Human coders beat OpenAI in 10-hour Etcoder competition
In a historic moment of human ingenuity, Polish programmer Przemyslaw Debiak, known in the coding world as Psycho, emerged victorious over an advanced OpenAI model in a grueling 10-hour programming challenge at the EtCoder World Tour Finals 2025. Despite the AI’s tremendous speed and accuracy, it was pure human persistence that won out – albeit marginally.
Hosted in Tokyo by renowned Japanese platform EtCoder, this year’s finals featured an unprecedented “Human vs. AI” special event. The programming community saw twelve of the world’s top coders face off against a sophisticated AI designed by OpenAI – the same company behind ChatGPT. The stakes were high, not just in terms of points, but also in terms of what the outcome would be in the ongoing debate over human vs. machine capabilities.
Debiaq, who himself once worked for OpenAI, overcame fatigue and fierce competition to score 1,812,272,558,909 points, beating AI contestant “OpenAIAHC” who scored 1,654,675,725,406 points – just 9.5% behind. The other ten human finalists, all top-level programmers selected through a year-long ranking process, were unable to match anyone’s speed.
Soon after the event, Debiaq posted on the social media platform X (formerly called Twitter): “I am completely exhausted. … I am barely alive. Humanity has won (for now!).”The format of the event was deliberately designed to push the boundaries. The 600-minute contest involved solving an extremely complex optimization puzzle – a typical Heuristic contest category. These types of challenges are extremely difficult, often requiring heuristic or creative solutions under time pressure. To ensure fairness, all participants – human and AI – worked on identical hardware. There was a mandatory five-minute cooldown interval between submissions.
Although the AI system outperformed the rest of the human participants, the fact that Debiak outperformed the machine soon became a symbolic victory – proof of human resilience in the age of automation.OpenAI also acknowledged its significance. In a public statement, the company wrote: “Our model took second place in the Etcoder Heuristics World Finals! Congratulations to the champion for outperforming us this time.”OpenAI CEO Sam Altman summed up his point with a short but precise message: “Well done Psycho.”
Debiak’s win is not only a personal achievement, but a reminder that human creativity and persistence are still extremely relevant today – especially in fields dominated by logic, speed and algorithmic prowess. The results have prompted a fresh look at how AI and humans will coexist in tech businesses going forward.
As AI tools advance and close the gap, many are wondering how long humans will be able to maintain their lead. Still, for now, the scoreboard — and maybe more — is in humanity’s favor.
