[corlinpalmer]

Awesome! I have also dabbled in AI-generated crosswords, but I was more fascinated with the concept of generating the most efficient layout of an X-by-X grid from a given word set. It's a surprisingly difficult optimization problem because the combinatorics are insane. Here's an example output trying to find the most efficient layout of common Linux terminal commands:

    W   P     G   
    H I S T O R Y 
    E         O   
    R   T   Y U M 
  L E S S     P   
    I   O   C A T 
  U S E R A D D   
  L     T R   D C 

Of course this is a pretty small grid and it gets more difficult with size. I've thought about making a competition from this sort of challenge. Would anyone be interested?

[abstractbill]

Yes! That a really fun problem too -- it feels like it should be tractable but it's insanely hard. If you do start some kind of competition around it, let me know, I'd be interested.