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

Posted by msmash on from the China-things dept.

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.

9 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. China needs to go by kuzb · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sorry. you guys just made that way too easy!

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    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    1. Re:China needs to go by cm5oom · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    2. Re:China needs to go by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:China needs to go by ma1wrbu5tr · · Score: 5, Funny

      I guess Beijing didn't want any weiqileaks?

      --
      Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
  2. The margin is irrelevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  3. Lighten up, Francis. by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...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.

    1. Re:Lighten up, Francis. by mccalli · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

  4. Ah, censorship by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

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    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  5. In the wake of "free speech" commencement address by rs1n · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...