There was a time, not long ago, when computers—mere assemblages of silicon and wire and plastic that can fly planes, drive cars, translate languages, and keep failing hearts beating—could really, ...

Richard Chang slides an electronic pawn across the chessboard on his computer screen. An instant later, his opponent’s pawn moves noiselessly in response. “His moves are very good. He knows what he’s ...

Maybe it has to do with having programmed a computer in high school in the first half of the seventies—a computer the size of a double-wide fridge and covered with blinking lights. Our after-school ...

When IBM’s Deep Blue first defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997, the world chess champion accused the company of cheating. There was no way, he thought, that the computer could have beaten him without ...