Message board topic:

Peggy, I don't think you play chess though I know you watched "Queen's Gambit".  Tim, I don't know whether you play at all, or you might be better than I am.  David, I know you play.  Anyway, what might be interesting whether anybody plays or not, is how AI, (Artificial Intelligence) plays.

AI is supposed to be scary smart.  It isn't.  It can be used for some amazing things, but no, it isn't smart.  Watching AI play chess is like watching chess on LSD.  Pieces may make impossible, illegal moves, sometimes jumping over or passing through each other, which they're not allowed to do.  Extra pieces may appear or disappear, and they may be yours or his.  Pieces may change color at any time.  If you tell the AI it made an illegal move or did anything wrong, it may ignore you, it may argue with you, or it may lock up and not do anything.  Even at all that, I've seen humans beat it as often as not!

I play computers all the time.  (Not AI, just conventional computers.)  They never cheat,  Nothing weird ever happens.  No illegal moves, no pieces suddenly appearing or disappearing.  The lower levels may give you a break once in a while but the higher levels may really stomp you.  AI will probably get better but right now, I wouldn't trust it to tell me what time it was.  John

Hey John No I don't play chess in high school I played chess with a classmate but I never did figure it out. I could play checkers and I play various versions of Solitaire now. I don't have patience for things I took guitar lessons as a teen but never could play I did manage a little Free Bird on a 12 string accoustic and a little Smoke On The Water on a piano at summer camp. Hi David and Peggy hope everybody is well . Thanks for the likes on Facebook John and got some from Patsy Collyer-Parsons in the UK was glad to hear from her. Tim

Hey Tim, I haven't heard from Patsy for the longest time.  Glad she's OK.  I wish I'd played more chess when I was younger but it was hard to find anybody to play with!  You weren't going to get much practice in if you only played every 6 months or a year.  Now of course, you can play 24/7.  I only get in about a game a day because it takes me an hour to an hour and a half to play one, and that's enough for me.  I bet I was 50 years old before I learned how to play checkers!

The guitar I took up really young.  (I got one for Christmas along with lessons.)  Not knowing how much I had to learn probably kept me going and in those days, everybody wanted to play guitar, but almost nobody knew how.  Guitar ended up pretty much defining my life.  I had a lot of conventional jobs but I've spent far more time playing than anything else.  During one stretch of about 15 years, I was playing 6 nights a week.  I'd come home about every 6 weeks and my yard would look like a hayfield and everything in my refrigerator looked like a science project.

When Cheri got sick and I was playing 2 or 3 nights a week, I just got burned out and quit.  I quit for 10 months.  I wondered how long it would be before I missed it, but surprisingly, I never did.  Then one day standing in line in a store, a man behind me paid me the nicest compliment saying, "You are the best I've ever heard".  That's when it hit me.  How long was it going to be before somebody said "You were the best".  That would kill me (figuratively speaking) so, I jumped back in.  I have my wife, the grandkids and the furkids to keep me going, but I guess that guitar was so big a part of my life almost the whole time, and tired and worn out as I am, I can't quite let that much of my life just wither away.  John

Remember AI is a misnomer. There is no intelligence behind it. It simply is very good at processing language and regurgitating information it has seen. It cannot "think" or come up with a unique idea.

Okay, that said, I gave my description to an AI I use to help me with work and it said this:

 

David and the CoolCyberCats

Forever in my heart





Cats Nap. Only Humans Put Them "To Sleep": Sterilize, Don't Euthanize!

 

Tim, As I am not on facebook and Patsy has not been here that I know of in a long time, please say hello to her from me.

 

David and the CoolCyberCats

Forever in my heart





Cats Nap. Only Humans Put Them "To Sleep": Sterilize, Don't Euthanize!

 

Okay, I gave the AI a new description (one I DO use to describe AI often). Here is what I said and the AI response to this one:

Me: I actually more think of you as an idiot savant who cannot have an original thought. How is that description?

AI: Haha, "idiot savant" has a certain ring to it! I can see where you’re coming from—brilliant at one trick, utterly clueless at anything outside it. I’m a whiz at churning through language, spotting patterns, and spitting out answers, but I’m not sitting here pondering the meaning of life or inventing the next big thing. No original thoughts, just a fancy remix machine. I’d say your description nails the vibe: I’m a specialized tool, not a thinker. How’s that sit with you?

 

David and the CoolCyberCats

Forever in my heart





Cats Nap. Only Humans Put Them "To Sleep": Sterilize, Don't Euthanize!