Google throws down the gauntlet. But can anyone beat its computer at Go?

The company's AI startup DeepMind will take on the Go champion Lee Se-Dol in March, but hopes that 'human ingenuity' will be the real winner

Don't ask Demis Hassabis, the chief executive of Google's artificial intelligence startup DeepMind, to indulge in mind games before a big competition. "We hope that whatever the result, the power of human ingenuity will be the winner" isn't the sort of fighting talk that will make an opponent quake in their boots.

Hassabis' DeepMind is preparing for the bout of its life: a five-game match against Lee Se-Dol, one of the strongest players in the world at the ancient game of Go.