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Saturday, May 22, 2021

Artificial Intelligence

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Kasparov, young and cocky 
from last year’s match
sits down at the knotted wood table 
on which the flat chess board 
sits, tessellated with white and black 
space
and the pieces glower in anticipation.

a man sits across from him, a cypher 
carrying out the instructions of a machine – 
Deep Blue – a black tower with silicon chips 
inside
that pulse with coded information. 

move, countermove. again. a gain. 
hundreds of millions of possibilities 
course through the computer’s circuitry. 

then, Blue forces Kasparov into a bad move. 
a shadow flickers across his face, a twitch 
he cannot be aware of. 

he sees it, the mistake played out 
in quadratic lines blurred by time. 

the recognition contorts his face; 
he can’t believe what he’s seeing. 

he pushes the table away in frustration 
and stands up, walks away: one fluid motion. 

the people watching open their mouths; 
History has been made today. 

soon human dominance will fade
today chess, tomorrow the novel, 
the next day brain surgery. 

humans will have to stake their claim in a world that 
doesn’t need them 
any more.

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