How strong is Alphago (blitz mode) ?

[pookpooi]

It's DeepMind estimated of v18, which is not truly 4500 since it lose one game to Lee Sedol.

[Vargo]

Reddit/baduk has a very interesting thread about all this :

https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments ... /?sort=old

Many people seem to agree that AG is 2-3 stones better then a top pro, and... probably getting better as we speak

[Mike Novack]

Many people seem to agree that AG is 2-3 stones better then a top pro, and... probably getting better as we speak

Not so clearly true. What we have learned is that AG is maybe that much better AT THIS TIME CONTROL. Especially for a process which allows parallel processing, the amount of time required is a function of the processor power applied.

It is possible that in absolute terms, AG would not be any/much stronger given more time. But the human player is helped significantly by given enough time to think.

Let's go back a decade or so when the strongest go programs (pre MCTS) were at about 6 kyu using an AI capable of finishing their processing in about 10 seconds on a machine very modest by today's standards. But more to the point, modest in terms of a really powerful machine of that day. Suppose that 6kyu program were running on a machine powerful enough that it could make its move in just under 1 second and we made the time control 1 second per move. Do you think we would STILL consider it 6 kyu against a human trying to play at 1 second/move? I don't think so. In absolute terms, that AI would be no stronger, but given just 1 second to make each move, the human would be much weaker.

It would not be difficult to conduct an experiment to determine the true state of affairs. Reduce the amount of processing power available to AG so that it requires (for example) 1 minute per move and see how the pros do at that time control. Then maybe conduct the experiment a little differently, using a time control where the human has ten minutes to make ten moves << but can distribute that time as he or she wishes >>