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DeepMind cofounder and CEO Demis Hassabis.
The AlphaGo AI is now 3-0 up in the five-game series so there is no way 18-time world champion Lee Sedol can come back from here. However, the remaining games on Sunday and Tuesday will still be played out.
It's a major milestone for artificial-intelligence research: Go is a simple game but has been notoriously difficult for computers to master because of the sheer number of potential moves. While AI programs began being able to beat humans at chess decades ago, the best Go players in the world have always been able to outsmart Go-playing software - until now.
Go is a two-player turn-based strategy game. Each player puts down either black or white stones in an attempt to outmaneuver and surround the other player. It's easy to pick up but takes years to master.
DeepMind cofounders Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg have publicly celebrated their victory on Twitter. Hassabis described it as a "historic moment." Legg wrote: "They said this wouldn't happen for a long time... but it just did!"
#AlphaGo won game 3 and the match! Historic moment. In complete awe of Lee Sedol's incredible genius, and proud of the amazing AlphaGo team!
- Demis Hassabis (@demishassabis) March 12, 2016
They said this wouldn't happen for a long time... but it just did! Well done team and thanks to Sedol for fighting hard to the end #AlphaGo
- Shane Legg (@ShaneLegg) March 12, 2016
The tournament has been closely watched by the most senior people at Alphabet and Google. Alphabet presdient Sergey Brin attended the third game, while Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt was there for the first. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was also tweeting about it earlier in the week.
Incredible moment for AI. Congrats to AlphaGo and Lee Sedol for a great game. More to come! https://t.co/0Ekk1C3wmg
- sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) March 9, 2016
A post game press conference is due to take place at some point on Saturday morning (GMT). It can be watched here.