China's Go masters and researchers are optimistic about the country's AI future

After AlphaGo's historic victory against South Korean grandmaster Lee Sedol in March 2016, Go teacher Jianlun Qian felt a sense of impending crisis. He fretted about the demise of the game brought about by AI. Now that a more powerful AlphaGo has beaten the world's number one player, though, Qian feels differently. At DeepMind's Go summit in Wuzhen last week, Qian, a teacher at the local Go association's training center, contemplated a very different future in which humans and AI can complement each other. "I'm indifferent to the results now," said Qian, who coaches about 50 preschoolers in Wuzhen.