Machine Learning Is Different From Past Machine Learning Methods

In the 1980s, computer scientists used to teach machines by what they called "human wisdom" They would feed in all of the grandmaster games so that computers could learn from those examples. Today's AI is where machines are learning on their own just by playing against themselves. The ability to learn from that self play has pushed not just chess, but many, many other games to the level where the machines outperform humans almost always.