Shanghai - Google's computer algorithm AlphaGo narrowly beat the world's top-ranked player in the ancient Chinese board game of Go on Tuesday, reaffirming the arrival of what its developers tout as a groundbreaking new form of artificial intelligence.
AlphaGo took the first of a scheduled three games against brash 19-year-old Chinese world number one Ke Jie, who after the match annointed the programme the new "Go god".
AlphaGo stunned the Go community and futurists a year ago when it trounced South Korean grandmaster Lee Se-Dol by four games to one. That marked the first time a computer programme had beaten a top player in a full contest, and was hailed as a landmark for artificial intelligence (AI).