How DeepMind's AlphaGo Zero learned all by itself to trash world champ AI AlphaGo

Analysis DeepMind published a paper today describing AlphaGo Zero – a leaner and meaner version of AlphaGo, the artificially intelligent program that crushed professional Go players. Go was considered a difficult game for computers to master because, besides being complex, the number of possible moves – more than chess at 10170 – is greater than the number of atoms in the universe. But AlphaGo, the predecessor to AlphaGo Zero, crushed 18-time world champion Lee Sedol and the reigning world number one player, Ke Jie. After beating Jie earlier this year, DeepMind announced AlphaGo was retiring from future competitions. Now, an even more superior competitor is in town.