World Champion Go Player Retires Ai Cannot Be Defeated

Speaking to reporters from the Yonhap News Agency in Seoul earlier this week, Se-dol said: Se-dol’s 24-year career includes wins over dozens of the world’s top players, including a stint as world champion. He faced DeepMind’s AlphaGo in five matches during March of 2016 where he managed to come away with just a single win. Prior to the bouts, Se-dol predicted he’d win by “a landslide,” and by all reports he was flat-out stunned when the AI repeatedly beat him. Still, Se-dol remains the only player to date to have beaten AlphaGo in straight-up official tournament play. This makes his retirement all the more worrisome — he’s one of the only humans on the planet capable of going toe-to-toe with the machine. It’s worth pointing out that Yonhap News Agency further reports Se-dol’s retirement was also related to an ongoing legal dispute: When we think about AI disrupting industry and displacing workers we usually consider factories and farmers. But here, we see evidence that the rise of AI has a potentially curbing effect on human competitiveness at the elite, world-class level. That’s certainly some cause for concern. H/t: The Verge