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Deep Blue
Rudimentary
ai
(artificial intelligence)
designed by I.B.M. Deep Blue became the first computational system to defeat a
reigning world chess champion on Feb. 10, 1996, with its controversial win
over Gary Kasparov. Following the match, Kasparov accused I.B.M. of
maleficence and illegal human manipulation
1
, demanding a rematch.
The company refused, offering no official retort to Kasparov's accusations and
promptly dismantled the machine. Deep Blue is the most notorious amongst a
long line of chess faux-automatons beginning with The Turk, an 18th Century
invention constructed by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress Maria Theresa, an
Austrian Empress. When controlled by a skilled operator, the Turk became a
formidable opponent, defeating a number of prominent players, including the
heralded statesmen Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The shell of the
machine was later purchased and displayed by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, though the
exact nature and functioning of Kempelen's original mechanism remains unknown.
1 Strangely the "human manipulation" appears to have been in the form of mid-game nonsensical interjections into Deep Blue's methodical strategy (i.e. "mistakes"). These instances of aberration led Kasparov to adopt preemptively defensive postures sacrificing momentum he had built earlier in the game.
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