Winning ways
Computers have started to outperform humans in games they used to lose
RESEARCHERS in the field of artificial intelligence have long been intrigued by games, and not just as a way of avoiding work. Games provide an ideal setting to explore important elements of the design of cleverer machines, such as pattern recognition, learning and planning. They also hold out the tantalising possibility of fame and fortune should the program ever clobber a human champion.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Winning ways”
From the January 27th 2007 edition
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The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else