After beating one of the smartest Go players in the world, Google’s DeepMind AlphaGo artificial intelligence is about to take on an even better player. This time around, the number one Go player in the world is going to try to beat Google’s AI at what’s regarded at the toughest game in the world for computers.
What’s even more amazing about the whole thing is that Ke Jie, the Chinese Go prodigy in question, is just 18 years old.
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AlphaGo beat Lee Se-dol in March, winning four out of the five games that took place. In fact, AlphaGo won three straight games in a row against the human, settling the dispute long before the fifth match. However, as Ars Technica points out, Lee was the world’s top-rated Go Player between 2007 and 2011 and was ranked fourth when he faced AlphaGo.
At the time, Ke made fun of AlphaGo on social networks, refusing a potential game against Google’s AI.
“I don’t want to compete with AlphaGo because judging from its matches with Lee, AlphaGo is weaker than me. I don’t want AlphaGo to copy my style,” he wrote on Weibo, defying AlphaGo. “Even if AlphaGo can defeat Lee Se-dol, it can’t beat me.”
He changed tune soon after AlphaGo won the third game. ““AlphaGo was perfect and made no mistake. If the conditions are the same, it is highly likely that I can lose,” he said.
Since then, it appears that Ke changed his mind, and he wants to try to beat the computer. The historic game will take place at some point this year, although there’s no firm date for this exciting face off. Both sides are “inclined to make it happen,” Ars says. Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that International Go Federation executive member Yang Jun’an announced on Sunday that Ke will play AlphaGo by the end of the year.
