Google-developed artificial intelligence AlphaGo computer defeated the world go champion Lee Se-dol on Saturday for third time, in the five-game tournament. The victory for the AlphaGo program, designed by Google subsidiary DeepMind, over South Korean professional player Lee Sedol, the holder of 18 international titles, is underlining the advances in AI.

"I am very sorry for the powerless display," a dejected Lee told reporters in the South Korean capital, Seoul, after his defeat.

"Though I have a lot of experience in Go I have never felt before such severe pressure as I do now, and I suppose my abilities were a bit lacking to overcome that."

Go is a complicated board game popular in countries such as China, South Korea and Japan. It involves two contestants moving black and white stones on a square grid, with the aim of seizing the most territory.

The game is different than chess, in which brute-force calculations from a computer could be enough in order to win a human player -- IBM's Deep Blue famously beat former world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 after all.

Instead, AlphaGo has sought to approximate human intuition, by studying old matches and using simulated games to hone itself independently.