The AI That Dominated Humans in Go Is Already Obsolete

(Credit: Shutterstock) Remember AlphaGo? You know, the artificial intelligence that in 2016 soundly defeated the finest players humanity could muster in the ancient Chinese strategy game of Go; thus forcing us to relinquish the last vestige of board game superiority flesh-and-blood held over machines? Remember that? Well, here’s something to chew on: Google’s AI research arm DeepMind, the same benevolent creator that spawned AlphaGo, has already rendered that gluteus maximus-spanking version obsolete. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers describe a swifter, leaner, autodidact AI that defeated AlphaGo 100 games to zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Appropriately, this new AI prodigy is named AlphaGo Zero, and its secret to superiority is truly fascinating.