Darmok AI Beats Human Champion Time on Cryptic Crossword

The crossword-solving program Darmok completed the final puzzle of the Times cryptic crossword championship around three minutes faster than the winning human contestant, Liam Hughes. The Guardian compares the result with milestones such as IBM’s Deep Blue victory over chess champion Garry Kasparov. Computer scientist Sid Chatterjee developed Darmok at the University of Texas at Austin and named it after a Star Trek episode about communication through allegory. Cryptic crosswords require solvers to interpret wordplay, double meanings, and sometimes visual clues. One deciding clue involved changing a letter’s shape to form the answer SNARF. The result follows earlier successes by crossword programs such as WebCrow and Dr Fill, and illustrates continuing progress in automated language reasoning.

The Guardian, Alan Evans – Could this be a Deep Blue moment for the cryptic crossword? – 20th October 2026