6th February, 2003

As Garry Kasparov stands tied at 2-2 with Deep Junior going into the
closing games of a high-profile $1m match in New York, public
imagination has again been captured by the spectacle of mankind battling
to assert its supremacy over machines.

However, it really doesn't matter whether Kasparov wins his current
match, according to experts in artificial intelligence, or AI, who have
taken a great interest in the match here in New York. They agree that
computer technology is advancing so fast that within a few years
machines will be well beyond the chess skills of any human.

Kasparov readily admitted himself that the future looks bleak for the
world's elite, due to the relentless march of the machines. Within a
generation or two, he says, "any single victory over the computer will
be a victory for humanity." But when they defeat the world's best, it
will not be merely because of the machines' vast numbers-crunching
power. Ultimately, chess computers - and other AI projects - will
succeed when they are able to think more and more like a human.

The physicist Stephen Hawking warned last year that computers are
improving so rapidly there is "a real danger" they will ultimately
"develop intelligence and take over." - much like the errant
chess-playing computer HAL from Stanley Kuberick's sc-fi classic, "2001:
A Space Odyssey". He called for urgent development of technologies to
link human brains with computers, thus putting computers on our side
rather than against us.

Most computer scientists are not interested in building better
chess-playing machines - the early 'retirement' of IBM's Deep Blue in
1997 at its peak when it beat Kasparov proved this point. But they are
fascinated with the brain's fantastic pattern-recognition capabilities,
and that is what they are trying to build into their new programs.
"Computer chess is kind of a sideshow for most AI people; it's kind of
fun and interesting, but it's not exactly mainstream," said Ken Forbus,
professor of computer science, education and social policy at
Northwestern University.

"Tremendous advances in computer technology have been made, but they
won't show up in the chess stuff," said Forbus, who develops artificial
intelligence systems for the military and schools. "Things like
reasoning systems, planning systems, construction of large knowledge
bases and construction of flexible natural language systems - that's
going to really make a big change in our lives."

There was also a Man-Machine match taking place in the Dutch city of
Maastricht, between the computer program HIARCSX and the world number
eight, Evgeny Bareev. HIARCS has been developed by Mark Uniacke from
Potters Bar in England, and it put up a good show with all four games
being hard-fought draws.

HIARCS stands for "Higher Intelligence Auto Response Chess System". And
indeed the distinguishing feature is that the author, like no other,
uses a maximum of chess knowledge to increase the playing strength of
his program. The new version of the program has been improved and
enhanced in a number of areas, especially in its search algorithms and
the implementation of concrete chess knowledge.

E Bareev - HIARCSX
CEM Man-Machine, (2)
English Opening
1 c4 e5 2 g3 Nc6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Bg2 Bg7 5 Rb1 a5 6 a3 d6 7 b4 axb4 8 axb4 f5
9 b5 Nce7 10 e3 Nf6 11 Nge2 Be6 12 Bxb7 Ra7 13 Bg2 Bxc4 14 d3 Be6 15 Bd2
h5 16 h4 Qd7 17 Qc2 0-0 18 0-0 Rb8 19 Rfc1 Bf7 20 Rb4 d5 21 d4 e4 22 Nf4
Ng4 23 Bf1 Rba8 24 Ra4 Bh6 25 Rca1 Rxa4 26 Rxa4 Rb8 27 Ra6 Bxf4 28 exf4
Nc8 29 Bc1 Nb6 30 Be2 Kg7 31 Qa2 Nf6 32 Ba3 Ne8 33 Bc5 Nd6 34 Qa1 Qd8 35
Qa3 Nbc4 36 Qb4 e3 37 f3 Nxb5 38 Nxb5 Qd7 39 Ra5 Be8 40 Bxc4 dxc4 41 Qc3
Rxb5 42 Rxb5 Qxb5 43 d5+ Kg8 44 Qxe3 Bf7 45 Qe7 Qb8 46 Bd4 Qe8 47 Qf6
Qe1+ 48 Kg2 Qe2+ 49 Bf2 Be8 50 Qe5 Qxe5 draw

JOHN B HENDERSON