Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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.