Google's artificial intelligence machine to battle human champion of 'Go'

Lee Se-dol, 33, one of the world's top players of the ancient Asian pastime, is confident he can beat Alphago. But he hasn't seen improvements made to the system - and the match results could have implications far beyond the game

On Wednesday afternoon in the South Korean capital, Seoul, Lee Se-dol, the 33-year-old master of the ancient Asian board game Go, will sit down to defend humanity.

On the other side of the table will be his opponent: Alphago, a programme built by Google subsidiary DeepMind which became, in October, the first machine to beat a professional human Go player, the European champion Fan Hui. That match proved that Alphago could hold its own against the best; this one will demonstrate whether "the best" have to relinquish that title entirely.