KOREA HERALD (2nd Class)
Published : 2016-03-08 17:43
Updated : 2016-03-08 22:08
Updated : 2016-03-08 22:08
Go champion Lee Se-dol took the stage to talk about his readiness
at a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday, a day before his historic
showdown with Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo.
The 33-year-old who had refused to hide his confidence in the upcoming five-day matches seemed more cautious and anxious than before. Speaking in front of some 300 journalists, his voice trembled at times.
“As the match is just around the corner, I feel quite nervous,” said the top-ranking nine-dan Go player with 18 international titles.
“Now I have a better understanding of the algorithms behind AlphaGo. I think it won’t be a 5-0 win.”
Lee, who is known for his straightforward comments on matches and opponents, earlier said he would have a 5-0 victory because AlphaGo lacks intuition and judgment that are highly required for Go players.
Sporting a new haircut, he was not completely dispirited, saying he would “try” to sweep the five matches and show the beauty of Go -- an abstract strategy board game that originated in East Asia -- to the world.
Amid mixed outlook for the human vs. AI matches, Alphabet -- Google’s parent company -- executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who has visited Seoul to watch the matches in person, said: “It will be a great day for humanity.”
“Advanced AI and machine learning will make humans smarter and a better world,” he added.
During the press conference, Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, the developer of AlphaGo, also introduced how AlphaGo has prepared for the upcoming matches. Google acquired DeepMind in 2014.
According to Hassabis, AlphaGo has absorbed a massive amount of data from about 100,000 Go games downloaded from the Web and self-trained to mimic moves of human Go players. He added it is still continuing to learn and evolve.
Even with some handicaps, the Google AI has shown a winning rate of 75 percent against other Go programs.
Fan Hui, the three-time European Go champion and the only professional player to play against AlphaGo, also attended the media event, saying he could not predict the outcome. In October, he suffered a 5-0 defeat to the AI.
“Everyone wants to know the result. We need to wait and see,” he said.
The first game between Lee and AlphaGo is set to begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul. The following four matches are scheduled for March 10, 12, 13 and 15. The winner of the tournament will take a $1 million prize.
By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com
The 33-year-old who had refused to hide his confidence in the upcoming five-day matches seemed more cautious and anxious than before. Speaking in front of some 300 journalists, his voice trembled at times.
“As the match is just around the corner, I feel quite nervous,” said the top-ranking nine-dan Go player with 18 international titles.
“Now I have a better understanding of the algorithms behind AlphaGo. I think it won’t be a 5-0 win.”
 |
| Lee Se-dol (Yonhap) |
Lee, who is known for his straightforward comments on matches and opponents, earlier said he would have a 5-0 victory because AlphaGo lacks intuition and judgment that are highly required for Go players.
Sporting a new haircut, he was not completely dispirited, saying he would “try” to sweep the five matches and show the beauty of Go -- an abstract strategy board game that originated in East Asia -- to the world.
Amid mixed outlook for the human vs. AI matches, Alphabet -- Google’s parent company -- executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who has visited Seoul to watch the matches in person, said: “It will be a great day for humanity.”
“Advanced AI and machine learning will make humans smarter and a better world,” he added.
During the press conference, Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, the developer of AlphaGo, also introduced how AlphaGo has prepared for the upcoming matches. Google acquired DeepMind in 2014.
 |
| (From left) Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, Go champion Lee Se-dol and Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google’s holding company Alphabet pose after a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday.(Google Korea) |
According to Hassabis, AlphaGo has absorbed a massive amount of data from about 100,000 Go games downloaded from the Web and self-trained to mimic moves of human Go players. He added it is still continuing to learn and evolve.
Even with some handicaps, the Google AI has shown a winning rate of 75 percent against other Go programs.
Fan Hui, the three-time European Go champion and the only professional player to play against AlphaGo, also attended the media event, saying he could not predict the outcome. In October, he suffered a 5-0 defeat to the AI.
“Everyone wants to know the result. We need to wait and see,” he said.
The first game between Lee and AlphaGo is set to begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul. The following four matches are scheduled for March 10, 12, 13 and 15. The winner of the tournament will take a $1 million prize.
By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com
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There are many e-games where you can play with artificial intelligence(AI). E-chess would be the one of your favourite e-games you usually play with it. My opinion of this match is man's victory because of a side of human being. Also, It could be better look for human to win this game in terms of computer which is the thing human has created. Otherwise, alphaGo might win, it could happen that computer based on AI might be able to conquer human's life like a science fiction in coming future.
1) what would it be your side of this match? and why do you think?
2) what are the advantages and disadvantagesof AI in your life?
3) Life of future will be more developed AI around you. What do you think?
