rod03801: Yes, the odds are considered in a way yet they don't get deliberately calculated for their own sake.

Lol. You can't talk about being slow when this is your introduction to a very challenging topic! I've wanted to explain something about neural network backgammon here for the last few years and have written a few lengthy posts on the topic but I've always discarded them before posting. Painting a reasonably accurate but understandable picture of how the bots work is difficult and this is the first time that I'm happy enough with what I've written to actually post it. Even so, this is more of a sketch than a picture so I'd be impressed if anyone new to neural networks gets what they're about just from this.