Machine Language

“Intelligent mistakes seem like failings on the part of the AI, but are actually carefully calculated ways of throwing the game that make it more entertaining for the player.”

Computer chess expert Steven Lopez describes how in human versus human chess, it’s acceptable for a high-ranking player to give a much lower ranking player an advantage at the start of the game by removing some of his pieces from the board before the game begins.

When the game starts, the master player and the novice player are still playing to the height of their abilities, and yet the game is more evenly balanced. The master player does not have to play “stupid” in order to give the novice player a chance.

However, humans playing against a computer do not like to be given an advantage in this way, and prefer to play the full board against an AI opponent of approximately their skill level.

The programmers of Fritz hit upon a solution that involved the AI deliberately setting up situations that the human player could exploit (with some thought) that would allow the human to gain a positional or piece advantage. Once the human player gained the advantage, the AI would resume trying to win.

At no point here is the AI actually dumbed down. If anything, there is actually quite a bit more computation going on, and certainly more complexity.

The goal of the AI has shifted from “win the game” to “act like you are trying to win the game, but allow the human to gain a one-pawn advantage, and then try to win.” The AI needs to be more intelligent in order to appear less intelligent.

- Mick West @ Gamasutra: Link.

See Also …

Liden, Lars. “Artificial Stupidity: The Art of Intentional Mistakes,” in AI Game Programming Wisdom 2, Charles River Media, 2004.
http://lars.liden.cc/Publications/Download/2003_AIWisdom.pdf

Lopez, Steven. “Intelligent Mistakes,” Chessbase News, 2005.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2579

~ Karl Jones