AI GO

Google's AI is Scheduled to Compete Against the Highest Ranked "Go" Player in the World

futurism.com · by Sarah Marquart

In Brief

Google's AlphaGo technology will take on the top-ranked Go player in the world. The match, which will be shown live on Youtube, could have major implications for the AI company.

Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) software, AlphaGo, will compete in Go against the highest ranked player in the world, Lee Sedol.

Demis Hassabis, the head of the Google DeepMind lab behind its AlphaGo AI system, announced that the five-game match will be held March 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15 in Seoul, South Korea. A $1 million prize is in store for the winner.

A New Champion?

Source

This isn’t the first time AlphaGo will be competing at Go, in fact, that’s what it was made to do. AlphaGo is an algorithm that has mastered the game. The AI system played against the French champion, Fan Hui and beat him 5-0.

Google’s DeepMind is using on a type of AI called deep learning, which involves training artificial neural networks on data — such as photos — and then getting them to make inferences about new data.

In this case, the AI predicts which moves to play next by researching expert Go players’ moves in games. It uses a process of trial and error, effectively getting smarter by playing itself.

The Winner Is…

Lee Sedol (left) at the Price Information Cup final, 2010, Source

This doesn’t mean the AI system is the clear-cut winner this time, though.

“I have heard that Google DeepMind’s AI is surprisingly strong and getting stronger, but I am confident that I can win at least this time,” Sedol said in a statement.

If AlphaGo does lose, it would all be seen in real time by a large audience. This type of well-publicized loss could end badly for Google, especially when AI technology is so competitive right now.

However, if AlphaGo is able to win, it could be huge for Google, and could help them compete with companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Magic Leap.

“If we win the match in March, then that’s sort of the equivalent of beating Kasparov in chess,” Hassabis told reporters in a press briefing on the Nature paper last month. “Lee Sedol is the greatest player of the past decade. I think that would mean AlphaGo would be better than any human at playing Go. Go is the ultimate game in AI research.”

“Ultimately we want to apply these techniques in important real-world problems,” such as climate modeling or medical diagnostics, Hassabis said.

Source: Venture Beat

Smiley Clips

I have no idea what to file these under. I just thought they might be a nice addition to printed score reports for the kids.

http://amzn.com/B00EKLNU34

Score! For us.

As I've mentioned previously I'm personally backing the HTC VIVE for VR headsets as I predicted they will simply be cheaper, better and support many more systems than the Oculus. Despite the fact that I have spent my own money on two versions of the Oculus and then they spit on mac developers and now I am an angry angry man.... grr.

Unity is my main development area and I had guessed this connection was going to happen. It was practically inevitable.

Jab

Valve Brings SteamVR to the Unity Platform – Unity Blog

blogs.unity3d.com · by JP Hawkins

Valve Brings SteamVR to the Unity Platform

, February 10, 2016 in Events, Technology

Today, during the opening keynote of the inaugural Vision VR / AR Summit, Valve and Unity Technologies announced a new collaboration to offer native support for SteamVR in the Unity Platform, giving developers new reach at no extra cost. Additionally, we will be adding a new VR rendering plugin to further enhance functionality.

The collaboration means that all of Unity’s developers will have access to native support for Valve’s upcoming SteamVR platform. Beyond SteamVR support, Valve has developed an advanced rendering plugin for Unity to further enhance fidelity and performance, bringing consumers more realistic experiences.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell announced the news during a special video address at the Vision Summit, adding: “We made many of our Vive demos using Unity, and continue to use it today in VR development. Through that process, and in working with VR developers, we found some opportunities to make Unity even more robust and powerful for us and really want to share those benefits with all VR content creators.”

Unity CEO John Riccitiello went on to discuss the news during the Vision Summit opening keynote: “Valve and Unity are both dedicated to creating the highest quality VR experiences possible. That means giving developers every possible chance to succeed, and our collaboration with Valve is designed to do just that.”

Valve will also be providing a talk at Vision, and to celebrate the launch, they are surprising every developer at the conference with a free HTC Vive Pre, the latest SteamVR development system. For more information, please visithttp://visionsummit2016.com/

VR WOW

Watching VR games get built in VR will blow your mind | Cult of Mac

cultofmac.com · by Buster Hein · February 5, 2016

Virtual Reality isn’t just going to change how we consume content. It’s going totally change how we make content for the digital world too.

Developers at Epic Games have already created a way to build VR games using the Unreal Editor in VR mode, and it’s unlike any software development tool you’ve ever seen. Rather than clicking around on a 2D screen, designers Tim Sweeney and Mike Fricker show how game makers can walk around inside levels to manipulate objects and get everything just right.

Take a look:

The coolest part is you can use the VR mode to create VR games or boring old 2D stuff.

Epic Games is currently using a HTC Vive for the VR headset and an Oculus Touch controllers. The company says it plans to reveal more details about editing in VR mode for Unreal Editor — along with a release date — at GDC on March 16th.

cultofmac.com · by Buster Hein · February 5, 2016

JABS NOT JABS

I've introduced a couple of new labels so that you can quickly find what I have made or written myself and what I have not.

The non Jab items are usually just links to cool tech.

KAIS JAB LABS - Robots, robots everywhere!

This has taken a while but I finally made some progress tonight.

I was using devices with the logo on it just because I live in the dark; technically any piece of paper with the logo printed on it will do.

It can be used in many ways : to unlock a game on the iMacs, show a hidden 'thing of the day' whenever the kids hold the logo to the camera or much more. (Yes, even educational stuff).

Forgive the bad editing, I just wanted to get it online for you to see.