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You are viewing: > Home > News & Events > News > Behind the scenes at Google DeepMind Challenge Match: AlphaGo versus Lee Se-dol
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Behind the scenes at Google DeepMind Challenge Match: AlphaGo versus Lee Se-dol


Chris Maddison PhD student and AlphaGo researcher

Rarely, if ever, do the worlds of algorithms and board games evoke images of two fighters in the ring, but it was billed as the ultimate challenge. Seven days, five matches, a nerve-wracking four to five hours per game – and a $1 million prize at stake.

On one side of the table, AlphaGo, a computer program developed by artificial intelligence researchers at Google DeepMind in London, England. On the other side, Lee Se-dol of South Korea, considered the world’s top-ranked (human) Go player.

“Computer strategies can be very different from human strategies,” said Chris Maddison, a Massey College fellow and PhD student in the department of computer science. “To measure the strength of a computer program you can see how often it wins against other programs, but it’s hard to know whether those metrics are even accurate – until you match a computer against a human.”

Maddison is among the research contributors to AlphaGo – a group that includes U of T alumni Timothy Lillicrap (cognitive science) and Ilya Sutskever (computer science). He attended the Google DeepMind Challenge Match March 8 to 15 at the Four Seasons Hotel in South Korea, where AlphaGo dared its second human player, having previously beat European Go champion, Fan Hui, 5-0.

“Fan Hui is a professional, and a great player,” said Maddison. “But our next goal was to challenge Lee Se-dol, the strongest player of the last decade and an iconic figure in the Go world.”

Read the full story at U of T News


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