Citation
Mann, C.J.H. (2004), "Deep Blue – An Artificial Intelligence Milestone", Kybernetes, Vol. 33 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2004.06733aae.008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Deep Blue – An Artificial Intelligence Milestone
Deep Blue – An Artificial Intelligence Milestone
Monty NewbornSpringer2003xv + 346 pp. (94 Figures)IBSN 0-387-95461-9Hardcover, e24.95; £27; US. $ 34.95 (Euro price is net of VAT)
An Artificial Intelligence Milestone
This book is about “Deep Blue” and offers the reader an account of its historic development as a chess-playing computer that would outplay the best human player on Earth. Created, as most readers will know, by IBM's Deep Blue technology group it certainly held the world “spellbound”. IBM took on the project in 1989 and 8 years later the author writes:
Deep Blue, defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match in New York in early May 1997. IBM celebrated, the chess grandmasters of the world went into a state of shock ...
Monty Newborn, the author, tells the story in a clear and interesting fashion giving details of how one of America's big cooperations nurtured the team and how the team's hard work produced a machine that played epic battles against human beings before eventually proving victorious. There is little doubt that this work provides a fascinating, authoritative and comprehensive account of the creation of the machine. Not only is it a good story, but anyone involved with artificial intelligence and cybernetics in particular, will benefit from reading the details of what is, of course, a technological milestone in the history of science. The author's preface gives the necessary background and the credits to those involved. The 16 chapters have titles that included: Intellectual equals; Testing the Water; Surviving the Cuts; Rematch Negotiations.
The Rematch – Games 1-6; Deep Blue is Triumphant; The Light Side of Deep Blue. Both chess-lovers and AI specialists and non-specialists alike will appreciate the detail of 13 Appendices and also 94 figures.
C.J.H. MannBook Reviews and Reports Editor