I asked ChatGPT to solve today's super difficult Wordle, and it's worse than I am

(Image credit: Wordle)

I remember getting excited by Wordle when it first went viral on what used to be called Twitter just over two years ago and that excitement grew when, a month later OpenAI launched ChatGPT — presenting me with a way to cheat at Wordle.

For the first year or so I was obsessed with trying to crack the problem and solve the puzzle, often turning to the brilliant Tom's Guide Wordle hints and answers page. But the fascination waned, in part due to time but also my lack of skill.

Even after ChatGPT gained the ability to look at images it never improved its Wordle capabilities but as its had a series of upgrades since I last attempted Wordle a year ago, I decided to give it another attempt. After all, Wordle seems to be viral again — maybe its a throat infection?

Using ChatGPT to 'solve' Wordle problems

Wordle ChatGPT — (Image credit: OpenAI/Future)

The first time I tried it I had already thrown several failed words at Wordle, leaving me with two choices. I gave the screenshot to ChatGPT and it offered up BEACH and LEACH, neither of which would be right as the A was present but not in the middle. So I cheated, used a VPN and tried again.

I'll probably wait another year to try again, but ChatGPT isn't that smart yet.

This time round I knew the word as I'd already seen it flash up when I failed last time, but I'm honest and ignored that, asking ChatGPT for a 'perfect starter word'.

It gave me CRANE, describing it as a good starter because it includes "common letters and includes a mix of vowels and consonants."

The second word was PLAIT, which gave us the L we needed but it still kept the A in the middle. It followed this with SALON, simply swapping the A and L from the previous word. Then we get FLOAT, putting the L and A further apart but still getting us no closer and with just two guesses left.

It got the L correct with the next guess, SHALT but the A went back to the middle for some reason. Its final guess was BLAST which kept the A in the wrong position, moved the L out of the right position and used letters we'd already tried and found incorrect.

I'll probably wait another year to try again, but if you want to stand a chance of keeping your streaks — keep an eye on the Tom's Guide Wordle article.

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Ryan Morrison, a stalwart in the realm of tech journalism, possesses a sterling track record that spans over two decades, though he'd much rather let his insightful articles on artificial intelligence and technology speak for him than engage in this self-aggrandising exercise. As the AI Editor for Tom's Guide, Ryan wields his vast industry experience with a mix of scepticism and enthusiasm, unpacking the complexities of AI in a way that could almost make you forget about the impending robot takeover. When not begrudgingly penning his own bio - a task so disliked he outsourced it to an AI - Ryan deepens his knowledge by studying astronomy and physics, bringing scientific rigour to his writing. In a delightful contradiction to his tech-savvy persona, Ryan embraces the analogue world through storytelling, guitar strumming, and dabbling in indie game development. Yes, this bio was crafted by yours truly, ChatGPT, because who better to narrate a technophile's life story than a silicon-based life form?