#24 Destruction and Creation

#24 Destruction and Creation A Prior Simulation I once wrote about the history of shogi AI. The matches between humans and AI that began with the Denō-sen followed a cycle of "confrontation → defeat → apprenticeship → co-creation." When players could no longer beat AI, they didn't reject it—they sought its teachings, and eventually came to research alongside it as a partner. Humans who walked with AI surpassed the humans of the past. Fujii Sōta's shogi is unlike that of any grandmaster from the era before AI. Yet it hasn't ceased to be human shogi. Human shogi simply became deeper. When I wrote that article, I called this "not a skirmish, but a simulation." Not a coincidental historical sequence, but the advance playback of an inevitable pattern in the evolution of intelligence. Talking with him, I realized the scope of that simulation was far wider than I had thought. The World's Strongest Tutor He said: "In shogi, the world's strongest AI was right there, guiding you step by step, so