After Google-owned DeepMind’s virtual Go champion AlphaGo took on and defeated one of the top-ranked human players in the world, it looks like Google wants to build some bridges, explore the AI-human interaction dynamic – and see if AlphaGo can take on the very best human Go player in the entire world.
Google is partnering with the China Go Association and the Chinese Government to host some of China’s top Go players and AI researchers from China and Google at a summit May 23-27 designed to test the upper limits of its AI, as well as give human players a chance to study the unusual strategies AlphaGo has put into play in the age-old game.
The five day “Future of Go Summit” will include special match variants where professional Chinese Go players will face off against one another in partnership with an AlphaGo AI teammate, alternating moves between human and computer players. Another match will put a team of humans working in concert against AlphaGo, and finally, AlphaGo will take on Ke Jie, the top-ranked Go player in the world, in a traditional three-game match.
Piggybacking on the Go festival is a forum hosting AI experts from across China, with discussions about AlphaGo’s progress, its supporting technologies and its potential applications in helping solve real world problems.
The most interesting part of this event might be the tandem matches: it should be very interesting to see how both humans and AlphaGo react to one another when their strategy has to take into account intervening moves made by their opposite number.