The Times runs an annual crossword-solving competition and it will remain, until The Guardian has its own version, the gold standard.
This year’s competitors included a dog. Rather, an A.I. depicted as a cheerful coffee-drinking dog named Ross (a hidden name in “crossword”) and who is integrated into the Crossword Genius smartphone app.
The human competitors at the event, which took place at the London headquarters of News UK, the parent company of the Times, in the shadow of the Shard, were, as usual, disconcertingly fast: they pondered the next clue while scribbling the letters of the former. It’s possible that an AI can “think” multiple puzzles at once: so did it make fun of us mortals?
For now, we humans maintain our advantage. Ross “surrendered” on an incomplete grid after the contest’s serial champion, Mark Goodliffe, raised his hand to tell supervisors the battle was over.
This was not a done deal. I’m sure Ross had decoded one of…
1ac MP overthrown by liberals, absolutely without authority (9)
…replacing the MP of IMPLICITLY (synonym for “absolutely” in the clue) with an L for the solution, ILLICITLY (“without authority”) while the carnal contestants were still considering that the answer might be an adjective or an adverb (or some MP). The next answer, Finnish for Finland, is something you or I may or may not know; Ross practically “knows” everything.
However, here’s one that stumped Ross:
13d Radical overhaul of motorsport image (9)
A radical can also be described as FIREBRAND or as the creator says, F1 RE-BRAND. This track doesn’t look much like its gridmates. It’s closer to a joke. When you see it, you feel it’s right, partly because of your smile: it doesn’t play to an AI’s strong point, namely asking: Have I seen anything like this before?
And this was a clue from the firm Times. Too bad the AI took on this article’s Paul when he was in wordplay mode, like “Picnicker, by the looks of it?” for ART THIEF.
At least for now, that feeling of a creator – one of our fellow humans – giving you “yes, I went there” is something you need to be a human being to understand.
One suggestion: Instead of identifying fire hydrants and motorcyclists, online safety should involve deciphering cryptic clues, ideally ones with wacky puns. Guardian outfitters are available.
(Full disclosure: I solved some of the puzzles that an earlier version of Ross trained on. I grew fond of Ross and sometimes use “he” to see if a clue could equally offer two alternative entries.)
And at our hint conference: thank you very much for your hints for STOKES. Runners up are PeterMooreFuller’s final lyrics “Run! Most of it for Brook, three tons at the end for the England captain” and the cheeky “Does the tension rise?” by Wellywearer2. That’s what Bram does!”; the winner is the ingeniously plausible “Load Tinder, swiping right.”
Kludos to Dunnart. Please leave entries below for our next challenge: how would you give PUNNY a clue?