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Subject: Re: Dead Wrong!

Author: Randall Shane

Date: 13:48:09 07/21/00

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On July 21, 2000 at 11:32:45, Ed Schröder wrote:

>On July 21, 2000 at 11:03:13, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On July 21, 2000 at 07:42:00, Chris Carson wrote:
>>
>>>The truth is that Ed, Uri, and Amir are right.  DB had bugs
>>>and a simple eval (so that HSU could put it into ASICS, HSU
>>>was a HW guy Murry was the SW guy, trade offs were made to
>>>create ASICS).
>>>
>>>Best Regards,
>>>Chris Carson
>>
>>
>>You are obviously an ASIC expert?  And their claim of 8,000 adjustable eval
>>terms is therefore bogus?  And it was our imagination that it beat Kasparov
>>3 years ago?
>
>From the IBM site:
>
>    Does Deep Blue use artificial intelligence?
>    The short answer is "no." Earlier computer designs that
>    tried to mimic human thinking weren't very good at it. No
>    formula exists for intuition. So Deep Blue's designers have
>    gone "back to the future." Deep Blue relies more on
>    computational power and a simpler search and evaluation
>    function.
>
>

First, a disclaimer :

Although I work for IBM as a programmer, what I work on is about as far from
computer chess as one can get without leaving the solar system.  Also, I don't
know or have any responsibility towards any of the technical, marketing, or
management people involved with Deep Blue.  I wouldn't recognize Hsu if he
walked up to me on the street and punched me in the nose.  I'm not trying to
stick up for IBM here -- that's not my job, and they certainly wouldn't pay me
for it, anyway.

Now that that's over....

The above statement can be found at
http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/meet/html/d.3.3a.html#ai
which is apparently a web page put together before the second Kasparov-Deep Blue
match.

Using the above statement to claim that Deep Blue had a simple evaluation
function is a clear misunderstanding of the paragraph's internal and external
context.  From that statement, all that one can reasonably derive is that Deep
Blue has a simpler eval function than the human brain, and that it does not try
to emulate human thinking.  One can't derive that Deep Blue has a simple eval
function compared to other chess programs and systems -- nowhere in that
statement is that implied.





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