Google DeepMind's program beats human at Go

Black-and-white pieces occupy spaces on a board during a game of Go, which Google's software engineers say they've taught a computer program to play better than most humans. Google's software engineers have taught a computer program to beat almost any human at an ancient and highly complex Chinese strategy game known as "Go." While computers have largely mastered checkers and chess, Go, considered the oldest board game still played, is far more complicated. There are more possible positions in the game than are atoms in the universe, Google said -- an "irresistible" challenge for the company's DeepMind engineers, who used artificial intelligence to enable the program to learn from repeat games. The Google unit's AlphaGo computer program is much more sophisticated than the IBM-created Deep Blue computer that in 1996 won the first chess game against a reigning world champion, Garry Kasparov.