[Courtesy of Google Korea]
Lee Sedol, the world champion of the ancient Chinese board game "Go", has ruled out any surprising news in a five-game match with Google's computer program next month, but he suggested artificial intelligence may catch up soon.
Lee predicted a 5-0 or 4-1 victory, saying Google's new computer program AlphaGo is not smart enough to beat a top player like him.
"I heard Google DeepMind's artificial intelligence is surprisingly strong and getting stronger, but I am confident that I can win, at least this time," he told reporters on Monday.
"However, I believe it will not be easy to predict the results one or two years later if artificial intelligence develops further," Lee said.
A prize fund of $1 million is at stake for the match starting on March 9 at a hotel in Seoul. If AlphaGo wins, Google will donate the money to charities including UNICEF.
Google will provide YouTube livestreams of the match. AlphaGo will take on Lee through Google's cloud platform. There will be a two-hour time limit for each player, with a computer expert playing on behalf of the program.
"Regardless of the result, it will be a meaningful event in baduk (Go) history," Lee said.
Demis Hassabis, CEO and cofounder of Google DeepMind, said in a statement: "Go is a game primarily about intuition and feel rather than brute calculation which is what makes it so hard for computers to play well.
"We are honoured and excited to be playing this challenge match against Lee Sedol, a true legend of the game, and whether we win or lose, we hope that the match will inspire new interest in Go from around the world."
The match was set up after Google's new computer program beat European go champion Fan Huia in all five games of a match in October, marking a significant advance for development of artificial intelligence.
The computer's unexpected victory was likened to the defeat of reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 by IBM’s Deep Blue computer, which became a milestone in the advance of artificial intelligence over the human mind.
Computers previously have surpassed humans for other games, including chess, checkers and backgammon. But Go has been seen as the most complex board game with an infinitely greater number of potential moves.
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Park Sae-jin
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