American Go E-Journal » Computer Go/AI

Excerpted and adapted from a report in The New York Times 

“Last year, (AlphaGo) was still quite humanlike when it played,” said Ke Jie 9P after the first match against the go-playing AI Tuesday. “But this year, it became like a god of Go.”
“AlphaGo is improving too fast,” Ke said in a news conference after the game. “AlphaGo is like a different player this year compared to last year.”
Mr. Ke, who smiled and shook his head as AlphaGo finished out the game, said afterward that his was a “bitter smile.” After he finishes this week’s match, he said, he would focus more on playing against human opponents, noting that the gap between humans and computers was becoming too great. He would treat the software more as a teacher, he said, to get inspiration and new ideas about moves.
Chinese officials perhaps unwittingly demonstrated their conflicted feelings at the victory by software backed by a company from the United States, as they cut off live streams of the contest within the mainland even as the official news media promoted the promise of artificial intelligence.

Excerpted from Wired 
This week’s match is AlphaGo’s first public appearance with its new architecture, which allows the machine to learn the game almost entirely from play against itself, relying less on data generated by humans. In theory, this means DeepMind’s technology can more easily learn any task.
Underpinned by machine learning techniques that are already reinventing everything from internet services to healthcare to robotics, AlphaGo is a proxy for the future of artificial intelligence.
This was underlined as the first game began and (DeepMind CEO Demis) Hassabis (in photo) revealed that AlphaGo’s new architecture was better suited to tasks outside the world of games. Among other things, he said, the system could help accelerate the progress of scientific research and significantly improve the efficiency of national power grids.

DeepMind Match 1 wrap up
“There was a cut that quite shocked me,” said Ke Jie, “because it was a move that would never happen in a human-to-human Go match. But, afterwards I analyzed the move and I found that it was very good. It is one move with two or even more purposes. We call it one stone, two birds.”
“Ke Jie started with moves that he had learned from the Master series of games earlier this year, adding those new moves to his repertoire,” said Michael Redmond 9P. “Ke Jie used the lower board invasion point similar to AlphaGo in the Masters games, and this was a move that was unheard of before then. Although this was one of the most difficult moves for us to understand, in the last month or players have been making their own translations and interpretations of it.”
“Every move AlphaGo plays is surprising and is out of our imagination,” said Stephanie Yin 1P. “Those moves completely overthrow the basic knowledge of Go. AlphaGo is now a teacher for all of us.”

photos: (top) courtesy China Stringer Network, via Reuters (middle) Noah Sheldon/Wired (bottom) DeepMind

American go clubs across the country are making plans to watch the upcoming AlphaGo-Ke Jie match. AGA chapters that hold an AlphaGo viewing party are eligible for $100 of (non-alcohol) expenses from the AGA’s chapter rewards points pool (read more here). Participating chapters thus far include the National Go Center in Washington, DC, Seattle, Austin and Durham. If your chapter is planning a watch party, email details to us at journal@usgo.org

The National Go Center’s watch party starts at 10:30p Monday night and runs until the match ends; pizza will be provided. The Center will be open for play starting at 9p and is located at 4652 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20016. “We’ll also be open for the remaining events,” reports Nate Eagle, including Tuesday starting at 7p and staying open for the Future of Go forum at 9p, Wednesday starting at 7p and staying open for the game starting at 10:30p, Thursday starting at 6p and staying open for the Pair Go / Team Play starting at 8:30p, and Friday starting at 7p and staying open for the final game starting at 10:30p. Click here for the up-to-date listings.

The Seattle Go Center reports that it will be open late to watch all five AlphaGo events.  The full Seattle schedule is on their calendar.  “We had over 60 players for the first AlphaGo/Lee Sedol game, and there is a lot of interest in this match between Ke Jie and AlphaGo as well”, reports Manager Brian Allen.

The Austin Go Club will be sponsoring a watch party on Monday evening for the first game of the Alpha Go vs Ke Jie match; check their Facebook page for details. The Triangle Go Group will host an AlphaGo viewing party on Wednesday evening at the EcoLounge at Recyclique, 2811 Hillsborough Rd, in Durham. “We’ll discuss and review the first game and thanks to the AGA, we’ll enjoy pizza as we try to digest the future of go,” says Bob Bacon. “This will be fun!”

The Neo Millennium Go Club will hold an AlphaGo vs Ke Jie watch party between 3pm and 6pm on May 28th in Andover, Massachusetts (497 South Main Street).  Jie Liang, Zhiping You and Ke Lu will be the main commentators.

photo by Brian Allen: Following the 2nd AlphaGo/Lee Sedol game
This story has been updated with the Millennium Go Club party.