The program started off knowing only the basic rules and then played millions of games against itself in just a few days. It updated the neural network that powers it as it went.
After almost five million games played against itself, AlphaGo Zero could outplay humans and the original AlphaGo. After 40 days, it was capable of beating AlphaGo Master.
A paper detailing AlphaGo Zero's development was published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
The program learned the strategies humans accumulated over thousands of years in a matter of weeks and also developed unconventional strategies and moves that surpass the techniques of the human masters, leaving the pros stunned.
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