Tencent Throws Computing Muscle Into Go

(Beijing) — The ancient board game of Go has a new fan from the high-tech realm, with the tournament debut of a computer that internet giant Tencent hopes will become the pastime’s newest master.
Tencent’s cyber Go master, known as Fine Art, made its first major appearance in Tokyo this week at the futuristic UEC Cup tournament where all the competitors are computers. The match marked the first trip outside China for Fine Art, which took the overseas step at the tender age of less than 1 year old.
Fine Art advanced to the final 16 in the tournament’s first phase, and then took the championship by defeating a Japanese rival named DeepZenGo. This year’s tournament featured 30 entrants, including the Crazy Stone computer from France, as well as DarkForest, an entrant sponsored by US social networking giant Facebook.
“We’re quite excited that Fine Art could win the UEC Cup, this was quite a rare and dear experience,” said Tencent vice president Yao Xing. “Fine Art is different from other AI lab products because it benefitted from … constant interaction with some of the world’s best Go players.”
With its first major victory in hand, Fine Art will face a human Go master at another match set for next Sunday, also in Japan.
Tencent Holding Ltd. is in a race with Chinese internet rivals Baidu, Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in the artificial intelligence (AI) realm, as the trio and many others answer Beijing’s call to develop cutting-edge products and services based on computers that can think for themselves.
Fine Art’s roll-out also comes about a year after a high-profile match that saw Google’s AlphaGo computer defeat a South Korean master 4-1 in a five-game match at the ancient game. That match mesmerized many average Chinese, and was followed by a visit to one of China’s leading academies for the game by Google Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai.
Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
-
05:28 PM
-
04:43 PM
-
Jan 21 07:27 PM
-
Jan 21 07:22 PM
-
Jan 21 06:29 PM
-
Jan 21 06:16 PM
-
Jan 21 03:38 PM
-
Jan 21 03:30 PM
-
Jan 21 12:49 PM
-
Jan 20 06:48 PM
-
Jan 20 06:44 PM
-
Jan 20 06:16 PM
-
Jan 20 03:41 PM
-
Jan 20 12:39 PM
-
Jan 20 12:22 PM
- 1Shi Yinghong on Prospects for China's Regional Foreign Relations in 2021 (Video)
- 2Gallery: Quarantine Center Under Construction in Covid-Hit City
- 3Two Trade Top Guns Promoted in Commerce Ministry Leadership Reshuffle
- 4China's Interest Rates Are Just Right, PBOC Official Says
- 5Yongcheng Coal Banned From Debt Sales for a Year
- 1Power To The People: Pintec Serves A Booming Consumer Class
- 2Largest hotel group in Europe accepts UnionPay
- 3UnionPay mobile QuickPass debuts in Hong Kong
- 4UnionPay International launches premium catering privilege U Dining Collection
- 5UnionPay International’s U Plan has covered over 1600 stores overseas