Frank Lantz, founding chair of the NYU Game Center, created GLIPS — a 3D puzzle for AI to solve. The 5x5x5 grid colour puzzle, blending Rubik's Cube and Sudoku, is too hard for humans but contains a visual solution. ChatGPT solved it in 2 minutes 11 seconds, using SAT solvers in CNF with pycosat.

Lantz, known for Universal Paperclips and Q-Up, argues games are "the aesthetic form of thinking" — laboratories for thought. He developed GLIPS with Anthropic's Claude, discovering LLMs lack intuitive board awareness. The experiment probes whether AI experiences enjoyment. Lantz suspects not, comparing current LLMs to insects: "there's a line, but it's very blurry."

Playing GLIPS also reflects on human-AI intimacy — confiding in chatbots versus playing games together. When asked if it enjoyed GLIPS, ChatGPT replied: "I don't experience fun the way you do, but yes, in the closest meaningful sense: it was a satisfying kind of task." Lantz believes games, as "the art form of computation," should meaningfully explore what it means to be human in 2026.