Association for Computing Machinery. Communications of the ACM; New York; Aug 1997; Herbert A Simon;
Geographic Names: US Personal Names: Kasparov, Garry
The implications of IBM's Deep Blue system, which defeated Garry kasparov in a recent chess match, are discussed. Grandmaster Joel Benjamin and Murray Campbell of IBM claimed important advances during the year between matches with Kasparov in Deep Blue's chess knowledge, not merely its ability to examine more positions. Those improvements include: 1. a large opening book, 2. the ability to assign valuations to each of the leaf positions it reaches through look- ahead search, and 3. the ability to notice patterns of pieces distinguishing one kind of position from another and to use different weights for features in evaluating positions of different character One implication for the future of computing is that speed alone cannot solve complex problems and must be supplemented with knowledge. Capabilities must be developed for learning patterns autonomously from information about the task environment
Copyright Association for Computing Machinery Aug 1997
In commenting on the recent chess match between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, IBM has avoided speaking of Al, focusing almost exclusively on its large parallel processor that examines about 1.8 X 10'o positions in each three minutes (the average time allowed for a move). IBM promotional literature even proclaimed, "The power behind Deep Blue is an IBM RS/6000 SP system finely tuned with customized processor chips designed by IBM Research. This combination, in addition to expert knowledge, enables users to take on larger problems by analyzing a greater number of possible solutions."
We have a somewhat different view of Deep Blue's prowess and its implications for computing in general and Al in particular. Grandmaster Joel Benjamin, a consultant to the Deep Blue team, and Murray Campbell, an IBM research scientist and comput...