Google’s AI beats world Go champion in series (but humans get revenge)

Google’s AI technology has beaten the current Go world Champion in an ongoing series of live TV matches- but the human contentsatnt got his revenge to take the score to 3-1.

AlphaGo wrapped up victory for Google in the DeepMind Challenge Match by winning its third straight game against Go champion Lee Se-dol.

But the 33-year-old South Korean has got at least some level of revenge he defeated AlphaGo, the AI program developed by Google’s DeepMind unit, in the fourth game of a five-game match in Seoul.

According to tweets from DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis, however, this time AlphaGo really did make mistakes. The AI “thought it was doing well, but got confused on move 87,” Hassabis said, later clarifying that it made a mistake on move 79 but only realized its error by 87. AlphaGo adjusts its playing style based on its evaluation of how the game is progressing.

View the match below:

The comeback by Lee poses an interesting question- if AI can learn to beat humans, can humans subsequently learn to beat AI?

The Go Champion entered the post-game press conference to rapturous applause, remarking “I’ve never been congratulated so much just because I won one game!” Lee referred back to his post-match prediction that he would win the series 5-0 or 4-1, saying that this one win feels even more valuable after losing the first three games.

“Lee Se-dol is an incredible player and he was too strong for AlphaGo today,” said Hassabis, adding that the defeat would help DeepMind test the limits of its AI. “For us this loss is very valuable. We’re not sure what happened yet.”

In October 2015, AlphaGo beat the European Go champion, an achievement that was not expected for years.

A computer has beaten the world chess champion (way back inn the 90s against Gary Kasparov), but the Chinese game Go is seen as significantly more complex.

The Go player has won 18 world championships since turning professional at the age of 12.

He said AlphaGo’s early strategy was “excellent” and that he was stunned some unconventional moves it has made that a human never would have played.

The two sides are playing a total of five games over the coming days for a prize of about $1m (£700,000).