South Korean Go grandmaster Lee Se-Dol said Wednesday that he was surprised about the result of the first game with Google's computer program AlphaGo.
Lee, the reigning world champion of the ancient Chinese board game Go for the past 10 years, was shockingly defeated in Seoul, South Korea, by AlphaGo, a program developed by Google's London-based artificial intelligence (AI) arm during the first of their five-game match.
Lee said that there were two parts of AlphaGo that surprised him during a press conference after the first game.
"In the beginning, I thought AlphaGo would face a lot of difficulties, but its solution ability during the game really surprised me. In addition, AlphaGo astonished me with an incredible move, I was shocked at that moment," he said.
Surprised by the AlphaGo, Lee showed his respect for the Google team who developed the computer program.
When asked whether he was regretful to accept the challenge, he said he enjoyed the game and that he was expecting the next rounds.
"Although today's result is beyond expectation, I still enjoyed it very much. I am eager for the next few matches, and I do not regret at all," Lee said.
Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, also the director of the match, said that Lee would be sure to come up with new strategies in the next showdowns.
"Mr. Lee Se-Dol is going to come up with some new strategies and try some different things tomorrow, and we will have to see again how AlphaGo deals with that, so I think it's going to be very exciting the next few matches," he said.
Seen as a representative match between humans and AI, the match drew great attention from media, Go fans and the general public across the world.
Yang Jae-ho, general secretary of the Korea Baduk Assoiciation, said that it would be a great help to the promotion of Go.
"Actually, the Go was not as popular as it was in the past. Through this match between human and AI, a lot of people who are not familiar with the Go were attracted to it. And the global media also showed great concern about this. It is good for the promotion of Go," he said.
The five-game match will run through next Tuesday, with the second game set to be held on Thursday.
AlphaGo took the world by surprise as it defeated European Go champion Fan Hui in October last year, though some experts had predicted it would take decades for AI to defeat humans.
Go, which originated in China more than 2,500 years ago, has been viewed as a grand challenge for AI due to its complexity and intuitive nature. It involves two players, who take turns putting markers on a grid-shaped board to gain more areas on it. One can occupy the markers of the opponent by surrounding the pieces of the other.
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