Human → Superhuman → Ultrahuman
We will always have the kisses
I. Remember when computers used to lose?
The superhuman phase didn’t last much.
The first sign computers were no longer just “human level” at chess was Garry Kasparov’s famous loss against Deep Blue in 1997. The shock prompted him to invent Advanced Chess, where humans and computers teamed up as equals, the origin of the superhuman phase.¹ But it didn’t officially begin until 2005 — the last time a grandmaster dared challenge an AI and was obliterated. That’s what superhuman means: above human.
Not one of us has won a match against an AI chess program ever since.
Eventually, Stockfish and AlphaZero became too good for humans to contribute to tactics or strategy. Wins were AI’s wins. Losses were often downstream of human mistakes. Praised grandmasters — even Magnus Carlsen — became a hindrance for computers.² Even players who, despite not being the best at chess, excelled at partnering with AI and understanding its perks and flaws — the original cyborgs — could no longer do anything.³
By 2020, “draw-death” was the likeliest outcome. Computers drew against human-computer cyborgs (even when books and internet access are allowed) because the human contributions were zero.
