The history and potential of deep learning Thomson Reuters

There are a few moments in the history of artificial intelligence (AI) that are considered major breakthroughs – events that showed the power of machine intelligence in matching or surpassing human performance. Two examples are Deep Blue versus Kasparov in 1997 and Watson versus Jennings in 2008. Most recently, AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol became another major victory, this time driven by a fast developing field known as "deep learning." Deep learning–a machine learning technique based on artificial neural networks–is growing in popularity due to a series of developments in the science and business of data mining. Prior to AlphaGo's victory over the currently best Go player Lee Sedol, computer programs that played Go had only been able to beat average players.