Thoughts on AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol - What does Artificial Intelligence mean to our future?

I followed the recent matches of AlphaGo (by Google DeepMind) vs Lee Sedol, and even though I am not a Go player nor a computer scientist, I was genuinely intrigued by the complexity of the game, the intensity of the battle, and the capability of machine learning. AlphaGo is a prototype program that was created 2 years ago, it learned to play Go by playing against top players and itself over and over in order to learn from its mistakes. Since last year, it had defeated Fan Hui, a European Champion Go player, with five straight wins. Before that, computer programs had little success in defeating human players because of the large number of possibilities in the game and the finite playing time. Thus this is a well-anticipated battle to show the improvement and advancement in the latest development of machine learning. Lee, a Korean 9-dan (highest ranking - Divinity) Go master, was often regarded as one of the best players in the world today, played 5 matches against AlphaGo. He had faced tremendous pressure during each game and did not feel like he had any lead at all at any point. By the end of the game 3, he was losing to AlphaGo 0-3. The result caused a lot of emotional responses from the public, which some believed that it is about time that AI is more intelligent than us, and that it will eventually rule the world. Most people started to root for Lee and hoped that he would defend us human beings against machine, and when he won game 4, the world cheered. This got me thinking, is this really a battle between human and machine? Are we trying to draw to a black-and-white conclusion here that the winner (machine) reigns supreme?

After giving it some thoughts, and understanding how powerful machine learning is and what it can do, it is still probably too soon to be worried that AI will take over our world. However, its capability is a wonderful tool for us as it can empower us in an innovative way, and I think this is rather the meaning behind these games.

First of all, the battle is merely in the game of Go. It is only meant to demonstrate the capability of machine learning, and how it is capable to improve itself by learning from others and itself. Then in combination of its uncanny speed in calculating probabilities in each possibility, would be able to solve complex problems and complete very difficult tasks - to the point that it can be better than humans.

However, in real life, there are so much more complex tasks that would still require human inputs in order to be carried out and accomplished. For example, think of our roles in creating arts, performing arts, negotiations, relationship buildings etc. Even though AI can have very high intelligence quotient in solving problems, it lacks emotion quotient (EQ), and this is what makes human input/interaction meaningful and crucial. A lot of times connections and emotions are the keys to getting the jobs done. For example, doing business requires solid relationships/partnerships - people like to do business with those they feel comfortable with and are able to feel connected to; performing the Chopin concertos require deep emotional understanding of the composer and the meaning of the masterpiece etc. All of which would not be achieved without the human part. Our civilization is much broader than just 'intelligence': there are emotions, values, virtues, manner, morale, spirits, religions etc, those are essential part of the civilization which AI does not possess (at least not today).

Furthermore, with the discovery and advancement of machine learning, we should utilize it as a way to assist us to look into things that we might have missed. As the developers in AlphaGo stated, machine learning might even be able to assist the healthcare providers in some day, by identifying problems that we have neglected to observe from individual incidents and cases, and by enough repetitions that translate to learning, coming up with information and ideas on what we should pay further attention to in order to reduce errors and improve the quality of healthcare.

So after all, although there was a clear 'winner' in the battle, it is not a competition between human and AI, but a demonstration of the possibilities and capabilities in machine learning. What can we do instead, is to take this opportunity to reflect on ourselves as human being, on how we can make the best out of AI. We need to have a solid understanding of what we are doing, what we are capable of, and then determine what are the things that we can delegate to AI to make our life easier. We can optimize the strength of AI as a way to make us better human beings by allowing us to achieve more than we could do before with better awareness or resources; then maximize our uniqueness (the human aspect) to innovate, to change, and to accomplish more great things for the world.

Another takeaway from the success of AlphaGo is its ability to "learn and master" the game by playing itself over millions of times through trial and error. It is a good example and a reminder for us that the old saying "Practice Makes Perfect" is still the key to success. Although we might not be able to do the same things a million times, with failure and willingness to succeed, we will gain wisdom and our possibilities are still endless.

Youtube recordings of the 5 matches played by AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol