Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov Shares Thoughts on AI Developments
Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov had plenty of time to think about the advances Artificial Intelligence and computing have undergone in the past two decades ever since he lost that historic match to IBM's Deep Blue.
People around the world were shocked when he lost a six-game chess match to IBM's most powerful chess-playing computer back in 1997. That was 20 years ago, and with people now carrying AI-powered devices in their pockets, people's perception of his loss has changed from a shocker to an inevitable outcome, as Business Insider notes.
That holds true for the former world champion as well, as he said in his recent interview.
"I could see the trend," Kasparov began, talking with the media outlet at the Web Summit in Lisbon. The grandmaster had an inkling even back in 1997 that humans may inevitably fall behind in the field of board games against computers.
"I could see that it's, you know, a one-way street. That's why I was preaching for collaboration with the machines, recognising that in the games' environment, humans were doomed," he explained
Earlier this year, computers have beaten humans at another game that was previously thought to have been difficult for AI. Google's AlphaGo, often cited as the foremost example of groundbreaking research into AI, has beaten World Number One Go Player Ke Jie in his own game earlier this May.
Ke Jie, who was confident before the match that AlphaGo has no chance to defeat him, was thoroughly humbled by his experience against the AI. "I feel like his game is more and more like the 'Go god'. Really, it is brilliant," Ke Jie said at the time.
It has been a development that has not escaped the notice of Kasparov, with the chess grandmaster saying he was not surprised by the development, "because even with the limited knowledge that these machines receive, they have the goal."