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Very impressive result from DeepMind team - Xavier's take?

Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Tuesday, 19 December 2017, at 8:09 p.m.

In Response To: Very impressive result from DeepMind team - Xavier's take? (Robert Wachtel)

"worth it" being the key words to your question. How much additional value is there to a developer, or to the game, for the bots to master all areas of the game? How do we measure "worth?"

We already know it is NOT "worth it" to Xavier, or we would be looking at XG 9.0. And I do not say this in any way to disparage Xavier or what he had done for the game by providing an amazing tool at a most reasonable price with discounts for Federations to help support their growth of the game. I say this simply to show that given the ways that Xavier, or any other programmer, can spend his time and money, the financial reward potential is not "worth it."

But lets say that Xavier, or another talented programmer, had unlimited time and curiosity and dedicated the time to program neuronets to master every area of the game. How many people in the world would gain from or appreciate this achievement?

Yes, like you, I would love to see it, because I really would like to know the right moves and cube actions in deep back games, in PaskoGammon, in snakes, and other complicated positions.

But at the same time, I kind of enjoy knowing that the game is not yet completely solved by the computer, and there is still room to doubt, to apply one's own imagination and opinion. It's nice to know that we can still have props. It's nice to see that even the best players in the world don't agree and make exactly the same checker and cube decisions in at least some areas.

So bottom line, my answer, for what it's worth, is that it's not "worth it."

But I will add, it is inevitable that it will happen. And when it does, I suspect it won't matter that much. We will still enjoy the game and have much to learn whether the computer has learned it all or not. And there will still be people who claim that the computer is full of crap, and I will still look for those people so I can play them for money.

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