Tyler Cowen: Magnus Carlsen’s Strongest Chess Opponent Is AI

That's not news. It's been considered obvious since Kasparov lost to Deep Blue. The chess engines keep getting better at a Moore's Law rate; humans at best eke out a little improvement.

The whole cheating scandal right now revolves around the question of whether the challenger was assisted by AI. It's just assumed that the AI would play better moves.

Carlsen may or may not be the strongest player in the world. He has challengers, and he himself has gotten a tiny bit bored with just-plain-chess. They're currently tangled in minutiae of who gets to play for the title of "best". It takes over a dozen games to distinguish the best from the second-best, each of which is an exhausting game. They don't do it very often, and so the answer will always be a little hazy.

But there is zero doubt that the top AI player would trounce both of them -- even working together. Even plain Stockfish would give them a run for their money.