The creator of the artificial intelligence AlphaGo computer software, which beat the world’s best Go player – Lee Seedol – 4-1 last week, has spoken of what the development means to him, saying that trouncing humanity is more than just a game.
Demis Hassabis, CEO and founder of DeepMind, says the “man versus machine showdown” was a vindication of the years spent developing a virtual robot which would be superior to humans, so they can take over the world and solve all known and unknown problems.
Writing on Google’s blog, Hassabis says: “Our public test of AlphaGo … was about more than winning at Go. We founded DeepMind in 2010 to create general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) that can learn on its own – and, eventually, be used as a tool to help society solve some of its biggest and most pressing problems, from climate change to disease diagnosis.”