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> The crossword solver is a closed system—it can’t just Google the answers. yet from the wiki: > Probabilities for individual words or phrases in the puzzle
by bvm 5y ago
> The crossword solver is a closed system—it can’t just Google the answers.
yet from the wiki:
> Probabilities for individual words or phrases in the puzzle are computed using relatively simple statistical techniques based on features such as previous appearances of the clue, number of Google hits for the fill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr.Fill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr.Fill
I don't think it's fair to describe it as a closed-system if it's Googling stuff, even for pruning.
- karamanolev 5y agoCan't the number of Google hits for all words in the dictionary be enumerated and stored before entry into the competition? Wouldn't that keep it a closed system, even if it uses metrics like that?
- wongarsu 5y agoHumans are allowed to prepare however they like, so anything from the real world should be fair game as long as you don't add anything during the solving process itself.
- SamBam 5y agoIt's not googling stuff live, it's using a pre-computed database.
- EGreg 5y agoSounds like how AlphaGo beat Stockfish or Rybka… massive precomputing vs alphabeta search in real time
- sillysaurusx 5y agoHmm. AlphaGo and AlphaZero were trained using self play. I don't think there was any precomputing, unless you count training as precomputation.
- EGreg 5y agoPrecomputation on a huge cluster for a long time