Nov 28, 2019 11:14:00

The world champion who lost to Go AI 'AlphaGo' retired as a player saying 'I can not beat AI'

Lee Sedol, who has won the Go world title nearly 20 times and is regarded as one of the strongest players since 2000, has submitted his resignation to the Korean Go Institute on November 19, 2019, according to Korean media. Yonhap News reports. Lee, who once fought against Go AI ``

AlphaGo '' developed by AI company DeepMind and lost, said that one of the reasons for his retirement was ``the overwhelming strength of Go AI such as AlphaGo.''

(Yonhap Interview) Go master Lee says he quits unable to win over AI Go players | Yonhap News Agency
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20191127004800315

Former Go champion beaten by DeepMind retires after declaring AI invincible - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/27/20985260/ai-go-alphago-lee-se-dol-retired-deepmind-defeat

Lee started playing Go at the age of 6, and entered the rank at the age of 12. With his creative style that is not bound by rules, he has won countless victories in league matches and world championships in Korea, and is known as the 'Demon King of the Korean Chess World.' It is a chess player called.

In March 2016, Lee played AlphaGo , developed by DeepMind, a company acquired by Google, in a best-of-five match. but lost 4-1. When AlphaGo defeated Lee, the world's strongest Go player, it was described as 'for the first time artificial intelligence surpassed humans in Go'.

``Artificial intelligence vs. the world's strongest shogi player'' Go match, artificial intelligence AlphaGo wins, wins the first match of the 5th game - GIGAZINE

In the 5th match with AlphaGo, Lee won one win in the 4th match. Mr. Lee evaluates the victory in this fourth round as 'I just won the bug of AlphaGo.' Initially, the commentators were watching the 4th game as well, saying, ``There is no chance for Lee to win.'' The situation is reversed. Perhaps because the 78th move was beyond AlphaGo's expectations, AlphaGo suddenly made bad moves after the 79th move. Ultimately, AlphaGo conceded on move 181.

by

Wesalius

Yonhap News said, ``Lee's 78th move is still praised as a 'brilliant and sacred move' that gave hope to people who were dissatisfied with AI.' However, the Lee shogi player said, ``My 78th move was not a frank move against AlphaGo.Fine Art (a Chinese Go program) has a similar problem.Fine Art. is a strong AI that can withstand a two-stone handicap against humans, but when it loses, it loses a lot.The victory in the fourth game is due to a bug.'

Lee told Yonhap News that he was very frustrated when he lost three games in a row to AlphaGo, saying, 'I rarely read comments on net news, but after losing three games in a row to AlphaGo, I wondered how much I would lose. I was curious to see if any bad words were directed at me, but surprisingly few people criticized me.'

Lee also said, ``Frankly, I felt a kind of defeat even before the match with AlphaGo began.The people at DeepMind showed great confidence from the beginning.'' Even if it becomes, there is an existence that can not be defeated, ”he hints that the overwhelming strength of AlphaGo is one of the reasons for his retirement.

Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, told the technical media The Verge, ``Lee showed a 'true warrior spirit' in his match against AlphaGo. Lee is handed down as the best Go player of his generation. That's right,' he said.

In addition, it seems that Lee will continue to play Go even if he retires as a professional player, and plans to play against another Go AI in December 2019. Regarding some media reports that ``Lee, who is very popular in South Korea, will go into politics after retiring,'' he flatly denied that ``politics is not suitable for me.''