Garry Kasparov on chess, technology and democracy

The TED Interview

TED

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest chess players of all time. He was one of the youngest world champions ever, and had a 20-year streak as the world’s top-rated player. But even though he is known as a champion, he is also particularly famous for losing—against Deep Blue. After the IBM computer beat Kasparov, the Azerbaijan native spent much of his career thinking about games, computers, artificial intelligence, and how to beat our fears regarding technology. Now he’s turned his attention to finding a fear-fighting strategy with far higher stakes: the preservation of freedom and democracy. Kasparov has become one of Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics in recent years. Earlier this year, he opened the TED conference with a stirring call to action in support of Ukraine. In this episode, he looks back on his outstanding career, his advocacy and political activism, and shares his latest thinking on the Ukraine war.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you listened to Talk Radio recently?
0:03.0	Let's talk about this war on white people.
0:05.0	That's a pro-quiling, it's good for you.
0:07.0	Bill the Keystone pipeline, deport illegals, build the wall.
0:10.0	I'm Katie Thornton, host of the divided dial,
0:13.0	a new five-part series from WNMC's On the Media,
0:17.0	about how the American right came to dominate Talk Radio
0:21.0	and how one company is launching a conservative media empire
0:25.0	from the airwaves.
0:26.0	Listen every Tuesday and on the media feed.
0:33.0	This is the Ted interview, and I'm Stephen Johnson.
0:37.0	It was late in 1989, months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
0:42.0	Gary Kasparov was 26 years old,
0:45.0	just a few years into his reign as a world chess champion.
0:49.0	And he was invited to sit down for an interview
0:52.0	with an American magazine.
0:54.0	Now, the magazine and question happened to be Playboy,
0:58.0	an unusual venue for a Russian grandmaster to appear in.
1:02.0	But even more surprising was the language
1:05.0	that Kasparov used to describe the Soviet Union.
1:09.0	Everyone has the same kind of normal human aspirations,
1:13.0	he told the interviewer.
	...

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