ChatGPT might have many strengths and claims of "intelligence". But in a recent game of Chess was utterly wrecked (their word not mine) by a Atari 2600 and it's simple little chess program. So all the might of ChatGPT applied to chess wrecked by the scrappy little game console that is almost 50 years old.
So there are things that ChatGPT apparently shouldn't do. Like playing chess. If anything this might show its absolute lack of critical thinking or thinking ahead. Instead it's a regurgitation engine for text blobs. I guess you just conjure up a good game of Chess from the Internet and apply it ...
The matchup seems almost comical when you consider the hardware involved. The Atari 2600 was powered by a MOS Technology 6507 processor running at just 1.19 MHz. To put that in perspective, your smartphone is literally thousands of times more powerful. The chess engine in Atari Chess only thinks one to two moves ahead – a far cry from the sophisticated AI systems we’re used to today.
The most telling part? ChatGPT was playing on the beginner difficulty level. This wasn’t even the game’s hardest setting – it was designed for people just learning to play chess.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/09/atari_vs_chatgpt_chess/ [theregister.com]
https://futurism.com/atari-beats-chatgpt-chess [futurism.com]
https://techstory.in/chatgpt-absolutely-wrecked-by-atari-2600-in-beginner-chess/ [techstory.in]