Top Stories

PlayStation and Xbox are not in a ‘console war.’ They’re racing in different directions.

We do know, however, that it’ll have a really good launch year in terms of its game offerings. Surprisingly good, in fact. Thursday’s PlayStation 5 reveal was trailer after trailer of new entries into several franchises within Sony’s first-party stable, including “Horizon: Forbidden West,” “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart” and “Demon’s Souls.” The event was […]

Top Stories

Coronavirus: German contact-tracing app takes different path to NHS

Germany’s forthcoming coronavirus contact-tracing app will trigger alerts only if users test positive for Covid-19. That puts it at odds with the NHS app, which instead relies on users self-diagnosing via an on-screen questionnaire. UK health chiefs have said the questionnaire is a key reason they are pursuing a “centralised” design despite privacy campaigners’ protests. […]

Gaming

Move over AlphaGo: AlphaZero taught itself to play three different games

Enlarge / Starting from random play and knowing just the game rules, AlphaZero defeated a world champion program in the games of Go, chess, and shogi (Japanese chess). DeepMind Technologies, Ltd. Google’s DeepMind—the group that brought you the champion game-playing AIs AlphaGo and AlphaGoZero—is back with a new, improved, and more-generalized version. Dubbed AlphaZero, this […]