British startup Synthesia, whose AI platform helps companies create interactive training videos, has raised a $200 million Series E round of funding that brings its valuation to $4 billion — up from $2.1 billion just a year ago.

Nat Rubio-Licht / The Deep View:
London-based enterprise AI video startup Synthesia raised a $200M Series E led by GV at a $4B valuation, up from $2.1B after raising $180M in January 2025  —  W  —  hile AI video generators like OpenAI's Sora, Google's Veo, and Kling are best known for creating “AI slop” …

John Keilman / Wall Street Journal:
Manufacturers say that AI is fundamentally changing how some new products are created, finding unexpected solutions and reducing R&D time from weeks to days  —  PPG, 3M and other manufacturers say digital tools can suggest counterintuitive solutions and do weeks of work within days

If you’re reading this, you probably have some fondness for human-crafted language. After all, you’ve taken the time to navigate to Hackaday and read this, rather than ask your favoured LLM to trawl the web and summarize what it finds for you. Perhaps you have no such pro-biological bias, and you just don’t know how to set up the stochastic parrot feed. If that’s the case, buckle up, because [Rafael Ben-Ari] has an article on how you can replace us with a suite of LLM agents.

He actually has two: a tech news feed, focused on the AI industry, and a retrocomputing paper based on SimCity 2000’s internal newspaper. Everything in both those papers is AI-generated; specifically, he’s using opencode to manage a whole dogpen of AI agents that serve as both reporters and editors, each in their own little sandbox.

Using opencode like this lets him vary the model by agent, potentially handing some tasks to small, locally-run models to save tokens for the more computationally-intensive tasks. It also allows each task to be assigned to a different model if so desired. With the right prompting, you could produce a niche publication with exactly the topics that interest you, and none of the ones that don’t.  In theory, you could take this toolkit — the implementation of which [Rafael] has shared on GitHub — to replace your daily dose of Hackaday, but we really hope you don’t. We’d miss you.

That’s news covered, and we’ve already seen the weather reported by “AI”— now we just need an agenetic sports section and some AI-generated funny papers.  That’d be the whole newspaper. If only you could trust it.

Story via reddit.

Minister dodges cost questions while promising smartphone-free access and 'robust' verification

The UK government has revealed some thinking about digital identity in response to written questions from MPs, while continuing to say next to nothing about the scheme's cost.…

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

Easy difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 26 Pips

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 5-4, placed vertically.

Greater Than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. The answer is 5-6, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 5-4, placed vertically.

Number (30): Everything in this space must add up to 30. The answer is 2-5, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed vertically; 5-6, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 26 Pips

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.

Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 5-0, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this purple space must add up to 10. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically; 2-6, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this purple space must add up to 10. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically; 2-6, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Jan. 26 Pips

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 6-6, placed horizontally.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 6-6, placed horizontally; 6-1, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this purple space must add up to 5. The answer is 6-1, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically.

Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically; 2-2, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed horizontally.

Number (6): Everything in this purple space must add up to 6. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 5-4, placed horizontally.

Number (9): Everything in this purple space must add up to 9. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally; 1-4, placed horizontally.

Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally.

Number (9): Everything in this purple space must add up to 9. The answer is 3-3, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed horizontally.

Number (4): Everything in this purple space must add up to 4. The answer is 6-4, placed horizontally; 0-1, placed horizontally.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you remember your childhood games.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections: Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Positions

• Green: Defense

• Blue: Leaders of the Midwest

• Purple: Ways to watch ESPN

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Basketball Positions, Abbreviated

• Green: Baseball Defensive Terms

• Blue: Big Ten Men's Basketball Coaches

• Purple: ESPN____

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #489 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Basketball Positions, Abbreviated - C, PF, PG, SG

• Baseball Defensive Terms - CUTOFF, PITCHOUT, RELAY, SHIFT

• Big Ten Men's Basketball Coaches - GARD, IZZO, MAY, PAINTER

• ESPN__ - +, 2, EWS, U

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

The deal ends ban threats and uncertainty, but a weekend outage and new terms of service and privacy policies raise questions about the algorithm.

The post TikTok Avoids US Ban as Ownership Changes Reshape App appeared first on TechRepublic.

I’ve tested two laptops powered by Panther Lake—pitting them head-to-head against laptops with Apple Silicon—and Intel has finally scored a much-needed win with the Core Ultra Series 3.

This story starts with the worst mistake of them all – loaning a tool

Who, Me?  Everyone makes mistakes, but only The Register celebrates them every week in "Who, Me?" – the reader-contributed column that shares your worst workplace moments then records how you bounced back.…

Earlier this month, the media site Press Gazette reported that now Google "is increasingly prioritising AI summaries, X posts and Youtube videos" on its "Discover" feed (which appears on the leftmost homescreen page of many Android phones and the Google app's homepage). "The changes could be devastating for publishers who rely heavily on Discover for referral traffic. And it looks set to accelerate a global trend of declining traffic to publishers from both Google search and Discover." Xavi Beumala from website analytics platform Marfeel warned in a research update: "Google Discover is no longer a publisher-first surface. It's becoming an AI platform with YouTube and X absorbing real estate that once went to newsrooms..." [They warn later that "This is not a marginal UI experiment. It is a reallocation of feed real estate away from links and toward inline Youtube plays and generated summaries."] Google says it prioritises "helpful, reliable, people-first content". Unlike Google News, there is no requirement that Google Discover showcases bona fide publisher websites. In recent months fake news stories published by fraudulent website publishers have been promoted on Google Discover, reaping tens of millions of clicks. Google said it was working on a "fix" for this issue... Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok content may also start flowing into the Discover feed in future. When Google announced the addition of posts from X, Instagram and Youtube Shorts in September, it said there would be "more platforms to come".

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zack Abrams / The Block:
Entropy, a decentralized crypto custodian that raised a $25M seed led by a16z in June 2022, is shutting down after “several pivots, and two rounds of layoffs”  —  Partner offers  —  Quick Take  — Entropy founder Tux Pacific announced the crypto startup is shutting down after four years …

[Bhaskar Das] has been tinkering with one of Nintendo’s more obscure handhelds, the DSi. The old-school console has been given a new job as part of an augmented reality app called AetherShell. 

The concept is straightforward enough. The Nintendo DSi runs a small homebrew app which lets you use the stylus to make simple line drawings on the lower touchscreen. These drawings are then trucked out wirelessly as raw touch data via UDP packets, and fed into a Gemini tool which transforms them into animation frames. These are then sent to an iPhone app, which uses ARKit APIs and the phone’s camera to display the animations embedded into the surrounding environment via augmented reality.

One might question the utility of this project, given that the iPhone itself has a touch screen you can draw on, too. It’s a fair question, and one without a real answer, beyond the fact that sometimes it’s really fun to play with an old console and do weird things with it. Plus, there just isn’t enough DSi homebrew out in the world. We love to see more.

Today’s tech-driven world can make emotional connections seem even further away when you never take the time to meet someone. Youth are always looking for a new way to express and be understood, but most tech gadgets are considered cold, functional, and impersonal.  Even though there’s a deluge of smart devices, precious little is built to interact […]

The post Joobie: Your interactive, trendy AI companion for every moment appeared first on Digital Trends.

ClarityCheck is a digital safety platform and online verification tool that helps people proactively know who to trust in the digital landscape. People are increasingly asked to trust strangers who contact them for deliveries, job offers, dates, and more, often without a lot of information to back up their claims. By verifying who exactly is […]

The post The psychology of the re-check: What Claritycheck says about digital trust appeared first on Digital Trends.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 26.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 26, No. 490.

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
Sources: Samsung enters the final qualification phase to supply its HBM4 chips to Nvidia, and targets mass production in February; Samsung's shares jumped 3.2%  —  Samsung Electronics Co. is getting close to securing certification from Nvidia Corp. for the latest version of its AI memory chip …

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

Hurdle Word 1 hint

A pretty girl.

Hurdle Word 1 answer

BELLE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

To explode.

Hurdle Word 2 Answer

BURST

Hurdle Word 3 hint

To see eye-to-eye.

Hurdle Word 3 answer

AGREE

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Extra.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

BONUS

Final Hurdle hint

A gathering area.

Hurdle Word 5 answer

FOYER

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

California-based Karman Industries "says it has developed a cooling system that uses SpaceX rocket engine technology to rein in the environmental impact of data centers," reports the Los Angeles Times, "chilling them with less space, less power and no water." Karman has developed a cooling system similar to the heat pumps in the average home, except its pumps use liquid carbon dioxide as refrigerant, which is circulated using rocket engine technology rather than fans. The company's efficient pumps can reduce the space required for data center cooling equipment by 80%. Over the years, data centers have used fans and air conditioning to blow cold air on the chips. Bigger facilities pass cold liquid through tubes near the chips to absorb the heat. This hot liquid is sent outside to a cooling yard, where sprawling networks of pipes use as much water as a city of 50,000 people to remove the heat. A 50 megawatt data center also uses enough electricity to power a mid-sized city... Cooling systems account for up to 40% of a data center's power consumption and an average midsized data center consumes more than 35,000 gallons of water per day... U.S. data centers will consume about 8% of all electricity in the country by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency... The cooling systems are projected to use up to 33 billion gallons of water by 2028 per year... To serve this seemingly insatiable market, Karman has developed a rotating compressor that spins at 30,000 revolutions per minute — nearly 10 times faster than traditional compressors — to move heat... About a third of Karman's 23-person team came from SpaceX or Rocket Lab, and they co-opted technologies from aerospace engineering and electric vehicles to design the mechanics for the high-speed motors. The system uses a special type of carbon dioxide under high pressure to transfer heat from the data center to the outside air. Depending on the conditions, it can do the same amount of cooling using less than half the energy. Karman's heat pump can either reject heat to air, or route it into extra cooling, or even power generation. The company "recently raised $20 million," according to the article, "and expects to start building its first compressors in Long Beach later this year...."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.