Chapter 1115: Humanity vs. Artificial Intelligence (Start)
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
The next day.
The AI, Peter, was once again dominating the news throughout Asia!
The cause of this was China Qiyuan's revelation of Peter's operating principle, a magnificent analysis report over a 1,000 words that was written in great detail. At the end, the author of the report was also indicated. It was signed as: An anonymous mathematician who does not wish to reveal his name.
The netizens were stunned!
"So that's what it is!"
"It actually plays Go in this way!"
"Thinking? Bullshit! Who are the Americans trying to bluff!"
"Those Americans really love bragging too much!"
"Who wrote this report?"
"This is so awesome!"
"It's only been a day?"
"An anonymous mathematician who does not wish to reveal his name?"
"Thank you for contributing to the cause of humanity!"
"An unsung hero!"
Both domestic and international experts were very surprised. After going through a lot of reverse verifications, they discovered that 90% of this analysis report was true and reliable! In just a short span of a day, and after just two games of Go, Peter's operating principle had been analyzed? Who could have done it?
At Old Wu's parents' house.
Li Qinqin was very shocked. "Changhe, was this analysis conducted by the Qiyuan?"
Wu Changhe mumbled, "Ah, er…"
"The only person who studied math at the Qiyuan should be Chen Ying, right?" Li Qinqin was doubtful.
Wu Changhe said, "Why do you care who analyzed it?"
Li Qinqin said, "I just want to know. So who was it?"
Wu Changhe scowled and muttered, "That Zhang kid!"
"Little Zhang wrote it?" Li Qinqin laughed. "I knew it. How could the people at the Qiyuan possibly come up with something this impressive. With one glance, I knew that this report was written by some career academic. What do you think now? I told you Little Zhang wasn't bad, right? And you're still displeased with him. Look at how concerned he is with your problem. He immediately got to work and researched the problem when he knew that you all met with trouble. He's even this thorough when the task was supposed to have been done by others!"
Wu Changhe stared at her and said, "Has that kid cast a spell on you or something? Why do you keep speaking up for him!"
Li Qinqin laughed and said, "Hur hur, I wonder that too. I like him no matter which side of him I see."
…
The Japanese were watching the developments very closely.
"It's finally been figured out!"
"So that's how it is!"
"Shinji 9-dan's chances of victory has increased by another percentage point!"
"Thanks to the Chinese!"
…
The Korean Go community was the same.
"This report has proven very valuable!"
"So that's what it really is!"
"The Chinese mathematicians are really awesome!"
…
Over in America.
The company that developed Peter was thrown into disarray at the same time!
The management flew into a rage and gathered up the program's core developers!
"Who was it? Who leaked the information?"
"Goddammit!"
"How did the Chinese get their hands on the information!"
"It's alright. Even if they know how Peter works, they can't win all the same!"
"But what I want to know is, how the hell did they find out? How?"
Everyone looked at one another in silence.
But what the American company would never be able to figure out was that other than them, there was actually someone else who had seen a similar AI program that could play Go. And that someone was Zhang Ye—a person who couldn't truly be considered someone from this world.
…
A day later.
Noon.
Zhang Ye had a room booked in a restaurant for a lunch date with some people.
Dong Shanshan, Yao Jiancai, Chen Guang, Fan Wenli, Xiaodong, Amy, Li Xiaoxian, Zhang Xia, and most of the other guests and contestants from King of Masked Singers had been invited. There were also a few others that Zhang Ye had informed but were unable to make it as they were busy with work.
"Come. I said that it would be my treat today!" Zhang Ye said as he arranged for the guests to get seated.
Dong Shanshan sat down and crossed her legs. "Don't worry. No one is going to fight you over the bill today."
Yao Jiancai laughed heartily. "Yeah, we'll be helping ourselves."
Chen Guang flipped open the menu and remarked, "Let's see, what's the most expensive item in here."
"There's no need to scrimp for Director Zhang," Fan Wenli chorused after her husband.
Zhang Ye didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Can we hold back a little? I'm just a salaried employee, and it's not easy to earn money, so please don't overdo it. Just order enough to eat, please."
Dong Shanshan glanced at him. "You're a domestic superstar. Why are you still so stingy?"
Xiaodong giggled and said, "Yeah, amongst all of us here, you're the one who's the most popular. Since everyone took time out of their schedules to celebrate for you, you better not be thinking of trying to save money today!"
Li Xiaoxian was relatively quiet. She did not speak much and just laughed.
Everyone was talking and laughing, and the atmosphere was great.
Suddenly, Dong Shanshan called a waiter over to get him to turn on the television.
Amy asked, "What's going on?"
Dong Shanshan said, "Don't you all know? Today is the first time that an AI challenged a human. The battle's about to begin."
Yao Jiancai slapped the table. "That's right, I nearly forgot!"
Zhang Xia smiled widely and said, "I'm rather looking forward to it as well."
Xiaodong said, "Haha, I dare not speak about other areas. But when it comes to intelligence, a machine would never win against a human. We don't even need to watch!"
Li Xiaoxian said, "That's not necessarily true."
Chen Guang agreed. "Yeah, the Americans came bearing down so menacingly this time. If they weren't confident about it, they wouldn't have dared to issue a challenge to all humanity."
The television was turned on.
Central TV Sports Channel.
The image was one of the live broadcast of the match from the competition venue in Tokyo. The competition had not started yet, but Shinji 9-dan had already made his appearance. The international referee was speaking to him, and there were no spectators around them. This was to ensure absolute silence during the game, so there would only be the referee 1 and players present.
From the Central TV commentary box, Yu Yingyi's voice rang out. "We can see that the match will begin soon."
Zhang Ye said, "Yingyi went too?"
Dong Shanshan said, "Yeah, she's the host."
Yao Jiancai asked, "Who's she?"
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "She's mine and Shanshan's uni classmate. We were in the same class, and she's currently a host with Central TV Sports Channel. I never expected that Yingyi could play Go as well."
Yu Yingyi was actually just the host. Her main duty today had nothing to do with commentary.
The person in charge of that was Chen Ying 7-dan, who was sitting beside her. She was a pretty female Go player.
10 minutes later.
The match began!
As the best Japanese Go player, Shinji 9-dan was very composed today. He picked the black stones and started the game calmly. As his opponent was an AI, it could only display its moves onscreen. Since traditional Go players were still used to playing physically at a proper Go board, Peter required a representative to be the middleman to input Shinji 9-dan's moves after he made them. Then, when Peter responded with its move onscreen, the middleman would place a stone on the physical Go board at the corresponding position—the middleman was a Caucasian person who was a representative from Peter's development company.
Dong Shanshan and the others ate as they watched the game.
Some of them could understand what was happening, while those who didn't could only rely on the commentary.
Zhang Ye was actually quite concerned about this match too, even if he felt that this matter had nothing to do with him.
Five stones.
Ten stones.
Twenty stones.
As the game progressed faster and faster, Zhang Ye's frown became more and more obvious.
Li Xiaoxian put her chopsticks down. She exclaimed, "How amazing!"
Amy blinked and asked, "Who's amazing?"
Xiaodong knew that Li Xiaoxian knew how to play Go. "Who has the advantage?"
"PETER!" Li Xiaoxian said.
On TV.
Yu Yingyi said, "Teacher Chen Ying, what do you make of this move?"
Chen Ying 7-dan said in shock, "Shinji 9-dan has miscalculated his move. It seems like this game will end early!"
Yu Yingyi said in surprise, "It's going to end this soon?"
Sure enough, a short while later, Shinji 9-dan finally resigned from the game after spending a long time thinking and becoming frustrated and annoyed.
The referee immediately came over to confirm his decision.
Yu Yingyi exclaimed, "My goodness! We see that Shinji 9-dan has resigned from the game!"
Chen Ying 7-dan said, "If Peter can even beat Shinji 9-dan, then this would be really too frightful!"
Yu Yingyi said, "We'll be showing the second game between Peter and Shinji 9-dan tomorrow at the same time. Let's hope Shinji 9-dan catches up in the next game!"
The competition was based on a best of three!
If he were to lose again tomorrow, Shinji 9-dan would officially lose!
Later, during the post-match conference, Shinji 9-dan answered some of the reporters' questions looking rather dejected. He was clearly distracted!
When it was time for the American representative to say a few words, he was clearly very excited and spoke loftily.
Xiaodong could no longer watch. "This American is too arrogant!"
Yao Jiancai said, "Even Shinji 9-dan could not win?"
Chen Guang said, "Could there really be no one who can defeat them?"
"There's still another game tomorrow. Let's not speak too early," Li Xiaoxian said.
Zhang Xia said, "If it still doesn't work out, we still have Xiang Rong 9-dan around."
…
At this moment, all the attention throughout Asia was focused on this battle of the century in Tokyo!
"Did we lose?"
"Shinji 9-dan lost?"
"How could that be!"
"This…we couldn't even win?"
"Could it be that Shinji 9-dan was unable to play to his potential?"
"That shouldn't be the case!"
"Damn, we'll have to wait for tomorrow!"
"Right, we'll definitely win tomorrow!"
"If not, there's still Park Yuhee 9-dan, and also Xiang Rong 9-dan!"
"That's right, Peter cannot possibly win every time!"
"Humans can't possibly lose to an AI!"
"Intelligence is the last bit of dignity that we humans have!"
"Humanity will prevail!"
"Humanity will prevail!"
This game of Go had ignited the fears of many people. On this day, countless people started panicking. They suddenly felt a chill in the depths of their hearts and were feeling a little afraid. If humans were to lose to AI in a test of intelligence, then…that was something that was totally unimaginable to them!