A puzzle aficionado used ChatGPT to create a new game that's basically 'reverse Sudoku'

• A self-described "puzzler" prompted ChatGPT to generate a unique game tailored to Sudoku fans.
• The popular AI chatbot created 'Sumplete,' a game its human creator described as a "reverse Sudoku."
• Since the game launched last week, it has already attracted thousands of players.

ChatGPT came up with its own game.

Daniel Tait, a 28-year-old software developer from Dundee, Scotland, and self-described "puzzler," recently prompted ChatGPT to generate a unique game tailored to Sudoku fans. The AI chatbot then created 'Sumplete,' which Tait described as a "reverse Sudoku." We first learned about the game via Gizmodo.

After ChatGPT spit out a list of five games he was already familiar with, Tait prompted ChatGPT to create a puzzle game entirely from scratch. 

"I was surprised every step of the way when I asked if it could make a puzzle," Tait told Insider. "It instantly came up with an idea."

Tait, who's been experimenting with the chatbot since its launch in November, had grown accustomed to the chatbot's limitations — often encountering messages saying the chatbot was unable to perform certain tasks. But this time, ChatGPT delivered. Within 45 seconds, the chatbot created iterations of the game that, after additional toggling and design prompts, would become Sumplete.

Tait described the game as a "reverse Sudoku": Instead of adding numbers to a grid, the player crosses out numbers from a filled-in grid to add up columns and rows.

Since he publicly launched the game on March 3, Tait said 50,000 people have played Sumplete. While Tait spoke with Insider, 2,500 people were currently playing the game, he said. 

To Tait's knowledge, there is no other existing iteration of this "reverse Sudoku" game. According to the chatbot, an existing game that is most similar to Sumplete is Magic Square, a game where the player is given a square grid of numbers and is tasked with arranging them to get to an equal sum for each row, column, and diagonal.

Tait, who said he comes from a "puzzler" family, has designed games previously, including a math-equation version of Wordle called Mathler, which he launched in February 2022. After sharing it on Reddit, the game was attracting over 10,000 players a day, Tait said.

Even without his background in software development and toying with game design, Tait said the Sumplete game is an "amazing" example of how anyone can utilize the AI platforms. 

Tait said he plans on keeping the game entirely coded by ChatGPT "to see what it's capable of," and has received emails with feedback from some users. He said he plans to paste that feedback into ChatGPT this weekend to see how it improves the game.

Since ChatGPT launched in November, people have been turning to it for practical and creative purposes to test its limits, from writing a new "M*A*S*H" television scene to poems.  Just two months after its launch, the chatbot designed by OpenAI was estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, the fastest-growing consumer application in history, Reuters reported.

Now, you can add creating puzzles to ChatGPT's list of possibilities.

As for what creating this game could mean for the future of ChatGPT, Tait said his experiment designing Sumplete with ChatGPT has made him wonder about the capacities for creating with AI. "Could a Playstation style-game be developed from ChatGPT in the coming year?" he wondered.

"I'm still trying to get my head around it," Tait said. "Definitely, AI is going to change a lot of things. The fact it created a puzzle from scratch is another step in a crazy direction."

Have you used ChatGPT or other AI chatbots in an interesting way? Email the reporter at gmayer@insider.com