This weekend marked a milestone in AI development: Google’s DeepMind AI, AlphaGo, beat legendary Korean player Lee Sedol, a 9 dan ranked player, at Go, a game which experts felt was a decade away from computer mastery. The score currently stands at 3-1 out of 5, so Lee has already lost the set, but the final game will be played today at around 3pm Australian time. Livestream addresses and links to commentary in various languages are available on the Reddit /r/baduk megathread. DeepMind did this by giving AlphaGo amateur Go game data to look at, and then having AlphaGo play against itself for millions of games. It chooses moves based on which move gives it the highest win probability at the time.
What is Go?
Go, or baduk, or weiqi, is a game with over 2,500 years of history. It is a game that is both simple and complex, played on a 19×19 board with white and black stones, and is one of the oldest board games in the world. It was once considered one of the four essential arts of a Chinese scholar, and is still a game, like Chess, where it’s possible to play fully at a pro level, being massively popular in East Asia. There are still Go academies where children train from ages as young as 5.
Weekend highlights
+ In the first game, it’s possible that Lee Sedol, who thought he would win 5-0 or 4-1, didn’t take the game seriously enough and was taken by surprise.
+ In the second game, AlphaGo played a move that no human player would play, shocking Lee Sedol into leaving the room briefly. Fan Hui, the European champion that AlphaGo had previously beaten 5-0, called it beautiful.
+ Wait, so AlphaGo has beaten a pro before? Yes, but Fan Hui is a 2 dan pro, Lee Sedol is at the top of the game, at 9 dan ranking (though he is not the current top ranked player)
+ How is South Korea taking it? Very, very seriously – the match is front page news in South Korea, where it’s being played at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul. And after the win:
The moment AlphaGo resigned, an enormous cheer rose from the Korean commentary room and its throng of Korean reporters and photographers. And then came the applause in the English room. A day before, the atmosphere was palpably solemn. But on Sunday, Lee Sedol did find a weakness in AlphaGo. And the mood changed. The human could win after all.
Last game: 15 March 2016 1pm KST. English Newbie Livestream | English Pro Livestream