Scientific American article on Computer Chess

[mjlef]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ing-chess/

[mcostalba]

The term AI associated to a chess engine is totally misleading. There is no AI in a traditional chess engine more than can be in a CAD or in a word processor. This article is a blast from the 90's, but we are in 2017 now.

This is just a gross pitch to IBM Watson that is just basically a text search algorithm connected to a database just like Google search. It doesn't understand what it's reading.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science ... -16477207/

http://www.rogerschank.com/fraudulent-c ... son-and-AI

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11751267

I am surprised Sientific American publishes such garbage, very probably IBM is sponsor there.

[Michel]

Who knows what constitutes "intelligence". Is a bacteria intelligent? Is a fly intelligent? I would say that a fly is intelligent but does it "reason"? Perhaps it only uses pattern recognition to survive? It's all a matter of degree. The same goes for "artificial intelligence".

[syzygy]

The term AI associated to a chess engine is totally misleading. There is no AI in a traditional chess engine more than can be in a CAD or in a word processor. This article is a blast from the 90's, but we are in 2017 now.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence exhibited by machines. In computer science, the field of AI research defines itself as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal.[1]

[1] The intelligent agent paradigm:

• Russell & Norvig 2003, pp. 27, 32–58, 968–972
• Poole, Mackworth & Goebel 1998, pp. 7–21
• Luger & Stubblefield 2004, pp. 235–240
• Hutter 2005, pp. 125–126

The definition used in this article, in terms of goals, actions, perception and environment, is due to Russell & Norvig (2003). Other definitions also include knowledge and learning as additional criteria.

Certainly a chess engine perceives its environment (the chess board) and takes actions (selects moves) that maximizes its chance of success at some goal (that of winning the game). Chess engines also encode knowledge, and many include a basic form of learning.

So a chess engine is an example of AI as that term is used in the field.

Whether there is "real intelligence" in a chess engine is another question. To answer it one first needs to have a definition of "real intelligence".

If a chess engine does not exhibit "real intelligence" because we understand how they work, then I guess the human brain will stop being referred to as "intelligent" once we fully understand how it functions...

[smatovic]

Intelligence is what an intelligence test measures,
and in the article they pointed out...

So it makes sense to use chess as a measuring stick for the development of artificial intelligence.

But i guess you are right,
in 2017 we associate with AI
something different than an chess playing engine from the 90s.

--
Srdja

[pilgrimdan]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ing-chess/

"An important part of what we’re doing right now is taking very advanced artificial neural network–based systems that tend to be very black box—

they aren’t particularly good at explaining why they’re recommending what they’re recommending

—and giving them the capability to explain themselves.

How can you really trust a recommendation coming out of system if it can’t explain it?"


this part of the article was kinda scary ...

no wonder folks don't have a warm fuzzy about AI ...

[Steve Maughan]

Hi Marco,

The term AI associated to a chess engine is totally misleading. There is no AI in a traditional chess engine more than can be in a CAD or in a word processor. (snip)

I sort of agree. Is there any computer application which you'd say is really AI? Isn't everything which is now called AI really just using computer power to make a decision, which is a known set of possible choices, using fuzzy inputs, where the outcome of the decision can be evaluated as right or wrong? There isn't any higher level of thinking going on. A computer application isn't coming up with radically new concepts.

Steve

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

AI is a contradiction in terms.

there is no ai without a living soul.

if computers have souls, then I would agree they could be intelligent, but that is hardly the case.

intelligence from Latin, intel-lego, means understanding.

what could an electrical circuit understand, no matter how complicated?

there is no understanding without pain, and no understanding without happiness.

even the simplest mathematical calculation, like 2+2 = 4, in order to be perceivable/understandable, is impossible without the most basic kind of egoistic attitude, be it positive or negative.

so, we will have ai, when robots start suffering and rejoicing, deep within.

[hgm]

what could an electrical circuit understand, no matter how complicated?

Uh? The human brain is an electrical circuit. Conduction is by ions rather than electrons, but that just makes it a bit slower.

[mclane]

For an intelligent chess program you need to forget about things.
It must be selective and only follow those moves that are interesting. If it remembers anything it cannot play intelligent.
That's how humans do it.