Humans are dull than computers — that ’s the consensus after thatWatsonthing last class , correct ? Not if they ca n’t drum Will Shortz , says Matt Ginsberg , creator of a calculator programme that ’s designed to best even the most crafty human cruciverbalists . To prove it , he ’s enroll his so - called Dr. Fill in next calendar month ’s American Crossword Puzzle tournament .
What makes Dr. Fill so smart , so desirable of contention with those speedy word nerds ? Memory . He ’s basically memorized the entire carom of crossword puzzles to stop up - and - free rein as needed . Unlike Watson , Dr. Fill was n’t programmed to understand the language of the clew , but rather to play the game , explains The Economist :
His computer software contains all clew and answers for crossword puzzle created since 1990 , and can break down nameless clues into long listing of potential resolution that fit the command word or phrase duration . Dr Fill fills in squares with its most confident plectron , and then form through possible crosses . The trick in making this large job smaller is the intersect words , he say , as it reduces the universe of possibleness in equivalence to afford - ended questions .
But even if this programming method acting works , is doing crossword puzzles as human being a job as wager chess game or answer enquiry on Jeopardy ? Will we have suffer even more ground in the golem - human brainiac raceway ? Probably not ; tapping a database is a far cry from consistent logical thinking . That , and I suspect even Dr. Fill will have a hard time parse NY Times crossword puzzle guru Will Shortz ’s stabs athip - hop culture clues . [ economic expert ]
ikon course credit : Shutterstock / Fotana
Computers
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