Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 640 - 284: Artificial Stupidity Boxing

Chapter 640: Chapter 284: Artificial Stupidity Boxing

There was a deep personal relationship between Ali and Tyson, two generational Boxing Kings.

When Tyson was young, he always admired Ali, believing him to be the greatest boxer.

After the death of his coach, who he viewed as a father figure, Tyson, who had ascended to the Boxing Throne, quickly became indulgent and eventually ended up behind bars. Yet during this time, Ali was still very concerned about Tyson.

And the awakened Tyson consistently refused Ali’s prison visits. He thought meeting Ali in a place like prison was disrespectful to his elder brother.

This was considered a beautiful tale in the boxing world.

Many boxing enthusiasts are curious as to who was stronger, Ali or Tyson. On various occasions and at different times, many people asked them this question. But Ali always said Tyson was stronger than him, and Tyson has insisted for decades that Ali is incomparable.

This question may never have an answer. The year Ali completely left the ring, Tyson was only about ten years old.

Because of the barrier of time, it was impossible for the two to face each other at their respective peaks.

But from his childhood, Tyson enjoyed watching Ali’s fights. Perhaps in his heart, he also wanted to see what a match against his most respected elder brother would be like.

It wasn’t about winning or honor, but purely the empathy between two very close boxers.

Lu Xuanyu felt a surge of passion. As a martial artist, he truly understood the former Boxing King’s inner desire.

Coach Novich murmured, "I see... If the great boxers in history could be replicated... how many of boxing’s century-old regrets could be rectified."

Xiang Shan patted his shoulder, smiling happily, "That’s right. Coach, actually, you have the right to make suggestions for this project. You can provide your opinions to the researchers to influence the direction of this project."

Coach Novich nodded, his gaze at the "True Martial 1" changing.

But soon, he became somewhat worried, "Boss, then couldn’t you mass-produce great boxers? Do real-life boxers still have competitiveness?"

Xiang Shan sighed, "Well... I think real-life boxers will remain competitive for a long time, right? Remember what I just said? At the beginning, AI Ali and AI Tyson couldn’t fight a decent match in a month. Now, they can only fight a few decent matches each month."

"However, a few hundred Alis and a few hundred Tysons, each pair fighting twenty to thirty matches a day. That means, AI Ali and AI Tyson need to fight tens of thousands of matches before we can see one that’s fought brilliantly."

Coach Novich was puzzled, "Why is that?"

"Why? Because it’s an artificial idiot." Xiang Shan sighed, holding his forehead, "They simply don’t understand what a ’spectacular fight’ is, you know."

"The human understanding of ’boxing’ actually goes like this. First, they have the concept of ’fighting’ in their minds and can understand what makes a ’spectacular fight.’ Then, humans use rules to continuously remove those ’elements that might lead to unspectacular fights,’ and that’s how we ended up with sports like ’boxing,’ ’kickboxing,’ and the like."

"But AI can’t comprehend that process at all. They don’t know what ’fighting brilliantly’ means—or rather, it’s very hard for us to describe the concept of ’spectacular’ to machines using set theory. All they understand is ’winning and losing.’"

"AIs are satisfied as long as they score one point higher than their opponent. Many of them have this problem, becoming extremely passive in combat as soon as they score higher than their rival, focusing their footwork entirely on maintaining distance, and resorting to hugging when the distance closes."

"Then there’s the foul play... They consciously skirt the edge of being disqualified. They get at least two cautions per round, and they’re certain to receive two warnings in a match. Only after they’ve used up their chances for cautions and warnings do these AIs consciously avoid foul play—oh right, there was even an AI that attempted to study how to position the back of its head during a clinch to ensure it brushes against the opponent’s fist, aiming for a technical win... It’s absurd when I say it. It’s a good thing that the brutal evolutionary algorithms didn’t give this kind of artificial idiot a chance."

"Moreover, their stamina management is professional level. With the mindset of ’lasting the full twelve rounds,’ some AIs even learned the dirty trick of ’rubbing their opponent’s fist with their shoulder or arm to fall and rest for nine seconds’... All sorts of sneaky moves right on the edge of the rules. Each time we enter past judgments to clarify the rules, some AI will operate right on the edge of those judgments."

"In addition, their footwork is flawless, so they almost never accidentally dodge to the edge or corners of the ring. This makes the fight both stink and drag out."

Having said this, Xiang Shan heaved a heavy sigh, "The textbook-level defensive counterpunching of Boxing King Mayweather has already been criticized as unexciting, but at least Mr. Mayweather doesn’t habitually engage in hugging. Thankfully, most of these AIs have been eliminated."

Lu Xuanyu said, "I thought these kind of rogues were strong."

From his point of view, this kind of sticking plaster was really annoying.

"This ain’t a boxing version of Alpha Dog." Xiang Shan shook his head, "There are too many variables in boxing, and if you aim for ’lasting the full twelve rounds to win by a slight margin on points,’ you must deal with more variations, a greater risk. In boxing, the moment your fist strikes your opponent is when you have the least variables to contend with."

"Then, the current mainstream AI is the kind that... uses a similar style of dragging out the rounds and stamina management, but as soon as it finds a flaw in the opponent, it unleashes combination punches, one after another, constantly reducing the enemy’s strategic options, until securing the KO. But you see, before the opponent exposes a flaw, this batch of AI also has a very low desire to attack."

"What about those AIs with a high offensive desire?" asked Lu Xuanyu, "Are there any that are particularly strong?"

Xiang Shan shook his head, "Since those gambling-addicted artificial idiots can’t guarantee a winning rate, most of them have been phased out."

Coach Novich pointed at the robots practicing boxing, "But I see they are boxing pretty well."

"Because this batch mostly consists of AIs trained with data from legendary boxers. For these AIs, ’playing Ali, Tyson or any boxer’ is a rule just as important as the ’boxing rules,’" Xiang Shan explained, "It’s not that they don’t want to game the system, but if they fought that way, it would clearly violate the ’emulating a specific person’ rule—according to the input data, those boxers obviously wouldn’t fight that way."

Xiang Shan covered his forehead, "Those boxer AIs, when facing those unethical AIs, only have a fifty-fifty win rate. Many boxer AIs will even pick up those unethical tricks after fighting against those idiots because of the deep learning algorithms..."

"Only when boxer AIs fight against each other do AIs occasionally manage to present a high-quality duel akin to human combat."