Linked List: March 9, 2016

Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Jeff Bezos Lifts Veil on His Rocket Company, Blue Origin ★

Kenneth Chang, reporting for the NYT:

The headquarters of Blue Origin, the secretive rocket company in an industrial park here, is anonymous, with not even a sign at the road to announce the occupants.

On Tuesday, for the first time, Blue Origin, started by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, opened its doors to reporters.

“Welcome to Blue,” Mr. Bezos said. “Thank you for coming.”

Interesting how Bezos is going head-to-head against Elon Musk and SpaceX.

Google’s DeepMind Defeats Legendary Go Player Lee Se-Dol in Historic Victory ★

Sam Byford, reporting for The Verge from Korea:

Go is an ancient Chinese board game that has long been considered one of the great challenges faced by AI. While computer programs now best the world’s leading human players of games like checkers and chess, the high level of intuition and evaluation required by Go has made it tough for computers to crack. DeepMind’s AlphaGo program is the most advanced effort yet, using a complex system of deep neural networks and machine learning; it beat European champion Fan Hui last year, but Lee Se-dol is another proposition entirely.

“I don’t regret accepting this challenge,” said Lee. “I am in shock, I admit that, but what’s done is done. I enjoyed this game and look forward to the next. I think I failed on the opening layout so if I do a better job on the opening aspect I think I will be able to increase my probability of winning.” Lee was surprised both by how strong AlphaGo’s opening was, and by some unexpected moves.

Update: DeepMind won game 2 as well.

Forbes: ‘Amid Mounting Questions, Dropbox Tops 500 Million Users and Says Growth Continues Apace’ ★

Miguel Helft, writing for Forbes:

As investor sentiment toward ”unicorns” has turned over the past few months, Dropbox has been besieged with questions about everything from its $10 billion valuation to the viability of its business.

On Monday, the company sought to rebut skeptics, saying its growth trajectory remains as strong as ever. Speaking at the FORBES CIO Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Dennis Woodside, the chief operating officer, said Dropbox now has 500 million users, up from 400 million in June of last year.

“We are continuing the scaling of the business across both consumer and enterprise,” Woodside told FORBES in an interview.

I hope they’re doing well — to call Dropbox “essential” is an understatement.