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Lee Se-dol 9 dan (right) and AlphaGo's March 2016 match. AlphaGo developer Hwang Sze (left) is placing a Go stone instead of AlphaGo. Supplied | Google

Koreans picked Google Artificial Intelligence (AI) AlphaGo as an image that comes to mind when they think of 'go' following Lee Se-dol, who retired.

According to the "National Perception and Utilization Survey Report" recently commissioned by the Korea Baduk Association to T&O Korea, Lee Se-dol (25.6%) was overwhelmingly cited as an image related to Go. AlphaGo (6.0%), an artificial intelligence (AI) developed by Google DeepMind, succeeded Lee Se-dol. The 9th dan and AlphaGo's "Great Power of the Century" eight years ago still appear to remain in the minds of the people.

In March 2016, the AI "AlphaGo," developed by Google DeepMind, and Lee Se-dol, a professional Go player who was considered the world's best at the time, shocked the game. Lee Se-dol, the strongest player in the representative brain sport Go, won a dramatic victory in the fifth match against AlphaGo. As AlphaGo retired from the Go world the following year, Lee Se-dol was recorded as "the only human who beat AlphaGo."

Lee Se-dol lamented, saying, "Even if you become the No. 1 player, you can't win anyway," as the reason for retiring at the age of 36 in 2019, three years after the match against AlphaGo.

According to the survey, the number of people who can play Go was 8.83 million, or about 20% of the entire nation. Among the Go population, men accounted for 74.7% with 6.6 million. Among men, those in their 60s were the most at 2.75 million.

Nevertheless, six out of 10 Koreans who do not play Go said they would like to play it in the future. The main reasons for this were 'brain development' and 'old-age hobbies'.

Factors that hinder the learning of Go include 'because there is no opportunity to learn' and 'because it seems difficult to play the rules'.

As a way to popularize Go, there were many opinions that it was necessary to escape from the static image due to the long game time, difficult rules, and old and unpopular images.

The survey was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Sports Promotion Agency.

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Koreans picked Google Artificial Intelligence (AI) AlphaGo as an image that comes to mind when they .. - MK -