Google's AlphaGo defeats Go grandmaster in final match

South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol attends a press conference after finishing the final match of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo.  [Photo/IC]

Lee's first victory over AlphaGo indicated that AI hasn't surpassed humans completely in Go, which had been regarded as the last game humans can dominate over machines due to its complex, intuitive and creative nature.

AlphaGo boasts of a deep learning capability to learn for itself and discover new strategies by playing games against itself and adjusting neural networks based on a trial-and-error process known as reinforcement learning.

Lee is regarded as one of the greatest Go players in the world as he won 18 world championships for 21 years of his professional career. He recorded a winning rate of about 70 percent with 47 victories in professional matches.

Go, known as Weiqi in China and Baduk in South Korea, originated from China thousands of years ago. It involves two players who take turns putting white and black stones on a grid of 19 lines by 19 lines. One can win an opponent when gaining more territory on the grid. One can remove stones of the opponent by surrounding the pieces.