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World top Go player Ke Jie still confident to beat AlphaGo, for now

Xinhua, March 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

World top Go player Ke Jie still believes he is the one to beat artificial intelligence program AlphaGo who just thrashed South Korean grandmaster Lee See-dol but admits his chance of winning dwindles fast as the Go-playing system self-improves at a stunning pace.

Developed by Google's London-based AI subsidiary DeepMind, AlphaGo Tuesday ended a historic match of the ancient Chinese board game with Lee by clinching the final match to win the best-of-five series 4-1 over 7 days.

Ke, the youngest player with three world titles, who had claimed "AlphaGo can't beat me" before the much-hyped contest, kept up his confidence.

"I believe I can beat it. Machines can be very strong in many aspects but still have loopholes in certain calculations," said the 18-year-old.

But the Chinese player was aware that his winning chance will become slimmer as time goes by due to AlphaGo's super strong learning ability.

"It can teach itself and evolves better and better. It is hard to predict (who is going to win) after some time," he said.

A few days earlier, Ke put his winning ratio at 60 percent.

It has been eagerly anticipated, at least in China and by DeepMind developers, that Ke takes on AlphaGo in next Man vs. Machines Go contest.

DeepMind's CEO Demis Hassabis had expressed the willingness to invite Ke as AlphaGo's next opponent while the company's research scientist Raia Hadsell raised the challenge directly.

"Up for a match, Ke Jie?" she said on her Facebook page after AlphaGo won a ranking in human Go Ratings, a 4th place 3533 points following its defeat to Lee on Sunday. AlphaGo's rating has climbed to 2nd on Wednesday.

Ke, currently world number one in Go Ratings, defeated Qiu Jun ninth dan to win the 2nd Bailing Cup final, and became a new world champion, on January 14, 2015 when he was just at a level of fourth dan.

Then Ke, already acquired Go's highest level of ninth dan, won the 2015 Samsung Cup by defeating Shi Yue on December 9, in Shanghai, becoming the first player to win two major international titles in a single year since Lee's feat in 2011.

Ke was born in 1997 and became a pro in 2008. His performance wasn't especially notable until 2013, but somehow he became very strong and powerful in 2014.

Go, most popular in China, Japan and South Korea, is a complex ancient Chinese board game played on a board with a 19x19 grid of black lines as two contestants move black and white stones with the aim of seizing the most territory. Endit