Cyborg Coaching and Chess

One of the best grand chess masters of all time is Garry Kasparov. Grand chess masters like Kasparov hone their skills with 10's of thousands of hours of deliberate practice. They learn to "see" patterns and future moves almost instantly. 

This practice is important as chess is complex. For example, after only 4 moves, there are 288 billion positions that can arise! However, unlike much of the natural world and interactions with other people it is a finite domain—despite the vast numbers, you can count all of the possible positions.

Given this finite complexity, computer scientists saw chess as the ultimate testing ground for "intelligent" machines. Could a computer beat a grand chess master? For years, the answer was "not even close". Humans ruled hands down.

 In 1996, the IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue” and Kasparov dueled for 6 games. Kasparov won, but it was a close call. The following year, they rematched and Deep Blue won. Since that day, it's been one-way traffic. Was this the Terminator turning point—the end of humans and the rise of machines? Not quite. Kasparov had an insight. What about tournaments between humans paired with computers. Take a "good" chess player (not a grandmaster) and pair them with a super computer and what happens? They destroy everyone from Grand Masters, Deep Blue, to every possibility in between.

This is yet another example of the power of AND. The human can strategize and "imagine" what might be a good move. The computer can run the numbers and tell you if it will be. It's using the best of humans and machines. 

We share this as a story of hope and opportunity. Chess is complex but, unlike most of the world we live in, it is still a constrained and finite problem space. Therefore, chess is a simple, not a wicked, problem to solve. Even in this domain, computers still don't fully rule (although they will one day). Funnily enough, thanks to human technologies just about all the worthwhile problems we as humans face are wicked (almost unendingly complex), not simple.

For quite some time, the opportunity for most of the world—and certainly leadership development and coaching—is humans plus machines. Let the human coaches and facilitators do what only they can do, such as the deep, insightful, caring, and connecting work. Combine this with what computers can do well, such as connecting insights from vast databases, staying with people (in a pocket or on a wrist), and providing space for private reflection. 

At Adeption, we do just this. We leverage the combined potential of technology and people to not only power-up leadership development, but also to make leadership development more scalable and impactful for those who don’t typically get to experience high-touch leadership development programs. By leveraging the power of humans and machines together, we can create more high-impact coaching moments and help deliberate practice go further and deeper. Even more, we can vastly improve the accessibility and capability of leadership development, leading to a more conscious society that, ironically, will stay ahead of machines and AI for longer. 

Be conscious, be curious, be better, with Adeption. Click here to learn more about Adeption.