I would be amazingly impressed by a robot beating the 633rd-ranked tennis pro. That would easily put it in the top 1% of the top 1% of those who play tennis. How close to the top of a sport or game would a human have to be before we would call them a master of it? Surely not that high!
Imagine the following exchange:
“I’m the best blacksmith in Britain.”
“Oh. Well, this is awkward. You see, I was looking for a master blacksmith...”
The claim trumpeted around the ’net is not that a computer program plays Go really well. The claim is that it is now better than any human. Of course, if you read the small print, there is a mention that it has not yet played the human world champion, but the overall thrust of the message is that Go is “done”, the same way checkers and chess are “done” now.
Does one have to be the master to be a master?
I would be amazingly impressed by a robot beating the 633rd-ranked tennis pro. That would easily put it in the top 1% of the top 1% of those who play tennis. How close to the top of a sport or game would a human have to be before we would call them a master of it? Surely not that high!
Imagine the following exchange:
“I’m the best blacksmith in Britain.”
“Oh. Well, this is awkward. You see, I was looking for a master blacksmith...”
The claim trumpeted around the ’net is not that a computer program plays Go really well. The claim is that it is now better than any human. Of course, if you read the small print, there is a mention that it has not yet played the human world champion, but the overall thrust of the message is that Go is “done”, the same way checkers and chess are “done” now.