Humans beat computer at crossword solving

New York Times : This past weekend, Dr. Fill—a crossword-solving computer program—finished 141st out of some 600 human contestants at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn, New York. Written by Matthew Ginsberg, a mathematician and CEO of On Time Systems in Eugene, Oregon, the program thrives on conventional crosswords but can have difficulty with humorous puzzles or ones with unusual themes or letter arrangements. At the tournament, players were given six puzzles to solve on Saturday and one on Sunday; rankings were based on accuracy and speed. Even though Dr. Fill didn’t finish in the top 50, experts say the program is an impressive achievement . “Games are a great motivator for artificial intelligence—they push things forward,” said David Ferrucci, the IBM researcher who led the development of Watson, the Jeopardy! computer champion.