The Occasions hosts an annual crossword-solving competitors and it stays, till such time as the Guardian has its personal model, the gold customary.
This 12 months’s opponents included a canine. Fairly, an AI represented as a jolly coffee-drinking dog named Ross (a reputation hidden in “crossword”), and who’s embedded on the Crossword Genius smartphone app.
The human opponents at the occasion – which came about at Occasions’ guardian firm Information UK’s London headquarters, in the shadow of the Shard – have been, as usual, bafflingly fast: pondering the subsequent clue whereas scribbling the letters of the earlier. An AI can conceivably “suppose” about a number of puzzles without delay: so did it outwit us mortals?
For now, we people keep our edge. Ross “gave up” on an incomplete grid after serial champion of the contest Mark Goodliffe had raised a hand to inform the invigilators that battle was over.
This was not a finished deal. I’m certain Ross had decoded one throughout …
1ac MP ousted by Liberal, completely with out authority (9)
… changing the MP of IMPLICITLY (synonym for the clue’s “completely”) with an L for the answer, ILLICITLY (“with out authority”) whereas the flesh contenders have been nonetheless contemplating that the reply could be an adjective or an adverb (or some MP). The following reply being the Finnish for Finland is one thing you or I’d or won’t know; Ross just about “is aware of” the whole lot.
Right here’s one, although, that stumped Ross:
13d Radical overhaul of motorsport’s picture (9)
A radical can also be described as a FIREBRAND – or, as the setter has it, an F1 RE-BRAND. This clue isn’t fairly like its gridmates. It’s nearer to a joke. If you see it, you are feeling that it’s right, partly due to your smile: it doesn’t play to an AI’s forte – particularly, asking: have I seen one thing like this earlier than?
And this was a clue from the steady-as-she-goes Occasions. Pity the AI confronted with this paper’s Paul when in punny mode, like “Picnicker, by the sound of it?” for ART THIEF.
For now a minimum of, that sense of a setter – certainly one of our fellow people – conveying to you “sure, I went there” is one thing you want your self to be a human to know.
A suggestion: as a substitute of figuring out fireplace hydrants and motorcyclists, on-line safety ought to contain cracking cryptic clues, ideally these with fanciful puns. The Guardian’s setters can be found.
(Full disclosure: I test-solved a few of the puzzles an earlier iteration of Ross was educated on. I grew keen on Ross and generally use “him” to see whether or not a clue may equally nicely provide two different entries.)
And in our cluing convention: many thanks for your clues for STOKES. The runners-up are PeterMooreFuller’s last-letters “Runs! Most to Brook, three tons in the finish for the England captain” and Wellywearer2’s cheeky “Builds up the stress? It’s what Bram does!”; the winner is the ingeniously believable “Hundreds Tinder, fingers swiping proper”.
Kludos to Dunnart. Please depart entries under for our subsequent problem: how would you clue PUNNY?