NEW YORK—Saying that it seems no one has engaged with the blank-screened twin-rack supercomputer in weeks, neighborhood sources felt sorry for IBM supercomputer Deep Blue Friday, which has spent its retirement sitting at the Washington Square Park chess tables. “Deep Blue used to be a legend, right up there with Nate Archibald and ‘Sweet P’ Plummer. Today, hardly anyone wants to play with it, and not because of its brute-force, quasi-artificial-intelligence approach to the game. It’s just a sad, old, washed-up box to these kids,” said park regular Natalie Bryant, who described watching disinterested park-goers walk right past the electronic chess player without recognizing the formerly beloved world champion. “You just feel so bad for Deep Blue. On top of the world back in the day, but now it’s just—I mean, it looks dirty and I think that smell is coming from it, too. Sometimes, I think about bringing it inside, but I don’t know how to approach it or even what language it uses.” Regulars of Washington Square Park said the retired computer “seems completely fine” with simply entering sleep mode and spending its cold, lonely nights on a park bench.

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