Peek into the Future: A Breakdown of the Various Implications of Alphago's Success over the Traditional Board Game, Go

Abstract

This paper aims to present a collection of the several implications of AlphaGo's victory against the top professional Go player, Lee Sedol. The implications were studied through three different aspects: (1) technological, (2) social, and (3) economical/political. The study of the technological implications was done through the lens of understanding what makes AlphaGo work, as well as the differences between AlphaGo and Deep Blue. The social implications are viewed through the perspective of the Go community in general, with a discussion on the fears and optimistic outlooks by different professionals. The economic/political aspect is viewed on a global perspective, integrating business and political mindsets as well as an inquiry into how the Chinese think about issues of war and diplomacy.