A.I.: How Patterns Helped Artificial Intelligence Defeat World Champion Lee Sedol

The stage was set for a showdown: Man v. Machine. On March 9, 2016, the AlphaGo artificial intelligence computer program played the board game, GO, against the world champion, Lee Sedol. The Game: Go is the oldest board game in the world. Games are perfect tests for A.I because they keep score. It’s easy to see when the A.I. is improving. The Man: Korean Lee Sedol was the world’s top Go player. He expected to win all five games of the match. Could the A.I. teach him anything? The Machine: Developed in 2014, AlphaGo was a computer artificial intelligence program designed to play Go by using deep learning to recognize patterns in the game. It had already beaten the European champion. Could it defeat Sedol? The exciting historic meeting of minds unfolded across five difficult games. This story introduces concepts of artificial intelligence and helps kids understand the challenges and the promise of working with A.I. MOMENTS IN SCIENCE COLLECTION, Book 6This exciting series focuses on small moments in science that made a difference.- BURN: Michael Faraday’s Candle- CLANG! Ernst Chladni’s Sound Experiments (2019 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book)- POLLEN: Darwin’s 130 Year Prediction (Junior Library Guild selection, Starred Kirkus Review. 2020 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book)- ECLIPSE: How the 1919 Eclipse Proved Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity- EROSION: How Hugh Bennett Saved America’s Soil and Ended the Dust Bowl (2021 NCSS Notable Social Studies Book)- AI: How Pattern Recognition Helped Artificial Intelligence Defeat World Champion Lee Sedol