Deep Blue plays chess only when not sorting stocks

“But it’s a better class of junk mail,” says Eric Rosencrans, marketing operations manager for the IBM division that sells the Rs./6000sp supercomputer.

“Just like in chess, the computer goes through all the possibilities,” Rosencrans said. The better it is at picking out potential customers, the less people get mail they don’t want.”

On a higher level of service to humanity, the computer can cut years off the time needed to test drugs by analyzing all potential effects, good and bad, of a new medicine, Rosencrans said.

“The information just explodes as you get into something like that and the computer just goes far beyond what humans can do in the same time,” he said. Deep Blue is among IBM’s fastest growing products, with about 2,500 installed worldwide, Rosencrans said.

Oil companies use Rs./6000s to analyze the best places to drill. A brokerage company uses one for assessing thousands of stocks and accounts.

At Shopko stores, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, an Rs./6000 analyses the inventory of 300,000 items at each of Shopko’s 125 stores in ways other than just keeping track of what’s on the shelves.

“The computer lets Shopko know if people buy flashlights and then come back for batteries or if they buy them together,” said Daniel Olp, the company’s technical director. With inventory, it helps us decide what to feature on the front cover of an advertising circular.”

IBM suggests its supercomputer could someday also be used in weather forecasting, medical care and even sports, helping an NBA coach quickly analyse possible strategies.

In chess, the computer has the advantage of sensing deviations in previous patterns of play, which lends itself to other applications like detecting credit-card fraud.

“I once got called by my credit card company because I made a phone call from an airplane,” Rosencrans said. “I hadn’t done that before, and the computer said, maybe it’s not him.”