The AI chess program, known as Maia, uses the kind of cutting-edge AI behind the best superhuman chess-playing programs. Alpha Zero broke from conventional AI chess programs by having computers learn, independent of any human instruction, how to play the game expertly. For chess, Alpha Zero is fed board positions and moves generated in practice games, and it tunes its neurons' firing to favor winning moves, an approach known as reinforcement learning . The result is a chess program capable of playing in a more human way. Well before that, AI that can predict and mimic human behavior could have immediate applications in chess and other games.

It took about 50 years for computers to eviscerate humans in the venerable game of chess. A standard smartphone can now play the kind of moves that make a grandmaster's head spin. But one artificial intelligence program is taking a few steps backward, to appreciate how average humans play--blunders and all. The AI chess program, known as Maia, uses the kind of cutting-edge AI behind the best superhuman chess-playing programs. But instead of learning how to destroy an opponent on the board, Maia focuses on predicting human moves, including the mistakes they make.