Japanese robot breaks Rubik’s Cube record, experts discuss the way ahead

Leave it to Lao Tzu to come up with the oddest inventions ldquoA perfect cuberdquo the 6th century Chinese philosopher said ldquohas no cornersrdquo That would have frustrated Erno Rubik The Hungarian inventorrsquos creation of the multicoloured Rubikrsquos Cube has been the boon and bane of many a puzzle solver Yet the latest progression of Artificial Intelligence AI is that a robot at the component production center of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan solved the cube in 0305 seconds The human worldrecord stands at 313 seconds by Max Park As technology enters the bastion of puzzlesolving we reach out to cubing professionals and competitive cubers to tell us moreAI is only a toolI have been cubing for seven years now and participated in World Cubing Association competitions My singlesolve is currently at 1033 seconds and a blindfold is at 24 seconds Initially people said three seconds is an impossible time to solve a cube While we cannot compare machines with humans AI can be a tool for learning and training better A lot of cubers are already working on algorithms calculations and building formulae But in the end it boils down tohuman abilitySiddesh Janardan Katkar speed cuberAI cannot exceed human potentialIf you give someone a puzzle and a solution to it then it loses its punch Puzzles present challenges to the mind and there is an adrenalin rush when you solve it That is what drives cubers But if you want to compete you have to try the latest tools It does not come on a platter though You have to use your mind in the end Todayrsquos children are faster and adapt quicker to new technology It is inevitable that they will reach out to AI as training tools You can look at a video or a programme but ultimately you have to use your brain and learn the moves to solve it It has to be a mix Why you make a certain move is just as important as making it I cannot tell if a human can solve it within a second but the potential of a human brain is infinite AI itself was created by a human brain It cannot exceed human abilitiesMinella Gracious cuber and founderMinellarsquos SuperstarsTakes the fun out of itI started cubing at the age of nine when I saw a cube in a shop and became obsessed with it I learned speed cubing through YouTube videos AI can be an effective tool Right now there are apps on Playstore that give you shortest solutions There is a number called Godrsquos number in cubing This is a formula to solve the cube in 20 moves mdash the shortest time taken There are over four million ways in which a cube can be solved It is hardly possible for a human brain to find all the solutions every time If there is a way to extract the knowledge from a formula through AI it will help But it will become boring If you can solve a puzzle in the most efficient way every time then you donrsquot have to rack your brain anymore I know it is a contradiction but I prefer to not have the AI to keep the fun After all humans have physical limitations You cannot solve a cube in half a second by hand There are limitations to human reactions and coordinationsDaniel DrsquoSouza speed cuberInevitable but not impressiveToday when everything is changing to AI it is inevitable Of course humansolving skills are always more appreciated AI tools will be appreciated by cubers but it is more of a curiosity The skill we speak about is for the development of the brain Already the speed cube record is down to three seconds Even if an AI tool is doing it with a margin of one second it is okay A computer coming up with an answer within a second is impressive but not shocking to be honest It is still the human skill that is the element of surpriseLeena Savla director Junior Cube AssociationLearn to cube Cube ConundrumsAT Gokhale Road Dadar WestCALL 9321690299 Rubikrsquos classesAT Sarvodaya Park Nandivili Panchanand Dombivli EastCALL 8779789420 Minellarsquos SuperstarsLOG ON TO minellassuperstars Junior Cube AssociationAT Patanwala Estate LBS Marg Ghatkopar WestCALL 9326169864