China Censored Google's AlphaGo Match Against World's Best Go Player (theguardian.com)

DeepMind's board game-playing AI, AlphaGo, may well have won its first game against the Go world number one, Ke Jie, from China -- but most Chinese viewers could not watch the match live. From a report: The Chinese government had issued a censorship notice to broadcasters and online publishers, warning them against livestreaming Tuesday's game, according to China Digital Times, a site that regularly posts such notices in the name of transparency. "Regarding the go match between Ke Jie and AlphaGo, no website, without exception, may carry a livestream," the notice read. "If one has been announced in advance, please immediately withdraw it." The ban did not just cover video footage: outlets were banned from covering the match live in any way, including text commentary, social media, or push notifications. It appears the government was concerned that 19-year-old Ke, who lost the first of three scheduled games by a razor-thin half-point margin, might have suffered a more damaging defeat that would hurt the national pride of a state which holds Go close to its heart.

Comments

China needs to go

[kuzb]

Sorry. you guys just made that way too easy!

Re:China needs to go

[cm5oom]

Go is the Japanese name of the game, the Chinese name is weiqi. So you should say China needs to weiqi.

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

They need to go grow up. It indeed just keeps on giving.

Re:China needs to go

[MightyMartian]

Indeed. China is one of the oldest contiguous civilizations on the planet, and yet it acts like some sort of second-rate banana republic that just gained independence a few years ago. Does it really matter if a computer can beat a strategy game champion? We all know it's coming, that eventually computers are going to be able to beat the masters of any game.

Re:China needs to go

[arth1]

Indeed. China is one of the oldest contiguous civilizations on the planet, and yet it acts like some sort of second-rate banana republic that just gained independence a few years ago. Does it really matter if a computer can beat a strategy game champion?

Could it be that it's one of the oldest civilizations because they value national pride over individual pride? I don't know, but it might be a factor.

Re:China needs to go

[es330td]

Pretty sure you mean continuous civilizations. Not too sure how a civilization can be contiguous.

That having been said, China's problem is that it exists as we know it only because Zhou Zhang unified the country by force. Any country formed that way must be held down by its rulers until the population has enough and throws the rulers out. I don't see a change in our lifetimes to how China acts.

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

> Not too sure how a civilization can be contiguous.

Robot overlords can show you how!

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

Most likely because they had solid transportation networks combined with high-quality bureaucracy techniques.

Given that China was ruled by foreigners (the Manchu barbarians from the north, aided by the Mongols) for the last several hundred years of their existence (and quite successfully for most of it), it's unlikely that patriotism as we understand it is the glue that holds them together.

That said, your idea is worth keeping in mind.

Re:China needs to go

[infolation]

(to paraphrase the online gaming chat's reaction to that kind of blocking)

Chill, bro, it's just a game, dude!

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. China is one of the oldest contiguous civilizations on the planet, and yet it acts like some sort of second-rate banana republic that just gained independence a few years ago. Does it really matter if a computer can beat a strategy game champion?

Could it be that it's one of the oldest civilizations because they value national pride over individual pride? I don't know, but it might be a factor.

Seems unlikely. Those ides were pretty common historically and most of the other civilizations with them didn't make it to the modern day.

More likely, China endured by dumb luck, and the similarity with primitive forms of government is inherited from their traditions having been from a time when those were cutting edge ideas.

Re:China needs to go

[mark-t]

But if one are basing so much of their national pride on who plays a *GAME* better than anyone else, then this is what is unfortunate, because China ought to have plenty of things to be proud of, and the notion that they would find a computer beating their best Go player somehow devaluing to them as a nation speaks tons about a misplaced sense of priorities that can't possibly do their population any good.

Re:China needs to go

[ma1wrbu5tr]

I guess Beijing didn't want any weiqileaks?

Re:China needs to go

[arth1]

But if one are basing so much of their national pride on who plays a *GAME* better than anyone else, then this is what is unfortunate, because China ought to have plenty of things to be proud of, and the notion that they would find a computer beating their best Go player somehow devaluing to them as a nation speaks tons about a misplaced sense of priorities that can't possibly do their population any good.

It's probably no more pride than Brazil or England have for football, or Americans have over baseball. I.e. considerable.

Re:China needs to go

[MiniMike]

Actually archeologists and historians attribute the longevity of the Chinese culture to their early building skills, especially bridges and fences. While mostly known for great walls and fantastic bridges, the early culture especially relished their fence building technology. This started, they theorize, about 6000 years ago when an unknown builder in what would become central China one day went out to a field on his farm, and with primitive tools created the same fence pieces we still use today. Proudly pounding the initial piece into the ground, he stood back and declared: "First post!"

Re: China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you starve 20 million people to death for political reasons, you no longer get to call yourself a "civilization".

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably no more pride than Brazil or England have for football, or Americans have over baseball. I.e. considerable.

You think those governments would censor football/baseball matches played by humans vs. robots?

Because if not it would seem you are quite wrong.

Re:China needs to go

[mark-t]

Of course, and the country that happens to win the most medals or the most gold medals in a given Olympic year often gets bragging rights for a few days following the Olympics too... but such bragging is meant only in the spirit of sportsmanship, not to make those that didn't win feel like they have any less worth than they did before the competition.

And similarly, this match was not to prove that the Chinese Go player couldn't win, but to prove that it is possible to design a program that could always win at the game. If it can beat the best there is, then at least in theory, it should be able to always win a game with anyone. That's all that this was about.... not some sort of political grandstand that was ever meant to make China or its numerous other contributions to the world mean any less to anyone than they already do, and I find it pretty sad that apparently some from China would think that enough that they were willing to resort to censorship over it.

Re:China needs to go

[ShanghaiBill]

China has swung back and forth between isolationism and openness. Isolationism has repeatedly been an unmitigated disaster for their civilization. The Haijin policies of the Ming Dynasty meant Europeans were able to colonize the world without competition. The "Closed Door" policy of the Qings in the 19th century meant they missed the industrial revolution. The "self sufficiency" polices of Mao from 1949-1976 made China into one of the world's poorest countries.

Walls, Isolationism, protectionism, and censorship of the outside world is not the path to prosperity, and never has been. Not for China, not for America.

Re:China needs to go

[haruchai]

Congrats, you've won the (Chinese) Internets for today.
Wait a sec, "won" is Korean.
Okay, you've yuan the Chinese Internets for today.

Re:China needs to go

[tsqr]

With such an elaborate setup for the pun-chline, how did this get modded Interesting instead of Funny?

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

Isolationism was not the cause of the disasters in China; idiotic leadership was. Specifically speaking of Mao, only a peasant and his equally idiotic followers could be stupid enough to melt down all of their tools with the delusion of being the world's greatest steel producer without actually knowing how to mass manufacture steel. The only way a non-isolationist policy would have helped in Mao's case would be trading partners taking pity on the Chinese idiots and giving them free food.

An isolationist country can prosper greatly, as the United States did prior to World War I. China suffered because it closed off its mind to outside thinking and based its national policies on faulty ideas and views.

This is happening in a way in the developed world where it is just "known" by the mandarins of the economies that globalization is good for the developed economies. The GINI coefficient in the U.S. shows how very wrong this close-minded thinking is.

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

For some time Funny didn't grant karma, while Interesting or Insightful did, so people tended to mod it as such. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but either way, old habits die hard.

Hah! captcha: vintage

Re:China needs to go

[iNaya]

Almost funny, except it's pronounced "wei-chi"

Re:China needs to go

[cavreader]

It does seem a little petty on the part of the Chinese government to worry about censoring this type of stuff. Why not let this type of information be distributed without comment and save the real censoring efforts for more important things like making sure their citizens don't hear about the large mushroom cloud seen rising above Pyongyang.

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

China need to wei qi, wei qi! hand off sne qi!

Re:China needs to go

[Anonymous Coward]

"you guys just made that way too easy!"

Go figure...

Re:China needs to go

[hcs_$reboot]

Does it really matter if a computer can beat a strategy game champion? We all know it's coming, that eventually computers are going to be able to beat the masters of any game.

what about the real reasons?
1. go is a Chinese game
2. the world champion is Chinese
and 3. maybe the main reason: AlphaGo is made by Google, which domains (*.google.*) are all blocked in China...

Re:China needs to go

[ayesnymous]

To further clarify, it's not pronounced "wee chi", it's pronounced "way chi", so he's wrong on both syllables.

Re: China needs to go

[ArmoredDragon]

Regimes like China have to maintain a facade that they are the best and unparalleled, or else the whole power structure falls apart. This is actually the whole point of censorship, and why it is integral to autocracy (or any other highly concentrated power structure.)

Er...

[Anonymous Coward]

I watched it live on WeChat... do I need to feel worried now?

Re:Er...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the argument most Chinese (citizens or ex-citizens) give. That their government is laughably ineffective in just about any of its endeavors.

Except that they actually aren't ineffective, when they want to be, and are effective enough, even when they do not want to be. The best way to measure this is to ask generations of their opinions of their government: the elderly hate it with passion (those that lost property and jobs in the revolution, anyway), their children dislike it, and their children think Tiananmen square was a lawful use of force against unruly students.

Re:Er...

[Anonymous Coward]

Any government not actively and publicly engaging in brutal displays will eventually enjoy much of the faith of the people. At the end of the day, the Chinese government acts in the interest of Chinese citizens MORE OFTEN than other governments act in the interest of Chinese citizens, and this pragmatic worldview often totally dominates more principled ones. Bonus points to this descent into tyranny if your opposition governments don't hold themselves to a high moral standard. DOUBLE bonus points if your opposition governments PUBLICLY hold themselves to a high moral standard, but are provably rutting with pigs when they think no one can hear or see them.

Citizen, turn yourself in...

[Anonymous Coward]

...to your local Party HQ for sentencing. You are required to provide your own bullet.

The margin is irrelevant

[Anonymous Coward]

MCTS programs don't care about the winning margin. It was quite clear that Ke Jie was behind, but AlphaGo just didn't take unnecessary risk to win by a large margin.

Lighten up, Francis.

[geekmux]

"...that would hurt the national pride of a state which holds Go close to its heart."

Perhaps we should remind the country that we're talking about a game here.

Hell, Kasparov lost to Deep Blue 20 years ago. The concept of a world champion being defeated by a computer playing a game ain't exactly new.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[mccalli]

That's statement is also pure editorial and assumption. There's nothing to suggest that's actually the reason - it might well be for other things (demos suddenly occurring or similar, for instance).

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Chris Mattern]

That's statement is also pure editorial and assumption. There's nothing to suggest that's actually the reason - it might well be for other things (demos suddenly occurring or similar, for instance).

I'm rereading this statement, but it's failing to make any sense to me. What kind of demonstrations might suddenly occur, and why would that cause broadcasting the match to be banned?

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's also possible they are worried a foreign commentator will say something embarrassing about freedom or Tiananmen square, as often happens when Americans are able to broadcast live into China.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[AlexanKulbashian]

The commie mind in mysterious

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[mccalli]

It's China. They often delay live broadcasts to prevent anything hitting the screen if, say, a Human Rights protester suddenly invades the area and starts waving flags about Tiananmen Square. They often do this with news outlets and interviews of their politicians, for instance.

The delaying of the game's broadcast may have nothing to do with the game itself, and everything to do with the fact it is an international platform for China.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[wbr1]

Most live events in the US are delayed too. So censors can bleep curse words and other anti-puritanical content.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only is it an assumption, it's also dead wrong.
No government sensor board will allow a live, widely viewed, broadcast of a person not vetted as a party-line toeing spokesperson. Putting an unvetted 19 year old on live TV for the world to see is not going to happen. What if he made an off hand comment about free speech, or said something pro-tibet, or denounced the government for something? Ke is famous because he's good at weiqi/go - not because he's trusted to be politically reliable.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

"for national pride"
"for the children"
"to combat terrorism"
.... etc

All bullshit. It's always about control and maintaining power.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

US TV do delay broadcasting also.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only is it an assumption, it's also dead wrong.
No government sensor board will allow a live, widely viewed, broadcast of a person not vetted as a party-line toeing spokesperson. Putting an unvetted 19 year old on live TV for the world to see is not going to happen. What if he made an off hand comment about free speech, or said something pro-tibet, or denounced the government for something? Ke is famous because he's good at weiqi/go - not because he's trusted to be politically reliable.

Of coarse some governments don't actually have sensor board.

In the US for example stuff is sensored by the media companies for their own purposes (including using a broadcast delay to anything that's "live"). As evidenced by the market for 'premium' channels that follow looser rules like HBO.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's China. They often delay live broadcasts to prevent anything hitting the screen

You ever watch NBC Olympics coverage?
90+% is delayed (even finals), to maximize dramatic USA, USA, USA chest pounding.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

HBO has looser rules because of FCC which gives huge fines to over the air broadcasters for indecency, swearing, etc, so the companies self-police to avoid it. HBO is cable only, so FCC rules don't apply. I'm sure over-the-air broadcasters would loosen up if laws allowed it.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[mccalli]

I'm not American. UK does this a little as well, but not that frequently.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

Most live events in the US are delayed too. So censors can bleep curse words and other anti-puritanical content.

By about seven seconds. China called off the live stream completely.

Re:Lighten up, Francis.

[Anonymous Coward]

a Sensor Board and a Censor Board have VERY different functions

Ah, censorship

[Weaselmancer]

Because if you didn't see it, it didn't happen.

Re:Ah, censorship

[DontBeAMoran]

Ah yes, the ostrich camouflage defense.

A much more crushing defeat ...

[Anonymous Coward]

They reduced the compute footprint by ~10x. That is a decent leap.

That China would censor this match is bluntly obvious. Nobody with a brain thought it would be live. Google was likely unsurprised.

What if the AlphaGo AI is so advanced, that it is toying with its opponent, and letting him near-win? What if it has the strength of "the Hulk" with the subtlety of Black Widow?

A filtering of non-live, and no-crush, would make the censors happy, but only some of the best or most astute analysts in current human capacity would be able to see the crushing and humiliating defeat. History would trumpet it though. In retrospect it would both crush human capacity, and deeply impugn the censorship of the Chinese state.

Fear. It drives the worst decisions of humans. It drives the doubly worst decisions of leaders and in doing so, becomes much more often than it has to, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Re:A much more crushing defeat ...

[Anonymous Coward]

What would be truly scary is if the computer dragged the game out while taking over various infrastructure systems, and then simultaneously with the winning move electrocuted the wife and kids of the player, emptied his retirement accounts, and erased his name from the citizenship roles.

Re:A much more crushing defeat ...

[phantomfive]

What if the AlphaGo AI is so advanced, that it is toying with its opponent, and letting him near-win? What if it has the strength of "the Hulk" with the subtlety of Black Widow?

This is completely misunderstanding the nature of "soft AI" contained in Alphago. You're clearly talking about hard AI, which AlphaGo is not.

AlphaGo doesn't doesn't know that there is a world outside Go. It doesn't learn. It doesn't know the meaning of 'taunt.' It doesn't know it's playing a game against the world's top human. It can't self-introspect, it can't change its programming, and it doesn't know a Go board looks like, and doesn't even know what Go is.

AlphaGo is a classifier. Given a set, it will score potential additions to the set based on previous data. It also has some code to coordinate that with a Go board, but that is mundane code, it's not even soft AI.

Re:A much more crushing defeat ...

[markus]

AlphaGo keeps track of both the score and of the statistical likelihood that it'll win the game. Being able to constantly evaluate these two values with high accuracy is actually a big competitive advantage. As the score doesn't really matter, it is entirely by design that during the end-game, AlphaGo deliberately sacrifices score points in order to gain a stronger position and increase the likelihood of an overall win.

In some way, winning with a minimal score demonstrates better control of the game than winning with an arbitrary and larger score. That just means you needlessly took risks that you didn't have to.

Re:A much more crushing defeat ...

[mbkennel]

> What if the AlphaGo AI is so advanced, that it is toying with its opponent, and letting him near-win? What if it has the strength of "the Hulk" with the subtlety of Black Widow?

The algorithm is neither. As discussed frequently, it pursues the highest probability path to a win, not the highest winning margin. This means taking less risks when apparently ahead, which may look like "letting him near win" and "toying with him", by giving up small amounts of territory as long as those preclude lines of action by the opponent which would potentially open up more. In US football, consider giving up run yards in 4th quarter to preclude passing touchdowns.

There is no programming regarding an opponent's predicted emotional states.

Where can I stream them?

[The Raven]

I'm trying to find where to watch an English stream, but all I'm finding is news about China's censorship. That's great, but it's affecting me by proxy because I can't find somewhere that's going to stream it here!

The second match is at 0330 UTC on Thursday (late evening today, Wednesday, in the US)... where will it be broadcast?

Re:Where can I stream them?

[DontBeAMoran]

where will it be broadcast?

Didn't you RTFA? Everywhere but China!

Re:Where can I stream them?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they are broadcasting to China, but is being blocked. I certainly hope that circumvention is trivial for the people who want to see it. We need to prove the futility of attempted censorship all over the world, not just China. We have to censorproof the internet so that nobody can be shut down, ever.

Re:Where can I stream them?

[Anonymous Coward]

https://www.google.ca/search?q=alphago+stream+-china

Re:Where can I stream them?

[Anonymous Coward]

Future of Go summit
https://events.google.com/alphago2017/

Go directly to jail

[Anonymous Coward]

Do no watch GO, do not collect $200.

Ha. Fake news principle in action

[Anonymous Coward]

People then can pretend is fake news. Just think how this sounds : "Western media pretends we lost, but in fact we won quite bigly"

China trolls, defend this please

[Anonymous Coward]

Explain exactly why the Chinese government should not be thrown out, and/or why the world should stop doing business with China until that happens?

Re:China trolls, defend this please

[ausekilis]

Where else would we get all of our cheap plastic crap?

Re:China trolls, defend this please

[alexo]

Explain exactly why the Chinese government should not be thrown out, and/or why the world should stop doing business with China until that happens?

Because (a) doing business with China is profitable, and profits trump morals; and (b) China, with its stronghold on manufacturing, has "the world" by the balls.

Re:China trolls, defend this please

[SuricouRaven]

It goes both ways. (c) China is the worlds most populous country, and due to rapid industrialisation it is full of people suddenly finding themselves several times wealthier than their parents could have dreamed. Non-Chinese companies want a slice of that pie.

Re: China trolls, defend this please

[Anonymous Coward]

Because AMERICA are the xenophobic rights trampling racists. Don't you read the news ?

Re:China trolls, defend this please

[angel'o'sphere]

Did not work so well in Iraq, did it?

If the Chinese government would simply be thrown out, the country would collapse in to 3 or perhaps even 10 nations. The north Koreans would lose the only lash they are kept in control with. Some war lords, generals who have access to the right weapons, would found mini dictatorships. The nuclear weapon arsenal would be out of control. Millions of Chinese would emigrate to the smaller asian nations like Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.

Should I continue?

In the wake of "free speech" commencement address

[rs1n]

I find it interesting that just a few days ago there was an uproar with respect to the Univ. of Maryland commencement speech by a Chinese student (studying abroad here in the US) on freedom of speech. There was a huge backlash from China. And now this...

The powers that be

[Anonymous Coward]

...don't want to see the round eyes solve their 3000 year old game. But it is inevitable, and the computer has many advantages.

reason of the ban

[Anonymous Coward]

is not national pride of the game. Rather due to Google, which is still banned in China.

Ministry of Truth

[VirginMary]

Because what should not be true can't be true! They're evil scum-sucking bastards and we're stupid and evil for trading with them. We're making the mafia that is ruling that country stronger and stronger by buying stuff that is being manufactured there and they keep killing journalists and human rights lawyers that try to stand up for little people being crushed by their mafia.

Ah, fake news

[Anonymous Coward]

There were many websites streaming the game live in China. I also saw pretty good coverage on the game in quite a few major Chinese news portals ( qq.com and sina.com).

The 'news' reported on TheGaurdian is based on a report from 'China Digit Times', which says the source is an online Chinese forum ( mitbbs.com).
The following is the link to wikipedia of the event. The section on 'censorship' also used the same chinese forum as reference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_Go_Summit

And the discussion here ...

Re:In the wake of "free speech" commencement addre

[Anonymous Coward]

Clever on the part of the student...now they can seek asylum since they will most likely end up in jail when they go back to China due to persecution of "free speech" through prosecution...brilliant move...now GO be a beacon of hope.

Let go of the pride

[Ngarrang]

The reality of the modern age of computing...computers are going to be better at a lot of games than humans. Period. Just accept it now. Some games may take longer to match and exceed human capability, but it will eventually happen.

Welcome to reality,China.

Why?

[ma1wrbu5tr]

I guess Beijing didn't want any weiqileaks.

Re:In the wake of "free speech" commencement addre

[SuricouRaven]

China doesn't value free speech in the same way that is typical in America. They do very strongly value unity, and stability, and social cohesion.

China is looking at this wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

specialized machines have been beating humans at those specific tasks for hundreds of years. I cant throw as far or fast as a gun can shoot. I cant run as fast as a car can drive, I cant paint/draw as precise as a printer can print.

We are comparing specialized machines to generic ones (humans). Take any of these machines out of their element and they are done. How fast can your printer run? How far can AlphaGo throw?

"lost by a razor thin margin"

[LetterRip]

AlphaGo doesn't try and maximize its win margin. It would have won by 15 points or more if the winning margin mattered.

When all paths lead to victory there is numerical instability in the rollouts so a move that gives a 15 point win margin, might, by chance get say 99.995% chance of winning, but one of the billions of other paths that also lead to a win will, by chance - give a rollout of 99.996% chance of winning. So every move in a won game is essentially random and will tend to reduce the win margin against a skilled opponent (who will always make a move that decreases their loss margin) until the win margin is 1/2.

Re:"lost by a razor thin margin"

[Eloking]

AlphaGo doesn't try and maximize its win margin. It would have won by 15 points or more if the winning margin mattered.

When all paths lead to victory there is numerical instability in the rollouts so a move that gives a 15 point win margin, might, by chance get say 99.995% chance of winning, but one of the billions of other paths that also lead to a win will, by chance - give a rollout of 99.996% chance of winning. So every move in a won game is essentially random and will tend to reduce the win margin against a skilled opponent (who will always make a move that decreases their loss margin) until the win margin is 1/2.

Well then, I do hope they will activate the "maximal win margin" for the next game. I would love to see what is the gap between the best human player and AlphaGo

Fake news

[Anonymous Coward]

This tournament is very hot topic these days in China. Millions of people watched this game (not live). DeepMind and Hassabis gave numberous talks in Beijing these days (one example: http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2017-05-24/doc-ifyfkqwe0929537.shtml).

what is banned is live streaming, which has Google logo (I guess that's why).

Re:In the wake of "free speech" commencement addre

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude you are fooled. There is very heavy coverage of this tournament in China (http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2017-05-24/doc-ifyfkqwe0929537.shtml is one example). DeepMind and Hassabis gave numberous talks in the media these days in China.

Tonight there is the second game.

TFA is just like the stupid speech at UMD -- all faked information.

"a state which holds Go close to it's heart"

[mnemotronic]

a more damaging defeat that would hurt the national pride of a state which holds Go close to its heart.

Does anyone else see a societal pressure point ripe for needling with social media bots?

Re:In the wake of "free speech" commencement addre

[Anonymous Coward]

If only they first and foremost valued basic human values to achieve said "strong" values of unity, stability and (enforced and coerced even if by physical means to achieve the apparent) social cohesion.

Having the basic human values above state (politicians and those who control them) would inherently bring all other values you described naturally without having to pursue means of silencing opposite/different political views in order to enforce them through dissent and censorship means.

Re:This is why...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeeeeeeah, I feel like maybe this is a good example of why I think they're perhaps lying about the test results.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mathematical_Olympiad

Yeeeeeeah, I feel like maybe you're scared shitless.

Totally stunned!

[Anonymous Coward]

by this blatant lie straight at your face. How could anyone fabriate such a cheap lie and so many slashdotters bite it, is beyond my imagination.

Go, as a game, originates in China, has millions if not tens of millions of fans in China.

DeepMind, and AlphaGo for that matter, is becoming the "God of Go", as Ke Jie, the best Go player said in MEDIA (you read it right, MEDIA) soon after he was defeated by AlphaGo http://sports.sina.com.cn/chess/weiqi/2017-05-23/doc-ifyfkqiv6732631.shtml

Combining these two factors, you'll know what a red-hot topic AlphaGo and this tournament now is in China.

The live streaming is blocked likely because it carries Google's logo.

Is the author a Google employee or paid by Google? if so, I understand what this article is about.

And no, Google can not enter China. Period.

slashdot == fake_news

[Anonymous Coward]

Q: how do you spot fake news?
A: check if it's on slashdot

Snowball Effect Paused

[n329619]

While it is to an extent censorship, it is also their temporary measure to stop a potentially deadly snowball effect.

Surely there aren't any Professional Go players on slashdot, but do imagine what happen if you've putted in 30 years for a job and found out today it is irrelevant? You will be in despair and so will your colleagues.

It's not healthy to cause a chain reaction that result in no more new Go players being encouraged to join the competition.

In fact, I highly doubt even google's researchers have any idea what they have done. They've made an AI great at winning, they've already proved AI potential. Now what? Winning all the world's game and destroying the Go's market? Go players play to win, everyone else supports them to see a competitive game. Google's AI encourages neither. It wins all of them (no player gets to win), and wins too much (3-0 again, boring).

If Google wants AI to be in Go's competition, it needs AI vs AI competition. At the current state, even China knew AI vs Player could potentially destroy their markets, so for them to do something to pause against the effect is somewhat expected.

Re:Snowball Effect Paused

[angel'o'sphere]

The "Go Market" or the professional go players care not the slightest about the AI.
The AI will never compete in a professional league.

non-English speaker defending censorship

[Anonymous Coward]

That's interesting. You're defending Chinese censorship and English apparently isn't your first language.
Your posting history has a submitted article relating to china.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid because of Russian troll farms.

Interesting times.