In May 1997 the world watched as Garry Kasparov the greatest chess player in the world was
defeated for the first time by the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. It was a watershed moment in
the history of technology: machine intelligence had arrived at the point where it could best
human intellect. It wasn't a coincidence that Kasparov became the symbol of man's fight
against the machines. Chess has long been the fulcrum in development of machine intelligence
the hoax automaton 'The Turk' in the 18th century and Alan Turing's first chess program in 1952
were two early examples of the quest for machines to think like humans - a talent we measured
by their ability to beat their creators at chess. As the pre-eminent chessmaster of the 80s and
90s it was Kasparov's blessing and his curse to play against each generation's strongest
computer champions contributing to their development and advancing the field. Like all
passionate competitors Kasparov has taken his defeat and learned from it. He has devoted much
energy to devising ways in which humans can partner with machines in order to produce results
better than either can achieve alone. During the twenty years since playing Deep Blue he's
played both with and against machines learning a great deal about our vital relationship with
our most remarkable creations. Ultimately he's become convinced that by embracing the
competition between human and machine intelligence we can spend less time worrying about being
replaced and more thinking of new challenges to conquer. In this breakthrough book Kasparov
tells his side of the story of Deep Blue for the first time - what it was like to strategize
against an implacable untiring opponent - the mistakes he made and the reasons the odds were
against him. But more than that he tells his story of AI more generally and how he's evolved
to embrace it taking part in an urgent debate with philosophers worried about human values
programmers creating self-learning neural networks and engineers of cutting edge robotics. He
surveys the serious questions facing a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on AI
creating an essential guide for the business readers and educators he speaks to by the
thousands every year.
