AlphaGo

What an amazing day well done film! I recently watched another file, The Surrounding Game about the game of Go and was not sure if I wanted watch another film base on the game. This film was much more than just about a man playing a machine in a board game. What happened was history-making and to have witnessed it unfold in the way that the film presented it was remarkable. At one point in the film, I was even holding back a few years. Very well done!

This is an awesome movie about the creation of AlphaGo, the first program that managed to stand up to the best human players of the ancient game of Go. This came out of nowhere, a decade or two before it was expected, and took everyone with surprise. Watch how the players struggle with meeting opposition of a level they had never thought to meet, and the questions it gives rise to. The movie centers around matches that were widely reported in media the world over, so the outlines of the story may be known, but this is nevertheless a very exciting and gripping movie as we watch the story unfold from behind the scenes.

What is the last numeral in the Pi sequence? What is the meaning of infinity? Where is the transition located between the two views of a wire frame cube? And what has actually taken place when one has played a "God move" in the game of Go - a game whose possible iterations are greater in number than the sum total of all the atoms in the universe?

This documentary enthralled me from start to finish and I am neither a Go player nor someone versed in computer science. It is one of many stories involving mankind's first faltering steps in the development of artificial intelligence. This movie summarizes one of these attempts against the backdrop of what is believed to be mankind's oldest and most difficult strategy game. Perhaps the greatest human mind to have ever played the game of Go is pitted against a computer system which has taught itself to play Go through a process known as "re-enforced learning" in which a program driving a computer played itself through millions of iterations and learned from its mistakes, much the same way as humans do, but with unbelievably greater speed.

The movie demonstrates the greatness and the limitations of both the machine and the man - the greatness and intelligence of the computer scientist, and the greatness, spirit and nobility of the human heart. When watching this movie I was reminded of the legend of John Henry, "a steel driving man" - a man pitted against a machine in an almost superhuman competitive effort of honor and determination.

This movie is probably not for everyone, all I can say is that virtually everyone I have recommended it to in the past has later expressed their sincere gratitude to me for having appraised them of it.

I knew about Go but not the complexities of the game.

This is more about AI but what it means to be human.

The European champion won my heart

Just thrilling amazing production.

PROS:

• well juxtaposed machine and human brain challenge
• great story with all key milestones: intro, climax, conclusion
• good choice of characters and how are they presented

CONS:

• does not give more details into the Deepmind AlphaGo setup (e.g. how they improved)
• would be curious to see/learn more about he
• presenting better the team and how they work together as it is not one person game