The five matches between champion Go player Lee Sedol and Google’s artificial intelligence program Alpha has come to a close. AlphaGo came out on top, beating the 9-dan professional player four times.
The AP noted that this game was thought to be unbeatable by a computer. The head of the DeepMind team, Demis Hassabis, said that Sedol stretched AlphaGo to its limits, and now the team can use the mistakes and successes from the matches to further improve AI.
According to NPR, Sedol took the loss personally, and didn’t want people to think this means a human can never beat AlphaGo.
“I don’t know what to say,” Sedol said, according to NPR. “I kind of felt powerless.”
The matches are available to watch on YouTube.
Take a selfie, make a purchase at Amazon
Amazon has recently filed a patent application for a process that would allow shoppers to make a purchase by taking a photo and or video of themselves rather than inputting their account password.
The application is related to a separate patent Amazon holds for a technology that allows a device to authenticate a user via a photo or video. This is not necessary to complete a transaction, reported Re/code. The current application is designed to make it safe for shoppers to buy something online by relying on images of themselves instead of typing in a password.
Under the scenario in the patent application, a phone or computer “can prompt the user to perform certain actions, motions or gestures, such as to smile, blink, or tilt his or her head,” reported Re/code.
New CloudBees certification program for Jenkins engineers
CloudBees announced the rollout of a professional certification program for both Jenkins and CloudBees Jenkins Platform engineers. This technical certification will allow value to be added to engineers, teams and employees.
CloudBees developed the certification program in collaboration with a certification advisory board comprised of Jenkins subject-matter experts, as well as CloudBees customers and partners. Registration for the certification opened today and engineers can take the exam in Prometric test centers starting May 12.
The program offers two options for certifications:
- Certified Jenkins Engineer for demonstrated knowledge and hands-on experience in the use of the open-source Jenkins server and plugin ecosystem
- Certified CloudBees Jenkins Platform Engineer for certification of additional, specific knowledge and hands-on experience in the use of the CloudBees Jenkins Platform, which adds enterprise functionality on top of the open-source Jenkins server
Achieving this certification can help engineers build credibility, and gain additional Jenkins knowledge, said CloudBees. More information about certification is available here.