AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence (AI) created by Google’s DeepMind, defeated world champion Lee Sedol of South Korea for the second time on Thursday in a match of the ancient Chinese board game of Go. The result shocked the world once more as it was the least expected. Upon hearing the news of Lee’s defeat, Ke Jie, China’s Go master, was not pleased.
"AlphaGo is not my match now," Ke said in an interview with the Shanghai Daily. "Now facing AlphaGo, I do not feel the same strong instinct of victory when I play a human player, but I still believe I have the advantage. It's 60 percent in favor of me."
Ke had shown eagerness towards playing against Google’s Go-playing AI. He said that he wishes to try his skills against AlphaGo, citing a Chinese proverb. "It’s better to see once than hear dozens of times and it's better to have a try yourself than you see how others play dozens of times.”
Although Ke is confident that he has advantages against AlphaGo, he predicted that AlphaGo will soon overtake humans in Go. “According to the pace of AI's progress, it won't be long for AlphaGo to beat all human players, it may happen a few years later, even a few months later,” he said.
Ke’s wishes to battle against AlphaGo may become true in a few months since Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis expressed his willingness to see Ke as the next opponent against AI.
Ke became a professional Go player in 2008, and was promoted to 9 dan in 2015. He is famous for his all-around style of play. Other professional Go players praise him for having no weakness and his fast play followed with a clean coup de grace, finishing off his opponent.
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