> not unlike what was done by Go Seigen and others in the Shin Fuseki era

That is the crux of it though; we're seeing the same effect as every time a new strong player arises. That doesn't scream "wow, this is like when chess engines discovered impossible new lines!".

It was probably a matter of time until some human pro started winning with the 3-3 invasion for example. It isn't like 3-3 invasions are a radical new thing, professional play just underweighted them. I've played amateurs who loved 3-3 invasions.

There is no question that the neural nets are substantially stronger than humans and that they're causing a monumental rethink of all aspects of the game. They're a big deal. But the difference is that they are bringing a very large number of innovations all at once, combined with far more accurate reading, rather than that any individual innovation is special.

It is really difficult for one sequence in Go to be special, because it is so common for a special sequence to happen.

I remember reading that humans play the corners and edges of the board, where the game is somewhat understandable given a combination of keen perception, pattern recognition, and concrete calculation. It is on the other hand inhumanly hard to understand playing further in the board interior (other than by reaching it incrementally from the edges), maybe excepting a few legendary players like Go Seigen. But the AI's have been going there and doing stuff, letting humans learn things that were previously unknown.

That doesn't sound right. Humans and AIs play in the corners and on the sides first because that is where it is easier to make points. One of the traits of how neural nets learn Go is they start by learning to fight and then quickly realise that the corners are more important than the centre. AIs largely confirmed the usual human pattern.

AIs have changed all the details about what is considered an acceptable result in the corners.

Although AI do brutally outplay humans in the centre when the game gets there, no question. Normally after outplaying them everywhere else first.

> That is the crux of it though; we're seeing the same effect as every time a new strong player arises.

Ok, I agree with you there. It's like AlphaGo is the next in the line of Dosaku -> Shusaku -> Go Seigen. These types of players that have revolutionized the game have been very rare, and I see AlphaGo as fitting into that mold.

> That doesn't scream "wow, this is like when chess engines discovered impossible new lines!".

I admittedly don't know enough about chess to understand this aspect of the discussion.