Author: Vine Smith
Date: 00:58:28 06/05/01
Go up one level in this thread
On June 04, 2001 at 16:03:36, John Hatcher wrote: >Here is a news report today from Reuters which may be of interest: > >********************************************************** > >(Reuters) > >Scottish University Sets Up First Chess Doctorate > >EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) - A Scottish university is setting up the world's >first chess doctorate which its creator hopes will lead to the development of >supercomputers capable of beating even the greatest of grandmasters. > >``My computers will be as clever as 1,000 Einsteins,'' course director Peter >Vas, professor of artificial intelligence at Scotland's Aberdeen University, >told Reuters Monday. > >A keen chess player himself, Vas is looking for around 40 graduates for the >three-year PhD course, which also aims to push back the boundaries of artificial >intelligence, creating computers that can think and learn by themselves. > >He hopes former Russian world chess champion Garry Kasparov will become a >lecturer. > >Only the brainiest need bother applying -- prospective candidates must be highly >proficient at math and computing and be in the top flight of their national >chess rankings. > >``There will be a grandmaster entrance exam,'' Vas said, although he denied >reports that they had to beat the grandmaster in a game to get in. > >``Obviously we can't ask for them to beat a grandmaster because if it was >Kasparov playing 100 people simultaneously, he would still beat them all,'' Vas >said. ``Just showing the potential will be enough.'' > >Vas said the new supercomputers would have the combined intelligence of the >world's finest human minds. > >However, they would not live up to the apocalyptic fantasies of some Hollywood >film directors and get so smart they tried to destroy humanity. > >``An intelligent thing will always stop short of destroying itself,'' Vas said. >``There's no chance of that happening.'' > >Even Kasparov, who has met tough electronic challengers in IBM's 'Deep Blue' and >its bigger, better cousin 'Deeper Blue', stands to gain. > >``Playing something better than him will help him improve his game,'' Vas said. >******************* >END This story seems suspicious -- I did find it on the Yahoo news feed, although not on Reuters.com. The quotes are rather inane -- "...as clever as 1,000 Einsteins"? Would a university course director really say this? The statements in the story itself are odd, too; if the course is a "chess" doctorate, why is the subject programming? What about the odd reference to "apocalyptic fantasies" which is dignified by a response from the professor? And when I searched for Peter Vas at Aberdeen University using Google, I found references to him in the engineering field, not artificial intelligence. Is there anybody in a position to check further on this?
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.