The match between Lee Sedol vs Google’s artificial intelligence programme AlphaGo has captivated South Korea. For the human player, who has won 47 Go events in the world’s toughest game, “AlphaGo played a perfect game”. US million prize is up for grabs.
Seoul (AsiaNews) – After winning 47 Go events and 18 international trophies, the best Go player in the world suffered his second consecutive defeat against Google’s artificial intelligence programme AlphaGo.
Lee Sedol threw in the towel after a four-hour showdown that has riveted South Korea.
More than 75,000 people watched the event live, but the video of the match was seen online by more than 5 million in South Korea alone.
Go is described as the toughest game in the world. The aim for two players to seize a larger total area on a board, which has 369 intersections on a 19×19 grid of lines. A full set of Go stones usually contains 181 black stones and 180 white ones.
The player with the greater number of controlled (surrounded) points (intersections) wins the game.
In Japan, some businessmen see it as analogous to marketing. Instead of destroying one’s opponent like in chess, there is room for everyone, except that one gains a larger market share.
In his second match, Lee dropped his game in 211 moves. In the first match, he threw in the towel in 186 moves. The next matches are slated for next Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday.
"From the start, I never thought I was taking the lead," he said after the match. "Yesterday, I felt something strange in its moves, but today, I think "AlphaGo played a perfect game."
Lee, 33, a ninth-dan Go master who went professional at the age of 12, has been forced to retreat from his comment of winning 5-0 or 4-1 in his favour.
After his first loss on Wednesday, Lee said that it is now a 50-50 game. Now "I will now try to put my best foot forward to win at least one game," he said.
The South Korean now has to win all the remaining three matches to collect the US$ 1 million prize. However, if AlphaGo wins, the prize money will be donated to UNICEF and other charities.
For many in South Korea, the issue has come down to who will dominate the game, whether humans are still better than machines.