A human Go player gets the upper hand

Future champ. © iStock.

In 2016, a computer beat a human champion in the game of Go using DeepMind Technologies’ AlphaGo software. This AI victory made the news because Go is often considered the most complex of all board games. In a recent, unexpected reversal, a human player, Kellin Pelrine, got the upper hand over the computer by winning 14 out of 15 games against the AI. Pelrine resorted to a trick: he used a program specially designed to detect previously unknown AI weaknesses. The tactic, identified by the software during more than a million games, involves progressively assembling a large ring of stones to encircle one of the opponent’s groups, while distracting the AI with movements in other corners of the board. Even when the containment was nearly complete, the Go robot player did not detect its vulnerability, which any human player would have quickly noticed. Basically, the AI was thrown off by a very unusual game strategy that had probably not been part of its training data.

⇨ Ars Technica, Richard Waters, “Man beats machine at Go in human victory over AI.”

2023-02-19