Dive Brief:

• Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, beat Lee Sedol, a renowned Go player who considered by many to be the best in the world, in the first of five Go matches. 
• Lee resigned Tuesday after three and a half hours. After the match, Lee said he was "very surprised" by the outcome. 
• The series, which concludes March 15, marks the first time that a professional nine-dan Go player has played the complex Chinese board game against a computer, according to The Verge. 

Dive Insight:

Defeating a legendary Go player is a major accomplishment for Google's DeepMind. Its program AlphaGo uses a complex system of deep neural networks and machine learning to play the game, which requires high levels of intuition. Because the game requires more than just logic, winning Go is seen as a huge advancement in the field of artificial intelligence. 

While researchers have developed systems that can defeat humans in other games, Go has continued to pose a challenge. The system beat the European Go champion, Fan Hui, last year, but Lee is seen as a next-level competitor.

"I didn't expect to lose. [But] I didn't think AlphaGo would play the game in such a perfect manner," Lee said, according to The Verge. Lee said he thought he failed on the opening layout and was surprised by the strength of the system's opening move. 

Lee will next play AlphaGo on Thursday.