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Amitav Krishna
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Go has always been the most beautiful game to me. The sound of a stone on board, the simplicity of its rules and design. A person's playstyle is an expression of themselves—like seeing an artist's style in a painting—it's personal and meaningful. 2/
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Today, no human player has a chance of defeating any of the top AI Go programs. AI is used religiously in professional training, and like it or not, our relationship with Go as an art form has been changed forever. 3/
I grew up on Lee Sedol's games & also photographed some of his games at major tournaments like the Ing Cup. Not only did he create his own style that was chaotic, fearless, & an absolute delight (& impossible) to study—he also changed the way things were done in Go. 4/
At 17, he was pro 3dan & had a 32-win streak. When he refused to play in ranking matches & opted to remain 3dan, it forced Korea Baduk Assc into changing its rules, so champion players could receive rank promotions w/o having to play unnecessary matches, given their results. 5/
Lee Sedol made Go history and was an icon of our era. So to see him say that if he were to choose again, he wouldn't become a pro—because of AI. Words can't describe how heartbroken I feel to hear this. 6/
For me who saw Go as an art form, found it beautiful for its human qualities, liked its mystery for being unsolvable, & admired the commitment & resolve of those that pursued human greatness in an arena undefeated by machine—I can't help but feel a sense of sadness & loss—7/
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Even though I know the game of Go will carry on, I can't help feeling sad for how we will never experience some things the same way again. The greatest story of a player post-AI won't be overwhelming victories like Go Seigen's jubango. It'll be someone who can come close to AI.
I just watched an episode of Because I Want to Talk with Lee Dong Wook where Lee Sedol was the guest, right before his retirement. They talked about Go being a form of collaborative art between two people & how the AI has no soul with which to make art. It was beautiful & sad.
I guess it'll be like chess, where bots have long beaten the human champions, but the sport continues to flourish. The impact on livelihoods is tremendous, still. Art, music, literature, audiobooks, photography - everything comes out a slot machine.
Yes very similar. It’s part of everyday training now. Definitely nice that it has no material impact on jobs like with other professions mentioned. With those, I can’t even bring myself to write pieces like this where I simply talk about feelings and what art means to me 🥲
A human in a car is faster than a guy running, but we still watch human athletics. Its like - the human part we care about. The fact that a ai can beat a person at go literally doesn't matter at all.
I can appreciate a runner despite cars. But if I liked running before the invention of cars, then post-cars—the running as I knew no longer exists. I can love the new version of it too, but it's not the same. If you can't understand people’s need to mourn a loss, just go away.
I’ve only started playing Go recently, so in the post-AI era. I will never get close to the pros. It’s sad to hear the Lee Sedol feels that way about the situation. He brought so much to the game.
Yeah I don’t think this affects anyone coming in post-AI. In fact, I can see myself preferring to play a bot vs challenging human players who may be BM and unpleasant. I’m just largely writing about my personal feelings for pre-AG Go. If you discover & like the game, great!! 🫶
lee sedol and cho chikun were the 2 who inspired me to start playing at a young age, looking back on the hype that alphago had for this series, I do not think a lot of people realized the can of worms this was opening. it is a bittersweet memory thinking about his game 4 victory.
I always imagine Cho Chikun to be a cool guy cuz I just love his hair haha. One of the few I'd have loved to meet and never got the chance to. I truly believe at the time of AG, it was purely intellectual pursuit. Very different from what we see with genAI now...

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