The New York Times Games section has long been a hub for enthusiasts of brain-teasing puzzles, offering challenges like Wordle, Connections, and the Crossword. In an exciting development, the Times has now integrated artificial intelligence into its gaming experience with the introduction of the Connections Bot. Launched on September 3, this new feature builds on the success of WordleBot, which has become a favorite among players since its debut in 2022. The Connections Bot brings a fresh layer of interactivity to the game of Connections, which tasks players with sorting 16 words into four related categories.
Connections Bot enhances the experience by providing detailed insights into your gameplay. After you complete a Connections puzzle, you can check your performance with the bot, which evaluates how you did compared to other players and assigns a skill score up to 99. To achieve a perfect score, you need to solve the puzzle without mistakes and tackle the most challenging categories first. The bot goes a step further by using AI to interpret your thought process, offering suggestions on what you might have been considering during your guesses. For instance, if a puzzle includes words like gutter, bowl, lane, and alley, the AI might infer that you were thinking of bowling terms, even if the words belong to different categories.
This marks The Times’s first regular application of AI in its newsroom operations. The AI-generated responses are reviewed and edited by Times editors to ensure clarity and accuracy. Eve Washington, the editor who helped create the Connections Bot, notes that it provides valuable feedback, especially on tough days when solving the puzzle can be particularly challenging. While you don’t need a Times account to play Connections, accessing the Connections Bot requires one, adding an extra layer of engagement for avid players.
