Thu. 04/29 - An AI Won a Crossword Tournament & the Olympics Gets Into eSports

Cool Stuff Ride Home

Reggie Risseeuw and Marques Pfaff

News, Tech News, Science, Society & Culture

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How an AI, after failing for a decade, finally won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. The Olympics are going virtual, but not how you’re probably thinking. And remembering Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins. Links: Dr. Fill, an AI, won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Here's how. (Slate) Win a gold medal from your front room? IOC launches Olympic Virtual Series (The Guardian) Olympic Virtual Series gaming event launched by IOC (NBC Sports) Photos: Apollo 11: As They Shot It (NY Times) For Apollo 11 He Wasn’t on the Moon. But His Coffee Was Warm. (NY Times) Michael Collins, ‘Third Man’ of the Moon Landing, Dies at 90 (NY Times) Space community mourns the death of Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins (The Verge) What going to the moon taught Michael Collins about Earth (PBS) ‘It’s time’: Blue Origin teases ticket sales for its New Shepard rocket (The Verge) Jeff Goldblum Jones Dungeons & Dragons Podcast Dark Dice (iO9) Kottke.Org Jackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by the current account switch service. Running a small business
0:05.8	comes with all sorts of ups and downs. So the last thing you need are unwanted surprises, just like
0:11.6	when you switch bank accounts. That's why the current account switch service guarantees against
0:16.8	any shocks, stresses, and wait, have we been charged for 3,000 pens instead of 30 moments?
0:23.6	Find out more at currentaccountswitch.co.uk.
0:31.6	Welcome to the Kotki Ride Home 4th Thursday, April 29th, 2021.
0:40.1	I'm Jackson Bird.
0:41.6	How an AI, after failing for a decade, finally won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
0:49.2	The Olympics are going virtual, but not how you're probably thinking.
0:55.1	And remembering Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins.
0:59.6	Here are some of the cool things from the news today.
1:05.3	When the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament went virtual this year,
1:09.1	I'm not sure the competitors thought that
1:11.5	would mean that the winner would also be virtual. For the first time, the tournament was won
1:17.0	not by a flesh and blood human, but by a computer program. Specifically, an AI called Dr. Phil,
1:24.6	that's F-I-L, which was created by Matt Ginsberg in astrophysicist come computer scientist,
1:30.7	who is also a stunt pilot, bridge player, novelist, and magician, according to Slate.
1:36.2	Despite being apparently so accomplished in so many different fields, Ginsburg reports that
1:40.3	he has always been rotten at crossword puzzles, so 10 years ago he started building an
1:45.3	algorithm that could complete them better than even the most talented humans.
1:50.4	While most top contestants at the American Crossword Puzzle tournament, or ACPT, achieve perfect
1:56.2	accuracy, Dr. Phil actually finished with three errors.
	...

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