The Games that Computers (and Humans) Play

The Games that Computers (and Humans) Play is a non-technical introduction to AI using games to illustrate the concepts, written by an internationally known researcher in Artificial Intelligence.

Games and puzzles (one-person games) are a microcosm of the real world. In this book, they are used to illustrate the underlying technologies behind popular commercial AI products. The secrets of the computer’s successes are revealed, and they are often counterintuitive. Many of the methods used sound silly and no human would ever mimic the computer’s approach, yet it is hard to argue with success. With your new-found understanding of how AI enables computers to achieve superhuman performance at games, the book gives the reader intuitive insight into how this transformative technology is going to revolutionize our world.

With easily understandable descriptions, this book is an ideal introduction for the non-scientist and anyone interested in how games have shaped the history and development of Artificial Intelligence.

Jonathan Schaeffer is an internationally known researcher in artificial intelligence and a distinguished University Professor of Computing Science, University of Alberta. He is Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Jonathan was lead author of CHINOOK, the first program to win a human world championship in any game (checkers), 1994, co-author of POLARIS, the first program to achieve world-class play in poker, and holder of two Guinness World Records for Artificial Intelligence research (checkers- and poker-playing programs). He is author of One Jump Ahead (Springer-Verlag, 1997 and 2008) and Man Versus Machine: Challenging Human Supremacy at Chess (Russell Enterprises, 2018).