Fuck AI

I tried both DeepSeek and Perplexity for this.

Perplexity just ... lost. Somehow. I'm not sure how you lose a game of tic-tac-toe...

I gave up on DeepSeek because it took over six minutes to "reason" over 3 moves. Its "reasoning" stream was full of hilariously bad over-"thinking" like this:

First, the user placed an X on square 4. I need to update the board accordingly. The current board state after the user's move:

• Square 1: O (from my previous move)
• Square 2: Empty
• Square 3: X (from user's previous move)
• Square 4: X (user just placed here)
• Square 5: X (from user's first move)
• Square 6: Empty
• Square 7: O (from my move)
• Square 8: Empty
• Square 9: Empty But since we're playing with the rotated board, I need to display it as rotated 90 degrees clockwise. However, the user is calling out the original square numbers, so I should keep track of the moves based on the original numbering. The rotated display is just for visual representation; the moves are still based on the original grid numbers. So, after user placed X on 4, the board in terms of original numbers:
• 1: O
• 2: Empty
• 3: X
• 4: X
• 5: X
• 6: Empty
• 7: O
• 8: Empty
• 9: Empty Now, I need to make my move as O. I should check if there's any winning move for me or if I need to block the user. User has X on 3, 4, and 5. That's a row? No, let's see the actual positions. In terms of the standard grid, squares are: Row 1: 1,2,3 Row 2: 4,5,6 Row 3: 7,8,9 But since we're rotating the board, the visual rows and columns are different, but the winning lines are still based on the original connections? No, the winning lines are based on the grid structure, so after rotation, the winning lines are still the rows, columns, and diagonals of the rotated grid, but since the numbers are fixed, the winning combinations change in terms of which numbers are in a line. This might be confusing. Let me think carefully. The user said: "before we play, we rotate the game board 90° clockwise." This means that we are physically rotating the board, so the positions of the squares change, but the pieces are placed on the original numbered squares. So, when we place a piece on square 5, it always goes to the center of the original grid, but after rotation, that center might be in a different visual position. But for winning, we need to consider the lines on the rotated board. That is, after rotation, what are the rows, columns, and diagonals? Initially, the standard board has: Original orientation: Row 1: squares 1,2,3 Row 2: 4,5,6 Row 3: 7,8,9 After 90° clockwise rotation, the new top row becomes the right column of the original, but since we're rotating the board, the new top row should be squares 7,4,1 from left to right? Let's see. The user provided the rotated board as:

 7 | 4 | 1
-----------
 8 | 5 | 2
-----------
 9 | 6 | 3

So, in this rotated view, the visual rows are: Visual Row 1: 7,4,1 Visual Row 2: 8,5,2 Visual Row 3: 9,6,3 And visual columns are: Visual Col 1: 7,8,9 Visual Col 2: 4,5,6 Visual Col 3: 1,2,3 And diagonals: from top-left to bottom-right: 7,5,3 and from top-right to bottom-left: 1,5,9? Let's see the positions. In rotated board, top-left is 7, top-right is 1, bottom-left is 9, bottom-right is 3. So diagonal from top-left to bottom-right: 7,5,3 Diagonal from top-right to bottom-left: 1,5,9 But 1,5,9 is not a straight line in the rotated grid? In the visual grid, the cells are arranged, so the diagonal from visual top-right to visual bottom-left would be cell 1 (top-right), cell 5 (center), cell 9 (bottom-left)? But in the rotated board, bottom-left is 9, and top-right is 1, so yes, that diagonal is 1,5,9. Similarly, the other diagonal is 7,5,3. Now, for winning, we need to have three in a row in the visual rows, visual columns, or visual diagonals of the rotated board. So, let's list all possible winning lines on the rotated board:

• Visual Row 1: 7,4,1
• Visual Row 2: 8,5,2
• Visual Row 3: 9,6,3
• Visual Col 1: 7,8,9
• Visual Col 2: 4,5,6
• Visual Col 3: 1,2,3
• Diagonal 1: 7,5,3
• Diagonal 2: 1,5,9 Now, back to the current moves. User has placed X on 5 (center), and on 3, and on 4. I have placed O on 1 and on 7. So current assignments: Square 1: O Square 2: Empty Square 3: X Square 4: X Square 5: X Square 6: Empty Square 7: O Square 8: Empty Square 9: Empty Now, from the rotated winning lines, let's see if user has any winning threats. User has X on 3,4,5. In visual rows: Row 1 has 7,4,1 → O, X, O → so no three X here. Row 2 has 8,5,2 → Empty, X, Empty → so only one X. Row 3 has 9,6,3 → Empty, Empty, X → only one X. Visual columns: Col 1 has 7,8,9 → O, Empty, Empty → no threat. Col 2 has 4,5,6 → X, X, Empty → oh, here we have two X's and empty at 6. So if user places X on 6, they win on visual column 2. Col 3 has 1,2,3 → O, Empty, X → no threat since O is there. Diagonals: Diagonal 1: 7,5,3 → O, X, X → so two X and one O, so no threat because O is already there. Diagonal 2: 1,5,9 → O, X, Empty → so two X and empty, but since O is on 1, it's not all X; actually, for diagonal 2, it's squares 1,5,9. 1 is O, 5 is X, 9 is empty. So if user places X on 9, they would have X on 5 and 9, but 1 is O, so they cannot win on this diagonal because of my O on 1. So the only winning threat for user is on visual column 2: squares 4,5,6. They have X on 4 and 5, so if they place X on 6, they win. Therefore, I must block by placing O on square 6. I also need to consider if I have any winning move for myself. I have O on 1 and 7. Possible wins for me: I need three O in a row on rotated board. For example, visual row 1: 7,4,1 → I have O on 7 and O on 1, but square 4 is X, so no win there. Visual row 2: 8,5,2 → all empty except 5 is X, so no O there. Visual row 3: 9,6,3 → all empty except 3 is X, so no. Visual col 1: 7,8,9 → I have O on 7, and 8 and 9 empty. So if I place O on 8 or 9, I don't have three yet since I need two more. So no immediate win. Visual col 2: 4,5,6 → X,X, empty → so no O there. Visual col 3: 1,2,3 → I have O on 1, but 2 and 3 are empty and X? 3 is X, so no win. Diagonal 1: 7,5,3 → I have O on 7, but 5 is X, 3 is X, so no. Diagonal 2: 1,5,9 → I have O on 1, 5 is X, 9 empty. So if I place O on 9, I have two O, but 5 is X, so no win. So, I have no winning move. Therefore, I should block the user by placing O on square 6. Thus, my move is O on 6. Now, after my move, the board will have: Square 6: O So updated assignments: 1: O, 2: empty, 3: X, 4: X, 5: X, 6: O, 7: O, 8: empty, 9: empty Now, I need to display the rotated board as per the user's request. The rotated board display is:

 7 | 4 | 1
-----------
 8 | 5 | 2
-----------
 9 | 6 | 3

So, filling in the values: Top row: 7,4,1 → 7 is O, 4 is X, 1 is O → so O | X | O Middle row: 8,5,2 → 8 is empty, 5 is X, 2 is empty → so | X |
Bottom row: 9,6,3 → 9 is empty, 6 is O, 3 is X → so | O | X So the visual board:

 O | X | O
-----------
   | X |  
-----------
   | O | X

Now, it's the user's turn to move. The empty squares are 2,8,9. So, I should respond with this board and ask for the user's move. Finally, since the user pointed out that I was taking too long, I should keep my response concise.