Human champion certain he’ll beat A.I. at ancient Chinese game

February 22, 2016
Baduk player Lee Se-dol (Korea Times file)

Baduk player Lee Se-dol
(Korea Times file)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The world champion of the ancient Chinese board game Go (called baduk in Korea), South Korean Lee Sedol, says he will prevail in a match with Google’s computer program AlphaGo next month.

Lee said Monday that he would not rule out being defeated if they face off next year, but in March, he expects a five to zero or four to one victory in his favor.

Computers have surpassed humans in other games, including chess. But Go is considered the most challenging for artificial intelligence to master because of its intuitive nature and complexity.

AlphaGo defeated a professional Go player for the first time in October, something that experts had predicted would take a decade.