What DeepMind's win says about our AI future

In this handout image provided by Google, South Korean professional Go player Lee Se-Dol puts his first stone against Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, during the third Google DeepMind Challenge Match on March 12, 2016 in Seoul, South Korea. SAN FRANCISCO -- IBM's Watson computer now has company at beating humans in very complicated games. Google's artificial intelligence machine, called DeepMind, this week defeated a human champion three straight times at the ancient board game of Go. The feat has been viewed widely as a huge breakthrough in artificial intelligence, one that intensifies the high-stakes race among tech giants to develop ever-smarter machines. "DeepMind is doing what appears to be thinking -- that's what has everybody jazzed," says Jonathan Crane, chief commercial officer of IPsoft, a startup that makes an AI-based customer-service product.