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In context: Chatbots stemming from OpenAI’s ChatGPT are the current rage. Despite the ongoing debate over copyrights and other issues with the still somewhat nescient technology, every big tech company seems to want one. While its flaws are many and varied, some people are using it in constructive and potentially marketable ways.
Despite examples of its sketchy and incorrect theories on math, ChatGPT recently created its first math game. For the most part, the AI made up everything about the number puzzle, including the its name and programming, with little human assistance.
It started when programmer Daniel Tait asked ChatGPT to suggest a few Sudoku-like games he could play — something it readily accomplished with five “familiar” recommendations. However, Tait wanted something unique, so he modified his query to ask for a game that didn’t exist. After several attempts, ChatGPT invented “Sum Delete.”
The rules are relatively simple. The player has to cross out numbers on a grid so that the sum of each row and column add up to the totals listed to the right and bottom of the layout. The game has several difficulty levels ranging from a super easy-to-solve 3×3 grid to a crazy hard 9×9, which introduces negative and two-digit numbers to the matrix.
Thinking the game’s original name, Sum Delete wasn’t catchy enough, Tait prompted the AI to think of a better one. After a couple of tries, it suggested “Sumplete,” a portmanteau of the words “sum” and “complete.” He then asked ChatGPT to program a working version of the game. In about 30 seconds, the AI had coded a web-based version of Sumplete in HTML and JavaScript, complete with CSS.
Tait spent a few more hours reiterating the game with the AI, tweaking it, and adding more features. After developing a satisfactory internet-ready game, Tait purchased the domain “sumplete.com” and built a website hosting the machine-generated game so others could play. Players can choose from the various difficulties or try the “Daily Sumplete” — a 5×5 puzzle that, if solved, unlocks the Daily Master challenge.
As far as Tait knows, Sumplete is a unique creation, but he’s not 100 percent sure. He encourages anyone who might have played something similar to contact him. At the very least, the game exemplifies how people can use AI to create a marketable product with minimal effort. Whether this is a good or bad thing is another question still facing heated debate.
Image credit: Mikemacmarketing
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Michele Klemp