chess engines but with a neural network as a more sophisticated board evaluation function. If true (is it?) you can tell how many positions it evaluates per unit of time.
  • sanxiyn 9y ago
    No, AZ does not use tree search similar to conventional chess engines. That's an actual surprise. Neural network is used for two things: evaluation, yes, but also much more importantly, search selectivity. In AlphaGo Zero paper, they show that selectivity is so important that playing solely from selectivity (that is, ask neural network which move one should search first, and play that move without searching at all) results in professional level, see Figure 6b. Fan Hui level, not Lee Sedol level, but still.
    • kilburn 9y ago
      That is game-dependent, so we can't be sure it would result in pro-level when playing chess. In fact, it is very possible that it wouldn't because chess has a much smaller branching factor than go (and many more practically forced moves etc.). Also, changing the heuristic you use to chose candidates (selectivity) doesn't mean you're not doing search anymore!
    • readams 9y ago
      they both use a tree search, though it's a different tree search algorithm.