Google DeepMind Wins Second Game Against Go Grandmaster

Go grandmaster was left “speechless” after Google’s DeepMind AI computer won a second game against him. Lee Se-Dol, the reigning human champion of two-player Chinese strategy board game Go, has now lost the first two of five proposed games against the Google-made artificial intelligence, which is running the AlphaGo system to compete, in a result that even surprised the AI’s designers.

Demis Hassabis, Chief Executive of Google DeepMind, expressed his shock at AlphaGo’s second victory on Twitter, writing: “#AlphaGo wins match 2, to take a 2-0 lead!! Hard for us to believe. AlphaGo played some beautiful creative moves in this game. Mega-tense…”

Go, which is considered the most complex strategy board game ever created, is played on a 19×19 squared board, on to which players place “stones” – the player’s pieces, which are black for one player and white for the other – with the aim of dominating the majority of the board.

Lee said that he could not detect a weakness in AlphaGo’s strategy, telling the Financial Times, ““At no time did I feel that I was leading, and I thought that AlphaGo played a near-perfect game.” Speaking after the first game, Lee said that he “was very surprised because I did not think I would lose the game.”

AlphaGo only needs one more win to take the series.