Memorable Match between AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol
One hint on how to look at ‘artificial intelligence’
Never knew about Go, then and still today
When I look back at the time from the elementary school to middle & high school days, I remember doing a lot of extracurricular activities thanks to my parents.
I started to learn piano, taekwondo, skating and other things before I entered elementary school. After I entered elementary school, I played tennis, table tennis, went skiing and did art every year. Though none of them could bloom to a professional level because of my lack of talent, I think I am still interested in music and art because of my childhood experience.
A good number of my friends did play Go and Chinese chess. But I did not go near neither of them. Especially in the case of Go, I remember that it was perceived as something that only the ‘gifted’ was doing and my parents never suggested me to learn Go. Maybe they were more interested in my physical well being.
During college years, I often saw a lot of my seniors, peers, and juniors gathered at the Club room playing Go. Even then, the thought of playing Go myself never occurred to me.
Since then, the only things that come to my mind about Go were the names of world renowned Korean Go masters like Cho Hoon-hyun and Lee Chang-ho on the news and newspaper pages. Go never caught my attention more than at the superficial level.
However, more than I thought, ‘Go’ is a culture that is familiar with Korean people. According to a 2016 Korea Gallup survey, nearly 10 million Koreans said they know how to play Go. 80% of Koreans believe that Go is an educationally sound activity for their children. In everyday conversation, people often liken the situations of life and work with Go play. There are quite a few Go terminologies that are used in poetic terms, such as ‘replay’, ‘putting flags’, ‘Jeongseok’ for best practice, ‘Jachungsu’ for painting oneself into a corner, ‘Daemabulpae’ for too big to fail, and etc.
2016, Go Match between AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol
For the people in Korea, one of the few countries where Go is popular, the match between AlphaGo and Master Lee Sedol in March 2016, formally known as ‘Google DeepMind Challenge Match,’ was an event that stirred a roller coaster of emotions, starting with ‘confidence’ and ‘curiosity’ and ending with ‘shock’ and ‘confusion’.
I was already quite interested in the topic of ‘artificial intelligence’ at the time although it was only superficial at best. I watched the whole game with interest.
After a shocking three consecutive defeats from the first to the third, Master Lee Sedol finally grabbed a victory with 78th stone, which many call ‘a move by the gods’. (When Master Lee Sedol was asked about the reason for the move after the match, he said, “I couldn’t have anything but that move.” Later, in an interview after the announcement of his retirement from professional Go career in November 2019, he said, “It would have not worked if it was responded correctly, so I still think it’s a bug in AlphaGo, like a bug in Chinese AI, Jeol-Ye.”) This victory of Master Lee Sedol still remains the only human victory ever made against AlphaGo. In the final game, AlphaGo and Master Lee were fiercely engaged, but the game ends with the Master Lee’s defeat.
After the historic match between AI and human went down to a dramatic 4–1 victory by AI, the media and experts drew up a wide variety of opinions on the meaning of the match.
To date, it has become an event to be recorded in the history of AI development and a topic that people most refer to when talking about AI.
Attitude toward AI, learned from the Go Master
I happened to see a documentary called ‘AlphaGo’ on Netflix. Watching this documentary, I came to a realization on what AI AlphaGo’s victory over human Lee Sedol means and how to accept the relationship between AI and humans in the future. It was from the comment that Master Lee Sedol left during his interview with the documentary producer after finishing the fifth game.
“(My impression on AlphaGo’s 37th stone is this.) I thought Alphago was just a machine to do probabilistic calculations for winning. But, at the moment I saw that move, I realized I was wrong. AlphaGo is highly creative. It was a very creative move that really expressed the beauty of Go.”
“What’s amazing is that after all, the creativity we thought we had was actually closed in some sort of a framework. AlphaGo could bring a significant change in the Go world. I think through this experience I am a bit more mature. I will sort it out so that I can develop it a bit more in the future. It was an unforgettable experience to feel that I (newly) found the reason for putting Go (after a match with Alphago), and to go even further, it’s really good thing I did that I chose Go for my profession.”.
After the match between Alphago and Master Lee Sedol, numerous analytical articles on the outcome and about AI and the future of human race appealed on rather dystopian tone that AI will replace human positions in the framework of ‘confrontation between man and machine’, or some on more consoling tone that AI won’t overwhelm humans yet counting on one victory by Master Lee. However, the words of Lee Se-dol, who can be called the ‘loser’ of this match, came to me with great shock and excitement.
With my shallow insight into the history of science and technology, I believe that technology has developed in the direction of increasing the possibility of human prosperity by breaking down the physical and mental constraints of human beings. Technology has extended human physical power through the first industrial revolution of the 18th century and the second industrial revolution of the 19th century. It is no exaggeration to say that through the 3rd Industrial Revolution and the development of numerous new technologies since the 20th century, the limits of human’s physical power as well as intellectual power have been greatly expanded. But it would be fair to say that the portion of intellectual power extended by the technologies up until then are mostly in the area of automation in tasks based on human-defined rules.
Master Lee Sedol is teaching us through the play with Alphago that artificial intelligence, unlike any other technologies in the past, can give us the opportunity to learn new perspectives beyond our limits in the areas of prediction, judgment, and creativity that have been considered unique to humans. In 1997, when chess champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue, most people believed that ‘machines can’t beat humans’ on Go. I understand that the victory of AlphaGo signaled the emergence of the first technology to truly ‘collaborate’ with human beings in order to give us new teachings outside the human experiences and limitation.
Gary Kasparov said, “a good human plus a machine is the best combination.” In March 2016, 37th stone by AlphaGo brought about Lee Sedol’s 78th, and again the match made Master Lee Sedol think about a new perspective and horizon for the game of Go. I am truly looking forward to the moment for all of us to have similar experiences Master Lee had with artificial intelligence.
P.S. I suggest you to check out followings:
A move by AI set another starting point for humanity an article on AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol’ by my friend, Choi Hyung-seop, professor of science and technology history at Seoul National University of Science and Technology.
Don’t fear intelligent machines. Work with them Gary Kasparov’s speech at TED Talk
AlphaGo a documentary on the match between AlphaGo and Master Lee Sedol
