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The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, or ACPT, annually gathers contestants from around the world to tackle eight original crossword puzzles. This year, the top ACPT performer was not a human but was instead an artificial intelligence system built in part by a team of UC Berkeley researchers.
According to Will Shortz, crossword editor for The New York Times and founder and director of the ACPT, this year’s tournament was held virtually and had a record number of 1,287 contestants. While the tournament was built for human competitors, the AI system that “won,” named Dr.Fill, competed unofficially, Shortz noted.
Dr.Fill solved the final puzzle in 49 seconds, according to a Berkeley Engineering press release, more than two minutes faster than the top human contestant.
Wish you could solve a tricky crossword in under a minute? Dr Fill can
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Matt Ginsberg is a magician, a stunt pilot and a sub-standard crossword-solver. “It annoyed me that I was so terrible,” the Oregonian told Jane Wakefield, the BBC’s tech reporter. Doubly annoying, as Ginsberg also built crosswords for US papers, often getting stumped by his own clues in hindsight.
Enter Dr Fill, no relation to the TV psychologist, yet no less verbal. Ginsberg made the computer program some 10 years ago, as the man is also an AI scientist when not flying loops or vanishing rabbits. A virtual solver, Dr Fill has evolved into a crossword devourer, this year achieving the impossible.