Docu review: Alphago - the movie(2017)

I'm not a huge fan of documentaries. They tend to bore me but every once in a while I'll watch a good one that is actually interesting. I know. I'm one of those people. Action, adventure, excitement, passion, it's what I like in a story. Documentaries tend to be non-fiction and we all know how dull someone's daily life can get. I liked this one and found it interesting and inspiring.

The opening of the movie starts out with someone talking about the game and we see flashes of people playing the game. He says there's nothing like the game of go and it's like putting your hand on the rails of the universe. I like how he put it but I'm not sure if I'd put it quite like that. He goes on and says that this game makes us want to understand what it's about and shows us how little we do understand. This reminds me of times as a hot-headed teenager we just want to think we know until we realize that we don't really know. We think we understand something or someone or that something is easy but when we dig deeper we find more and all the details we missed.

There are things in life that are easy and that's good when it is. Other times it requires thoughtfulness, hard work, faithfulness and focus.

The film then introduces Google Deepmind's founder, Demis Hassabis, who is interested in the development of artificial intelligence. Note that this company is not in America but in Britain. It turns out he's a former chess champion. I missed this when I first watched it. I somehow thought he just played it for fun as a kid but after watching it again I realized that he had won a tournament as a kid. He said he loved playing games and bought his first computer with the money he won from a chess tournament.

The film progresses to introduce Fan Hui the European go champion. Interestingly Fan Hui said he moved to Europe to forget go/wei qi but he is unable to and ends up becoming the champion. The film shows him teaching aspiring players on a beautiful day outside of some stores. He is contacted by Deepmind to go in and play against this computer program Hassabis has constructed with his team. Fan Hui decides to check it out and unfortunately ends up losing at every game. It was an unprecedented moment in go history since there hadn't been a computer program good enough to beat a professional. When they realized this program was that good they set their sights on bigger goals and it landed on the world champion Lee Sedol.

Lee Sedol had heard of this program and watched it beat Fan Hui who was not as strong a player as him and had an optimistic view about things. He didn't think the machine could beat him. They proposed a five match tournament which he accepted and they soon set a time and place. It would take place in his country of South Korea.

This will probably go down in go history as one of the biggest events and it was. There was the red carpet, cameras all around, interviews and it was broadcast on television for all to see. The games didn't happen all in one day and was played on different days. By the end of the fourth match Lee Sedol had managed to only win one. It was better than Fan Hui but it was not the all-kill he had predicted he'd win.

There was nationwide shock as the computer program, Alphago, developed by a team of top engineers beats the go world's champ. The five game match concludes 5-1 and Alphago is the winner. It is a crushing blow for those who didn't think a computer program would ever be good enough at the game for such a feat.

What will happen now to the go community that a computer is too strong even for the world champion?

This question hangs in the air and is like an ominous sign for the future of go. There are a couple things that i noticed which I'd like to point out. There was an entire team behind Alphago the whole way. It does not seem fair to put one person up against a team and their expertly honed program. Another thing is that this program, Alphago, needs a large amount of computing power. There was not one small or even big machine set up, there were several machines, several monitors, lots of wires and they needed an entire room or more for their operation. I don't know if this was them keeping tabs on the program for research but it makes me question things.

It seems a.i. is still a ways off from running efficiently, especially when it comes to go.

This film is a thumbs up for me. I liked how they featured go/wei qi as a game that wasn't just a mental challenge but an experience worth pursuing. It is fun. It is challenging and it is a lifestyle for those who know how to enjoy it. It showcased interesting points and posed questions worth pursuing and answering. It doesn't matter if the viewer is a total beginner or a seasoned player, it will still be a good watch. I hope people will watch this film, take note of interesting developments and learn that go is not just a challenge and game to play but can show us things about life and how to really solve the problems we are faced.