Google victory at Go stokes AI fear in Korea

摘要

After defeat comes resolve. AlphaGo, the artificial intelligence that has mastered one of our oldest and most complex games -Go - is the toast of Silicon Valley. But in South Korea, where Go is considered a form of expression akin to martial arts, the mood is different. Here, the game pulls in television contracts and corporate sponsors. Scholars study it full time in academies. Now, after 2500 years of tradition in the region, South Korea's top player has been bested by a cyborg, its culture shaken by technology. Watching Google's AlphaGo AI eviscerate Korean grandmaster Lee Sedol put the nation into shock, especially after the national hero confidently predicted that he would sweep AlphaGo aside. The actual result laid bare the power of AI.