Lee Se-dol lost the 5-match series, but finally managed to eke out a win against the undefeated machine.
Earlier in the week, Google challenged world Go champion Lee Se-dol to battle it’s “DeepMind” AI program: AlphaGo in a 5-match series. Lee chuckled at the idea, initially predicting that he would be able to beat the machine in straight sets. But his smile turned to dismay when AlphaGo won the first three games, securing victory for the machines once again. However, despite having already lost the series, Lee was out for blood, and in the 4th game finally proved that man can triumph over machine.
This marks the first time AlphaGo has ever been defeated by a human player, having beaten European Go champion Fan Hui last year 5-0.
Lee entered the post-game press conference to rapturous applause, remarking “I’ve never been congratulated so much just because I won one game!”
As for how he managed to win, according to Tweets from DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis, it may have been a “mistake” on AlphaGo’s part. “[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 is able to dynamically adjust its play style based on how the game is progressing at any particular point in time.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords, and would like apologize on behalf of humanity for this grave act of insolence.
Source: The Verge
