Retired Because Couldn’t Enjoy Playing Baduk Anymore
Lee Sedol, a professional Go player who played a historic match against Google's DeepMind AI AlphaGo 8 years ago, revealed that "many things that people once revered, such as creativity, have disappeared since the rise of AI."
In an interview with the American daily newspaper The New York Times (NYT) on the 10th (local time), Lee Sedol said, "People used to have awe for creativity, originality, and innovation. But since AI appeared, many of those things have vanished."
Lee Sedol faced Google's DeepMind Go AI AlphaGo in 2016 and lost with a record of 1 win and 4 losses. At the time, the defeat of the human top player Lee Sedol 9-dan by AlphaGo was received as a huge shock.
Three years later, in 2019, he submitted his resignation to the Korea Baduk Association and ended his 25-year professional career with a retirement match against the AI 'Handol.'
Lee Sedol told the NYT, "Losing to AI meant, in some sense, that my entire world was collapsing." Reflecting on the match with AlphaGo, he said, "I thought AI would eventually beat humans. But I believed it was not yet time."
He confessed that it was difficult to accept the fact that he lost to AlphaGo. The NYT reported that what he once regarded as a form of art, an extension of a player's personality and style, has now been abandoned for the ruthless efficiency of algorithms.
Lee Sedol added, "I could no longer enjoy playing matches," and "so I retired." Meanwhile, Lee Sedol runs an academy teaching Go to children. While giving lectures about AI, he strives to inform people about things he wishes he had known before competing against AlphaGo.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
