We Solve Games But Not Suffering

In March 2016, the Google DeepMind team celebrated a historic moment. Their Artificial Intelligence system AlphaGo had just defeated Lee Sedol, one of the world's greatest Go players (Go being an ancient Chinese board game of profound complexity where players aim to surround more territory than their opponent).

During the second game, AlphaGo made a move so beautiful and unexpected, known now as 'Move 37', that experts were stunned by its brilliance. While the world marveled at this technological breakthrough, just blocks away from the match venue, homeless people huddled in Seoul's subway stations, seeking warmth in one of Asia's most technologically advanced cities.

This stark contrast highlights a fundamental problem. We can create machines that play ancient board games with divine-like ability, but we struggle to solve basic human suffering.