Artificial intelligence: Google's AlphaGo beats Go
master Lee Se-dol
12 March 2016
Google's AlphaGo program was playing against Lee
Se-dol in Seoul, in South Korea. Mr Lee had been confident he would win before
the competition started. The Chinese board game is considered to be a much more
complex challenge for a computer than chess."AlphaGo played consistently
from beginning to the end while Lee, as he is only human, showed some mental
vulnerability," one of Lee's former coaches, Kwon Kap-Yong, told the AFP
news agency. Mr Lee is considered a champion Go player; having won numerous
professional tournaments in a long, successful career. Go is a game of two
players who take turns putting black or white stones on a 19-by-19 grid.
Players win by taking control of the most territory on the board, which they
achieve by surrounding their opponent's pieces with their own.In the first game
of the series, AlphaGo triumphed by a very narrow margin - Mr Lee had led for
most of the match, but AlphaGo managed to build up a strong lead in its closing
stages.After losing the second match to Deep Mind, Lee Se-dol said he was
"speechless" adding that the AlphaGo machine played a "nearly
perfect game".The two experts who provided commentary for the YouTube
stream of for the third game said that it had been a complicated match to
follow.They said that Lee Se-dol had brought his "top game" but that
AlphaGo had won "in great style".The AlphaGo system was developed by
British computer company DeepMind which was bought by Google in 2014.It has
built up its expertise by studying older games and teasing out patterns of
play. And, according to DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis, it has also
spent a lot of time just playing the game."It played itself, different
versions of itself, millions and millions of times and each time got
incrementally slightly better - it learns from its mistakes," he told the
BBC before the matches started.This virtuous circle of constant improvement
meant the super computer went into the five-match series stronger than when it
beat the European champion late last year.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- Lee
Se-dol
WHEN- 12 March
WHAT- Alpha Go
WHY- Not given
WHERE- Seoul, South Korea
HOW-not given
Keywords:
1. consistently (.adv) 一致地
2. vulnerability (.n) 弱點
3. commentary (.n) 評論
4. virtuous (.adj) 善良的
