Mar 11, 2016 The first of five matches between Google’s artificial intelligence software and the world champion of an ancient Chinese board game called Go, Lee Sedol, recently held in Seoul.
Go, which is popular in China, South Korea and Japan, is a strategy board game in which two players place black and white pieces on a square grid with the aim of taking up more “territory” than their opponent.
AlphaGo, built by Google subsidiary DeepMind, became the first computer programme to beat a human professional Go player last October, when it swept a five-game match against three-time European Go champion Fan Hui.
Speaking at a news conference, Demis Hassabis, founder and CEO of Google DeepMind said:
“I think the message we want to send with this game with this AlphaGo system is how flexible and powerful learning algorithms can be, so you know, they can address very interesting problems. And hopefully, you know, the other message we would like get out is that no matter what the outcome of the match, I think it will be a testament to the power of human ingenuity,”
Also speaking prior to the match, World champion Lee, said he would put up a tough match against the machine.
“After listening to the explanation about algorithm, I now think (AlphaGo) can emulate human intuition to a certain degree. Therefore, I don’t think there will be much difference. And I would not let my guard down…Of course, I can lose (the match) to the computer. However, the value of Go will still be maintained because the computer does not understand the beauty of Go and human beings. Therefore, I will do my best to protect these human values in this match,”