FineArt (L, a Tencent staff member following its instruction) playing against Ichiriki Ryo (R). [Photo: Tencent]

Chinese artificial intelligence FineArt, a narrow AI computer program developed by Tencent, beat Japanese rising star Ichiriki Ryo at Japan Densei-Sen Competition on March 26, 2017 after winning the championship of UEC Cup, according to The Paper.

Ranking first in UEC Cup, a populous go competition between AIs held in Japan since 2007, FineArt challenged Ichiriki Ryo at Densei-Sen Competition.

The famous AI program AlphaGo did not participate in UEC.

The competition was narrated by world champions Nie Weiping, Ke Jie and Luo Xihe, which showed the importance attached to the game.

Tencent started the research of FineArt on Februry, 2016. It took Tencent AI Lab nearly a year to develop the program, and the research covered the two most popular points in the field: depth and reinforcement. After inserting programmed algorithms and letting it play against itself, AI Lab put FineArt into Tencent go platform (Foxwq) to play against the world's top human players and improve itself from experiences.

Already recognized in the go world, AI is much more ambitious. FineArt is, in fact, a representation of Tencent's AI strategy. Tencent will apply the technology gained from the research of FineArt to the development of its other programs. AI is also expected to advance researches of other fields like medical science.