Chess and the Rise of AI

“The machines have finally come for the white collared, the college graduates, the decision makers. And it’s about time.” ― Garry Kasparov, Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins

With a ton of cash and a lot of smart people, tech giant IBM had one goal in mind: to create a machine that can surpass human intelligence. How can you test this, you say? Through the beautiful game of chess, of course.

A series of matches between IBM's super smart chess engine, Deep Blue, and World Chess Champion (and legend) Gary Kasparov took place on the public stage for the first time in February 1997 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The result? Deep Blue failed miserably.

Gary Kasparov is one the best chess players to ever live. And, like most chess players, we are prideful warriors, ready to accept an invitation into battle. Gary, being the warrior that he is, was happy to accept a rematch and finalize the human vs. machine debate once and for all.

On May 11, 1997, the (second) round of human vs machine took place. But this time, Gary lost.
This wasn't just about the chess. It was about a monumental shift in innovation; it was the birth of artificial intelligence.

The human vs. machine debate has raged for centuries, with fear around machines one day completely overtaking us humans. So, as you can imagine, when Deep Blue beat Kasparov, the world nearly deleted System 32.

But, this is what I find the most interesting. After the series of matches with Deep Blue coming out on top, everyone thought chess was dead. After all, why play a game that a machine has perfected? Where is the fun in that?

As you sit here today, it's clear that chess did not die. In fact, it's bigger than it ever was. Why?
Before, we only knew chess through our human eyes. Up until 1997, everything we knew about chess was created by us humans playing the game. We analyzed together and spent countless hours studying certain opening preparations. We had all the strategic fundamentals down. But the machine showed us that what we know wasn't as set in stone as we once believed. The machine showed us a reinvention of the game; a 'modern chess'. Chess was no longer a game driven by theory developed from live brains. It had a new light on it that exposed the flaws of human thinking.

As a result, not only did machine change the way we play the game, it allowed people to play whenever, wherever, against the strongest person in the world. Post-game analysis wasn't so lengthy anymore. With one click, we can see exactly where we blundered in our game and what the best moves were. In other words, chess engines gave us sight where we were once blind.

Before the advent of AI, the growth of chess Grandmasters—the highest title one can pursue in professional chess—was already on a steady upward trend due to the game's rising popularity. But with the emergence of powerful chess engines at nearly everyone's disposal, the incline of Grandmasters skyrocketed.
What's most interesting from this example is that we can see similar comments about AI still to this day, whether it's AI taking over jobs or other creative activities we humans like. The fear still exists.

Indeed, when reflecting on history, we observe the same overarching skepticism towards many innovations.
Yet, over time, we have learned to embrace, adapt, and thrive with new technologies.

So, like Garry Kasparov points out in his book "Deep Thinking" (highly recommend): we're not being replaced by machines, we're being promoted. Whether this stands true or not, only time will tell.