Currently the focus of research into artificial intelligence (AI) is on relatively limited applications, including guiding airplanes and missiles, understanding language, detecting credit card fraud, and diagnosing medical conditions from electrocardiograms. While these avenues certainly contain promise for commercial and industrial interests, the populace at large typically is more interested in a slightly less consequential application of AI. In 1997, Deep Blue, a chess playing computer program, defeated grand master Gary Kasparov in a tournament, marking the first time a computer was able to best a human world champion.

But these more “frivolous” applications of AI are actually valuable indicators of the state of technology. Computer engineers are constantly reviving and reinventing the programming algorithms in an effort to make computers think more like people do. And the exponential increases in processing and storage technology are allowing artificial intelligence researchers to greatly increase the power of AI programs while simultaneously reducing the size and computing needs of the machines. For example, the Deep Blue program required 256 specialized processors to analyze the millions and millions of combinations of moves. Each of these processors was about one hundred times faster than a standard home computer, which means Deep Blue was about 25,600 times faster than a 1997 personal computer.

Only five years later, in 2002, AI engineers unleashed a new chess playing program, Deep Fritz. Deep Fritz played Vladimir Kramnik, the highest ranked chess player in the world, to a draw, but this result was anything but a failure to the AI community. Whereas Deep Blue required 256 processors to achieve its victory, Deep Fritz had a mere eight. Deep Blue could analyze 200 million moves per second, but Deep Fritz could deal with only 2.5 million. Yet Deep Fritz’s chess playing abilities more closely resemble those of a person. Deep Blue was able to defeat Kasparov by brute strength alone, calculating millions of possible moves and counter moves. Deep Fritz played Kramnik to a draw by using advanced pattern recognition skills, which allowed it to be competitive despite considering fewer move combinations.

1. The main idea of the passage is that

A. computer chess programs will soon be able to defeat any human challenger
B. computer chess programs are now being designed to be more efficient and perform fewer calculations
C. certain applications of AI technology provide insight into advances in the field
D. the public pays too much attention to frivolous applications of AI technology
E. the Deep Fritz chess program is more successful than the Deep Blue program


2. According to the passage, the AI community did not view Deep Fritz’s draw as a failure because

A. Kramnik was a higher ranked chess player than Kasporov and was thus harder to defeat
B. researchers did not expect Deep Fritz to win because it only had eight processors
C. Deep Fritz’s performance suggested that programmers were approaching one of their goals
D. Deep Blue’s victory had already proven that a computer could beat a grand champion in chess
E. human players had five years to adapt to competing against chess programs


3. The author implies that human chess players

A. will not lose to Deep Fritz
B. will soon be unable to defeat most computer chess programs
C. are not able to analyze possible move combinations when playingchess
D. rely on pattern recognition skills when playing chess
E. could potentially beat Deep Fritz but not Deep Blue


4. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. contrast the abilities of two computer programs
B. encourage researchers to pursue more serious inquiries
C. detail the state of research in a particular field
D. compare human chess players to computer chess programs
E. challenge a long-held assumption about AI