PARIS, April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- During the Go Tournament in
Paris, staged between 22 and 24 March 2008 by the French Go Federation
(FFG), the MoGo artificial intelligence (IA) engine developed by INRIA -
the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control
- running on a Bull NovaScale supercomputer, won a 9x9 game of Go against
professional 5th DAN Catalin Taranu. This was the first ever officially
sanctioned 'non blitz' victory of a 'machine' over a Go Master.
More Complex Than Chess, More Possible Combinations Than the Number of
Particles in the Universe
In 1997, a computer beat the then World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov,
for the first time. But the game of Go remained the exclusive preserve of
Man. More complex than chess, with 10 to the power of 600 different
possibilities - more than the number of particles in the known Universe -
the game of Go is a remarkable school for strategy. So this latest
officially-endorsed performance by INRIA and Bull represents a real
achievement.
The victory was won as part of the 'IA-GO Challenge', in a so-called
9x9 game (played over nine lines and nine columns). Although Catalin Taranu
beat the computer in a 19x19 configuration with a nine-stone handicap, the
Go Master nevertheless rated the IA system as 'approaching Dan standard' in
a performance that promises some formidable battles to come between man and
machine.
"The software used in this victory - the result of a collaboration
between INRIA, the CNRS(1), LRI(2) and CMAP(3) - is based on innovative
technologies that can be used in numerous different areas, particularly in
the conservation of resources which is such a vital issue when it comes to
tackling environmental problems," explained Olivier Teytaud, Researcher at
INRIA, MoGo team leader. "We are particularly delighted that, during the
tournament, we were able to welcome researchers working in these areas who
are interested in this technology, and we would like to thank the FFG and
the tournament organizers for having given us the opportunity to learn more
about these advances stemming from fundamental research."
"Over and above the intellectual and emotional challenge that is
involved in designing a computer capable of facing up to the Grand Masters
of Go, our collaboration with the MoGo team has helped us to make further
advances in parallelization techniques. The users of our supercomputers
will reap the benefits of this work in their own environments," affirmed
Eric Monchalin, Director of High-Performance Computing R&D at Bull.
To Find Out More
Monte-Carlo method and Go on computers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Go#Monte-Carlo_methods
Machine learning and optimization: http://tao.lri.fr
About INRIA
The National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control is
the only French public institute entirely dedicated to research in
information and communication science and technology (ICST). It has a staff
of 3,700 - 2,900 of whom are scientists - working in eight research centres
across France. INRIA has an annual budget of 162 million euros, excluding
VAT, 20% of which comes from its own research contracts and licences. INRIA
has huge influence in the following fields: "networks, telecoms and
multimedia", "complex systems and software" and "modelling, simulation and
visualisation". It develops cooperative projects with the business world
through strategic industrial partnerships and by setting up open
consortiums and companies (80 start-ups in 20 years) - particularly through
its subsidiary INRIA-Transfert, promoter of four start-up funds.
For more information, visit: http://www.inria.fr/index.en.html
INRIA Saclay Press contact: Catherine Girard - Tel: +33(0)1-72-92-59-08
- catherine.girard@inria.fr
About Bull, Architect of an Open World
As one of the leading European IT companies, Bull delivers open,
flexible and secure information systems. The group helps public and private
sector customers transform their information systems, applying its know-how
and expertise in three main areas:
- Capitalizing on its extensive mainframe experience, Bull designs and
produces robust, innovative and open servers, based on industry-standard
technologies;
- Building on its alliances with leading ISVs, Bull develops and
implements flexible and interoperable application infrastructures which
give business processes the freedom to evolve;
- Bringing together recognized expertise in end-to-end IT security,
Bull secures data and exchanges that are so critical in preserving
customers' business integrity.
Bull has a particularly strong presence in the public, healthcare,
finance, telecommunications, manufacturing and defense sectors. Its
distribution network and business partners cover more than 60 countries
worldwide.
---------------------------------
(1) CNRS: the French National Center for Scientific Research
(2) LRI: Computing Research Laboratory
(3) CMAP: the Center for Applied Mathematics at the Ecole Polytechnique
For more information visit: http://www.bull.com
Press contacts Bull: Anne Marie Jourdain - Tel: +33(0)1-30-80-32-52 -
anne-marie.jourdain@bull.net
Financial Dynamics: Elodie Marchand - Tel: +33(0)1-47-03-68-17 -
elodie.marchand@fd.com
SOURCE Bull
back to top
