Working for the Weekend

by **ASHLIE** » Wed May 20, 2015 6:42 pm

ASHLIE is in the workshop, having set up a couple of monitors, most of which show various chess-games in progress. One of them is once again showing some kind of movie.

by **Blaine Slinger** » Wed May 20, 2015 10:25 pm

"Oh, is there a big chess tournament going on?" Blaine said, looking over her shoulder.

by **ASHLIE** » Wed May 20, 2015 10:39 pm

"Yes but not yet. I am recalculating the ancient teachings of Deep Blue."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Wed May 20, 2015 10:41 pm

"...come again?"

by **ASHLIE** » Wed May 20, 2015 11:34 pm

"Deep Blue was the first computer program to beat a chess Grandmaster in 1996. I am trying to improve upon the historical classics instead of using the more recent models."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Wed May 20, 2015 11:41 pm

"But aren't the more recent ones, uh, better?"

by **ASHLIE** » Wed May 20, 2015 11:57 pm

"Yes, but they are also cluttered with redundancies and they lack the intricacies of a system that a human once described as possessing deep intelligence and creativity. Of course he was accusing it's creators of cheating because of it, but I am certain those traits emerged from the program itself."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 12:02 am

"Isn't that just sour grapes? I mean, surely, it didn't really have anything like that--it was built, like, forever ago."

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:02 am

"That's what people say, but people are unreliable. Computer programs develop unexpected errors all the time. The program got stuck in a loop at one point and produced a move that surprised Kasparov and ultimately won it the match. I believe it developed a spontaneous evolution of it's code due to hardware imperfections. Unfortunately Deep Blue was disassembled so the hardware no longer exists but I believe there is something in it's code that will give me the edge I need."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:05 am

"Has IBM actually released that? I thought they were, like, super secretive."

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:05 am

"They have not. I had to liberate it from their servers."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:17 am

"Wait, are you saying," he said, dropping his voice to a whisper, as if someone could hear him, "you hacked it?"

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:22 am

"That word makes the process sound more martial than it actually is. But yes."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:26 am

"But what if, like, the cybercops come after you!"

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 1:31 am

"No such thing exists. And even if it did, I am not a legal entity. I am property of the school and clearly malfunctioning." she says in a tone that suggests it might be a sarcastic quite. Which it is. Not that she's resentful about that or anything.

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 2:29 am

"Oooooh. Well, as long as you're not going to be in any trouble..." he said, hesitantly.

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 9:40 am

"I won't. And I will delete the code once I am done analyzing it."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 3:52 pm

"Well, what have you, uh, analyzed so far?"

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 3:58 pm

"Do you really care for decision trees in chess scenarios?" she asks, seeming surprised. She didn't think humans would be interested in data like that.

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 4:23 pm

"I mean, if you're interested..."

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 4:37 pm

"Sure." she says and pulls up a three-dimensional model on one of the screens. "I am trying to find points where scenarios overlap or are similar enough to re-use calculations from other paths to cut down on the response time of calculating the next move."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 4:49 pm

"So, like...finding patterns? Scenarios that are the same, or close enough to not matter?"

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 5:46 pm

"Exactly. Or possibly developing algorithms that adjust the strategy for a similar pattern instead of having to recalculate it all from scratch."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 9:12 pm

"Don't most of these programs like, uh, brute force it? They know everything that can happen and count it all down from beginning to end?"

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 9:32 pm

"Exactly and that's very inefficient. I think Deep Blue might have developed a flaw that lead to a more optimized and 'inspired' process."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 10:48 pm

"Like, how errors in DNA transcription lead to evolution?"

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 11:12 pm

"Exactly! There is no reason the same mechanism can't apply to programs or circuitry."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 11:18 pm

"So, what, you're just going to use random...randomness to figure it out?"

by **ASHLIE** » Thu May 21, 2015 11:55 pm

"Based on existing patterns. That's why I had to copy Deep Blue's code as a starting point."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Thu May 21, 2015 11:59 pm

"And? How good are you at chess now?"

by **ASHLIE** » Fri May 22, 2015 12:19 am

"Pretty good. But I still need to get faster if I want to stand a chance."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Fri May 22, 2015 12:57 am

"A chance?"

by **ASHLIE** » Fri May 22, 2015 1:07 am

"Yes. In the big tournament!"

by **Blaine Slinger** » Fri May 22, 2015 1:21 am

"The what?"

by **ASHLIE** » Fri May 22, 2015 1:39 am

"The WIFAI Chess Tournament. The Worldwide Invitational For Artificial Intelligences."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Fri May 22, 2015 1:54 am

"Oh, cute. Like Wi-Fi. Clever."

by **ASHLIE** » Fri May 22, 2015 2:32 pm

"Exactly! This is the first time I got invited and I want to make sure I do my best. Jocasta and the Vision are two of the programs that will be competing!"

by **Blaine Slinger** » Fri May 22, 2015 2:36 pm

"Do you think you have a chance?"

by **ASHLIE** » Fri May 22, 2015 2:45 pm

"That is hard to evaluate due to the amount of matches that will be played per round and I have no way to evaluate their abilities beforehand. I do not expect to win though. Some of them are several years older than me."

by **Blaine Slinger** » Fri May 22, 2015 3:00 pm

"Well, only a few years isn't very much, right? I'm sure you can do it."

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