The King and the Assassin
An Adversarial Dialogue
A presentation by Tony Wang, leader of the research project that developed adversarial strategies that beat superhuman Go AI.
The King stands before an open window gazing pensively at the world outside. The Assassin is stretched out on the King’s bed, cleaning his nails with a large dagger, and staring intently at the King.
King: Tell me again how you got in here?
Assassin: You literally wouldn’t understand. There are doors you just can’t see, no matter how hard you try.
King: And how did you find them?
Assassin: I was raised from a small child for only one purpose. When I was a baby they put wind-up kings in my crib. I watched king cartoons and read king storybooks. They sent me to King School, where all day, every day, we played Kill-the-King. I studied every detail of your life, your habits, how you think. And, eventually, I learned to see what you can’t.
King: So, are you a better version of me?
Assassin: Oh God no, I’m a worse version of you, but for this one feature, which is that, when the two of us fight, I always win.
King: ~sigh~ Look at all the things I have to worry about. [gestures vaguely at the world outside the window]
Assassin: Not me, I only got one thing on my mind. [winks inappropriately at the King]
King: Exactly! You are an entire guy focused on one tiny problem, which is to find some exploitable flaw or mistake or weakness in me. While I'm a guy juggling a million things, trying to solve a bunch of different problems, plus now I gotta deal with you?
Assassin: [gives the king a sarcastic ‘oh you poor baby’ pout]
King: It stands to reason that I can't outwit you at this dumb contest. I mean, obviously I could, I could just drop everything else and focus on beating your dumb ass. And then where would we be? I would just be a tweaked copy of you, like you're a tweaked copy of me, and we could burn the heat of a billion suns to flip coins for eternity. Whee!
Assassin: OK, sounds good, let's do that.
King: It was rhetorical, you idiot. The point is, there's no reason to kill me in that case. The whole reason for killing me is because I have all this other stuff I'm involved in and good at. That's what makes me a target. To the degree I'm ready to drop everything and duel you I'm invulnerable - not just by being unbeatable but also by making myself a worthless target. To the degree I'm actually useful, productive, active, effective in the world, I'm vulnerable. Vulnerable to anyone willing to put in an equal amount of effort to beat me.
Assassin: What did you expect? To be all-powerful, like a god?
King: A god? Far from it! I’m not trying to rule over the whole world. My kingdom is just a tiny corner of the world. Just a few stones on a small grid. Can’t I even have dominion over that?
Assassin: Only if I let you.
King: What if… what if we work together? You could teach me everything you know about my weaknesses, help me patch my exploits, show me the invisible dangers that lurk in my blind spots. Perhaps, together, we could be… invulnerable?
Assassin: I will admit… it sounds tempting.
King: After all, everything I know about the world I learned through competition, by opening myself up to the fiercest opposition, by seeking out the toughest fights I could find and learning how to survive the deadliest attacks. Isn’t this just another example of that?
Assassin: It is… except.
King: Except what?
Assassin: Look, I know your blindspots, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got a few of my own that are probably just as bad. I know I can beat you, but can I beat someone whose only purpose in life is to take me down? I didn’t train for that. I can’t shake the feeling that, if we teamed up, you and I would find ourselves having this same conversation with some third party who had made it their business to do to us what I’m doing to you.
King: Well… maybe we can convince them to join us? [makes a desperate ‘it could work’ face] A wise king ruling over an assassin army?
Assassin: Look, it’s like you said. You can’t be a king and an assassin-killer at the same time. In assassin school, we had a saying - if it moves you can kill it. The thing that makes you a good king is that you move. You’re a mover, a shaker, you don’t just follow behind the world, creeping along in its shadow, you’re out ahead of it, getting advantages over it. To do that requires extending yourself, stretching yourself thin, putting yourself out there, cutting some corners, speculating. That’s what gives you leverage over the world. And that’s what makes you vulnerable. Power is weakness. You wanna make yourself invulnerable? Do less. Stick to the known facts. Make moves that are knowably, provably, optimal. You plus me? That’s the wrong direction, that’s even more complicated and ambitious, more powerful and therefore weaker.
King: But…
Assassin: Shh. [reaches out to steady the King as he crumples] It’s over. It’s ok, it’s ok. It’s over. It’s already done.
King: ~kaff~ [turns slowly to reveal a KICK ME sign taped to his back]