AlphaGo beats Lee again, leading 2-0 in Go human vs. machine showdown

AlphaGo, the computer created by DeepMind, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) arm of Google, beats South Korea's grandmaster Lee Sedol again in human vs. machine Go-chess showdown, leading 2-0 in the best-of-five series on Thursday.

Just like Game 1, world champion Lee, one of the top players of the ancient Chinese board game, resigned when it became clear the AlphaGo had taken an unassailable lead, but withstanding one hour longer than Wednesday's three and a half hours of play.

After shocking the world by defeating Lee in their opening match on Wednesday, the AlphaGo computer proved it was no fluke with another victory.

Lee appeared to struggle early on after AlphaGo made several moves that were "shockingly unconventional", said Kim Seong-Ryong, a Go commentator and professional player.

"If you conducted a survey of all the 1,300 professional Go players in South Korea, Japan and China, not a single person would have chosen that move," Kim said after one of the computer's unexpected plays.

AlphaGo's consecutive victories in the mind game is a breakthrough for AI, showing the program has mastered one of the most creative and complex games ever devised.

AI experts had forecast it would take another decade for computers to beat professional Go players. That changed when AlphaGo defeated the European Go champion Fan Hui last year in a 5-0 whitewash, in a closed-door match later published in the journal Nature. Since then, AlphaGo's performance has steadily improved.

AlphaGo's successive wins over a human champion shows computers can mimic intuition and tackle more complex tasks, its creators say. They believe that ability could be used to help scientists solve tough real-world problems in health care and other areas.

The third encounter will happen on Saturday. Endit