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An ancient Chinese board game, Go, is known for its challenging mathematical complexity. A series of recent Go contests pitting a computer program against the world’s No. 1 player has important potential ramifications for U.S. national security.

An artificial intelligence computer system called AlphaGo has now repeatedly defeated the world Go champion, Ke Jie from China, firmly demonstrating its superiority over the top human player.

One analysis observed that AlphaGo, developed by researchers with Alphabet Inc.’s Google DeepMind, displayed the capability “to formulate unique, creative tactics undiscovered and unanticipated by human players.”

Ke concurred. He noted that in many instances, AlphaGo made moves that “would never happen in a human-to-human match.” The computer program’s tactics made an already difficult competition even more challenging.

Military analysts are pointing to that man- vs.-machine example and asking a key question: How will the growing military use of hyper- intelligent artificial intelligence programs, operating at extraordinary speed and using unexpected tactics, affect national security and change modern warfare?