The New York Times is upping it’s AI game.
Key Takeaways
- The New York Times launched Crossplay, a two-player word game like Scrabble.
- Cross Bot is an AI coach that scores strategy and luck and highlights best moves.
- The bot simulates how each move affects future turns to help players improve.
The company on Wednesday launched Crossplay, a two-player word game much like Scrabble and Words with Friends, alongside an AI-powered analysis tool called Cross Bot. The bot reviews completed matches and provides personalized feedback to help players improve their skills.
Cross Bot calculates strategy and luck scores for each game, highlighting three to four key turns that offer learning opportunities. It shows the best possible moves for every turn, ranked by both points and strategic value.
The tool goes beyond simple point calculations. It runs simulations to evaluate how each potential move might affect the next two turns, considering both what opponents could play and what options remain for the player.
“Some moves make it easier for your opponent to score a triple-word bonus,” the Times wrote in announcing the feature. “Other moves make it easier for you to have a high-scoring move in the next turn.”
The bot evaluates hundreds or thousands of possible moves per turn, narrowing them down based on points scored and which tiles remain in the player’s tray. Keeping a balanced mix of vowels and consonants rates higher than moves that leave difficult letter combinations.
A heat map feature shows “lanes” on the board where high-scoring plays are most likely. Brighter lanes indicate more opportunities for big points.
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Cross Bot can analyze any completed game played against another human with at least five turns. Games against the computer are not eligible for review.
The launch represents a notable investment by the Times in AI-assisted features for its popular games portfolio. The company’s games division has become a significant driver of digital subscriptions, with Wordle and the crossword puzzle attracting millions of daily players.
Strategy scores range from 1 to 99, measuring how well a move sets up a player to win. The bot compares game states against outcomes from millions of previous Crossplay matches to generate these ratings.
Luck scores use the same scale, measuring how useful a player’s drawn tiles are compared to random alternatives.
The highest-scoring move is not always the best move, the Times noted. Board placement matters. Playing a lower-scoring word that blocks an opponent from accessing a triple-word bonus can be smarter than grabbing immediate points.
Players can explore any turn in a completed game, including their opponent’s trays and potential moves.
