Google's AI machine has perfected the game of Go, moving on to other domains

Is there anything AI systems can't do?

Chan Cheow Pong | May 28, 2017, 10:41 PM

At one point during his third and final game with the artificial intelligence machine AlphaGo at the Future of Go Summit in Wuzhen, China on Saturday (May 27), 19 year-old Chinese grandmaster Ke Jie, the world's top Go player left his seat to get away from the full glare of cameras.

According to a report by China Xinhua News Agency, Ke went behind the stage to spend some time alone as his tears flowed. Reporters seated more than 10 metres away at the audience area could hear his sobbing.

It took Ke more than 20 minutes to collect his emotions before he took his seat and continued the game.

Ke had already lost twice to AlphaGo on May 23 and 25. On Saturday, he admitted defeat after three and a half hour into the showdown.

What is Go?

Known as one of the great intellectual mind sports of the world, Go, known as weiqi in China, igo in Japan, and baduk in Korea, is an abstract board game that dates back nearly 3,000 years.

The ancient game of strategy is played across a 19 x 19 grid that’s drawn with lines over a wooden board. Two players take turns placing black and white stones to surround points on the grid. They claim territory when their stones completely surround and capture their opponent’s stones. When there are no more moves to make, the player who controls more of the board is the winner.

Human players become experts through years of practice, honing their intuition and learning to recognize gameplay patterns.

Why AlphaGo's win is such a big deal

So what had reduced a Chinese board game grandmaster to tears? It was artificial intelligence (AI) at its best.

According to Ke who was still emotional at the press conference after the game, AlphaGo played a game that was "way too perfect", "it had no weaknesses and there were no emotions involved" as the machine was "exceedingly calm" and it "denied you any hope for a win".

JIAXING, CHINA - MAY 27: Chinese Go player Ke Jie (R) attends the press conference after his third round game against Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo during the Future of Go Summit at Wuzhen Town on May 27, 2017 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province of China. 19-year-old Chinese player Ke Jie loses all three games against AlphaGo. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

AlphaGo's unexpected and dramatic victory over legendary South Korean Go player Lee Se-dol 4-1 in March 2016 had been a huge moment in the history of AI.

But the comprehensive defeat of Ke has now settled the matter of beating a top Go player with artificial intelligence once and for all - a feat once thought to be decades away.

After its latest victory over Ke, DeepMind, the Google-owned artificial intelligence lab who developed AlphaGo announced that it would be the last event match the AI machine plays.

DeepMind will release the data from 50 games of the AI playing against itself for the Go community to study. DeepMind is also working on a teaching tool based on AlphaGo to be released sometime in the future.

This was what DeepMind co-founder and co-CEO Demis Hassabis said in a statement:

This week’s series of thrilling games with the world’s best players, in the country where Go originated, has been the highest possible pinnacle for AlphaGo as a competitive program. For that reason, the Future of Go Summit is our final match event with AlphaGo.

The research team behind AlphaGo will now throw their energy into the next set of grand challenges, developing advanced general algorithms that could one day help scientists as they tackle some of our most complex problems, such as finding new cures for diseases, dramatically reducing energy consumption, or inventing revolutionary new materials. If AI systems prove they are able to unearth significant new knowledge and strategies in these domains too, the breakthroughs could be truly remarkable. We can’t wait to see what comes next.

The world awaits with bated breath.

All photos from Getty Image

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