[white-flame]

It's not that humans only _use_ heuristics, it's that humans _create_ heuristics, and seem to be able to optimize the speed of the heuristic with training and use. They're also introspectable to some level, and can be combined with rational observation and feedback.

[iheartmemcache]

Devils advocate - ML is introspective at some level and certainly can observe (with Spock-like objectivity; almost defining the term) rationality, and take the result of each move and grade it with some degree of confidence as a "good move" or "bad move" [and even contextualize the move: i.e., move : 'e4' ; context : "opening" => evaluation - "great move"]. I agree with your first point though w/r/t heuristics and more importantly pattern recognition which can be used to integrate in more heuristic knowledge in your aggregate 'decision making system' at a way more 'effective' rate (with respect to time, within the domain of the game Go).