Hacker Cinema
AlphaGo
2017 · Film · documentary · 90 min
Directed by Greg Kohs
The ancient Chinese game of Go has long been considered a grand challenge for artificial intelligence. Yet in 2016, Google's DeepMind team announced that they would be taking on Lee Sedol, the world's most elite Go champion. AlphaGo chronicles the team as it prepares to test the limits of its rapidly-evolving AI technology. The film pits man against machine, and reveals as much about the workings of the human mind as it does the future of AI.
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Enjoyable list but I’m not sure the AlphaGo documentary counts as pop culture :).
It’s interesting how people talk about vi vs emacs, can’t remember ever meeting anyone who chose vi over vim, let alone enough people to make th at the debate.
Like 99.99% probability, sure. Greg's previous big feature was on Deepmind's AlphaGo, three years after its Google acquisition.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6700846/
Reminds me of AlphaGo
It didn't try to maximise by how much it won, but just that it won. Apparently it changed the meta for human pkayers.
If you have the time for it, the movie/doc is worth watching https://youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
(I'm the one who posted the url, not author post)
Julian Schrittwieser (author of this post) has been in AI for a long time, he was in the core team who worked on AlphaGo, AlphaZero and MuZero at DeepMind, you can see him in the AlphaGo movie. While it doesn't make his opinion automatically true, I think it makes it worth considering, especially since he's a technical person, not a CEO trying to raise money
"extrapolating an exponential" seems dubious, but I think the point is more that there is no clear sign of slowing down in models capabilities from the benchmarks, so we can still expect improvements
I became interested in learning Go recently after watching the magnificent AlphaGo movie [1] which is free on YouTube. I highly recommend giving it a watch if you haven't already.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
I consider AlphaGo - The Movie [1] to be a timeless classic that will never feel outdated. In my opinion, it surpasses even Hollywood productions, despite being based on true events and filmed live with real people. I'm ranking it as #2, though, because I still believe Steve Jobs' 2007 iPhone presentation [2] is the greatest live tech event ever captured on film. Hearing the crowd screaming when seeing some tricks and techniques ( eg. slide to unlock, pinch to zoom and scrolling up) on how to use the phone does really triggers some haptic feedback in my heart because we are now so used to these tricks that were pure magic back then.
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1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQKMoT-6XSg
Google's documentary on AlphaGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
Truly a must watch! (just look at the video comments to be convinced)
So this is a good idea because it can create vastly more training data for a model to learn from. However, it seems likely that these models are going to hallucinate like crazy. As featured in the documentary, the AlphaGo program struggled with hallucination, and it performed self-play in a tiny world based on a perfectly rigid and exactly correct set of rules. LLMs already have tons of false corners and edges in their logic about the world, and this seems like it has the potential to spread those all around.
Hard to say — these things can be difficult to predict. I can see this working but there'll probably be some ratio of training data - self-play that we have a hard time getting past because it's a difficult-to-control form of extrapolation.
It's a surprisingly engaging movie even if you don't care about Go or AlphaGo. Which is kind of impressive if you ask me. A movie that's worth watching if you don't care about the subject matter.
For those who missed what happened back then, the AlphaGo Movie is really worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
Not very technical, not about Go tactics either, but it's just a very well-done movie about the people involved.
Another example that might be of interest is the use of neural networks in Monte Carlo Tree Search. In 2017 there were two papers published showing how effective the combination of NN’s and MCTS are for planning in board games.
One is an algorithm called ExIT published by Anthony et al, it showed excellent performance on a somewhat obscure board game called Hex. The authors using a typical academic lab setup to achieve this. It has a very impressive 300ish citations.
The other paper is AlphaGo, which has about 10k citations and a Netflix documentary. There are some algorithmic differences that probably make AlphaGo strictly better than ExIT but the big difference seems to mostly be that one group had like a thousand GPUs for a month.
This would make a lot more sense to you if you watched the AlphaGo Movie, at least it did for me
I agree. I also wonder if there will be other examples like this one that teach us something about ourselves as humans or maybe even something new. For example, I recall from the AlphaGo documentary the best go player from Korea described actually learning from AlphaGo’s unusual approach.
Here is a list of 20 documentaries I have come to love and return to when I come across them. There is no specific order to them. Enjoy! The * next to the number indicates the last 4 years. If you have seen one listed that you'd like to share what you think about please leave a comment with this structure [# in the list ] Comment... . i.e. [1] Loved learning about Noyce. What a guy.
1. Silicon Valley: Where the Future | PBS: American Experience [1:23:19] [2013] History of the how Silicon Valley came to be. William Shockley. Robert Noyce. Fairchild Semiconductor, The Traitorous Eight. Homepage: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/ Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/122744 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/silicon-valley
2. Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware | Wired UK: Future Cities [1:07:50] [2016] the evolution of “Shanzhai” – or copycat manufacturing – has transformed traditional models of business, distribution and innovation, and asks what the rest of the world can learn from this so-called “Silicon Valley of hardware". Youtube: https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY
*2.1. The People's Republic of The Future | Bloomberg: Hello World [30:10] [2019] Shenzhen, tech-fueled entrepreneurs try to navigate an authoritarian regime. Youtube: https://youtu.be/taZJblMAuko
3. The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard | TPB AFK [1:22:07] [2013] The history of the Pirate Bay. Torrenting. Legal. Privacy. Homepage: https://tpbafk.tv Youtube: https://youtu.be/eTOKXCEwo_8 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-pirate-bay-away-from-keyboard
4. Can’t Get You Out of My Head | BBC [6 Part] [2021] Adam Curtis takes you on "An Emotional history of how we got to this place." Economics. History. Power. Psychology. World. China. Russia. UK. USA. Part 1: Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain [1:14:15] Part 2: Shooting and F*king are the Same Thing [1:14:01] Part 3: Money Changes Everything [1:10:36] Part 4: But What If the People Are Stupid? [1:13:29] Part 5: The Lordly Ones [1:05:43] Part 6: Are We Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? [1:59:50] Homepage: https://www.bbc.com/bbcfilm/films/cant-get-you-out-of-my-head/ BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p093wp6h/cant-get-you-out-of-my-head Thought Maybe: https://thoughtmaybe.com/cant-get-you-out-of-my-head/
5. Three Identical Strangers | NEON [1:37:00] [2018] Its in the name, but The less you know about this story the better. Homepage: https://www.threeidenticalstrangers.com Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/11374410 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/three-identical-strangers
6. The Pharmacist | Netflix [4 Part] [2020] A small-town pharmacist investigates the death of his son in a drug deal, but his investigation skills only expands when OxyContin becomes available. Part 1: Justice for Danny [1:00:38] Part 2: A Mission from God [58:47] Part 3: Dope Dealers with White Lab Coats [47:30] Part 4: Tunnel of Hope [48:31] Homepage: https://thecinemart.com/the-pharmacist.html Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81002576 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/the-pharmacist
7. AlphaGo | Netflix [1:30:27] [2017] Deepmind, Alphabets's AI company, creates an AI to play the game Go and faces off to beat the best, Lee Sedol. Homepage: https://www.alphagomovie.com Youtube: https://youtu.be/WXuK6gekU1Y Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/alphago
8. Page One: Inside the New York Times | Magnolia Pictures [1:31:38] [2011] As print media begins to be challenged by the internet, you get an inside look into NY Times. Homepage: http://www.magpictures.com/pageone/ Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/page-one-inside-the-new-york-times
9. The Secret of Tuxedo Park | PBS: American Experience [53:00] [2018] Alfred Lee Loomis isn't just a Wall Street tycoon, but a scientist with a checkbook to pay for it. Opening his home to the best, he follows his interest and a call from the government about WWII. Homepage: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/secret-tuxedo-park/
10. The Century of the Self | BBC [4 Part] [2002] Adam Curtis investigates how Freudian theory influenced twentieth century society. Part 1: Happiness Machines [58:32] Part 2: The Engineering of Consent [58:40] Part 3: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads, He Must Be Destroyed [58:39] Part 4: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering [59:32] Homepage: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ghx6g BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p00ghx6g/the-century-of-the-self Thought Maybe: https://thoughtmaybe.com/the-century-of-the-self/
11. How Ants Can Make The Internet a Safer Place | Tom Mishra [00:04:08] [2015] Five researchers, scientists and mathematicians studied the behavior of Ants and Game Theory to create a safer Internet. Video: https://vimeo.com/147548221
12. Chasing Einstein | Ignite [1:22:00] [2019] Follows leading scientists around the world, from the largest particle accelerator at CERN in Switzerland to the LIGO gravitational wave detector in the US to find out whether Einstein's theory of gravity can stand the test of time. Homepage: https://chasingeinsteinfilm.com Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/chasing-einstein
13. Language of Love (Ur kärlekens språk) | [1:43:00] [1969] * Rated X, and in Swedish A panel of real-life doctors discuss sexual hangups, misconceptions, personal prejudices and the ignorance of individuals when it comes to matters sexual. Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/language-of-love
14. Citizenfour | TWC [1:54:00] [2014] A documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong to meet Edward Snowden where they release classified information. Homepage: https://citizenfourfilm.com Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/citizen-four
15. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail | PBS: Frontline [1:30:00] [2016] The Chinese immigrant Sung family, owners of Abacus Federal Savings of Chinatown, New York is targeted by the DA in the mess after the 2008 financial crisis. Homepage: https://www.abacusmovie.com Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/2141966 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/abacus-small-enough-to-jail
16. Zero Days | Magnolia Pictures [1:56:00] [2016] Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus discovered in 2010 by international IT experts points to be created by the NSA and used by Unit 8200, Israel, on Iran nuclear enrichment facility. Homepage: http://www.zerodaysfilm.com Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/10846994 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/zero-days
17. Tell Me Who I Am | Netflix [1:25:32] [2019] The less you know about this story the better. Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80214706 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/tell-me-who-i-am
18. McMillions | HBO [6 Part] [2020] A detailed account of the McDonald's Monopoly game scam during the 1990s. Part 1: Episode 1 [55:50] Part 2: Episode 2 [53:57] Part 3: Episode 3 [56:54] Part 4: Episode 4 [57:08] Part 5: Episode 5 [56:41] Part 6: Episode 6 [56:59] HBO: https://www.hbo.com/mc-millions Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/mcmillion
19. Jesus Camp | Magnolia Pictures [1:24:00] [2006] Children at a christian summer camp as they hone their "prophetic gifts" and are schooled in how to "take back America for christ." The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again christian children to become an active part of America's political future. Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/10803148 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/jesus-camp
*20. The Edge of All We Know | Netflix [1:39:00] [2020] Follow the quest to understand the most mysterious objects in the universe, black holes. Homepage: https://www.blackholefilm.com Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81343342 Where to Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/black-holes-the-edge-of-all-we-know
> And when a tool helps you too much, then is there really a point in what you’re doing? It’s not even a learning experience anymore.
Have you seen the documentary about AlphaGo? After watching it, and seeing Lee Sedol just utterly devastated by losing to a computer, I felt like I too would surely feel the same thing in my life. I mean, surely Lee Sedol is a far more skilled Go player than I am a skilled programmer.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling. I agree - it's deeply important to _actually_ learn how things work. That's why I wouldn't recommend copilot to a junior dev. Unfortunately, the way things are going - those junior developers are going to use it anyways and I tend to be more of a realist than an idealist.
I was really impressed by "AlphaGo - The Movie", despite not knowing much about Go, because the way they told the story, people from the Asian countries were so sure their champion would win a Go tournament against a computer, that were stunned into a new consciousness about artificial intelligence when the computer won. This started an arms race in AI is what I gather.
Edit: Full movie for free on YouTube: AlphaGo - The Movie | Full award-winning documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
AlphaGo - The Movie https://youtu.be/WXuK6gekU1Y
I actually haven't seen it. I need to. At first I didn't want to know too much about go strategy or how other programmers have attacked the problem because I wanted a sort of naive untainted view of things. Which was easy for me, because I'm not much of a go player. Now I'm pretty much roped in to what I'm doing, so I should watch that documentary. I'm playing around. The AlphaGo devs are the real deal.
I feel like you must have seen it given that you're working on this but just in case, the AlphaGo Documentary (2017) was quite good. I bet you'd enjoy it.
I originally watched this on Amazon Prime, but didn’t realize it was now for free on YouTube, which is why I submitted. I suppose I could have put “AlphaGo Documentary on YouTube” or some such ...
(original poster)
What do you make of the documentary on AlphaGo where the AI did seemingly suicidal and incomprehensible moves to the human masters but won in the end, baffling everyone? https://youtu.be/WXuK6gekU1Y
I remember first discovering the game of Go, after watching the AlphaGo Documentary [1]. I highly recommend it, will definitely be signing up for this, I usually play on mobile :)
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
If you haven't seen it, the documentary on DeepMind's AlphaGo is very well done. The climax revolves around the AI expressing what we humans call "creativity" in a match against decorated player Lee Sedol. Watching Lee Sedol's reaction is deeply moving.
Free to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
> a lot of "no-nonsense-just-give-me-the-facts" viewers in the HN demographic would find this type of film very unsatisfying
I disagree with this assertion. The film explores the idea that AlphaGo, like the game of Go itself, raises a lot of questions about what it means to be human. The relationship between AI and humans is developing and a topic of intense interest, especially among the HN crowd. I think what you might be saying is people with a high IQ but low EQ might not relate to this film. I'm sitting here wondering if people like that don't find human/AI intersection interesting because they are already mostly like a computer program themselves so it's not a big deal.
It's a "human interest" type of documentary which means it's deliberately structured as an "emotional narrative".
I think it's fair to say that a lot of "no-nonsense-just-give-me-the-facts" viewers in the HN demographic would find this type of film very unsatisfying. I.e. lots of interviews with virtually no technical explanations.
I quickly scrubbed the film and it looks like it's the same footage from the AlphaGo documentary I saw ~2 years ago:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6700846/
I don't know if this new video url dated "2020" is a different film or if they simply enhanced the 2017 documentary with new footage.
Why do you need to know linear algebra or calculus in programming?
A poignant answer is: you never really know! The future will surprise you!
Watching the movie about AlphaGo and all other stuff DeepMind has done will give you all the answers you need about the why NN.
The question in the first line has an obvious answer and it is just rhetorical. The bigger point is: this mindset doesn't apply just to Neural Networks, many things in mathematics are useful years after they are first invented, and it is better to learn general principles and have an open mind, Richard Feynman style.
The only gripe I had with the writing was the completely unnecessary injection of gender pronoun controversy.
I highly recommend the AlphaGo movie as well, it does a great job documenting the psychology of professional Go in the world of AI.
They mention a documentary on Netflix about AlphaGo. Any recommendations for or against?
Grounding science in mathematical models is the ultimate goal. But usually, technological advancement and discoveries precede scientific discovery and modeling.
We think science that comes first and from science we derive technology. But it is usually the other way around. Technology comes first and from technology, we derive science and even mathematics.
A canonical example is the telescope. It's invention led to newtonian physics and calculus. Another is the microscope, which led to much of modern biology.
If anyone is interested in the history of technology and science, I recommend
"Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction" by McLellan and Dorn
Also, if you have netflix, they have a great documentary called AlphaGo. I don't play Go, but I was able to appreciate the documentary. If play chess like I do, there are lots of youtube videos on the AlphaZero's games against stockfish.
If DeepMind's system is as general as claimed and as competent in other fields as it was in Go and Chess, I think it's fair to say that it could give us insights into current and new science/mathematics.
There has been a big resurgence in Go interest after AlphaGo beat the world champion last year. That made a lot of headlines, and brought in a lot of interest.
The AlphaGo documentary on Netflix is worth watching, if you have an interest in Go, or AI.
FYI: The AlphaGo documentary is now on Netflix.
Saw the AlphaGo movie at a festival recently.
Been following the AlphaGo Zero developments, which leap-frog what was going on in the movie (although still very much worth seeing).
One thing I was curious about is if Go would be considered solved, either hard or weakly solved, since AlphaGo Zero at this point doesn't seem to be able to be beat by any living human. Wikipedia does not list it as solved in either sense, and I was wondering if this was an oversight.
You just pointed out the biggest limitation with this. Even if it can apply the style, that's all it is doing. It doesn't understand the context or content of the film. Everyone knows in the first fifteen minutes of the film of the importance of the monolith and how imposing it is, but the algorithm doesn't. Even image recognition couldn't help you there. In visual art where filters and different media are used, it is rare to non-selectively apply them. Computers with cognition and creativity are a long, long time away. That is why I can't stand people who are scared of some skynet scenario; even if AlphaGo mastered Go or Deep Blue mastered Chess, real-life problems are not so strictly defined and require much more intelligence and insight.