The first Times crossword
Having seen several mind-blowing articles about ChatGPT’s ability (most notably this one), I wondered how ChatGPT would fare solving a cryptic crossword.
I decided to try with an easy one: a Quick Cryptic from The Times. I had a search through the Times for the Times archives to try and find one on the easier side. Eventually, I settled on Quick Cryptic 2273 by Beck, which was described as “very gentle” by the solver.
Okay, let’s get started:
A swing… and a miss. Wrong answer, and the reasoning is nonsensical.
(The answer is “MANTRA” – MAN (chap) and ART (skill) reversed (recalled)).
Let’s hit “try again”:
Correct answer! But let’s check the reasoning…
Chap is indeed derived from chapman (which was news to me), and a chapman is a trader.
But that’s where we start to go off the rails… TRADER reversed is REDART, not REDARAT. And REDARAT is definitely not a homophone of MANTRA.
