A Brief History
On February 17, 1996, Chess champion Garry Kasparov bested the IBM Deep Blue supercomputer in an historic chess game between man and machine. The battle between organic and electronic brains went far beyond a single match, as Kasparov beat the special-built chess playing machine three games to one and two ties.
Digging Deeper
Not content with beating the Grand Master once, IBM reworked their computer, doubling its computing speed, and a rematch was held in 1997, this time resulting in a win for Deep Blue. An irate Kasparov demanded a rematch, but IBM had taken the computer apart. Kasparov’s claims that IBM had cheated were to no avail.
Machines have already been long beating humans at many labors, such as digging, cutting down trees, driving rail spikes, and just about everything you can think of. The scary scenario of AI becoming self-aware and taking over the world from humans has alarmed many scientists. How about you?
Bonus: In 2011, IBM’s “Watson” supercomputer trounced a pair of the greatest champions from the TV show, Jeopardy, in a display of electronic superiority. The giant “Watson” computer was named after the founder of IBM, Thomas J Watson.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Hsu, Feng-hsiung. Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer That Defeated the World Chess Champion. Princeton University Press, 2022.
Stone, M.J. Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse: The Inevitable Danger We Cannot Ignore. Kindle, 2023.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Rob Bogaerts / Anefo of Garry Kasparov in 1988, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
