Artificial intelligence – creative robots and Move 37

Southbank Centre

Invented in China over 2,500 years ago, the abstract strategy game Go is thought to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day.

In March 2016, the Go world champion Lee Sedol accepted a challenge to play against a computer program called AlphaGo. In the second game of a five game challenge series, the computer made a move no human in the game’s vast history would have considered. This move, Move 37, was not only unique and creative, it was beyond the minds of the world’s greatest Go players.

In this latest episode of our Think Aloud podcast, presenter Harriet Fitch Little speaks with Southbank Centre's Performance and Dance Programmer, Rupert Thomson and actor and director Thomas Ryckewaert about their fascination with Move 37. They talk about what this moment meant for arts and society, and how ultimately it may shape our relationship with artificial intelligence.

Also in this episode, we hear an interview with Patrick Tresset, an artist who has programmed robots to draw portraits for him. Working in Tresset’s own style of drawing, they act like an artist and has no idea how the drawings will turn out.

Move 37 by Thomas Ryckewaert comes to Southbank Centre on 14 March, 2019. Buy tickets here: http://bit.ly/2GGlvD0