The world's top Go player Lee Sedol puts the first stone against Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo during the second day of Google DeepMind Challenge Match in Seoul, South Korea, March 10, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

SEOUL - Google's computer program AlphaGo on Thursday beat South Korean Lee Sedol, the world champion of the ancient Chinese board game, raising its lead to 2-0 in the second of a historic five-game match.

Lee resigned about four and a half hours after the second match kicked off at about 1 pm local time (0400 GMT) at Four Seasons hotel in Seoul.

After exchanging 211 moves with AlphaGo, the 33-year-old accepted his second loss as the computer program took an unassailable lead.

During the first face-off on Wednesday, Lee resigned some three and a half hours after 186 moves were exchanged with each other.

AlphaGo is a computer program developed by Google's London-based AI subsidiary DeepMind. It took the world by surprise after beating European Go champion Fan Hui by 5-0 in October last year.

The AI boasts of a deep learning capability that enables the computer program to discover new strategies by playing games against itself and adjusting neural networks based on a trial-and-error process known as reinforcement learning.

Lee, 33, is seen as one of the greatest Go players in the world as he won 18 world championships for 21 years of his professional career. He recorded a winning rate of about 70 percent with 47 victories in professional matches, while AlphaGo posted a 99.8 percent rate with 504 victories and only one defeat.