IBM built Deep Blue, a specialized chess supercomputer.
In the historic Kasparov vs Deep Blue 1997, Deep Blue won the match 3.5–2.5.
It was the first time a reigning world champion lost to a computer under standard tournament conditions.
But interestingly, Deep Blue was not “AI” in the modern sense.
It mainly relied on:
Massive brute-force search (millions of chess positions per second)
Expert-crafted evaluation functions
Special hardware chips for chess calculations
Now let's come back to the point.
During the early decades, IBM was extremely engineering-driven. Its research labs produced major breakthroughs:
IBM System/360 — one of the most influential computer platforms ever built
Hard-disk storage technology
RISC processor research
The chess supercomputer IBM Deep Blue
But in the late 1980s–1990s, IBM faced huge competition from cheaper personal computers and software companies.
Then...
Bureaucracy increased
Decision-making shifted toward business managers
Risk-taking in engineering declined
The moment suits started dominating engineering, it's all over for IBM.
Always remember great technology companies are built by engineers but often slowly taken over by managers.
The healthiest companies try to keep technical leadership at the top.
Think about Elon Musk and his companies.
Think about NVIDIA.
Think about modern AI based giants.
These are all engineer driven.
Will sometimes in the future, they all will travel the same path as IBM?
Let's keep our fingers crossed...
Only time will be able to answer this...
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