Kasparov vs. Deep Blue: the Chess Match That Changed Our Minds About AI

In May of 1997, Garry Kasparov sat down at a chess board in a Manhattan skyscraper. Kasparov, considered the best chess player of all time, wasn't challenging another grandmaster. He was playing with an AI called Deep Blue. Deep Blue was one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, built by IBM with a specific goal in mind: to beat humanity at its own game. For IBM, billions of dollars worth of business clout was on the table, and to a certain extent, Kasparov was playing for the fate of chess itself. He had never lost a multi-game match in his entire career. Could a machine beat him? Newsweek ran a cover story with his picture alongside the words "The Brain's Last Stand." As Kasparov joked years later, "No pressure." Thanks to ChatGPT, once hypothetical questions about the future of work, art, and disinformation are now immediate concerns.