Google Unleashes AlphaGo in China--But Good Luck Watching It There

When AlphaGo topped the grandmaster Lee Sedol last year in Seoul, South Korea, becoming the first machine to beat a professional at the ancient game of Go, it grabbed the attention of the entire country--and beyond. This surprisingly powerful machine, built by researchers at Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence lab, also captured so many imaginations in China, the birthplace of Go, where Google says more than 60 million people watched that match from across the internet. Now AlphaGo is playing a Chinese grandmaster here in Wuzhen, China, an ancient city near the heart of the country's tech industry. The match between AlphaGo and Ke Jie, currently ranked number one in the world, seems like the perfect PR opportunity for a company that hopes to expand its presence in China in the years to come. But it hasn't quite worked out that way.