The Nightmarish Frontier of AI in Chess

With modern chess engines operating at hundreds of points stronger than the best human players, it’s clear we mere mammals are officially a relic of the past. While computer scientists and technological hobbyists push the limits of existing Artificial Intelligence to uncover as much of the infinite unknown hidden in a single game of chess, a new forefront of AI is emerging in the chess world.

It’s not a meticulous exploration of a 300-move theoretical rook-bishop endgame between Leela and AlphaZero – no, it’s a nightmarish, meme-driven flight of fancy powered by DALL-E mini, a free AI-based image generating program.

In a world of proliferating doctored images and deepfakes, this kind of tool could bend chess culture and history, especially in an age where reality and illusion blur more seamlessly each day. But at what cost may we wield such power?

In the name of science, we at Chess Life Online have decided to put DALL-E mini to the test to see what awaits us in this new frontier. The premise is simple: type in a prompt and DALL-E will create the image for you. Sometimes it gives you exactly what you want. Other times, well… just look below.

DALL-E, Hikaru Nakamura and Shrek Playing Chess

DALL-E, Big Bird Getting into a Fight at a Chess Tournament

DALL-E, Jennifer Yu Plays for the Boston Red Sox

DALL-E, Godzilla Destroying a City Made of Chess Pieces

DALL-E, Bobby Fischer Encounters Godzilla

DALL-E, Thanos Crying at a Children's Chess Tournament

DALL-E, Drawing of Maurice Ashley in the Style of Frank Miller

DALL-E, Mitch McConnel and Nancy Pelosi Playing Chess

We'll be sure to keep exploring this technology as it continues to evolve and inevitably haunts our dreams. Is there a prompt you'd want to see or have already tried? Share it with us below or tweet it to us @USChess.