[hiptobecubic]

You're asking whether we can have a challenge where no one on earth is interested in studying it and I think the answer is "no."

If you don't want spoilers, don't look them up? It's like complaining that the existence of archeology as a field takes the romanticism out of dinosaur stories.

[rusty__]

I don't think I'm asking that? I guess I'm asking, where is the fun in reducing a game that takes some brain power to a game of solving one 5-letter anagram. Your analogy is a fair one though. I don't begrudge people using their talents to analyse and dig deep in to a game (like chess or go), I think it's just a bit sad that every single one of these simple games is effectively broken just days or hours after taking hold with 20 lines of code (see also 2048).

[dahart]

> every single one of these simple games is effectively broken

Can you elaborate on how the game is broken? How does someone else writing a solver affect your own enjoyment of the game? Wordle isn’t competitive, right, so is the problem just knowing that a robot can do it demotivates you from trying?

This might be an interesting question about human behavior and our motivations that we should think about as we move into the AI age, because no, there will never be another popular game that escapes AI players. Not only are we going to make AI for every playable game, we are building AI for every human activity.

FWIW, I’ve written Sudoku and Boggle solvers, and still love to play those games manually. In fact writing the solvers I think increased my own enjoyment of them, it gives a certain perspective on the difficulty of the game, and of how much humans do to simplify our effort compared to a computer.

[rusty__]

I guess it's broken because it's been reduced from a game of progressive deduction to solving 1 5 letter anagram - not the original intent of the game.

I completely agree that it's a fascinating wider question I think I'm alluding to here - living in a world where AI/computer brute force can achieve everything is a going to be a strange place to live in in 50-100 years time. Do we want to make humans redundant in this way - sure this is just a silly game, but, as COVID has shown us the last couple of years, supply chains, logistics etc are all minutely tuned and determined by computers with little human involvement - is that a world we all want to live in, I'm not so sure.

[dahart]

But I mean why does someone else reducing the game to an algorithm hurt your personal experience with the game? If you don’t use AI to play the game, and if the game isn’t competitive, why does it make you sad when someone else does?

BTW I’m not trying to debate or contradict you, your opinion is valid and I’m hoping to dig into that wider question a little by getting more specific about your personal experience and emotions, to uncover in more detail what it is about AI that is bumming you out. I’m curious to hear about what the automation is taking away from you from your perspective. Does the Wordle anagram solver here feel worse to you or similar to older examples like the Big Blue chess AI? And how do computers in general fit in, as well as mechanical automation like cars & tractors, etc?

Are there certain kinds of AI automation you see value in, any things that leave humans with less manual labor and more free time? I’m kind of excited for driving AI, for example, if we can make it safe and reliable enough. It will definitely upset certain economies, but maybe fewer accidents and traffic jams and more free time during travel are redeeming values?