Watching Shogi on a Sunday Morning, I Realized the World After Losing to AI Is Not So Bad

One Sunday morning, I casually turned on the television and found a program about shogi, the Japanese game often described as a form of chess.

For some reason, Japanese television airs programs about go and shogi on Sunday mornings.

I would not call myself a shogi fan. I know the rules, but not enough to closely follow professional matches.

Still, that day’s feature was about how AI had transformed shogi, and before I knew it, I had watched the entire program.

What I saw was a glimpse of the world after AI has surpassed humans.

A Professional Player’s Room Has Become a Laboratory

The first thing that surprised me was how professional players now conduct their research.

In the past, players would gather around a board in study groups, discussing positions and searching for new strategies together.

Today, things are different.

At home, a player can face the strongest opponent in the world at any time.

And that opponent never complains.

“Go back to the position from a moment ago.”

“I want to try that again.”

You can make requests like these as many times as you want.

The program showed the room of a professional player. Several large monitors displayed analysis software and numerical evaluations covering the screens.

Honestly, it looked more high-tech than the average programmer’s desk.

It no longer resembled a traditional board game study session. It looked like a full-scale data analysis lab.

AI Rewrote Centuries of Conventional Wisdom

The strategies were even more fascinating.

Shogi has been studied for hundreds of years. Many people assumed that humans had already explored almost every idea worth considering.

AI casually shattered that assumption.

For generations, certain moves had been dismissed as poor form.

Then AI began saying, in effect, “Actually, this move is strong.”

AI discovered ideas that humans had failed to find after centuries of study, and it did so without hesitation.

When you stop to think about it, that is astonishing.

Losing to AI Did Not Mean the End

About a decade ago, top professional players lost to AI.

Since then, the question of whether humans or AI are stronger at shogi has effectively been settled. Competitions between the strongest shogi programs are now AI-versus-AI events.

In a sense, this world experienced its own singularity long ago.

But did that bring the world of shogi to an end? Quite the opposite.

Human-versus-human shogi remains as popular as ever, while a new relationship has emerged between people and AI.

AI discovers a new strategy.

Humans learn from it.

Then new forms of play emerge.

AI is no longer a rival. It has become the ultimate research partner.

Of course, there have been side effects.

A few years ago, there was even a controversy over whether a player had consulted AI in the restroom during a match.

Players now reportedly have their belongings inspected before matches.

When technology changes, the rules must change with it. That, too, is a very AI-era development.

Perhaps Humans Are the Only Ones Still Trying to Beat AI

That was the thought that stayed with me most after the program ended.

In the shogi world, everyone accepts that AI is the strongest.

No one is trying to defeat it anymore.

The only question is how they can use it to become stronger themselves.

Meanwhile, other industries are still debating whether humans can beat AI or whether AI will take their jobs.

The shogi world passed through that stage a long time ago.

I do not know whether humanity is more intelligent than AI.

But one thing is clear: professional shogi players were much quicker to accept reality.