Actually, there is a backgammon AI that consistently beats human grandmasters. You're correct that it uses neural networks, and that the author, Gerald Tesauro, has done some pretty cool things, but you're under-representing its success. Without digging through my old IEEE paper stacks, the first thing I can find is from more than a decade ago when TD-Gammon was already playing grandmasters to a tie http://www.research.ibm.com/massive/tdl.html.
I also happen to thing backgammon is more interesting in chess because it isn't fully deterministic, which also explains why neural networks would meet with more success than a decision tree approach. Most of the AI involved in playing strong chess involves looking as many moves ahead as possible (I know there is more to it than just that, but thats the thrust of the technique), and of course as computers get faster you can look further ahead. Eventually you're able to look far enough ahead to see all possible outcomes of the game from any position. To me this barely qualifies as AI. That gives the computer more than just perfect information about the state of the game, it has perfect information about every state of every game. It is less a prediction than a simple A to B to C map of a win. Thats why games that are non-deterministic (like backgammon or any game with random dice rolls) or games where the players are given incomplete information (think poker or blackjack, few boardgames deal with incomplete information because it would require a neutral referee and probably be cumbersome and boring) are far more interesting for the field of AI.
The author you're thinking of is Peter Dickenson in his very interesting "Flight of Dragons." The book is actually quite a bit longer and more brilliantly thought out than I expected. My memories were from the movie "adaptation" that was beautifuly drawn by the people that brought us the old "The Hobbit" movie. The book is illustrated in a similar style and looks wonderful. The only shame is that its hard to find in this country, I had to order mine from England.
Actually, there is a competing league not affiliated with MLB now, the Northern League. My local team is the Kansas City T-Bones. They did fairly well last season and I even had a chance to go out and support them a few times. The stadium was small, but quite nice given the fact it doesn't have a major league team's resources.
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Actually, there is a backgammon AI that consistently beats human grandmasters. You're correct that it uses neural networks, and that the author, Gerald Tesauro, has done some pretty cool things, but you're under-representing its success. Without digging through my old IEEE paper stacks, the first thing I can find is from more than a decade ago when TD-Gammon was already playing grandmasters to a tie http://www.research.ibm.com/massive/tdl.html.
I also happen to thing backgammon is more interesting in chess because it isn't fully deterministic, which also explains why neural networks would meet with more success than a decision tree approach. Most of the AI involved in playing strong chess involves looking as many moves ahead as possible (I know there is more to it than just that, but thats the thrust of the technique), and of course as computers get faster you can look further ahead. Eventually you're able to look far enough ahead to see all possible outcomes of the game from any position. To me this barely qualifies as AI. That gives the computer more than just perfect information about the state of the game, it has perfect information about every state of every game. It is less a prediction than a simple A to B to C map of a win. Thats why games that are non-deterministic (like backgammon or any game with random dice rolls) or games where the players are given incomplete information (think poker or blackjack, few boardgames deal with incomplete information because it would require a neutral referee and probably be cumbersome and boring) are far more interesting for the field of AI.
Every geek knows that it would be an "Oil of Cure Serious Wounds." Lord knows what it would do if taken as a potion.
The author you're thinking of is Peter Dickenson in his very interesting "Flight of Dragons." The book is actually quite a bit longer and more brilliantly thought out than I expected. My memories were from the movie "adaptation" that was beautifuly drawn by the people that brought us the old "The Hobbit" movie. The book is illustrated in a similar style and looks wonderful. The only shame is that its hard to find in this country, I had to order mine from England.
Actually, there is a competing league not affiliated with MLB now, the Northern League. My local team is the Kansas City T-Bones. They did fairly well last season and I even had a chance to go out and support them a few times. The stadium was small, but quite nice given the fact it doesn't have a major league team's resources.