[Seattle Go Center] The return of AI study group & some Discord announcements

First off, I'd like to invite everyone to join the SGC Discord server if you haven't joined already:

We've recently made some improvements, with more to come, and we welcome anyone who is looking for more Go content or players to connect with. Even if you're not interested in the below topics (for which the Discord server will be the most direct conduit for ongoing information), we encourage you to join if you are looking to connect with other SGC community members in a more fluid and open format than our weekly Zoom hangouts.

With that said, I'm now happy to announce the return of the Go AI study group! Obviously, we'll be doing things online this time, utilizing a combination of Discord and Twitch. For those not already in the know, I got started with streaming on Twitch a couple months ago and have been streaming Go games on Tuesdays during our weekly hangout:

Starting on Feb 6th, I will now be streaming regularly on Saturday evenings as well from 6:30-8:30p, as I do my best to conduct the AI study sessions from the Discord server. My intent is to replicate the format we used before as best as possible, with 30-45 minutes of lecturing a topic or showcasing code, and then 1-1.5 hours of Q&A, troubleshooting, and open discussion. Again, if you'd like to participate you are encouraged to join the Discord server and check the ai-programming channel for further updates (such as: there will be a dry run this Saturday, where I'll be ham-fistedly working through making sure I'm as organized and set up for this as I think I am, but I won't be doing the opening lecture I have planned for the 6th).

I will briefly emphasize that high-powered computing resources are certainly helpful, but by no means required to participate. Much of the code in our repository can be run on a commercial-grade laptop, and there are many free and/or cheap computing resources on the internet that you can tap into later, if it comes to that. Please don't let hardware hold you back!

With regards to the Discord server, please contact me or either SGC manager with any feedback you have on the server layout, bot integration, or anything else; we're happy to hear about what works well for people and what they want to get out of our server. Also we have some Steam keys for the new game Conquest of Go, which we have been and will be distributing through the Discord, so please see the announcements channel if you're interested in getting your hands on one of those keys. Lastly, I'd like to quickly solicit volunteers from the community for hosting our weekly hangouts in the Discord; by "hosting", all I mean is hanging out in one of the voice channels and welcoming and helping to orient newcomers to the server. If that sounds like something you'd be willing to donate a few hours a week to, please little r me on this email or DM me on Discord.

I think that covers everything, hopefully. Don't hesitate to hit me with questions if you have any, and I hope to see you all online soon!

-Drew