Hans Niemann hits back at Elon Musk’s concerns about AI dominating chess pros
Instagram/HansNiemannChess star Hans Niemann is firing back at Elon Musk for claiming that even a basic phone could beat the best chess players on Earth.
Humans taking on computers in chess is nothing new, but the debate over whether humans will be replaced by AI remains a controversial subject.
On March 2, Elon Musk weighed in on chess’s popularity and the advancement of software compared to the ELO rating of world champions.
According to the X owner, even a phone could beat the world’s top chess pros – something that Hans Niemann took an issue with.
Hans Niemann responds to Elon Musk’s AI chess concerns
In his post, Musk claimed that chess is just the tip of the iceberg and more games will be affected by AI.
“Won’t be long before AI can win at games that have vastly higher degrees of freedom than chess,” he said. “Hope it’s nice to us.”
Because chess is so widely-understood, it is played mostly for social reasons.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2024
At this point, even your phone could beat the best human chess players on Earth (sigh).
Won’t be long before AI can win at games that have vastly higher degrees of freedom than chess.
Hope it’s nice…
In response, controversial chess pro Hans Niemann said that while Musk had a point in regards to top play, he’s underestimating the power of human creativity.
“Your point is valid regarding top level chess where deep computer preparation nullifies human creativity, however, for 99% of chess players, there is plenty of room for creative exploration and intellectual stimulation,” he shot back.
Niemann continued, alleging that without time constraints, chess becomes a more interesting game because players rely on their intuition.
“More than happy to show how chess is a far more interesting game than you might realize,” he added, inviting Elon to collab at some point.
So far, Musk has yet to respond to the invite, but if the two do end up colliding, it could make for one of the most interesting chess streams in quite some time.
