DeepMind chief reunites with legendary Go player 10 years after historic match
Lee Se-dol, right, a world-renowned Go master and professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, poses after receiving an appreciation plaque from Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis during the Google for Korea 2026 event in Seoul, Wednesday. The event commemorated the 10th anniversary of the five-game Go match between Lee and Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence (AI) system AlphaGo in March 2016. The match is remembered for Lee’s dramatic victory in the fourth game and for heralding the remarkable pace of advances in AI programs. Yonhap
Demis Hassabis, the co-founder of Google DeepMind, reunited Wednesday with Korea's legendary Go player Lee Se-dol, who went up against the company's AlphaGo AI in a legendary human-versus-machine match 10 years ago.
"It's great to be back here kind of the center of where it all started" Hassabis said at the event held by Google in central Seoul, saying that the historic five-game match "signaled the beginning of these incredible advances that happened in the last decade."
When asked about the Lee-AlphaGo match in 2016, the Google executive pointed to the AI's move 37 as the "most incredible moment" that demonstrated that AI can show creativity.
During game two of the 2016 match, AlphaGo made an unconventional shoulder hit on the fifth line for its 37th move, widely considered a pivotal move that secured its victory against Lee.
Such AI creativity can usher in a new "renaissance" of humans flourishing in science, he said, as it did in helping him solve the 50-year-old "protein folding problem," which led to a Nobel prize in 2024.
"I think we could maybe even like solve all diseases in the next 10 to 20 years. We can use these technologies to help the environment and new energy sources," he said.
The father of AlphaGo also mentioned Korea's potential to become one of the leaders in the AI sector.
"It's amazing at manufacturing from chips to robotics, incredible strength in industry, fantastic universities and research institutes," he said. "So I think it has all of the ingredients to be one of the world leaders in this technology."
Hassabis, who has been in Seoul since Monday, has met with President Lee Jae Myung and signed a memorandum of understanding with the science ministry technology partnerships program.
The executive is also said to have held separate meetings with chiefs of local conglomerates, including LG Group and Hyundai Motor Group.