On puzzles, mysteries, hangman, and other contemporary games in strategic intelligence

artificial intelligence at the console?

Abstract

This article analyzes the impacts of artificial intelligence on intelligence practice, arguing that its incorporation expands technical capabilities, alters the regime of problems faced, and imposes organizational changes. Building upon the classic typology of puzzles and mysteries, this study proposes a new category of “hangman-type” problems, characterized by an adversarial environment, the presence of deliberately denied data, active manipulation of signals, and temporal pressure for decision-making. It is argued that uncertainty is now strategically produced. Consequently, denied data and intelligence operations regain centrality as critical mechanisms for validation, knowledge production, and the preservation of decision-making freedom. The article concludes that artificial intelligence reconfigures intelligence practice not merely in its operational means, but fundamentally in its epistemological and organizational dynamics.