The New York Times Games section continues to captivate players with a variety of engaging puzzles, including Wordle, Connections, and the Crossword. Adding a new twist to its gaming offerings, The Times has introduced the Connections Bot, a feature that leverages artificial intelligence to enhance the Connections puzzle experience. Launched on September 3, this bot follows in the footsteps of WordleBot, which has proven to be a hit since its introduction in 2022. Connections, which challenges players to categorize 16 words into four distinct groups, has now been elevated with AI-driven insights.
The Connections Bot provides players with a deeper understanding of their gameplay. After completing a Connections puzzle, you can use the bot to see how your performance stacks up against other players, receiving a skill score out of 99. To score a perfect 99, you must solve the puzzle correctly and prioritize the most difficult categories. The bot also uses AI to analyze your guesses, offering suggestions about your thought process. For example, if the puzzle features words like gutter, bowl, lane, and alley, the AI might speculate that you were associating these terms with bowling, even though they belong to different categories.
This integration represents The Times’s first regular use of AI in its newsroom activities. AI-generated responses are carefully reviewed and edited by Times editors to ensure quality. Eve Washington, who played a key role in developing the Connections Bot, finds it particularly useful on challenging days when completing the puzzle can be tough. While you can play Connections without a Times account, using the Connections Bot requires one, offering an additional incentive for dedicated players.