Comments on: Go http://kleinschmidt.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/go/ Be quiet, I think he's trying to say something Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:23 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Coconuts http://kleinschmidt.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/go/#comment-9906 Coconuts Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:38:21 +0000 http://kleinschmidt.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/go/#comment-9906 I think the hard-core total information thing is a good point...in my AI class right now we're learning about general strategies for computers to play games like chess and checkers. In general, these strategies make decisions by exploring the tree of possible sequences of moves and counter-moves, and find the branch that looks the best based on some sort of heuristic evaluation function. Go is particularly difficult to approach this way because of the huge number of "branches" from each node (after 60 moves on a 19x19 board there are about 300 possible moves) and the difficulty in coming up with a good way to tell how "good" any given state is. As far as I know, Go is the only one of the 'Three Games' at which computers are not able to win against the best human players. I suspect that the game is difficult for humans for the same reasons that it's difficult for humans to teach computers how to play: to play at all effectively you have to conceptualize the state of the game in a probabilistic way at a very high level of abstraction while keeping track of the vast number of possible outcomes of any decision. I think the hard-core total information thing is a good point…in my AI class right now we’re learning about general strategies for computers to play games like chess and checkers. In general, these strategies make decisions by exploring the tree of possible sequences of moves and counter-moves, and find the branch that looks the best based on some sort of heuristic evaluation function. Go is particularly difficult to approach this way because of the huge number of “branches” from each node (after 60 moves on a 19×19 board there are about 300 possible moves) and the difficulty in coming up with a good way to tell how “good” any given state is. As far as I know, Go is the only one of the ‘Three Games’ at which computers are not able to win against the best human players.

I suspect that the game is difficult for humans for the same reasons that it’s difficult for humans to teach computers how to play: to play at all effectively you have to conceptualize the state of the game in a probabilistic way at a very high level of abstraction while keeping track of the vast number of possible outcomes of any decision.

]]> By: Paul http://kleinschmidt.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/go/#comment-9466 Paul Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:07:36 +0000 http://kleinschmidt.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/go/#comment-9466 I have often had a similar inkling to try to learn to really play Go (you had to know that if you blogged about a game that I would respond ;-) ). I of course understand the rules, but to really play you have to study it. I’ve never been very good at hard-core complete information games so I am not sure if I will ever be a very good player. One anecdote on the cultural differences between the US and China – while on a business trip in China I noticed that there was a television program that aired quite frequently on tips and strategy for Go. It was interesting to watch, even though I could not understand the language –the intense enthusiasm the show’s host and the players had for this game was a striking contrast to the “reality” shown on American television. I have often had a similar inkling to try to learn to really play Go (you had to know that if you blogged about a game that I would respond ;-) ). I of course understand the rules, but to really play you have to study it. I’ve never been very good at hard-core complete information games so I am not sure if I will ever be a very good player. One anecdote on the cultural differences between the US and China – while on a business trip in China I noticed that there was a television program that aired quite frequently on tips and strategy for Go. It was interesting to watch, even though I could not understand the language –the intense enthusiasm the show’s host and the players had for this game was a striking contrast to the “reality” shown on American television.

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