A computer dubbed AlphaGo, created by Google-owned DeepMind, has defeated 18-time Go world champion Lee Se-dol for the third time.
This is the third straight win for the AI in a five-game match. The two remaining games on Sunday and on Tuesday will still be played despite the obvious.
Lee, the South-Korean professional Go player, expressed his sentiments in a post-match press conference.
"I am very sorry for the powerless display," Lee said. "Though I have a lot of experience in Go I have never felt before such severe pressure as I do now, and I suppose my abilities were a bit lacking to overcome that."
Lee's apology was heartfelt, and he did not hide his dismay from his losses. After all, he was aiming to win against the machine, not just to protect his own reputation and title as the best Go player in the World, but also because he is representing the human race in a mind game against artificial intelligence.
However, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis had a different point of view from AlphaGo's victory. They knew that in order to fully see the capacity of the computer, they have to defeat the best, and they still recognize, even after the win, that Lee holds that position.
"To be honest we are a bit stunned and speechless," Hassabis said. "AlphaGo can compute tens of thousand positions a second, but it's amazing that Lee Se-dol is able to compete with that and push AlphaGo to the limit. We came here to challenge Lee Se-dol because we wanted to see what AlphaGo was capable of, and his amazing genius and creative skills have done that."
The minds behind AlphaGo are proud of this achievement but are aware that the computer is still far from what the human brain is capable of.
Go is a board game from China that involves a 19-by-19 grid where players will take turns in placing either black or white stones and try to possess as much territory as possible by laying more stones than the opponent, and by owning the enemy areas as their own by surrounding the opposite color with their own. It is said that the number of possible moves in this board game is greater than the number of atoms in the universe, making it a more difficult game than Chess. This also implies that this AI win is a bigger achievement than IBM's 1997 victory over world chess Gary Kasparov, at least according to AI expert David Levy.
The match can be viewed below:
