Polish Programmer Defeats OpenAI’s Custom AI in Epic 10-Hour Marathon, Claims World Coding Championship — Possibly the Final Victory for a Human

Przemysław “Psyho” Dębiak, a 42-year-old programmer from Gdynia, Poland, made headlines at the AtCoder World Tour Finals (AWTF) 2025 by defeating OpenAI’s AI model in the “Humans vs AI” contest in Tokyo. This prestigious tournament, renowned for its tough coding challenges, featured Dębiak notably clinching first place after a 10-hour coding marathon, outpacing the AI model by approximately 9.5%. Dębiak utilized a heuristic-driven approach, emphasizing creativity and problem-solving shortcuts, in contrast to the AI’s brute-force methods. AWTF focused on complex NP-hard problems, like plotting a robot’s path on a 30×30 grid. Despite the growing influence of AI in coding, evidenced by significant AI success rates reported by Stanford, Dębiak’s victory underscores the irreplaceable qualities of human ingenuity, creativity, and tenacity. This triumph serves as a powerful reminder of human capabilities in algorithmic challenges, reshaping perceptions of programming contests. Follow Tom’s Hardware for the latest updates and insights.

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