Master is a version of

DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Go ...

's Go software

AlphaGo AlphaGo is a computer program that plays the board game Go. It was developed by the London-based DeepMind Technologies, an acquired subsidiary of Google. Subsequent versions of AlphaGo became increasingly powerful, including a version that c ...

, named after the account name (originally Magister/Magist) used online, which won 60 straight online games against human

professional Go players A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major Go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion playe ...

from 29 December 2016 to 4 January 2017. This version was also used in the Future of Go Summit in May 2017. It used four TPUs on a single machine with Elo rating 4,858. DeepMind claimed that AlphaGo Master was 3-stone stronger than the version used in AlphaGo v. Lee Sedol. DeepMind released a version of AlphaGo Master in December 2017 that serves as a teaching tool analyzing the win rates of 6,000 Go openings from 230,000 human games.

Matches

Online games

The software was first used to play games against professional players on 29 December 2016 on the

Tygem Tygem () is an internet go server owned by South Korean company TongYang Online. Popular in Asia, their website states that over 500 professional Go players use their service. Tygem was founded as ICBL by Cho Hun-hyun in 2000, and renamed to Tyge ...

Go server, under the account name 'Magister' (shown as 'Magist' at the server's Chinese version). The account name was changed to 'Master' on 30 December. After playing 30 games on Tygem, it was moved to the FoxGo server on 1 January 2017. Master played at the pace of 10 games per day. Many quickly suspected it to be an AI player due to little or no resting between games. After winning its 59th game it was revealed in the chatroom that Master was controlled by

Aja Huang Aja Huang (; born 1978) is a Taiwanese computer scientist and expert on artificial intelligence. He works for DeepMind and was a member of the AlphaGo project. Born in 1978, Huang received a bachelor's degree from National Chiao Tung University i ...

of the

team. On 4 January 2017, after these games were completed,

Demis Hassabis Sir Demis Hassabis (born 27 July 1976) is a British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Isomorphic Labs, and a UK Government AI Adviser. In 2024, Ha ...

, the co-founder of DeepMind, confirmed that Magister and Master both played using an updated version of AlphaGo and said, "We're looking forward to playing some official, full-length games later

n 2017 N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

in collaboration with Go organizations and experts". Gu Li, a 9-dan player and co-founder of FoxGo, offered a bounty of 100,000

RMB The renminbi ( ; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB), also known as the Chinese yuan, is the official currency of the People's Republic of China. The renminbi is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of Chin ...

(14,400

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

) to the first human player who could defeat Master. However, no one took the bounty since Master's final online record was 60 wins and 0 losses, including three victories over Go's top ranked player,

Ke Jie Ke Jie () is a Chinese professional Go player of 9 dan rank. He was born on August 2, 1997, in Liandu District, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province. Career 2008–15: Early Career and Bailing Cup Breakthrough Ke Jie started to learn how to pla ...

, who had been quietly briefed in advance that Master was a version of AlphaGo. Master's adversaries included many world champions such as

, Park Jeong-hwan,

Yuta Iyama is a Japanese professional Go player. In April 2016, he became the first player in Japanese history to hold all seven major titles simultaneously. In January 2018, Iyama became the first professional Go player to be awarded Japan's People's Ho ...

Tuo Jiaxi Tuo Jiaxi (born 15 January 1991) is a Chinese professional Go player. Tuo became a professional in 2002. He was promoted to 2 dan in 2004 and reached 3 dan in 2005. He won his first professional title with the Mind Sports Games Male Fast Game i ...

Mi Yuting Mi Yuting (; born 8 January 1996) is a Chinese professional go player. As of October 2018, he is ranking 1st in Go ratings with an Elo rating of 3645. Promotion record Titles and runners-up Head-to-head record vs selected players ''Pla ...

, Shi Yue,

Chen Yaoye Chen Yaoye (Traditional Chinese character, Traditional: 陳耀燁; Simplified Chinese character, Simplified: 陈耀烨; Pinyin: Chén Yàoyè; born on December 16, 1989) is a Chinese professional Go (board game), Go Go players, player. Biogra ...

, Li Qincheng, Gu Li, Chang Hao, Tang Weixing,

Fan Tingyu Fan Tingyu (born 6 August 1996) is a Chinese professional Go player. He won the 17th Xinren Wang and 18th Xinren Wang. Fan defeated Park Junghwan Park Junghwan (born 11 January 1993) is a South Korean professional Go player of 9-dan ...

Zhou Ruiyang Zhou Ruiyang (; born March 8, 1991) is a Chinese people, Chinese professional Go (board game), Go Go players, player. Biography Zhou began playing Go at the age of 7. He won the biggest amateur tournament in China, the Wanbao Cup, in the s ...

Jiang Weijie Jiang Weijie (born 17 October 1991) is a Chinese professional Go player. Jiang became a professional in 2005. He won his first title, the RICOH Xinxiu Cup, in 2008. Jiang ended Gu Li's six-year reign over the Mingren The Mingren () is a ...

Chou Chun-hsun Chou Chun-hsun (Taiwanese Minnan, Taiwanese Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: Chiu Chùn-hun; born February 23, 1980) is a Go (board game), Go Go players, player."Youngsters dominate Ing Cup". Xinhua News Agency. April 22, 2004 (via Lexis-Nexis). Retrieved Fe ...

, Kim Ji-seok,

Kang Dong-yun Kang Dongyun (born January 23, 1989) is a professional Go player. Biography Kang became a professional in 2002. In 2007, he was promoted to the rank of 7 dan. He is a disciple of Kwon Kab-ryong. He is now a 9-dan professional player. ...

Park Yeong-hun Park Yeong-hun (, born April 1, 1985), also known as Park Young-hoon and Pak Yeong-hoon, is a South Korean professional Go player. Biography Park Yeong-hun was born in Seoul. He is a professional Go player in the Hanguk Kiwon. He is the younge ...

, and Won Seong-jin, and also included national champions or world championship runners-up such as

Lian Xiao Lian Xiao (; born 8 April 1994) is a Chinese Go professional, professional go (game), go player. As of January 2017, he is ranking 5th in Chinese Weiqi Association official ratings with and Elo rating of 2660. Lian was promoted to 8 dan on 16 Jan ...

Tan Xiao Tan Xiao (; born 10 March 1993) is a Chinese professional Go player. He won the 11th RICOH Cup. In 2017, he defeated Park Yeong-hun Park Yeong-hun (, born April 1, 1985), also known as Park Young-hoon and Pak Yeong-hoon, is a South Korean pr ...

, Meng Tailing, Dang Yifei, Huang Yunsong,

Yang Dingxin Yang Dingxin (; born 19 October 1998) is a Chinese professional Go player. Biography Yang Dingxin was born in 1998 in Zhengzhou, Henan. As a young child, he lived in Bingcha in Rudong County, Nantong, Jiangsu and in Zhengzhou, and moved to Be ...

, Gu Zihao, Shin Jinseo,

Cho Han-seung Cho Hanseung (, born November 27, 1982), also known as Jo Hanseung is a South Korean professional Go (board game), go Go players, player. Biography Cho turned professional in 1995. He was promoted to 7 dan in 2004, 8 dan in 2005 and 9 dan ...

, and An Sungjoon. All 60 games except one were fast-paced games with three 20 or 30 seconds

byo-yomi A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. For turn-based games such as chess, shogi or go, time controls ...

. Master offered to extend the byo-yomi to one minute when playing with

Nie Weiping Nie Weiping (; born 17 August 1952) is a Chinese professional Go (board game), Go Go players, player. Biography Nie was born in Shenzhou City, Shenzhou. He was a childhood friend of future Paramount leader, Chinese leader Xi Jinping. His bro ...

due to his old age.

Future of Go Summit

The Master version also participated in the Future of Go summit in May 2017. It defeated

in a three-game match by three to zero and beat a human team with five top Go professionals.

Innovative moves

Go experts were extremely impressed by Master's performance and by its non-human play style in its online games. Ke Jie stated, "After humanity spent thousands of years improving our tactics, computers tell us that humans are completely wrong... I would go as far as to say not a single human has touched the edge of the truth of Go". Master played many innovative moves and inspired professional players. In the 23rd online game Master invaded the 3-3 point at a very early stage. In the 24th online game Master played six stones along the second line.

Operator errors

On 20 January 2017, DeepMind team members

Fan Hui Fan Hui (; born 27 December 1981) is a Chinese-born French Go player. Becoming a professional Go player in 1996, Fan moved to France in 2000 and became the coach of the French national Go team in 2005. He was the winner of the European Go Champi ...

and Aja Huang disclosed that Master's operator accidentally entered a move other than AlphaGo's choice in two situations during the online games. In the 9th online game, Master recommended point ''a'' for Move 107. In the 39th online game, Master recommended point ''a'' for Move 99.

Example game

Online game 30: Master (white) v.

Tang Weixing Tang Weixing (; born 15 January 1993) is a Chinese Go professional, professional go (game), go player. He has won three international titles, with two championships in the Samsung Fire Cup, Samsung Cup (2013, 2019) and one in the Ing Cup (2016). ...

(31 December 2016), Master won by resignation. White 36 was widely praised.

References

{{Go (game) AlphaGo 2016 software 2016 in go 2017 in go