Garry Kasparov Looks At the Limits of Human Performance and Artificial Intelligence

 Artificial Intelligence  

Former chess champion Garry Kasparov recently spoke at the Oxford Martin School, giving his view on the rapidly changing relationship between humans and technology.

In a recent talk at the Oxford Martin School, former chess champion and Senior Visiting Fellow at the school, Garry Kasparov, turned his unique perspective to the rapidly evolving relationship between humans and technology.

Kasparov explored the impact of technology on human development, including how it can enhance, limit or possibly even endanger the human race. He considered the possibilities, limitations and risks of this ever-changing field of potential, looking at a wide range of developments, from nano-sensors to the prospect of artificial intelligence.

"The question is will greater success and progress with our intelligent machines come from developing ways to analyze past information or from teaching them some rules and letting them figure it out?"

Kasparov believes that there are limitations in artificial intelligence that humans will always be superior at, such as creativity and our subconscious intuition, which he especially found useful in playing chess.  There is no surprise now looking back that Deep Blue was able to beat a human at chess, or that Watson was able to beat Jennings and Rutter at Jeopardy!

Perhaps more importantly though is the fact that people have not yet been relegated to the sidelines of high-level chess. Recent competitions have shown how the optimal solutions for games come from a mix human strengths with machine ones, and how the best such combinations can be difficult to predict, by machines or human experts. Kasparov also mentions how a poker-playing computer can always win if the game is just based on the odds, but bluffing remains a human advantage.

In a very interesting segment of the lecture, Kasparov recalls a conversation he had  with David Ferrucci, the former leader of the IBM Watson team, at his current position at the Bridgewater hedge fund. "The goal of Bridgewater, like any hedge fund, is to predict the future," states Kasparov.  

At the meeting the group discussed the following: "The question is will greater success and progress with our intelligent machines come from developing ways to analyze past information or from teaching them some rules and letting them figure it out?" In light of the recent announcement of DeepMind's video game-playing artificial intelligence this question seems especially pertinent.

"One doesn't exclude the other," says Kasparov.  "A perfect digital brain would not know when to decide," he says.  Human intuition would still play a role. The switch from an analytic mode to a decision making mode is a very human issue stresses Kasparov.  He also relates how Ferrucci said that machines can ask questions, they just don't know what is important. 

"Only a human knows the why," says Kasparov.

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Kasparov also challenges innovation to take more risks in his talk. "Its safer now to travel to Mars, than it was for Columbus to cross the Atlantic, because at least we know the distance," jokes Kasparov. Like Peter Thiel, Kasparov believes that innovation is actually slowing down compared to the early 20th century.

Kasparov also addresses the issues surrounding data and privacy, offering his perspective on whether potential breakthroughs and advantages are worth the risk to privacy. He examines the opposing views of those who fear the risks and those who seem only to embrace the upside of new generations of technology.

Kasparov came to international fame as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985 at the age of 22. Eager for new challenges, he retired from professional chess in 2005 after a record 20 years as the world's top-ranked player. Kasparov wasted no time after leaving chess, joking that he would be far busier as a retiree. He quickly became an important voice in the Russian pro-democracy movement against the repressive regime of Vladimir Putin. In 2005 he formed the United Civil Front, of which he is still the chairman, and co-led The Other Russia coalition that focused on uniting the Russian opposition to Putin under the banner of free and fair elections.

Kasparov also turned his energy to writing and public speaking. “I have spent my life thinking about thinking,” he said, “and I find many others are as interested in the field of improving human performance as I am.” Kasparov’s keynote lectures and seminars on strategic thinking, achieving peak performance, and tech innovation have been acclaimed in dozens of countries. His 2007 book on decision-making, How Life Imitates Chess was translated into over 20 languages.

The Kasparov Chess Foundation was launched in New York City in 2002 with the purpose of bringing chess into the educational system in the USA and worldwide. Kasparov has long promoted the many benefits of chess for schoolchildren KCF’s program is now used in thousands of schools. KCF formed branches in Europe and Africa and will continue rapid expansion.

SOURCE  The Oxford Martin School

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