(Yicai Global) June 19 -- DeepZenGo, a Japanese artificial intelligence (AI) Go program, will take part as a contestant in a World Go Competition held in Beijing this week. South Korea's 18-year-old contestant, Shin Minjun, will be the first player to play against DeepZenGo. "I don't know whether it is good or not to compete against an AI Go program in the first round," Shin said.

With a title prize of CNY1.8 million (USD265,000), the MLily Cup international Go tournament held by the International Go Federation is one of the most important and largest Go competitions in the world. It attracts players from all over the world, with DeepZenGo, jointly developed by the Japanese telecom company Dwango and the AI Institute of Tokyo University, have also been invited to participate.

In March, DeepZenGo was ranked third in the race against three top Go players. The current level of DeepZenGo has been further improved compared with the March edition and the goal is to win the championship, said Kato Hideki, a team representative for the project.

The world's top human Go player, Ke Jie, who was defeated by AI Go program, "AlphaGo," last month, will take part in the competition as the defending champion. Ahead of the tournament, Ke Jie made his opinion public by saying, "I do not support participation of DeepZenGo in the competition. I do not agree with it and do not want to accept it. But I have no choice."