Man versus machine at Go summit
Print Edition
CHINA’S Ke Jie, the world’s No. 1 Go player, is to take on Google’s AlphaGo computer program next month in a match which will pit artificial intelligence against human ingenuity.
Just over a year ago, Google made headlines around the world when AlphaGo beat South Korean champion Lee Se-dol. Up until then, the board game had long been thought of as beyond the reach of artificial intelligence programs because of its notorious complexity.
The 19-year-old Ke has been playing professionally since the age of 10 and has beaten Lee several times in recent years.
According to a list published by Go Ratings in January, Ke is the world’s No. 1 player with 3,627 points followed by AlaphGo on 3,599 points. Lee ranks No. 7 with 3,522 points.
Ke, a native of Lishui in east China’s Zhejiang Province, is to play against the AlphaGo program in a three-game match during the Future of Go Summit, which will be held in Wuzhen in the province from May 23 to 27.
Five of China’s other top professionals will also be testing their talent against AlphaGo.
The summit, organized by Google, the China Go Association and Zhejiang’s sports bureau, will include a forum on the future development of artificial intelligence.
The success of the AlphaGo program is regarded as representative of AI’s rapid development.
Ke said he was honored to be chosen to represent the human world against the computer program. At a news conference in Beijing yesterday, he said he believed AI could be a power for good in people’s lives.
Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of Deepmind, Google’s AI department, said: “Instead of diminishing the game, as some feared, artificial intelligence has actually made human players stronger and more creative.”
In addition to beating Lee last year, the Deepmind team secretly put the AlphaGo AI system onto two Chinese online board game platforms to test its skill in fast-paced games against the world’s best. By January, AlphaGo, with the username Master, had racked up 60 wins and no losses.
After AlphaGo’s victory against Lee, Ke said he was confident he could beat the program. However, when he played Master he lost three times. Ke said he had been aware that Master was AlphaGo in disguise even before its identity was confirmed by Google.
He hasn’t given up hopes of victory. He said he had “one last move’ that would defeat the program.
Illness had prevented him from doing so in the online games. “If I hadn’t been in hospital, I would have used the last move I prepared for a week. It’s a shame,” Ke wrote on his Weibo account.
Go, in which the aim is to surround more territory than your opponent, has simple rules but is incredibly complex.
Google said some of the machine learning methods behind AlphaGo have been used to solve problems such as reducing energy use and in medical research.
AI will play an important role in economic efficiency, online finance, social development and national security in China, according to Wan Gang, minister of science and technology.
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