AI vs Minesweeper: The Weird Hack That Actually Happened

Minesweeper: a game so simple your grandma mastered it during dial-up internet. So naturally, a developer thought—what if I let a cutting-edge AI try it?

Spoiler: the AI immediately clicked a mine. Repeatedly.

Welcome to the most chaotic tech experiment you didn’t know you needed.

This is Patchnotes—and today we’re watching Anthropic’s Claude get absolutely humbled by a game from 1989.

Pstt, you can watch our video on this topic if you don't feel like reading!

The Setup: Claude Meets Windows 98

A developer created something called an MCP server—Model Context Protocol. Basically, it lets AI interact with real software like a regular user.

Think of it like giving an AI access to your desktop. Best-case scenario: it helps with your taxes. Worst-case? It tries to open Minesweeper and detonates everything.

In this case, the MCP server was hooked up to a simple 9x9 Minesweeper board. Claude gets a snapshot of the board and picks a move.

And what does this advanced AI do?

Click. Boom. Game over.

Repeat 40 times.

The Results: Claude vs Common Sense

Claude is brilliant at writing code, generating poetry, and giving relationship advice no one asked for. 

But ask it to play Minesweeper and suddenly it’s like watching a squirrel try to defuse a bomb.

It makes obvious mistakes. Clicks outside the board. Misunderstands zero-based indexing. The dev even tried prompting it more carefully—and Claude still performed like it was legally blindfolded.

Despite many tries, it hasn’t won a single beginner game. On a board with just ten mines. We’re talking easy mode.

Watching it play is like watching a Nobel laureate get destroyed by a game made to distract office workers.

But Wait, It Gets Nerdier

Let’s talk about MCP for a second. Model Context Protocol is a way to let language models like Claude “talk” to real software. Click buttons. Read state. Interact like a user.

In theory, this means AI could operate a spreadsheet, control a drone, or—yes—play Minesweeper.

But MCP also opens up a hilarious new future: letting AI use other tools to help it win.

Like, imagine Claude realizing it sucks at Minesweeper

... so it calls up another MCP-connected tool to solve it. A solver bot. A plugin. Whatever. At that point Claude isn’t really playing—it’s project managing the solution.

We’ve reached meta-meta-Minesweeper.

The Vibe: Overconfidence.exe

This entire project is the perfect snapshot of where AI is right now:

• Insanely powerful

• Totally overconfident

• Weirdly fragile in the face of dumb problems

Like, Claude can probably write a whitepaper on Minesweeper strategy... and still click the bomb.

It’s like giving ChatGPT a sword and watcrhing it walk straight into a wall.

We spend so much time worrying about AGI taking over the planet. And here’s Claude, flailing at a puzzle designed for Windows 95 screensavers.

In Conclusion: AI Has Its Moments

Yes, MCP is powerful. Yes, AI can do incredible things. But this project is a reminder that it’s still kinda dumb.

And that’s okay.

Watching Claude lose to Minesweeper is hilarious, humbling, and oddly inspiring. It's like watching a baby giraffe try to moonwalk. You don’t expect success—you just appreciate the effort.

So if you’re stressed about the rise of machine overlords, just know they’re still trying to survive beginner mode.

That’s it for this one. Like, subscribe, and remember: if you ever feel like you're bad at games... at least you’re not Claude.