Google, Go, Gelernter, and the future of artificial intelligence

When the computer AlphaGo (0) defeated Lee Sedol -- who is perhaps the world's top Go player -- by a match score of 4-1 last week, Google's DeepMind division showed that artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to deliver on some of its promises. Go is an Asian board game far more complex than chess, and it has been viewed as the last great game challenge for AI. When DeepMind set out to conquer Go, some people thought the project would take 10 years. In fact, it only took the team about one year. Unlike chess, in which most of the great games and moves in history can be programmed into a database and searched during the match, Go has too many combinations to work that way.