Let's Live with Them
by Garry Kasparov
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In this speech (a TED Talk titled 'Don't fear intelligent machines; work with them'), chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov argues that we should not fear intelligent machines but learn to collaborate with them. He recalls becoming World Chess Champion in 1985 and, that same year, defeating 32 chess machines at once, 'machines were weak, and my hair was strong'. Just twelve years later he lost to IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue in a match dubbed 'The Brain's Last Stand', becoming the first champion beaten by a computer. Rather than despair, he embraced the idea 'if you can't beat them, join them', inventing 'Advanced Chess' (human plus machine). A 2005 freestyle tournament proved his point: a pair of amateurs with ordinary PCs and a better process beat both grandmasters and supercomputers, 'a weak human plus a machine plus a better process is superior to a very powerful machine alone'. Machines, he says, are now replacing even skilled professionals, but this is 'excellent news': it forces humanity to progress. 'Machines have calculations, we have understanding; machines have instructions, we have purpose; machines have objectivity, we have passion.' We should worry not about what machines can do, but what they still cannot, for the one thing only a human can do is dream. 'So, let us dream big.'
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'Let's Live with Them' is a TED Talk by the chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, the first World Chess Champion to be beaten by a supercomputer. He argues that we should not fear intelligent machines but embrace and collaborate with them to achieve our grandest dreams.
From champion to the machine's victim
Kasparov recalls becoming World Chess Champion in 1985 at 22, and that same year defeating 32 of the world's best chess machines at once, 'machines were weak, and my hair was strong'. But just twelve years later, in 1997, he lost to IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue in a match Newsweek called 'The Brain's Last Stand'.
He links his story to the old legend of John Henry, the steel-driving man who raced a steam hammer, part of 'a long historical narrative pitting humanity versus technology'. Today, he notes, machines are 'coming after people with college degrees', and the man-versus-machine 'rhetoric' is everywhere.
If you can't beat them, join them
Rather than despair, Kasparov drew inspiration from his defeat: 'if you can't beat them, join them'. He imagined combining 'human intuition plus machine's calculation, human strategy plus machine tactics', and in 1998 created 'Advanced Chess', a human-plus-machine partnership.
A 2005 'freestyle' tournament revealed the truth: the winners were not grandmasters or a supercomputer, but 'a pair of amateur American chess players operating three ordinary PCs' with superior teamwork. From this he formulated his key insight: 'a weak human plus a machine plus a better process is superior to a very powerful machine alone'.
Machines and humans are complementary
'Human plus machine isn't the future, it's the present,' Kasparov says. Machines excel at calculation and removing difficulty, but they still need human judgement, we would not send our children to school in a 90-per-cent-accurate self-driving car; 'we need a leap forward'.
As machines now challenge skilled professionals, Kasparov, 'someone who fought machines and lost', insists 'this is excellent news', for it forces humanity to keep progressing. 'We cannot slow down… we have to speed up,' seeking 'ever more difficult, ever more uncertain challenges'.
Let us dream big
Kasparov sums up the essential difference: 'Machines have calculations, we have understanding. Machines have instructions, we have purpose. Machines have objectivity, we have passion.' We should worry not about what machines can do, but 'what they still cannot do today', because we will need intelligent machines 'to turn our grandest dreams into reality'.
If we fail, he says, it will be 'because we grew complacent and limited our ambitions', not because machines are too clever. 'Our humanity is not defined by any skill' like playing chess, 'there's one thing only a human can do: that's dream. So, let us dream big.'