Board games have been central to the public progression of AI in recent years, as first chess was conquered, and then more recently Go.  Victory in these games, together with similar progress in popular video games, are intended both to test AI in interesting ways, and also to showcase what it is capable of.

Despite the success of AI in these games however, there isn’t an immediate sense that this power is being put into products that help our own interaction with such games.  All of which makes the work of an Indian startup particularly interesting.

The startup, called Square Off, takes inspiration from the original Mechanical Turk device, which famously aped artificial intelligence by placing a human inside the machine to act on behalf of it.  This time however, the intelligence inside the machine is very much of the artificial sort.

Connected chess

They’ve developed a chess board that allows you to play anyone in the world via the accompanying app.  Whilst that part is fairly standard, what makes things neat is that the virtual game is connected to a real board.

So your opponent could be on the other side of the world, but the board is designed to reflect the moves they make physically in front of your eyes.  So each move they make is then physically enacted on your board, with your subsequent moves then relayed via the app to your virtual opponent.

Another nice feature is that you can play training games against the apps AI engine, with the game once again being played out in front of your eyes.  These games can even be live streamed so as to elicit feedback from other players around the world.

As you can see from the video below, the board itself maintains the look and feel of a traditional board, albeit with some very smart technology underneath it.

They’re currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the project, with early backers able to buy a set for around €179.  If you’re a chess lover, it’s certainly interesting.

Check out the video below and let me know your thoughts.