The God of Go. How Communities React to Automation in the Case of AlphaGo

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, grade: 1, University of Vienna, language: English, abstract: Recent advances in artificial intelligence made it possible for computers to defeat the top Go players in the world, a milestone that has been thought to be decades away. This has put the Go-World in front of a new challenge, as they must negotiate their position in relation to this automated program. To understand how communities, react to automatization this paper follows the commentaries of top Go professionals to understand how they experienced the success of AlphaGo, the program that today is the best player of Go worldwide. The paper finds three main themes that permeate through the material. Some professionals feel alienated by the introduction of this superhuman player but most players see the potential to elevate the quality of play throughout the community. Furthermore, in contrast to previous Go programs AlphaGo seems to be anthropomorphized by researchers and players due to its significant superhuman capabilities.