- Lee Se-Dol, a South Korean Go legend, was defeated by an AI program in 2016.
- The Go player told the New York Times that his loss brought a profound realization of AI's progress.
- Lee is concerned that AI may take away people's value in creativity and originality.
One of the world's greatest Go players who was defeated by an artificial intelligence program warns that the technology may come with a rude awakening for humans as it advances.
Lee Se-Dol is a South Korean legend in the game of Go, which is widely considered to be a more complex game than chess. The game, which can be played in person and online, also once posed a computational challenge for AI researchers.
In 2016, the Go world was rocked after Lee was defeated by AlphaGo, an AI program made by Google's DeepMind. Lee lost 4 out of 5 games.
The defeat was a huge upset and pushed Lee to retire from the game in 2019.
"With the debut of AI in Go games, I've realized that I'm not at the top even if I become the No. 1 through frantic efforts," Lee told Yonhap News Agency at the time. "Even if I become the No. 1, there is an entity that cannot be defeated."
Lee told The New York Times in a recent interview that his loss against AlphaGo had a profound impact on his life: "Losing to AI, in a sense, meant my entire world was collapsing."
Now, he warns that the technology won't just be coming after Go players.
"I faced the issues of AI early, but it will happen for others," Lee said at an education fair in Seoul, according to The Times. "It may not be a happy ending."
Lee told the publication that he can see AI creating new jobs as it takes away others. But a larger concern for the retired Go player is what AI will do to people's appreciation for originality.
"People used to be in awe of creativity, originality, and innovation," Lee told The Times. "But since AI came, a lot of that has disappeared."
Since AI's rise to the mainstream, artists and some leading intellectuals have raised doubts about the technology's ability to be creative.
Noam Chomsky, a linguistics professor and philosopher, previously told Business Insider in 2023 that he was "skeptical" that artificial intelligence could make breakthroughs in studies like the arts.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg said in an interview with Stephen Colbert that AI takes the "soul" out of creative work.
"I think the soul is unimaginable and is ineffable," Spielberg said. "And it cannot be created by any algorithm, it is just something that exists in all of us."