SHANGHAI (AFP, Reuters) - Google's computer programme AlphaGo beat the world's top-ranked player in the ancient Chinese board game Go on Tuesday (May 23), re-affirming the arrival of what its developers tout as a ground-breaking new form of artificial intelligence.

AlphaGo took the first encounter in a three-game series against Chinese world number one Ke Jie in a highly anticipated match, a year after it trounced South Korean grandmaster Lee Se-Dol - the first time a computer programme beat a top player in a full contest.

Google and its parent Alphabet Inc's services are largely banned in China. AlphaGo, which made history when it beat Mr Lee, will go up against Mr Ke in two more matches slated for Thursday (May 25) and Saturday (May 27) this week.

Go, an ancient Chinese board game, is favoured by AI researchers because of the large number of outcomes compared to other games such as western chess. According to Google, there are more potential positions in a Go game than atoms in the universe.

The high-profile AlphaGo match comes amid a Chinese government push to compete internationally in artificial intelligence.

Baidu Inc, China's leading search firm which is developing projects parallel to Google in search and autonomous driving, in March launched an AI lab in cooperation with China's National Development and Reform Commission.

Google pulled its search engine from China seven years ago after it refused to self-censor internet searches, a requirement of the Chinese government. It has since been rendered inaccessible behind the country's firewall, maintaining only a limited presence through a joint venture in the country.

It previously announced plans to bring some services back to the country, including its app store Google Play. In March, Google announced Chinese users would be able to access the Translate mobile app, marking its most recent success launching a previously banned service.

Like AlphaGo, Translate also uses DeepMind's artificial intelligence software.