Go champion Lee Se-dol throws in towel as Google’s AlphaGo sweeps the board

Artificial intelligence comes of age in showdown between human brainpower and a machine

A computer program developed by Google took an unassailable 3-0 lead in a best-of-five match with a Go grandmaster on Saturday.

The Chinese board game is considered to be much more complex than chess - there are a far greater number of outcomes - and the victory by the program, AlphaGo, is being a hailed as a stark demonstration of the rapidly growing power of modern artificial intelligence. AlphaGo took only four hours to achieve its third consecutive win over Lee Se-dol, one of the ancient game's greatest modern players.

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