Final preparations are nearly complete...
for what's surely to become the biggest high-profile
game of Go in modern day history.
It's a match up of human versus artificial
intelligence.
In one corner...
Lee Se-dol, the reigning human grandmaster....
His opponent?...
Google's AlphaGO supercomputer.
But as our Kim Ji-yeon reports, there's more
than money that's on the line in this million
dollar match.
The most highly anticipated Go match of the
century... is set to open in Seoul on Wednesday.
It's considered to be the biggest followup
to the 1997 chess match between Russian champ
Garry Kasparov and IBM's supercomputer Deep
Blue -- and that time computer won.
Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind Technologies
and developer of AlphaGO, hopes for a similar
outcome.
He arrived in the Korean capital on Monday,
joining his crew that's been prepping the
supercomputer, including final checks on facilities
and Internet connectivity, to make sure that
all goes smoothly on game day.
And the pressure is on... since the complex
game is being viewed as a litmus for how far
artificial intelligence has come and how far
it will go.
The first two games of the match will be held
on Wednesday and Thursday.
Game three will follow on Saturday, while
the final two games are scheduled for the
13th and 15th.
All games will begin at 1 PM, local time and
streamed live on YouTube.
Now each game could take as long as five hours
given that basic ground rules allow each player
a total two-hour time limit to make their
moves.
Hassabis said he's excited and nervous and
is sticking to his claims that AlphaGO has
a 50-50 chance.
But grandmaster Lee has said he'll win in
a landslide to take home the million dollar
prize.
The Korean public thinks so too....
A four-day survey of more than a thousand
adults by the Korea Press Foundation last
month... showed over 56-percent of respondents
think grandmaster Lee will win a majority
of the games,... while 31-percent expected
AlphaGO to come out on top.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.
