Virtuoso go-playing AI AlphaGo has secured victory against 18-time world champion Lee Sedol by winning the third straight game of a five-game match in Seoul. AlphaGo is now 3-0 up in the series, but there's no mercy rule here — the remaining games on Sunday and Tuesday will still be played out. AlphaGo is a program developed by DeepMind, a British AI company acquired by Google two years ago. "It’s arguable that in the first two games Lee Sedol was playing differently than his true style, trying to find a weakness in the computer," said commentator Michael Redmond 9P. "Today Lee was definitely playing his own game, from his strong opening to the complicated moves in the final
kō. AlphaGo was ready for everything, including the
kō fights, and was able to take the win. I’d like to congratulate the people who actually made this accomplishment possible, because it’s a work of art.” Korean commentator
Lee Hyunwook 8 added that “Lee Sedol played well. As a professional player myself, I’d like to show my respect to his three consecutive games against AlphaGo, which played almost perfectly. Lee made a few diverse moves at the end of today’s game to understand more about AlphaGo. I look forward to remaining games as well.” - includes reporting by Sam Byford in The Verge. Click here to see the game commentary by Michael Redmond 9P with Chris Garlock, Managing Editor of the American Go E-Journal.photo: Lee Sedol with DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis (left) and Alphabet president Sergey Brin after the third game in the Google DeepMind Challenge.