I'm sure you can find quotes from 'experts' claiming really wild things on just about any subject.
I think generally that reaching 1-dan in computer-Go was thought to be attainable with today's hardware but that it would still take considerable work. I don't think MoGo's recent success suddenly invalidates that view to a great extent. Just that a good step towards it has been made. Let's put things in context a little bit. Here's a link from 1998: http://www.computer-go.info/events/ing/1998/archive/gen.html There you'll find a report of Handtalk beating young pros with 11 stones as part of the Ing challenge. If you'd ask me I wouldn't think Mr. Kim is more than two stones stronger than those young pros. Possible the difference is less than two stones. (It also reports Handtalk beating a 3-dan, which I take with a grain of salt.) So although I think this match was a good mile-stone, I don't see it as if 9 stones of progress has been made in just a few years. 3-5 stones in ten years on hardware many thousands of times as powerful is a bit closer to the truth. What I think makes people optimistic about the (near) future is the fact that MoGo is scalable whereas Handtalk and equivalent programs are not. I'm sure a lot more speculation about this subject will tak place. But this was just one game and only time will show what really has been achieved so far. Mark _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
