bcj

bcj

@bcj

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bcj
@bcj

A field where computer 'ai' is actually better than humans that you could probably do an interesting write-up on

I don't pay a ton of attention to pro chess but chess is a domain where the best computers are better than either all but the best humans (or even the best humans?). It is a measurable domain where computers are better and yet people prefer to watch humans play it. My understanding is the result of chess algorithms is:

  • an additional way tournament players can cheat that they have to deal with
  • maybe a win for commentary because you can simulate the game as the pros play
    • no idea whether the result is better than just having chess experts commentate. it's not like sports commentators need to be the absolute experts to informatively or entertainingly call games
  • electronic chess games can have smarter computer opponents but probably the opponents were 'good enough' for years and years
    • maybe the benefit here is a new venue for people to learn how to play chess?

I don't know shit about shit though, so if anyone knows good write-ups on how computer chess has affected chess

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in reply to @bcj's post:

graham
@graham

In both chess and go (see alpha-go), the computer has helped the best in the world become better by showing moves that they could study. My understanding is that it slightly raises the ceiling on the quality of play at the highest level

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SeasonedRice
@SeasonedRice

Computers have revolutionized correspondence chess (where you make one move every couple of days). Players now are armed with the full extent of the best analysis engines that exist and spend dozens and dozens of cpu/gpu hours looking at each move. Games take months, tournaments take years.

Naively, one would think that the humans are superfluous in this setup, and the engines are doing all the work, but that isn't the case. An experienced human armed with a chess analysis engine will trounce any lone chess engine. This is because even though the engines can look at millions of moves a minute, it's terrible at choosing which moves to investigate with great depth. An experienced human will know what moves to invest more time into analyzing, letting team human+computer easily bop team solo computer.

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