NeuroGammon

[Manoel Fernando Tenorio]

Bcc:
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We need more results like that! Shouted another NN colleague after Tesauro's
message, to which I am quick to agree.

Like probably most of you out there in email land, I got thrilled with the "new
result" that NN claimed. Although my background includes AI, I am not aware of
any other similar results in Machine Intelligence. But I have some doubts about
what actually are the claims that we can intelligently make for NN with this
program. Therefore I am opening it for discussion here. This is in no way to
question or detract from the result, but rather to clarify and qualify future
statements: NN has own a major victory, unparallel in Machine Intelligence, 
playing Backgammon.
1. Can we make the claim that we are doing better that AI (chess) efforts,
   mentioned as one of the AI conerstone results in the Oct88(?) AI magazine
   (AAAI), since it is a different game. I recall Tesauro mentioning in NIPS
   that backgammon was heavily pattern based, as opposed to chess.
2. Is anybody aware of results for NN in chess or AI in backgammon?
3. Could AI do better in a heavily pattern based game?
4. Does Tesauro plans some form of rule estimate to compare game complexity?
5. Should we say that NN are good for this game and not for others, but
   what matters is that what it does is better than the human counterparts
   (maybe that would mean a closer or better computational model to the human 
    one?)
6. how can one better compare this apples and oranges results?
7. How about future results and past claims such as: NN are better than any
   other technique because it can solve the EX-OR problem and chaotic time
   series prediction (parafrased Neruocomputers Sept. 89)

I would like to see a reasonable scientific discussion on the subject, because
I would like to be prepared to answer to the question that will come after 
people read this on the papers (Can you imagine what some of the Media will do
with this new result? "IBM unravels computer that mimics the brain, but beats
any human. It will be call HAL..."). 

-Check'$', mate... (An aussie salute)

--ft.