Last year, Google’s DeepMind division put its AlphaGo AI against one of world’s top Go players, Lee Se-dol, defeating him in four out of five games, and winning the match. Next month, AlphaGo will battle against the current world number one Go player, Ke Jie, at the “Future of Go Summit” in Wuzhen, China.
DeepMind is collaborating with the China Go Association and the Chinese government for the event, which is noteworthy since Google’s relations with the Chinese government aren’t at their best right now.
According to a blog post by DeepMind co-founder and CEO, Demis Hassabis, the match will be the centerpiece of the event, featuring three games of classic Go between Ke Jie and AlphaGo. The goal is to “push AlphaGo to (...perhaps even beyond!) its limits” with this little experiment.
Hassabis also described Ke Jie’s playstyle in the blog post:
On top of his excellent reading and unshakable confidence, Ke Jie is known to play with a finely balanced style, knowing intuitively when to play boldly or exercise caution.
Among a variety of game formats, the summit will also witness top Chinese Go players playing against each other, but with their very own AlphaGo teammate playing alternative moves.
Of course, DeepMind is still busy replicating the human speech and reading lips, all the while learning to interact with the real world. AlphaGo is only a fraction of what DeepMind is up to, but it plays a terrifyingly exciting part nonetheless.
Source: DeepMind Blog via Business Insider | Image: Artificial Intelligence via Shutterstock