KHON KAEN, Thailand - From communing with forest spirits to whipping up love potions, Thailand's cave-dwelling hermits once conducted their supernatural endeavours with just ancient magic and ritual as their guide.

SHANGHAI - Google's computer programme AlphaGo beat the world's top-ranked player in the ancient Chinese board game Go on Tuesday, re-affirming the arrival of what its developers tout as a ground-breaking new form of artificial intelligence.