AI raises profound philosophical questions

Famous world Go player Lee Se-dol has lost the first two of his five-game match with AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence, or AI, program developed by Google, in Seoul. Since the South Korean Lee was supposed to be representing not only himself but also the human race as a whole, he knows the meaning of the defeat.

I carefully went through their first game's manual twice and was shocked by AlphaGo's exquisite algorithm, efficient computing power and its "personality" as a Go player. Despite being driven by artificial intelligence, AlphaGo has a transcendental view of the big picture and the ability to identify its opponent's weaknesses. It made up for its two mistakes soon, and was merciless in its attack on the "impregnable" zone Lee had created. But after taking the lead, AlphaGo's movements were unhurried despite continuing to pressure Lee.

People who don't know about Go may not understand why the match is so important. Go is an old strategic board game, and the result is decided not just by ingenious calculations, but also by the players' personalities, moods and feelings. From a Go player's manual, you can walk into his or her personal world. The accepted view before the game was that given the complications of Go, it was impossible for an AI program to win against humans. That has changed.