Last year, AlphaGo became the first machine to beat a leading Go professional when it topped the Korean grandmaster Lee Sedol. Considering the extreme complexity of Go-there are more potential positions in the game than atoms in the universe-the win was a turning point in the progress of artificial intelligence. Underpinned by technologies that are already changing everything from internet services to healthcare to robotics, AlphaGo is a harbinger of so many shifts to come.