Google AI machine beats Go master in world's hardest board game

On Wednesday, Google DeepMind's AlphaGo notched a new milestone in artificial intelligence, beating a champion player in one of the world's oldest and probably most complex board game, Go. The Go master, Lee Se-dol of South Korea, had initially predicted he would beat AlphaGo in at least four of the five scheduled games, arguing that the 3,000-year-old Chinese game requires "human intuition." Some AI experts had agreed.

"I am very surprised because I have never thought I would lose," Lee said after falling to the AI software in Game 1. "I didn't know that AlphaGo would play such a perfect Go." He still put his odds of prevailing in the best-of-five series at 50-50. He'll have his next shot on Tuesday, for Game 2. The victory of Google's DeepMind over the human mind is being compared to IBM Big Blue's defeat of chess grand master Gary Kasparov in 1997. Demis Hassabis, the founder and head of DeepMind, called the win a "historic moment," adding, "Really, the only game left after chess is Go."

Go is a two-player strategy game where you use black or white stones to try and win territory on a board. Instead of considering the seemingly infinite options, AlphaGo had already taught itself to improve and pick the best moves by playing millions of games against itself and the numerous Go games you can play online.

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Matches between man and machine are almost always lopsided in one direction. "But every once in awhile, a technological moment comes when the man-machine match-up gives us a fight worth watching," says Erik German at Quartz. "(Just ask John Henry.) DeepMind vs. Lee Se-dol is one of those moments." Game 1 took three and a half hours to play, but BBC News sped that up to a brisk 25 seconds. You can watch below. Peter Weber