Google AI goes 2:0 vs. human champion in momentous Go match

Yesterday, Google's AI AlphaGo became the first computer player to beat a world champion at Go, the Chinese strategy game once thought to be too complex for AIs. 

Today, AlphaGo won the second match (out of possible five) vs. 9 dan professional player and world champion Lee Sedol, making it two in a row. One more win, and AlphaGo wins the match; Sedol, on the other hand, has to win the remaining three matches to come on top. 

The DeepMind Challenge Match is a five-game challenge played at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul. Lee is playing for a prize of $1 million; should AlphaGo emerge victorious, Google will donate the $1 million to UNICEF, STEM and Go charities.

In the first match, Lee resigned with half an hour left on his clock (both players have a total of two hours to play their moves, with three overtimes). In the second match, he did a little better against the computer, resigning in the second overtime, in which he had less than a minute to make a move.

At a press conference after the match, Lee said the loss left him "speechless."

"It was a clear loss on my part. From the beginning there was no moment I thought I was leading," he said.

In January, Google's AlphaGo AI beat the European Champ Fan Hui, showing for the first time that it has a chance against Go professionals. But the unprecedented two-in-a-row against one of the most dominant Go players of the last decade shows that Google's AI can consistently win against the very best human opponents. 

The next three matches are scheduled to be played Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. You can watch them live on YouTube, here.

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