The Rapid Development of AI
Hello Hive Community! This year, we are seeing an accelerated development in Artificial Intelligence and its applications in different industries. Aside from generating texts, it can also produce art and music.
In the near future, there will be a lot of possibilities in the use of AI. If you like playing basketball, imagine an AI assistant that will guide you to play. Or if you like painting, an AI as skilled as Da Vinci or Van Gogh teaching you to paint. We may not see these programs yet but it's already possible in Chess, AIs stronger than human grandmasters in your laptop.
AI's History and Current Role in Chess
Ever since World Champion Garry Kasparov lost to Deep Blue in 1996, there has been a rapid development of computer chess. Whereas early computer chess programs were just brute force calculators, now modern computer chess is filled with knowledge. Recently DeepMind's AlphaZero program taught itself chess just by playing thousands of games. It even revolutionized chess that top players like Magnus Carlsen adapted some of AlphaZero's style in their games.
Now, computerchess has advanced that the strongest human can no longer compete against a program running on a laptop thus, humans vs computer matches have stopped as it's impossible for the former to win. On the other hand, chess grandmasters use computers to prepare against their human opponents.
Here former World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana discusses how he uses computer programs and how sometimes he can't use computer analysis in his games simply because computers "see" so far and are so ahead against humans. A computer can judge a position to be winning because it sees a win in 40 plus moves or so but humans can't calculate that far ahead.
How I Use AI in Chess
I love playing chess, it's a challenging strategical game. While I am somewhat a decent player, I still don't understand why strong players or masters play certain moves. I could spend hours before I would understand games without annotations from masters. Computers help me bridge that gap since I can replay games while an AI analyzes possible moves.
Here I'm analyzing a game between two strong grandmasters. There are a lot of possible moves but the AI will narrow it down to the best moves. I can try a move and see what the AI says, take back and try another. It also tells me the crucial mistakes made.
For my own games, I can replay a game I played and check where I made mistakes. These things are not easy to spot without a coach teaching me where to improve my game. Now, a computer stronger than a grandmaster can help me.
In the above game, the AI is showing me a Bishop sacrifice I missed. By studying this particular game and position, hopefully I can apply what I learned and correct my mistakes in future games.
The Future of AI
Chess has benefited from the use of AI. It is now widely used in training and preparation by amateurs and professionals alike. Not only does it aid players but also offers innovative techniques to play the game. We can assume that AI will also do the same in other fields.
I think we have barely scratched the surface on the applications of AI. Industries such as robotics, science, healthcare and manufacturing will benefit from it. With the rapid pace in AI development, this could be closer than we think and we will see wonderful innovations in the coming years.