Google's AI Just Did Something Nobody Thought Possible

Human beings who design intelligent computers have a long history of getting those computers to beat other humans at games to prove how great their computers are. Think IBM's Deep Blue taking down chess legend Garry Kasparov, or the same company's Watson cleaning house on Jeopardy! But there is one game that artificial intelligence has long struggled to master: Go, a board game with roots in ancient China. Go players pick either black stones or white stones, with each player placing one stone of their color every turn. The idea is to capture and remove an opponent's stones by surrounding them with your own.