Saturday, January 09, 2010

GM Ken Rogoff on Artificial Intelligence


In "Grandmasters and Global Growth," Ken Rogoff (chess grandmaster and one of the world's leading economists) uses chess as an example of how artificial intelligence might represent the next growth sector for the ailing economy and one that might just be the engine to lift us out of the global slowdown.  After discussing many of the ways that computers have impacted chess, he writes:

So has all this put chess players out of work? Encouragingly, the answer is “not yet.” In fact, in some ways, chess is as popular and successful today as at any point in the last few decades. Chess lends itself very well to Internet play, and fans can follow top-level tournaments in real time, often with commentary. Technology has helped thoroughly globalize chess, with the Indian Vishy Anand now the first Asian world champion, and the handsome young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen having reached rock-star status. Man and machine have learned to co-exist, for now.
See "Grandmasters and Global Growth" in ChessBase for some interesting links.  And see his earlier piece in Project Syndicate on "Artificial Intelligence and Globalization" for more on the topic.

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