Google AI takes on master of ancient Chinese board game Go

It's man vs machine this week as Google's artificial intelligence programme AlphaGo faces the world's top-ranked Go player in a contest expected to end in another victory for the machine. Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo took on the Chinese world number one of the ancient board game today in the first of three planned games, beating its human opponent by a narrow margin. It is the second time the AI has gone head-to-head with a master Go player in a public showdown, after stunning the world last year by trouncing South Korean grandmaster Lee Sedol four games to one. Google's artificial intelligence programme AlphaGo (right screen) will face the world's top-ranked Go player, China's 19-year-old Ke Jie (left), in a contest expected to end in another victory for rapid advances in AI. AlphaGo, part of Google's DeepMind project, competed against Ke Jie, currently ranked as the top player in the world, at an event held in the eastern Chinese water town of Wuzhen.