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Humans are still better at competitive coding than AI - for now
The Guardian
|July 28, 2025
Computers have taken the crown in chess, go and poker, but when it comes to competitive coding, humans still have the edge - just.
Przemyslaw Debiak, a Polish coder and mind sports champion, narrowly clinched a victory over OpenAI's entrant in the AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 in Tokyo this month. The elite coder, however, who goes by the online name Psyho, predicts he may be the last human to win the prestigious title given the incredible pace of technological progress.
"That's probable," said Psyho, 41, who worked at OpenAI before retiring five years ago. "I would prefer not, mostly because I like these competitions and knowing there's this magical entity that can do it better than me would be a little bit frustrating."
This story is from the July 28, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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