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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology

REVEALED: Ai can wipe us out so why cant it do guardian cryptic crosswords | Vintage Vibes

Guardian cryptic crossword in 2010.
Reader John Hougham has struggled to get AI to helpfully assist him complete the crossword. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

AI may be capable of “taking over the entire internet” (OpenAI boss and Elon Musk back calls to put brakes on ‘reckless’ AI development, 13 September), but it is rubbish at tackling the Guardian cryptic crossword.
John Hougham
Reading, Berkshire

• Donald Trump is downplaying the dangers of AI (Trump facing AI backlash in Congress as push for guardrails intensifies, 15 September). But didn’t he say much the same thing about Covid?
Garry Wynne
Norley, Cheshire

• What a bizarre idea, that people should buy special clothes for gardening (Mossy catwalks, mycelial designs and Monty Don: the growth of gardener style, 11 September). Along with many of my friends, I have a whole drawer of old trousers, shirts and jumpers, full of holes and peculiar stains which are unfit for anything but gardening.
Roger Wilkinson
Leasgill, Cumbria

• Less death, more fun in English literature (Letters, 11 September)? I can still hear this wistful sigh in a tutorial 60 years ago: “If only Othello had been more sensible!”
Laurence Inman
Kings Heath, Birmingham

• The tautology that annoys me most is the ubiquitous “work colleagues” (Letters, 13 September). Are one’s friends “social colleagues”, and family “genetic colleagues”?
Rosemary Waugh
Market Weighton, East Yorkshire

• I think it’s time to throw in the towel (Letters, 14 September).
Julia Draper
Bath

• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

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