Competition shows humans are still better than AI at coding
Przemysław Dębiak, who beat OpenAI at world finals, says he may be last human to win due to incredible pace of technological progress. Computers have taken the crown in chess, Go and poker, but when it comes to competitive coding, humans still have the edge – just. Przemysław Dębiak, a Polish coder and mind sports champion, narrowly clinched a victory over OpenAI’s entrant in the AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 in Tokyo earlier 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.” The 10-hour contest involves solving a complex optimisation problem. A classic in the genre is the “travelling salesman prob...