This AI Documentary Produced by DeepMind Almost Won an Oscar
The documentary "AlphaGo" (Chinese translation: Alpha Go) was produced by Google and the DeepMind team, and was carefully produced by documentary director Greg Kohs and his team. It tells the story of several key games in which the DeepMind team led AlphaGo to compete with top human chess players.
This documentary won many awards after being screened on a small scale at various film festivals last year. It was released on Netflix this year and even received a score of 8.9 on IMDB.
AlphaGo, is not the first film or TV work produced by Google, but it is the first documentary work that has won numerous awards and praises at home and abroad.
The protagonist of the story: Programmer VS chess player
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The documentary tells the story of how the DeepMind team invited top human chess players to play against them after completing an early version of AlphaGo. The most important match was between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol, the world's top-ranked Korean chess player at the time.
The main characters in the documentary are the AlphaGo engineering team and several chess players:
“Our team hopes that DeepMind can become an important driving force in the field of AI, just like the Apollo moon landing program. Our biggest vision is to explore and shape intelligence through human power.”
——Demis Hassabis
Co-founder and CEO of DeepMind
Demis Hassabis is the founder of DeepMind and also a chess player. He has been practicing chess since he was a child and became the runner-up in an international competition at the age of 13.
This is one of the reasons why he has been using chess for AI training since he formed the DeepMind team. In the film, he showed extraordinary leadership, awe and persistence for AI and Go.
"Lee Sedol is an excellent chess player. I am honored to help AlphaGo play against him. I know the whole world is looking forward to this game, and AlphaGo is ready."
——Huang Shijie
Chief Engineer at DeepMind
Dr. Shih-Chieh Huang from Taiwan is the chief engineer of DeepMind. He is often silent in the film, and his colleagues also explained that he is introverted and does not like to face the camera. However, he is not only an important soul of DeepMind, but also the main programmer of the AlphaGo project.
He also represents AlphaGo, the person who sits opposite the human player in the three-dimensional world and places the chess pieces. He is like Hikaru Shindo in "Hikaru no Go", and AlphaGo is his assistant.
Not only do I hope to win, I also hope that while playing Go, I can hone my own unique style of play.
——Lee Sedol, a famous Korean chess player
In the film, Lee Sedol is not only the opponent that AlphaGo most wants to defeat, but also the last hope for human chess players.
Although he has been ranked among the best in the world for many years, his sincerity and humility are fully displayed in front of the camera, from his confidence before the battle to his meaningful smile at the end. In the film, he is the person who represents humans in the dialogue with AI.
All the knowledge I have learned in this half of my life comes from Go. Go is like a mirror to me. Seeing Go is seeing my inner heart.
——Fan Hui
In the film, Fan Hui is a special character, his character is warm and straightforward, so he is very eye-catching. At the beginning of the film, he is the one who speaks fluent French and instructs the French to play chess on the streets of Bordeaux.
He was born in China and lived in France as an adult. He is a professional second-dan chess player. Compared with other top chess players in the film, his rank is really not high, and netizens jokingly call him "the most famous second-dan chess player in the world."
He is currently the head coach of the French Go team. He has won the European Go Championship many times in a row. He was also invited by the DeepMind team to become a consultant. He was the first professional human player chosen by AlphaGo to play against him and was the chief referee of this man-machine battle.
A technical documentary that is not purely about technology
Since its release, this work has won the Best Picture and nominations at many heavyweight documentary awards such as the New York Tribeca Film Festival, the London International Film Festival, and the Critics' Choice Awards, and was even nominated for the Best Documentary at the 2018 Academy Awards.
What is rare is that this is a documentary that tells the story of artificial intelligence technology from beginning to end, while most of the stories that are favored by awards at film festivals are about nature, social news, and culture.
The reasons include:
As a documentary, this work is professional and sophisticated.
The director used skillful techniques to film this thrilling competition process, even though we all know the final winner and loser of the man-machine battle.
The dedication of the entire filming team is reflected in every detail of the film. Many producers in the team have won international documentary awards. Together, they have made it possible for each character to naturally show his state, emotions, attitude towards AI, and expectations for the game.
Accurately conveys the exploration and reflection on the relationship between humans and AI
Several engineers in the film are also professional or amateur chess players. They constantly express their positions and thoughts on the competition between AI and humans.
The two chess players who were deeply portrayed, regardless of their respective ranks and the results of the game, expressed their understanding of the challenges that AI poses to humans in Go and the future development possibilities of AI.
The big extras in the film
Many big names probably got their turn and made cameo appearances in this film.
There is no need to introduce Feifei. She had not yet joined Google when the documentary was filmed.
Currently working for the New York Times, he is the most senior writer and reporter in the field of AI in the United States;
Working at Cambridge University, he devoted his early years to researching algorithms related to iris recognition;
With the help of these big guys, even if you don’t know much about Go, you can quickly understand the subtleties of Go through the introduction of this film.
If you are not interested in artificial intelligence technology, the in-depth and easy-to-understand explanations in the film can help you quickly understand the difficulty behind the technology and the infinite possibilities of AI in the future.
Want to watch it with everyone offline?
This documentary is 90 minutes long and was released on Netflix earlier this year. It can be watched online for only $4.
The good news is that this documentary has also been introduced to China for broadcast this year. We have obtained official authorization from DeepMind, the production team and domestic distribution companies to broadcast it in China.
It will be released offline in Beijing during this year's 1024 Programmers' Day. Considering that this year's Programmers' Day falls on a working day, we will adjust the time to hold the event on the afternoon of October 24+4 (Sunday).
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