Did IBM's Deep Blue Cheat at Chess?
Kasparov wanted a rematch against IBM's Deep Blue but didn't get it. Why does this matter?
It matters because of the lopsided amount of information each side had. IBM knew almost all of Kasparaov's games ever played but Kasparov was given very little information.
IBM quickly dismantled Deep Blue never giving Kasparov any kind of chance for a fair fight. When Kasparov asked for Deep Blue's game history IBM refused. If Deep Blue truly is smarter than why would they not hand over such critical and relevant information? This leads many to susspect that IBM was in it for selfish reasons - IBM was never in chess for enriching mankind's chess knowledge but rather as a huge publicity stunt. IBM had too much at stake and so quickly dismantled Deep Blue and never gave Kasparov the information requested.
Any computer chess program needs to provide transparency but again this was not given - so how did Deep Blue enrich mankind?
Unfortunately, the lingering effects of this publicity stunt remain with us today. Mainstream culture has grown to believe that computers really are smarter than humans. However, this is far from proven. And we all know what happens with wrong assumptions.
History has been hijacked.
More information:
- Wired 9.10 This Time It's Personal.
Related Topic: Computer Chess
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