[Houshalter]

That assumes a continuous function of Go AI ability. It's not continuous, as alphaGo proves. AlphaGo was a huge leap in ability from the best previous AIs. It was a totally new method, and one given Google scale resources at that.

[semiel]

AlphaGo isn't a fixed strength, though. It's substantially stronger now than it was in October. Obviously it's not a completely continuous function, but I think it's close enough to cause this effect.

[pdpi]

Right, but alphago was the closest thing we have to the transition - yesterday ais were too weak, today they need to try them against world champs to validate their work