AI Can't Play Scrabble!

About this episode

This episode explores whether AI can compete with humans in Scrabble and reveals insights about AI's understanding of language.

Can artificial intelligence beat humans at Scrabble? That’s what we wanted to find out. In this episode of AI for Everyone , Erin and I put AI to the test in a classic word game. The results? Let’s just say the computer didn’t exactly dominate the board. AI can write essays, create art, compose music, and help people brainstorm ideas… but when it comes to playing Scrabble, things get interesting. Along the way, we discovered something surprising about how AI actually “thinks” about language—and why some things that seem simple for humans can still confuse even the smartest systems. More importantly, this experiment highlights a bigger idea: AI isn’t just about productivity tools and technical workflows. It can also be playful, creative, and a lot of fun to explore. If you’ve ever wondered what AI can really do—and what it still struggles with—this episode might surprise you. And if you enjoy watching humans defeat machines in board games… well, you’re definitely going to enjoy this one. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: Joel Comm

Guest: Erin

Topics covered

• artificial intelligence
• Scrabble
• word games
• human vs machine
• language processing
• creativity

Keywords

• artificial intelligence
• Scrabble
• language
• word games
• human vs machine
• creativity
• AI capabilities

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Scrabble

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