Deep Junior
An interesting article by Garry Kasparov about his recent bout with Deep Junior
Deep Junior is a different sort of computer to its predecessor, Deep Blue :-
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In game five of my match with Deep Junior it played an imaginative sacrifice of the type generally considered impossible for a computer player. It was a landmark moment for computer chess and the science and programmers behind it.
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When Deep Blue did, it did it with raw speed; or did it? As Kasparov points out
“Sheer power means little in chess because it is a mathematically near-infinite game.” IBM terminated the Deep Blue program after the 1997 victory, thus denying mathematicians the chance to analyse how it worked, and the records never made public. Why was this? On IBM’s “Deep Blue”:http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/learn/html/e.html website, they explain that the underlying RS/6000 technology is being used for
* Cleaning up toxic waste sites
* Forecasting the weather
* Modeling financial data
* Designing cars
* Developing innovative drug therapies
But that is the server technology, not the actual chess program, not Deep Blue itself? On a “page about Deep Blue”:http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/learn/html/e.8.3.html IBM say:
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For proof of RS/6000 capabilities, look no further than this web site. You may recall what happened the first day Deep Blue and Garry Kasparov battled last year. The web site crashed. Frankly, we weren’t prepared for the worldwide interest the match would generate. The web site couldn’t handle all the “hits” of chess fans trying to follow the action. But literally overnight, we scaled up the RS/6000 server — adding nodes. The result? The site was able to handle three million “hits” in three hours.”
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This time, the match was more scientific with both Deep Junior and Kasparov under scientific scrutiny. The actual result of the match was less important this time than the results of the scientific analysis. With Deep Junior supposedly _simulating human behavior_ the results should be interesting.
The article starts with a mention to one of my minor obsessions, Alan Turing. When I see an article on the internet written my the computer opponent then I’ll start to believe. It does have a “bio though”:http://www.x3dworld.com/Entertainment/CI_X3DEvnt_DeepJunior_Big_Frameset.html