[zem]

that's a big problem in scrabble AIs too - there are heuristics for how to dial down the difficulty level, but they mostly involve things like finding the list of best possible moves, and then randomly picking a suboptimal one with how often you do it and how far down the list you go weighted by the handicap level, or constraining the dictionary, or not using lookahead. the problem is that it doesn't always model how actual low-rated scrabble players play, and so does not really make for a satisfying opponent - every now and then you hit a "well, that was stupid" move that just feels implausible for even a weaker human player to make.

the other problem is that the devs of the current top scrabble engines, quackle and elise, are (naturally) focused on getting better and better at playing, not on plausible ways to play badly. it's something i keep meaning to work on when i have some spare time; i have a few ideas, but nothing i've had the time to explore properly.