Human board game champion again outwitted
by Google program
March 10, 2016
The rise of the machines was on full
display Thursday in Seoul
when a Google computer again defeated the top-ranked human player of Go, the
world's most complex board game.
The computer's second consecutive victory
over Lee Se-dol, the Go world champion, will be seen as a significant
advancement in artificial intelligence.
The South Korean must now win three games
in a row against Google DeepMind's AlphaGo to triumph in the best-of-five
series. The computer won its first match against Lee on Wednesday.
If Lee wins the series, he gets $1 million
and reasserts his title as global champ; a convincing win by AlphaGo would
signal the end of human dominance in the insanely complicated board game.
(Google will donate the prize money to charity.)
Lee, 33, holds the highest possible
professional ranking for a Go player and has been called "the Roger
Federer of Go."
Go originated thousands of years ago in China . During
play, two opponents take turns placing black and white stones on a square grid
of 19 lines by 19 lines. The goal is to take territorial control of the board
by using pieces to surround those of the other player.
Games can last for hours, and winning
requires immense mental stamina, intuition and strategy.
Eaching computers to master Go has been a
kind of holy grail for artificial intelligence scientists. There are more
possible configurations of the board than atoms in the universe, according to
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, which developed AlphaGo.
"Go is the most profound game that
mankind has ever devised," Hassabis said. "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."
Last October, AlphaGo convincingly defeated
the European Go champion, Fan Hui, obliterating him in five consecutive games.
The computer's victory was considered a huge breakthrough, occurring roughly a
decade sooner than experts had expected.
Software programs long ago became adept at
classic board games like backgammon. Their rapid progress culminated in the
historic victory of IBM's Deep Blue computer over world chess champion Gary
Kasparov in 1997.
But it's taken another two decades for
artificial intelligence to get to grips with the mind-boggling complexities of
Go. Until recently, software programs could only compete with human amateurs.
Google researchers say they expect
AlphaGo's technology will be put to use in the company's own apps, and in areas
such as medicine.
Structure of the Lead:
WHO- Lee Se-dol
WHEN- 2016.3.10
WHAT- Human had a board game with Google DeepMind's AlphaGo
WHERE- Korea,Seoul
HOW- Google DeepMind's AlphaGo won the game again
Key words:
1. consecutive 連續的
2. triumph 勝利3. reassert 重新確立
4. territorial 領土的
5. immense 巨大的
6. intuition 直覺
7. configuration 組態
8. culminate 高潮
資料來源: http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/10 /technology/alphago-google-deepmind-go-lee-computer/