Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins Hardcover – May 2, 2017

Enjoyed the perspective from someone who has been a user and receiver of AI capability for more years than many have been alive. A unique view.

Deep Thinking is Kasparov's story of his match against Deep Blue and the evolution of playing against chess programs. The book tries to touch on the penetration of AI in society today and the author brings his perspective on the benefits of technology to today's world. This book is largely about the author's experience of the improvements in chess programming, how he faced it psychologically and how he prepared for games in this new era. Much of the book is the author detailing his thought process through these headline matches and his narrative on his behavior and the process broadly. If one has followed the career of Kasparov, this book will be very informative. If one is looking for a book on AI in chess programming, it isn't really about that.The author starts with two goals, to discuss the growth of AI and use of computers in today's society and what it should mean for people given his experience in a job which was directly impacted by it as well as to give an account of the matches he endured against deep blue. The author starts by discussing early AI, the coverage is definitely not comprehensive but it gives the reader a good sense of how computation evolved and early ideas on AI and how to program it. The author discusses early pioneers in computer science and how some viewed chess as an admirable AI project given its complexity. Kasparov gives you a sense of the early computer days and the ideas used to program chess. In particular the easiest and easiest idea was to define an objective function for the computer to maximize in its search that valued chess pieces accurately. The author also discusses how databases were then added so that computers could improve efficiency by looking up positions from these databases. The author spends time on people and pattern recognition and how the mind works. The author's views on the technical subjects are well informed but not the focus. The author then gets into the detailing of his games against deep blue and the developers at IBM. He discusses both matches in great depth and discusses the commentary. It is interesting but probably more interesting to those who followed closely the matches and recall the atmosphere at the time. The author discusses how he focused on avoiding tactical positions where a computer would always be more effective and instead focus on strategic goals which were far harder for a computer to be able to capture in an objective function. One gets a better sense of high level chess and how a world champion thinks. The match against Deep Blue where Kasparov lost is the biggest focus and he discusses various moves and his strategy as well as his thinking on positions which were supposed turning points. Again if one had followed the match I suspect this resonates more but it is entertaining for those who did not. The author then discusses how chess is learned today and the broad use of computers in learning and strategy development. It discusses how computers can aid our development but can also be used as too much of a crutch.All in all Deep Thinking was an entertaining read. It is definitely more for the chess aficionado than those interested in AI. I also think reading the book gets the reader more interested in chess so that also might be a good reason to read it. The techno optimism part of the book is well reasoned but definitely there is far better material out there on how to think about technology and its impact on the future than a book on how a professional chess player was impacted by it but it is a valuable perspective nonetheless. Entertaining if one has the time.

As a chess player (not a great one), I read with interest this book, which covers not only the computer chess revolution, but recent tech updates including AI and computer learning. Kasparov writes eloquently about the subject, and certainly researched the material in depth, which he combined with his personal competition against machines in the world of competitive chess. The author's strong personality definitely comes through in his writing, and that can either be an enhancement or a slight turnoff. Either way, you are guaranteed to learn a great deal on the variety of subjects covered. Recommended.

I got this book because I am big fan of Kasparov and thought it might be interesting to see his take on artificial intelligence. I was pleasantly surprised by his writing and storytelling abilities. I guess I just assumed that 3/4 of his brain was dedicated solely to chess, but he is really well rounded. There is a large section of the book detailing his side of the story against Deep Blue which is fascinating and illuminating. I highly recommend this book!

I found it to be very repetitious. As I read the book, I kept thinking that I had already read this earlier in the book. I was more interested in the AI aspects rather than a detailed account of every game he had ever played.

Kasparov has written a reasonable book on his defeat from a computer on a chess game. He tries to find some excuses, as a human being, I would try too, and Kasparov realizes that AI has gotten better than the world champion of chess. But in the description of his defeat, he gives a lot of information on AI and what he will mean for us. The book is well written, but is also informative.

Not much jargons or technical stuff. An excellent account of rise of computers in chess, right from the Turk Automaton! Kasparov details his 1997 deep blue encounter which he saw as a science experiment, while IBM as he alleges, saw as a business opportunity. Future of AI is also discussed with a positive attitude.

Kasparov dimostra di essere più che un genio degli scacchi: per l'epoca storica in cui ha vissuto e per tendenze caratteriali ha acquisito una particolare sensibilità nel giudicare grandi processi storici. Il libro aiuta a sfatare facili miti sull'intelligenza artificiale, ampliando con intelligenza la visuale dalle macchine che sconfiggono gli esseri umani sulla scacchiera a quelle che li rimpiazzano poco alla volta; nonostante la sua vicenda personale di primo campione ad essere battuto da un computer in una gara regolare, l'autore ha una visione sobria e non pessimista di un futuro di cooperazione tra uomo e macchina. C'è qualche ripetizione dei concetti, ma è un testo ottimamente scritto, spiritoso e acuto come molta saggistica anglofona e perfettamente leggibile anche per chi non è esperto negli scacchi.

Good book. Will recommend for every one.

Garry walks you through his encounters with computer chess (being a Grandmaster himself) from the very beginnings all the way to IBM's Deep Blue who beat him in the late 90's. Being honest, I always believed that machines were straight up better in chess than any human because of their processing power, however Kasparov explains in a pretty detailed way how this is not correct, there's is in fact some sort of "computer playing style" that can be challenge by "human playing style". I'm not an expert in chess so I won't spoil all that for you but sure is a great read for chess and AI fans.___En este libro, Kasparov cuenta su historia enfrentando a "máquinas de ajedrez" o software de ajedrez siendo el uno de los Grandmasters de la disciplina; desde sus primeros encuentros hasta su enfrentamiento (y derrota) contra Deep Blue de IBM a finales de los 90. Siendo honesto, siempre creí que las computadoras eran mejores que los humanos en el ajedrez por su capacidad de procesar movimientos, sin embargo Kasparov demuestra que existe el "estilo de juego de computadora" y el "estilo de juego humano" y que pueden ser igual de competitivos. No entraré en detalles porque no soy experto en ajedrez pero lo recomiendo mucho si eres aficionado del ajedrez o la inteligencia artificial.

When I first opened this book, I saw the authors view off his first chess loss to a machine. For some reason I expected things to shift & discuss machine intelligence directly... It did, but not as I expected.Instead through the story of Mr Kasparov's chess career, we see the flaws and strengths of machine-vs-human chess, and later the brilliance of combining machine and human intelligence together.There is a bigger picture as well, of where technology is leading us currently, and where we can lead it.Considering I've never played a game of chess in my life, this was both surprisingly approachable, endlessly engaging & well written. Very much recommended