Ke Jie versus AlphaGo (file photo)

“Last year, it was still like a human when it played. But this year, it is like a god of Go,” said Ke Jie, the world’s No.1 human Go player, after his defeat by Google’s AlphaGo Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their first game of Go - an ancient board game.

Last year, AlphaGo’s victory over South Korean Go player Lee Se-dol shocked the whole world. However, people are not so surprised by its win over the world’s best Go player this time. “The chance of Ke Jie to win is merely 10%, though he is the only human being to create this 10% chance on the planet,” said Hu Yaoyu, a professional Go player.

Many people are not familiar with Go, an ancient and mysterious intellectual game from China. According to the game rules, the number of possible games of Go is 10^768, while that of chess is only 10^120. These two are not even in the same order of magnitude. Therefore, many people regard Go as the last pride of Human Intelligence, the last dignity of human beings in the new era of AI. However, as AlphaGo won again and again, AI seems to have more possibility to “burst” on Human Intelligence.

Nevertheless, we don’t have to be so frustrated. Whether AlphaGo defeats humanity or not, the very last winner is still human as AI is an embodiment of human wisdom. As long as we develop it step by step, strengthen the management of regulations and techniques, it will only benefit and inspire mankind in the future. As Ke Jie said after the game, “There are too many possibilities of the moves. I’m also inspired by AlphaGo to widely broaden my minds.”