Why suddenly Tetris game matters again?

A puzzle video game of the 1980s grabbed a few headlines as the first time in Tetris history it got beaten by a human being. Something previously only accomplished by Artificial Intelligence driven software. A human being managing something only AI was capable of. And that “human being“ is actually a 13-year-old Willis Gibson. How he managed this is the most interesting part.

This may require some introduction. Not the Tetris itself, but the fact that it’s far from being dead. You see, the Classic Tetris World Championship is an annual event bringing together elite players to compete. Not only are there elite players, there are different techniques of hitting buttons on the controller so that the players can rotate pieces of puzzles quicker at those crazy speeds they’re falling at the competitive levels.

For the recent decade a technique called  “hypertapping” where a player vibrates their fingers in a way which moves the controller faster than the in-game speed, seemed to be the most commonly used among the elite players. Meanwhile Gibson mastered the new technique called “rolling” since he started playing Tetris at the age of 11. “Rolling” is the technique where players drum the bottom of the controller into a finger hovering just above the keypad at speeds faster than when used “hypertapping” technique.

Win against the game comes when the screen crashes and blocks no longer come down. In the case of Willis’ match, It took 38 minutes. And it was the first time the game went down to a human.

In the case of Gibson, it was the new technique which provided for transformative growth allowing for a human being to match previously accomplished results of an AI program. 

Interesting timing coincidence and perhaps even more unexpected comparison. It’s December, 2023 for both: Gibson’s win and European political bodies reaching political agreement on the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act. As AI systems in Europe will receive a risk-based regulatory approach, an AI program playing Tetris is likely to score as minimal/no-risk in the EU.

Successful new skill techniques tend to spread in the communities willing to learn, let’s remain open, share and grow. Although I still find it hard to believe myself that it’s the very same good-old-Tetris that we‘re talking about.