NHN said on July 23 it provided its artificial intelligence (AI) baduk program, Handol, for joint training in the baduk event at the 19th South Korea-China Youth Sports Exchange held in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, on July 21.

The South Korea-China Youth Sports Exchange, hosted by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, is an international exchange programme in which middle school students from South Korea and China build friendship through sports. It has been held every year since 2008 in three sports, including basketball, table tennis and badminton. This year, baduk was added for the first time as part of measures agreed at a South Korea-China summit in January to "revitalise exchanges among future generations".

The exchange runs for seven days from July 19 to July 25 and consists of joint training between the two countries, official matches by sport, friendship events and cultural tours. In the baduk joint training held on July 21, a total of 12 people, including participating students and coaches from both countries, completed customised training using Handol.

Training was conducted in two formats: the "Handol Challenge", in which players play matches against a pro-level AI, and the amateur-level "Handol Level Test", in which players choose a level suited to their ability from nine levels. Developed in-house based on game records data accumulated by NHN since 1999, Handol is a representative baduk AI that was selected as the opponent in Lee Sedol's retirement match in 2019 and recorded two wins in three games.

After the joint training, students from both countries will play practice matches on July 22 before holding full-fledged official matches on the morning of July 23.

Participants who took part in on-site training gave positive evaluations of the AI-integrated system. South Korean participant Hyojun Shim (심효준) said, "Handol AI was much stronger than I thought," adding, "I can play against a wide range of strength levels and identify my weaknesses, so I want to keep using it."

Chinese participant Yousong Wang (왕 요우송) said, "Handol AI was very good for baduk training and I would like to recommend it to my friends," adding, "This exchange was meaningful because I could learn while studying together with friends from China and South Korea."

Hyeongseok So (소형석), head of the Youth Sports Department at the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, said, "Baduk is relatively static compared with other sports, so there was concern about how to organise a training programme, but the AI-based training programme felt fresh," adding, "I hope we can introduce AI-based training programmes in other sports in the future."