I love AlphaGo. It’s the David vs. Goliath of A.I. documentaries.
Will man or machine triumph?
In this case, it’s AlphaGo (from Google DeepMind) versus Lee Sedol (“The Michael Jordan of Go”) in 2016.
They play the 4,000 year-old board game in front of 80 million people.
AlphaGo is so important that it ranks in the “AI History Timeline (1943 to Present)”)
Thx to Gady Costeff (co-creator of Chess Query Language) for the tip.
Trailer
You Can’t Make this Sh*t Up
- “The number of possible configurations on the board of Go is larger than the # of atoms in the universe” — DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis
- Go is so huge in Asia that 80 million people live-watch the big match of AlphaGo versus the best (human) player (Lee Sedol).
Watch AlphaGo here for free!
Watch the full AlphaGo doc for free on YouTube:
Director’s Note — AlphaGo is directed by Greg Kohs (known for “The Great Alone” (on the Iditarod champ Lance Mackey) and “Song Sung Blue” (on a Neil Diamond Tribute Band) .
Vitals:
- Genre: Artificial Intelligence
- Released: 2017
- Doc length: 90 minutes
My highlights from the match are:
- Google Co-founder Sergey Brin (at the 59:07 mark) is seen at the match asking Julian on the DeepMind team “What’s your probability rating…91?…70?” (i.e. what’s AlphaGo’s chances of winning). I think this is somewhere in the first 3 games.
- Eric Schmidt (then CEO of Googl) is seen throughout the atch
- Move 37 — DeepMind’s Move 37 in Game 2 of its match against Lee Sedolwas widely regarded as creative and unexpected. It stunned professional Go players around the world.
- DeepMind wins the first 3 games,
- In game 4, though on the ropes, Lee Sedol plays what the Deep Mind team calls a “1 in 10,000 God move” and comes from behind and wins.
- In game 5, AlphaGo makes a number of what pros say are “mistaken moves”. But it turns out AlphaGo is picking up on an unconventional goal which is to win, not by a lot (which most humans want) but by a tiny margin.
- AlphaGo wins game 5 (and the match)
My favorite quote from the doc:
“I thought AlphaGo was based on probability calculation and it was merely a machine. But when I saw this move I changed my mind. Surely AlphaGo is creative.
This move was really creative and beautiful.”
— Lee Sedol (about AlphaGo’s Move 37)
A Cool Scene
Lee Sedol: “This move…impossible.”
Team Member: “You okay?”
Lee Sedol:: “I thought I knew Go…”
[long pause]
Team Member: “This changes everything.”
My Favorite Highlights
- In ancient China, Japan and Korea, Go (a game older than chess) is a “noble art along the lines of music and traditional arts (painting, sculpture, etc.).
- Breakout Game! — Google’s DeepMind’s training is awesome. Check out how it learns and then masters the video game Breakout.
Lesser Known Fact: AlphaGo’s less-talked-about win shortly after
I read this in “The Coming Wave”book by Mustafa Suleyman who was on the Google DeepMind team:
“Seoul wasn’t the end for AlphaGo. A year later, in May 2017, it took part in a second tournament, this time against the number-one ranked player in the world: Ke Jie.
This matchup took place in Wuzhen, China, at the Future of Go Summit.
Our reception in Wuzhen was strikingly different.
Livestreaming the matches was barred in the People’s Republic. No mention of Google was allowed.
The environment was stricter, more controlled; the narrative closely curated by authorities. No more media circus. The subtext was clear: this wasn’t just a game anymore.
AlphaGo won again, but it did so amid an unmistakably tense atmosphere.
2025 Update: the AlphaGo match in China is featured in the 2024 documentary “The Thinking Game”.
Enjoy!
-Rob Kelly