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| Lee Sedol plays AlphaGo in a historic human-AI go game in Seoul in 2016. In the five-game match, Lee managed to win only one game. The result is not so bad considering Lee is still the only human go player to win against AlphaGo. |
By Park Si-soo
Go grandmaster Lee Sedol will sit down next month for a three-round match against a domestically developed artificial-intelligence (AI) rival.
According to reports, the match will take place from Dec. 18 to 20 ― the first two games in Seoul and the third in Shinan, South Jeolla Province, Lee's hometown.
For Lee, 36 ― the only human to prevail over Google's go-playing AI AlphaGo in a game in 2016 ― the event will be his farewell as a professional player. He declared his retirement last week.
Lee's AI rival, Handol, was developed by NHN, the Korean tech giant operating the nation's biggest portal Naver. Handol will play the game based on data collected through a popular online go game NHN has run since 1999.
AI experts are paying close attention to the match because it will demonstrate how far South Korea has come in AI development.
Handol's record shows the match will be challenging for Lee. In January, it crushed five top-level Korean go players in a row and was third in an international tournament in Shandong, China, in August.
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