When I say Google wins, I don’t mean winning in revenue, profit growth, and cultural necessity. We already know they’re winning in that. Now they have artificial intelligence that’s beating humanity’s best and brightest at their own game.
Google’s Alpha Go faced a Korean board game genius named Lee Sedol. They played a board game called Go. Alpha won, 4 games to 1. Keep in mind Go isn’t some tech game craze. Go is a 2,500 year old Asian based board game that’s even harder to play than chess. This was a step helping Alpha Go be put successful in real world applications. In the first three games, Sedol was outsmarted by Alpha Go at nearly every turn. Sedol caught on and won game four in a close dramatic game. Game five started Sedol’s way. In the beginning of that game, Sedol took advantage of a mistake made by Alpha Go. Game five was the most exciting of the series. But in the end, Sedol couldn’t deal with the pressure. Despite losing the series, Sedol is a hailed a hero in his native Korea. Even Sedol appreciates the experience and the Korean people’s support and cheers. Very rarely does being beaten, especially by a machine, makes you a celebrity and hero.
This has happened before. Remember when Watson was on Jeopardy? We learn that these machines don’t get flustered and frustrated. The don’t feel emotion at all. They can’t. That’s the danger behind machines. Yes, they can do things better than most humans can. But machines can’t fell empathy. If you lose your job to some computer or robot, do you think the robot is going to console you? Or even worse, if robots were to destroy humanity, do you think they’re going to feel sorry for us? They can’t. So when a robot, computer, or machine beats a human in a game, is that really a triumph? Or is it a tragedy just waiting to happen?