Man beats machine at Go in human victory over AI
A human player unexpectedly and ‘comprehensively’ defeats a top-ranked AI system at the board game Go. In 2016, AlphaGo, developed by AI firm DeepMind, defeated professional South Korean player Lee Sedol in four out of five games, marking a turning point in AI’s progress in a domain once exclusively reserved for humans.
Kellin Pelrine, ‘an American player who is one level below the top amateur ranking,’ defeated an AlphaGo-level system in 14 out of 15 games. He used software developed by California-based FAR AI to find a ‘blind spot’ in the Go-playing AI's techniques. He then played the AI, without direct computer support, to surprising effect. Pelrine’s victories over an AlphaGo-level AI come after Lee Sedol’s own grim retirement announcement in 2019: that AlphaGo is ‘an entity that cannot be defeated.’