Human player beats go AI KataGo

A human player has beaten an artificial intelligence in the board game go. Although he himself was supported by a computer, it rarely happens that people can win the game against an AI.

The American Kellin Pelrine defeated KataGo bot JBXKata005, an artificial intelligence designed to play the board game go, in 14 of the 15 games. Go is an ancient game in which players try to surround each other on a 19 by 19 board with black and white stones. In recent years, several artificial intelligences have been set up that were intended to win go, the most famous example being Google’s AlphaGo. That won a match against a human for the first time in 2017. Later, a world player quit the game when he thought that the AI ​​would always be better than a human.

Since then, the go models have only gotten better, but as it turns out, they are not completely unbeatable. Pelrine was able to beat KataGo with help from another AI. The American research company FAR AI had its own program play a million games against KataGo to investigate whether KataGo had known vulnerabilities in the game. This resulted in a strategy that Pelrine could then apply in the game. That strategy consisted of Pelrine laying a large loop around the AI’s groups while distracting the AI ​​by placing stones in the corners of the board.

According to the makers, an AI did not necessarily have to be used to find that vulnerability. That was ‘difficult, but not inhumane’, say the makers. Thus, a top-level human player like Pelrine is not supported by the assisting AI during the game itself. Later, Pelrine also managed to beat Leela Zero, an alternate go AI.