Human vs. Computer Go: Review and Prospect

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development of computer Go, highlighting AlphaGo's historic victory over Lee Sedol as a major milestone in AI, and discusses future implications for education and real-world applications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of computer Go milestones, techniques used in AlphaGo, and professional insights, offering a forward-looking perspective on AI progress in Go.

Findings

AlphaGo's victory marked a milestone in AI development.

Computer Go programs have evolved significantly from 1998 to 2016.

Future applications include Go education and AI in real-world scenarios.

Abstract

The Google DeepMind challenge match in March 2016 was a historic achievement for computer Go development. This article discusses the development of computational intelligence (CI) and its relative strength in comparison with human intelligence for the game of Go. We first summarize the milestones achieved for computer Go from 1998 to 2016. Then, the computer Go programs that have participated in previous IEEE CIS competitions as well as methods and techniques used in AlphaGo are briefly introduced. Commentaries from three high-level professional Go players on the five AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol games are also included. We conclude that AlphaGo beating Lee Sedol is a huge achievement in artificial intelligence (AI) based largely on CI methods. In the future, powerful computer Go programs such as AlphaGo are expected to be instrumental in promoting Go education and AI real-world applications.