Machines like AlphaGo kill the fun: Jack Ma

Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma speaks at the Big Data Expo held in Guiyang City of Guizhou Province, May 26, 2017. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

(ECNS) -- Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma said human beings should not be afraid of machines and they should better cope with the new world through educational reforms.

At the Big Data Expo held in Guiyang City of Guizhou Province, Ma said machines should be encouraged to think independently rather than learn from humans so they can perform tasks impossible for people.

Ma said he is certain robots of the future will be unlike those of today just as "aliens would not look like our human beings."

He explained that a car would never have run faster than a human being if it was designed to walk on two legs. "Human beings should know their limits, which is also a form of wisdom," said Ma.

The billionaire said interaction between people and machines means education of the young will have to be reformed or they will not find jobs in 30 years.

Machines will replace the knowledge and skills developed over the past 200 years, so it's important for families and governments to pay attention to education, Ma added.

He also called for Chinese companies to not invest in creations like AlphaGo, which defeated 19-year-old Chinese Go grandmaster Ke Jie, because he thinks it's not that meaningful.

The fun of playing Go is to wait for the other side to make a mistake and lose, but machines have killed the fun because they far outsmart human players, according to Ma.

"What's the point of playing with a machine that never makes mistakes? They deprive us of our best fun and insult us too."

In response, professional Go player Nie Weiping said Jack Ma has a poor understanding of the abstract strategy board game although he may excel in other fields. AlphaGo operates at least 20 dan rank while the highest for human beings is only at 9, according to Nie.