Learn about the showdown between AI and Shogi masters
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| Hello, and welcome to the Culture Class: News and Current Events in Japan, Season 1 - Lesson 15, The Showdown Between AI and Shogi Masters |
| In recent years, AI technology has advanced more than ever. The Den’ou games have highlighted these advancements. |
| In this lesson, we'll learn about this news story. |
Lesson focus |
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| The Shogi Den'ou battle is an informal competition between shogi-game software sponsored by Japanese IT companies and professional shogi players. |
| The Den'ou games began in 2012, and professional shogi players have been defeated in many games. |
| Even in the 2016 game, the shogi software, "Ponanza," and Yamasaki Takayuki Hie faced off and "Ponanza" won. |
| The year 2017 opened with a theme of revenge, and "Ponanza" and Master Amahiko Sato made it to the final round. |
| It was the first time that a game was held between shogi software and a titleholder. |
| Master Sato is a professional shogi player, who, last May, for the first time, won the title against the three-time title recipient Habu Yoshiharu, who is a genius of the game. |
| However, "Ponanza" is also a strong entity, which has never been defeated in past Den'ou battles. |
| The battle, which attracted not only the attention from shogi fans, but also of many others, such as the IT industry, was held in two matches. |
| Both matches, the first held at Nikko Toshogu Shrine and the second at Himeji Castle, developed into a fierce battle, but they both ended with two consecutive defeats for Mr. Sato. |
| Actually, Mr. Sato had borrowed "Ponanza" in advance and repeatedly conducted research. |
| However, he said that although he played over 150 matches, he could hardly ever win. |
| After the game, Mr. Sato commented, "It's beyond the level of current shogi players." |
| Though Chess, Go, and shogi have simple rules, they are games that require complicated and advanced thinking. |
| It can be said that the difficulty and fun is reading your opponent's "psychology." |
| Shogi is a game that deceives the "heart" because it has "soul." |
| Therefore, it was considered impossible for a machine, which does not have "heart." |
| But AI technology is trying to surpass it by predicting human "psychology" and by analyzing big data obtained in the past. |
| This evolution is now mixed with fear and expectation. |
Outro |
| Those are the key facts about the showdown between AI and Shogi masters. |
| If you want to find the related Japanese keywords, make sure to check out the lesson notes. |
| Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening everyone, and keep listening for more of the most talked about news stories in Japan! |
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