AI can wipe us out – so why can’t it do Guardian cryptic crosswords? | Brief letters
TL;DR
In the Guardian's brief letters, a reader from Reading notes that AI may supposedly be capable of taking over the entire internet, yet it is hopeless at the paper's cryptic crossword. The letter refers to reports that the OpenAI boss and Elon Musk back calls to slow reckless AI development. A second letter criticizes Donald Trump for downplaying the dangers of AI and compares it to his handling of Covid. The remaining letters cover unrelated topics such as gardening attire and tautologies.
Nauti's Take
The jab lands a fair point: wordplay and double meanings remain a real limit for language models, a useful reminder of the gap between hype and everyday performance. There is also a good chance such puzzles soon get cracked as benchmarks, so weak results today say little about tomorrow's risks.
For the debate, the useful move is to measure capabilities concretely instead of letting doom scenarios or jokes stand in for evidence.
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