Kei Jei, the world’s greatest human Go player, has lost the first game against Google’s AlphaGo, despite employing the AI’s own tactics.
Although it is widely accepted that artificial intelligence will one day be able to beat humans at just about any game, that does not mean we have stopped trying. In the latest attempt to topple the AI king of Go, Google’s AlphaGo is currently up 2-0, though the world’s greatest human mind has made it a dogfight with some surprising tactics.
It’s been two decades since supercomputers were used to beat the world’s best chess players, which is why over the past few years Go, the far more complex game, has been the subject of much research by AI developers and game players alike. But despite humanity’s greatest efforts, they have been toppled time and again, leading some to resort to some interesting tactics.
Following a loss to AlphaGo earlier this week where 19-year-old Go prodigy, Ke Jie used its own strategies against it, he rallied in a second game and once again came razor close to defeating the Google algorithm. DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis said that based on AlphaGo’s evaluations of Jie’s moves, he played a perfect game for the first 100 moves or so.
He said that this was the “closest we’ ve seen anyone play against the master version of AlphaGo.”
Jie himself felt the shift in momentum in his direction at one point, stating that by the mid-point of the game he thought he might have the AI on the ropes. “But maybe that’s not what Alpha Go was thinking, ” he said, taking the loss in his stride.
Part of the reason Jie may have been able to play so effectively against AlphaGo is that he has learned from playing against it. In his first game against the AI, he used strategies learned from a loss against AlphaGo earlier this year. While it did not help him win, according to Hassabis, it did lead to some exciting gameplay.
Even though both matches have so far been very competitive, with the AI system only just scraping a win by a slim margin, ArsTechnica points out that AlphaGo is programmed to aim for victory alone rather than trying to dominate the opposition. However, the feat is still impressive and suggests that while AI may have the advantage in Go play, the best human minds can still give it a run for its money.
Indeed, Jie is not done yet. He still has one more game to play on Saturday. AlphaGo is also set to try its luck against a team of five pro players as part of an exhibition game on Friday. Perhaps the combined might of high-tier players will be enough to topple what is arguably the greatest Go mind ever created, even if it is an artificial one.
Updated on 05-25-2017 by Jon Martindale: Added results from game two, including live-stream video.
