Ah but I think the key here is that it doesn't say "how will this player respond" but "how would a player respond". No matter how I've played against it to get

Ah but I think the key here is that it doesn't say "how will this player respond" but "how would a player respond". No matter how I've played against it to get to where we are, it'll play the same from that point on. It won't identify me as a risky player from my pattern, nor will it try and classify me as "unpredictable" in some way. It'll play each move as though it has sat down at an already in-progress game between two random opponents. > It's possible for an AI to evaluate a move based solely on the resulting board position, but it wouldn't be very good. Pretty much all AIs play many turns out to see if the move is any good. I would strongly argue that these are identical situations. Playing out scenarios in your head but taking into account no history is the same as "evaluating a move based solely on the board position".