Google wins final Go challenge

The BBC has an article about man versus machine:

Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence has secured its fourth win over a master player, in the final of a five-match challenge.
Lee Se-dol (photo), one of the world's top Go players, won just one of the matches against the AlphaGo program, missing out on the one million dollar prize up for grabs.
Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind, said the match had been the "most exciting and stressful" for his team. Lee Se-dol said he regretted the result of the contest. Lee won only one of the five matches
In Go, players take turn placing stones on a nineteen-by-nineteen grid (photo, below), competing to take control of the most territory. The game is considered to be much more challenging for computers than chess.
At a press conference held after the final match, Lee said he did not necessarily think AlphaGo was superior to humans, but he said he had more studying to do, and admitted the matches had challenged some of his ideas about the game. 

Analysis by Stephen Evans, BBC correspondent in Seoul, South Korea:
The competition has been seen as a landmark moment for artificial intelligence.
In some countries, people watch football on big screens in public squares but, in South Korea, it's been the mighty challenge of machine against humanity, and the victory of the computer has led to some introspection.
One South Korean newspaper complained that the contest was "lopsided", with the single Korean pitted against the corporate might of Google and its "army of super-smart people armed with unfathomable computing power".
In a spirit of magnanimity, however, the Korea Baduk Association, which governs the game of Go, has decided to give an honorary ninth-dan ranking to AlphaGo.
The four-to-one victory has also made some Go players doubt themselves. The European champion, who lost last year to AlphaGo, said it had really knocked his self-confidence, even as it enabled him to climb up the world rankings.
Go was invented about two thousand years or so ago in China. Until now, it has always had a human best player. Not any more.
The five match challenge began in Seoul on 9 March, where AlphaGo scored its first victory. After losing the second match, Lee Se-dol said he was "speechless", adding that the AlphaGo machine played a "nearly perfect game".
In the third game, commentators said that Lee Se-dol had brought his "top game" but that AlphaGo had won "in great style".
DeepMind's winning streak meant it won the one million dollar prize. Google said the money would be donated to UNICEF, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) charities and Go organizations.
Hassabis said: "We have been lucky to witness the incredible culture and excitement surrounding Go. Despite being one of the oldest games in existence, Go this week captured the public's attention across Asia and the world."
The AlphaGo system was developed by British computer company DeepMind, which was bought by Google in 2014.It has built up its expertise by studying older games and  teasing out patterns of play.
Lee Se-dol did win the fourth match against AlphaGo, after which he said: "I've never been congratulated so much because of winning one game."
Despite Lee's overall defeat, rival players have expressed confidence that they could beat the AI. Ahead of the final, China's top ranked Go master Ke Jie said he believed he could beat AlphaGo. He told China Central Television: "In terms of probability, I have a chance to win, but the probability is not as high as I thought before. I think it is sixty per cent in favor of me." 

Analysis by Dr Noel Sharkey, an AI expert:
To beat one of the world's top players, Deep Mind used a mixture of clever strategies to make the search much smaller. Does this mean AI is now smarter than us and will kill us mere humans? Certainly not.
AlphaGo doesn't care if it wins or loses. It doesn't even care if it plays, and it certainly can not make you a cup of tea after the game.
Does it mean that AI will soon take your job? You should be more worried about that.

A brief guide to Go:
Go is thought to date back several thousand years. Using black-and-white stones on a grid, players gain the upper hand by surrounding their opponents pieces with their own. The rules are simpler than those of chess, but a player typically has a choice of two hundred moves, compared with about twenty in chess; there are more possible positions in Go than atoms in the universe, according to DeepMind's team. It can be very difficult to determine who is winning, and many of the top human players rely on instinct.

Rico says he's played Go (badly) and admires anyone who does...