Can team human get one back on team A.I.? We rather doubt it, but the ancient board game Go will yet again be the battleground. This time, we see the game heading to its birthplace of China for the “Future of Go Summit.”

In a blog post Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, notes that the defeat of South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol (ranked 9-dan) at the hands of AlphaGo, their narrow A.I. program, had a major effect on the Go community. Players of all ranks poured over AlphaGo’s moves, allowing creative new strategies and playing patterns to emerge.

From 23-27 May China’s top Go players will be taking on AlphaGo in a variety of game formats, during this summit supported by the Chinese Government.

• “Ke Jie vs AlphaGo” — Noted as the centrepiece of the event, this will be a regular 1:1 match of three games between world number one, Ke Jie and AlphaGo. We’re not confident in Team Human here.  

• “Team Go” — Think the Avengers taking on Ultron and you get this set-up, as five of China’s top Go players work together to try and defeat AlphaGo. Here the odds might be turning to Team Human’s favour, although how teamwork will be used in Go, traditionally more mano-a-mano, remains to be seen.

• “Pair Go” — Team Human will at least be able to share the spoils in this game where two teams face off against each other. Both have one human with an AlphaGo teammate alternating moves. Having said that, we certainly don’t want to the Chinese Go player having to listen to AlphaGo moaning, “I can’t believe you just played that. So stupid.”

Apart from the Go games, there will also be a forum running, titled “Future of A.I.”, which sees China’s top experts in the field sharing knowledge, while considering how machine learning and AI are facilitating answers to major challenges.

TechSmart will keep you updated on Team Human’s progress, although our guts tell us more crushing defeats are on the cards.