Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Artificial intelligence

Learning to play Go from scratch

An artificial-intelligence program called AlphaGo Zero has mastered the game of Go without any human data or guidance. A computer scientist and two members of the American Go Association discuss the implications. See Article p.354

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol.

Lee Jin-Man/AP/Rex/Shutterstock

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Campbell, M., Hoane, A. J. Jr, Hsu, F.-H. Artif. Intell. 134, 57–83 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Silver, D. et al. Nature 529, 484–489 (2016).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Tesauro, G. Commun. ACM 38 (3), 58–68 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Silver, D., Sutton, R. S. & Müller, M. Mach. Learn. 87, 183–219 (2012).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Gelly, S. et al. Commun. ACM 55 (3), 106–113 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Silver, D. et al. Nature 550, 354–359 (2017).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Satinder Singh, Andy Okun or Andrew Jackson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

In addition to A.J.’s responsibilities as a Director of the American Go Association, he is employed as a software engineer by Google, a company related to DeepMind through the shared parent holding company, Alphabet.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Artificial intelligence: A social spin on language analysis

Artificial intelligence: Learning to see and act

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Singh, S., Okun, A. & Jackson, A. Learning to play Go from scratch. Nature 550, 336–337 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/550336a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/550336a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing