GridGPT
AI-powered Mini Crossword Generator
Hi fellow crossword enthusiasts! I'm Marie, a data scientist based in Berlin with a huge passion for all sorts of games and riddles – especially crosswords.
There's something magical about that perfect "aha!" moment when a tricky clue finally clicks – it's similar to when you finally fix that frustrating bug that's been haunting your code for hours, or when your data pipeline runs flawlessly from start to finish.
So naturally, I thought: why not combine my love for puzzles with my passion for all things data and engineering?
That's how GridGPT was born!
GridGPT builds crosswords through a pipeline that blends real data, embeddings, optimization, and LLMs:
📚 Crossword database: A curated set of published words and clues ensures authenticity and quality.
🎯 Theme matching: Embeddings rank database words by semantic similarity to your theme, picking a strong theme entry that initializes the grid.
🤖 Backfill optimization: A custom algorithm fills the grid via constraint satisfaction, keeping every intersection valid and solvable.
✍️ Clue generation: Choose between:
- Retrieved: Authentic clues randomly pulled from the database
- Generated: LLM-generated clues, prompted for theme alignment, fairness, and wit
I built GridGPT to mix data science optimization with LLM creativity – essentially creating a completely new, unique puzzle at the click of a button.
This is a hobby project born from curiosity: what happens when you blend algorithmic thinking with AI creativity?
Now, let me be clear – this in no way substitutes the brilliant human creativity and clever wordplay that goes into creating those delightful crosswords that professional constructors make. Human-made crosswords have soul, wit, and those perfect "gotcha!" moments that only come from genuine craftsmanship.
GridGPT is more like a fun experiment in computational creativity – for those moments when you want a quick puzzle fix, you're curious about a specific theme, or just seeing what an AI thinks makes a good crossword clue.
Whether you’re new to crosswords or a seasoned solver, enjoy exploring!