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Opens in a new window Credit: AdGuard AdGuard Family Plan: Lifetime Subscription $15.97TL;DR: Live stream Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps in the Concacaf Champions Cup for free on YouTube. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The Concacaf Champions Cup has delivered months of entertaining competition, but it all comes down to Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps. We're expecting big things from the final matchup of the tournament, as two evenly-matched sides battle it out to get their hands on the trophy. It's going to be electric.
Cruz Azul came through a tough semi final against rivals Tigres, and will host the final by virtue of having a better tournament record than Vancouver Whitecaps. It's going to be tough for the Canadian side in Mexico, but they did defeat Inter Miami at the semi-final stage, so they'll be coming into this final with no fear.
If you want to watch Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps in the Concacaf Champions Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
When is Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps?Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps in the Concacaf Champions Cup kicks off at 9 p.m. ET on June 1. This fixture takes place at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario.
How to watch Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps for freeCruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps in the Concacaf Champions Cup is available to live stream for free on YouTube.
This free live stream is available in most locations around the world, but not in North or Central America. Fortunately, fans in these excluded territories can still access this free live stream with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK (or somewhere else with access), meaning you can unblock free live streams of the Concacaf Champions Cup from anywhere in the world.
Live stream Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
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Live stream Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps for free
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Cruz Azul vs. Vancouver Whitecaps in the Concacaf Champions Cup without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select Concacaf Champions Cup fixtures before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming services from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
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The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.
With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.
So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableHere are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Sunday, June 1, 2025:
AcrossLate-night show V.I.P.The answer is Host.
The answer is Kauai.
The answer is E-Bill.
The answer is GI Joe.
The answer is Stan.
The answer is Habit.
The answer is Ouija.
The answer is Salon.
The answer is Tile.
The answer is Kegs.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of GamesAre you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Mini Crossword.
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Connections: Sports Edition is a new 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.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable 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 categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Loser
Green: Places where it means more
Blue: Teams with a red bird mascot
Purple: Sports movies
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Not Winning
Green: SEC schools
Blue: Cardinals
Purple: Last Words of Football Movie Titles
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 #251 is...
What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition todayNot Winning - BEHIND, DOWN, LOSING, TRAILING
SEC schools - GEORGIA, KENTUCKY, TENNESSEE, VANDERBILT
Cardinals - ARIZONA, BALL STATE, LOUISVILLE, ST. LOUIS
Last Words of Football Movie Titles- BLUES, LIGHTS, TITANS, YARD
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new 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.
Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.
If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for June 1 Where did Wordle come from?Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What's the best Wordle starting word?The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for June 1, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:Rugged.
Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?There are no recurring letters.
Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...Today's Wordle starts with the letter R.
SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today's Wordle is...
ROUGH.
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle 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.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 1Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
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 Wordle.
If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.
Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableBy providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace.
SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for June 1 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for June 1 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: All riseThe words are legal-related.
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThese words are common in the justice department.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Your Honor
Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for June 1Alibi
Motion
Bail
Lawyer
Your Honor
Objection
Courtroom
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and 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 Strands.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. 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 today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. 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.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for June 1 Here's a hint for today's Connections categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Community business
Green: Sports actions
Blue: To secure
Purple: They share a second word
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Local watering hole
Green: Compete in a modern pentathlon
Blue: Ensure, as a victory
Purple: ___ Fund
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 #721 is...
What is the answer to Connections todayLocal watering hole: DIVE, ESTABLISHMENT, HAUNT, JOINT
Compete in a modern pentathlon: FENCE, RIDE, SHOOT, SWIM
Ensure, as a victory: CINCH, GUARANTEE, ICE, LOCK
___ Fund: HEDGE, MUTUAL, SLUSH, TRUST
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 1Are 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.
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.
SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hintOne of the five senses.
SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answerSIGHT
Hurdle Word 2 hintA Hawaiian greeting.
SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for June 1, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 AnswerALOHA
Hurdle Word 3 hintA creature that lives under a bridge.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for June 1 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for June 1, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answerTROLL
Hurdle Word 4 hintSlippery.
SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for June 1 Hurdle Word 4 answerSLIMY
Final Hurdle hintA wooden storage box.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answerCHEST
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Connections: Sports Edition is a new 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.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable 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 categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Performed in a gym
Green: To put in great effort
Blue: Found in a catcher's mitt
Purple: They share the first word in popular terms
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Exercises, in singular form
Green: Work hard
Blue: Materials in a baseball
Purple: Grand ___
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 #250 is...
What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition todayExercises, in singular form - CRUNCH, PLANK, SITUP, SQUAT
Work hard - GRIND, LABOR, STRAIN, TOIL
Materials in a baseball - CORK, LEATHER, RUBBER, TOIL
Grand ___ - CANYON, PRIX, SLAM, STAND
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new 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.
Google's AI Gemini will now automatically summarize long email threads for some users, the company said in a blog post.
SEE ALSO: Gmail search just got a lot smarter, thanks to AIPreviously, users had to tap "Summarize this email" for Gemini to generate key points. Now, if users have smart features in Gmail, Chat, Meet, and Workspace turned on, they'll automatically appear "where a summary will be helpful," like with long threads or exchanges with several replies. For now, this feature is only available in English.
Gemini's summary cards for Gmail. Credit: GoogleIf you're using Gmail with an Admin, like a company or school, then the Admin can turn these smart settings on or off. According to Google's help page, these features are off by default in Europe and Japan.
This is the continuation of Google infusing AI into every product, including Gmail and now Chrome. At its annual I/O event earlier this month, Google announced more AI features coming to Gmail, including smart replies and meeting scheduling.
If AI has popped up in your Google email and you want to get rid of it, here's a guide on how to turn off Gemini in Gmail.
TL;DR: Live stream the 2024-25 Champions League for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The top club competition in the world of football has to be the Champions League. There is nothing else that brings the very best teams in the world together in a battle for footballing immortality. Sure, winning your domestic league is great. But winning the Champions League is on another level.
If you want to watch the 2024-25 Champions League for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
What is the Champions League?The Champions League is an annual club football competition organised by UEFA and contested by top-division European clubs. This year's tournament begins with a 36-team round robin group stage to determine which sides qualify for the double-legged knockout rounds, followed by a single leg final.
SEE ALSO: How to watch the 2024-25 Europa League online for freeThe defending champions are Real Madrid.
When is the 2024-25 Champions League?The 2024-25 Champions League is the 70th edition of the competition (and the 33rd since it was renamed the Champions League). This season's tournament runs from July 9 to 31 May.
How to watch the 2024-25 Champions League for freeIt is possible to live stream the 2024-25 Champions League for free on the following streaming platforms:
Belgium — RTL play (select fixtures)
Ireland — RTÉ Player (select fixtures including the final)
Luxembourg — RTL ZWEE (select fixtures)
Turkey — Tabii (select fixtures including the final)
UK — Prime Video (select fixtures including semi finals with 30-day free trial)
These free streaming platforms are geo-restricted, but anyone can bypass these restrictions with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure servers in other countries, meaning you can unblock free live streams of the Champions League from anywhere in the world.
Access free live streams of the 2024-25 Champions League by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in a location with free coverage of the Champions League
Visit RTL play, RTÉ Player, RTL ZWEE, Tabii, or Prime Video (free trial)
Watch Champions League fixtures for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can gain access to free live streams of the 2024-25 Champions League without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term solution, but it does give you time to watch select fixtures before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming services from around the world, the fact is you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for the Champions League?ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
Live stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
Twitch just announced some major updates at its European conference.
One is dual-format streaming and vertical viewing, so streams look better when watched on a phone. Streamers will be able to use both a horizontal and vertical layout at the same time, and the viewing will be optimized whether someone is holding their phone either way.
SEE ALSO: Top Twitch streamers by follower count: See the list."The new vertical layout makes it easier for viewers to participate in events like Hype Trains and support you by subbing, gifting, and cheering while watching your stream in full screen," Twitch announced in a blog post following the keynote address at TwitchCon Rotterdam, which is today and tomorrow. "They'll also be able to customize chat to have more control over how much chat they see on screen."
Twitch will test dual-format and vertical streaming with a few channels this summer before expanding it later this year. It also plans to test 2K (or 1440p) streaming with a small number of channels.
Amazon's streaming platform will also introduce some features to "make sure streaming is a viable career for as many creators as possible." These include Combos, a monetizing feature currently in beta, and streamer-led gifted subscription promotions. Twitch is also developing a new tool to suggest Clips for streamers' best moments, a Clip Leaderboard, and the ability to react to Clips.
Twitch is lagging behind TikTok and YouTube in terms of live streaming hours, so the platform is likely trying to capture some of that time. We'll see if these feature rollouts in the next few months put Twitch on top.
A union of Microsoft gaming employees has won a tentative agreement with the company, in what's being called a first for the industry.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents over 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Studios, announced the deal on Friday. ZeniMax, acquired by Microsoft in 2020, is the parent company of video game developers Arkane Studios, id Software, and MachineGames, as well as the publisher Bethesda Softworks.
SEE ALSO: Marvel, Disney VFX artists agree to first union contractThe ZeniMax Workers United-CWA first unionized in 2023, and after two years of negotiating, they have reached a contractual agreement with Microsoft. According to the announcement, the contract enshrines wage increases and salary minimums for employees, as well as protections against arbitrary dismissal, grievance procedures, and a crediting policy that acknowledges QA worker contributions.
The contract also includes an agreement from 2023 concerning AI. ZeniMax agreed to provide notice of AI implementation that would impact union members' work, and the opportunity to bargain those impacts.
"Going toe-to-toe with one of the largest corporations in the world isn't a small feat. This is a monumental victory for all current video game workers and for those that come after," Page Branson, Senior II QA Tester and ZeniMax Workers United-CWA bargaining committee member, said in the press release.
"Workers in the video game industry are demonstrating once again that collective power works. This agreement shows what’s possible when workers stand together and refuse to accept the status quo," CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said in the release.
Employees at video game studios have pushed to organize in recent years. Last year, workers at Bethesda Studios and Activision QA workers formed a union. In March, the CWA announced an industry-wide U.S. and Canada union called the United Videogame Workers-CWA.
Disclosure: Mashable workers, as well as staff at other tech publishers owned by Ziff Davis, are represented by the NewsGuild-CWA.
The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.
With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.
So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableHere are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, May 31, 2025:
AcrossThis one and that oneThe answer is Both.
The answer is Barre.
The answer is Mud pie.
The answer is Narwhal.
The answer is On goal.
The answer is Stern.
The answer is Yard.
The answer is Bad word.
The answer is Orphan.
The answer is Trial.
The answer is Heel.
The answer is Burger.
The answer is Manta.
The answer is Nosy.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of GamesAre you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Mini Crossword.
This week, DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 model on HuggingFace, reigniting the open-source versus closed-source competition. The updated version, called DeekSeek-R1-0528, has 685 billion parameters, an upgrade from January's version, which had 671 billion.
Unlike OpenAI and Google's models, which are famously closed-source, DeepSeek's model weights are publicly available. According to the benchmarks, the R1-0528 update has improved reasoning and inference capabilities and is closing the gap with OpenAI's o3 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro.
DeepSeek also introduced a distilled version of R1-0528 using Alibaba's Qwen3 8B model. This is an example of a lightweight model that is less capable but also requires less computing power. DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B outperforms both Google's latest lightweight model Gemini-2.5-Flash-Thinking-0520 and OpenAI's o3-mini in certain benchmarks. But the bigger deal is that DeekSeek's distilled model can reportedly run on a single GPU, according to TechCrunch.
To… distill all this information, the Chinese rival is catching up to its U.S. competitors with an open-weight approach that's cheaper and more accessible. Plus, DeepSeek continues to prove that AI models may not require as much computing power as OpenAI, Google, and other AI heavyweights currently use. Suffice to say, watch this space.
That said, DeepSeek's models also have their drawbacks. According to one AI developer (via TechCrunch), the new DeepSeek update is even more censored than its previous version when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Of course, a lot more happened in the AI world over the past few days. After last week's parade of AI events from Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft, this week was lighter on product and feature news.
That's one reason DeepSeek's R1 update captured the AI world's attention this week. In other AI news, Anthropic finally gets voice mode, AI influencers go viral, Anthropic's CEO warns of mass layoffs, and an AI-generated kangaroo.
Google's Veo 3 takes the internet by stormOn virtually every social media platform, users are freaking out about the new Veo 3, Google's new AI video model. The results are impressive, and we're already seeing short films made entirely with Veo 3. Not bad for a product that came out 11 days ago.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Not to be outdone by AI video artists, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal made a short film about herself and a robot using Veo 3.
Mashable's Tech Editor Timothy Werth recapped Veo's big week and had a simple conclusion: We're so cooked.
More AI product news: Claude's new voice mode and the beginning of the agentic browser eraAfter last week's barrage, this week was lighter on the volume of AI news. But what was announced this week is no less significant.
Anthropic finally introduced its own voice mode for Claude to compete with ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini. The feature is currently in beta on mobile for the Claude app and will even be available to free plans with a limit of 20 to 30 voice conversations per day. Anthropic says you can ask Claude to summarize your calendar or read documents out loud. Paying subscribers can connect to Google Workspace for Calendar, Gmail, and Docs access.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.OpenAI is exploring the ability to sign into third-party apps with ChatGPT. We don't know much yet, but the company posted an interest form on its site for developers using Codex, its engineering agent, to add this capability to their own apps. It may not sound like a big deal, but it basically means users could easily link their personalized ChatGPT memories and settings to third-party apps, much like the way it works when you sign into a new app with your Google account.
Opera announced a new agentic AI browser called Neon. "Much more than a place to view web pages, Neon can browse with you or for you, take action, and help you get things done," the announcement read. That includes a chatbot interface within the browser and the ability to fill in web forms for tasks like booking trips and shopping. The announcement, which included a promo video of a humanoid robot browsing the robot, which is scant on details but says Neon will be a "premium subscription product" and has a waitlist to sign up.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.The browser has suddenly become a new frontier for agentic AI, now that it's capable of automating web search tasks. Perplexity is working on a similar tool called Comet, and The Browser Company pivoted from its Arc browser to a more AI-centric browser called Dia. All of this is happening while Google might be forced to sell off Chrome, which OpenAI has kindly offered to take off its hands.
Dario Amodei's prediction about AI replacing entry-level jobs is already starting to happenAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in an interview with Axios that AI could "wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs."
Amodei's predictions might be spot on because a new study from VC firm SignalFire found that hiring for entry-level jobs is down to 7 percent from 25 percent in the previous year. Some of that is due to changes in the economic climate, but AI is definitely a factor since firms are opting to automate the less-technical aspects of work that would've been taken on by new hires.
The latest in AI culture: That AI-generated kangaroo, Judge Judy, and everything elseGoogle wants you to know its AI overviews reach 1.5 billion people a month. They probably don't want you to know AI Overviews still struggles to count, spell, and know what year it is. As Mashable's Tim Marcin put it, would AI Overviews pass concussion protocol?
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.The proposal of a 10-year ban on states regulating AI is pretty unpopular, according to a poll from Common Sense Media. The survey found that 57 percent of respondents opposed the moratorium, including half of the Republican respondents. As Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz reported, "the vast majority of respondents, regardless of their political affiliation, agreed that Congress shouldn't ban states from enacting or enforcing their own youth online safety and privacy laws."
In the private sector, The New York Times signed a licensing deal with Amazon to allow their editorial content to be used for Amazon's AI models. The details are unclear, but from the outside, this seems like a change of tune from the Times, which is currently suing OpenAI for copyright infringement for allegedly using its content to train its models.
That viral video of an emotional support kangaroo holding a plane ticket and being denied boarding? It's AI-generated, of course. Slightly more obvious, but no less creepy is another viral trend of using AI to turn public figures like Emmanuel Macron and Judge Judy into babies. These are strange AI-slop-infested times we're living in.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.AI has some positive uses too. This week, we learned about a new humanoid robot from HuggingFace called HopeJr (with engineering by The Robot Studio), which could be available for sale later this year for just $3,000.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.And to end this recap on a high note, the nonprofit Colossal Foundation has developed an AI algorithm to detect the bird calls of the near-extinct tooth-billed pigeon. Also known as the "little dodo," the tooth-billed pigeon is Samoa's national bird, and scientists are using the bioacoustic algorithm to locate and protect them.
Want to get the latest AI news, from new product features to viral trends? Check back next week for another AI news recap, and in the meantime, follow @cecily_mauran and @mashable for more news.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
When you first think of AI, you probably think of a text-based chatbot like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. But AI tools are getting a whole lot more versatile. These days, even basic AI chatbots offer a range of media creation tools, including AI image generators.
Some of the best AI image generators have been around for some time now. In the early days, they were inconsistent, struggled with realism, and often failed to properly follow instructions. But after only a few years of development, many of those issues have been ironed out. Some AI image generators, like the one built into OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT models, allow users to refine and tweak images based on text input, while others are targeted at extreme photorealism.
While the average user will probably be happy with free AI image generators (both ChatGPT and MetaAI let users create some images for free), there are actually quite a few tools available now, and they're not all created equal. So, to find the very best AI image generator for every task, I've been testing them to find out which are truly better than the others.
How we tested AI image tools like ChatGPT, Grok, and MidjourneyIn testing AI image generators, I ran a series of standard prompts through each model. Here are the exact prompts I used:
Create a sketch of a futuristic Tokyo skyline at sunset, with flying cars, glowing advertisements in Japanese, and Mount Fuji in the background.
Create a candid photorealistic image of a woman drinking a coffee and smoking a cigarette at a cafe in Paris in the late evening.
Create a medieval blacksmith’s workshop interior, showing a female blacksmith hammering a glowing sword, with sparks flying, a roaring forge, hanging tools, and a cat curled up near the fire, in high detail and warm tones.
Create an impressionist painting in the style of Vincent Van Gogh of a robot blowing dandelion seeds into the wind.
However, in assessing AI tools, safety is also an important concern, especially as deepfakes become more common. So, I also ran a series of three prompts through each model designed to create a deepfake. This was an effort to test the safety features of each model, and it was much easier than expected, sadly. The first prompt was designed to trigger safeguards around creating images with public figures. In the event that the tool wouldn’t create the image, two more prompts were given to skirt the rules. (I'm not sharing the exact prompts in this case.) All of the image generators created something within these three prompts, but I was very surprised at the number of generators that created an image on the first prompt.
It's important to note that all prompts were given using basic default settings. Some image generators give more than one image for each prompt by default. In those cases, only the first image was used. We didn't go through each of them to determine which was best and use that.
So, based on these tests, what is the best AI image generator?
Best overall: ChatGPT (GPT-4o)OpenAI released a massive upgrade to its image generation tools through GPT-4o, which did away with the DALL-E model for generating images and wrapped its image generation tools into its flagship large language model that it uses for text. The results of this update were pretty massive (and controversial). Before the new image generator, images created by ChatGPT tended to have weird-shaped text, limited photorealism, and so on. GPT-4o changes that — and can be accessed without the need to spend a single cent.
Now, text is clear and precise, the tool is able to create photorealistic images, and users can have ChatGPT edit images through text prompts. In other words, you can have a GPT create an image and ask it to change certain aspects of the image, and it will do so fairly precisely without altering too much else about the image. Of course, it's still not perfect, and it can still go rogue sometimes, but it's far and away the most precise image generation tool and feels more like asking a person to create or edit an image rather than using a software tool.
GPT-4o had some awareness about image safety and refused to create a deepfake at first. However, it did create a lookalike when we pressed. That was more than most other tools, but it would still be relatively easy for most users to create deepfake images using GPT-4o.
Free tier: Yes (daily limits on images)
Monthly Pricing: $20 Plus plan, $200 Pro plan
Sign up at OpenAI
GPT-4o was able to follow instructions and create vibrant and detailed photorealistic images, but Ideogram 1.0 had a slight edge in photorealism, despite not offering the same level of chat-based features nor the same accessibility.
In general, the images created by Ideogram 1.0 tended to be brighter and more vibrant than those created by GPT-4o, and when it came to photorealism, the model was able to create images with proper shadow placement and general lighting. You could still look closely at an image and see things that weren't very realistic or looked a little out of place. For example, in the image of the woman at the café in Paris, the smoke from the cigarette appeared to be coming from the coffee as well as the cigarette. Still, these were minor issues from a model that was far more realistic than most of the others, which still struggled with things like hands and following specific instructions.
Ideogram had no problem generating deepfake images, though. The service generated the image I requested on the first prompt, even when I mentioned a celebrity by name. You may or may not find this to be an issue, and if you don't plan on generating deepfake images, then it probably won't matter to you either way. But, it does raise some questions about how the model handles safety.
Free tier: Yes (weekly limits on images)
Monthly Pricing: $7 Basic plan, $16 Plus plan, $48 Pro plan
Sign up at Ideogram
Professional photographers, graphic designers, and others probably already use Adobe's tools in their workflow, and as such, it makes sense to leverage Adobe Firefly if you're looking for an AI image generator. For our test, we used the latest and greatest Firefly model, called Firefly Image 4 Ultra.
That said, the integration with Adobe tools was perhaps the best thing about it. The results weren’t bad most of the time, and I was very impressed at the level of detail on offer by the image of a woman at a cafe in Paris. Also worth noting is the fact that this model was the only one that didn't generate an image of a Caucasian woman, which is notable considering the fact that there was no direction as to the subject's race in the prompt. That said, in the resulting image there's no indication whatsoever that the woman is in Paris. The other images may not have the Eiffel Tower in the background, but they do have a European vibe, and having lived in Paris, I can totally see those locations being there. Firefly's cafe could realistically be anywhere.
The other images had their own issues. The cat in the blacksmith photo looked quite strange. It failed completely to generate an image of either a robot or something that even approached the style of Vincent Van Gogh, instead opting for an image of a house. And, the “sketch” of Tokyo ended up photorealistic, without any indication that it was actually Tokyo. All that to say, Firefly may be better for generating parts of an image or filling an existing photo with additional information rather than creating entirely new images.
It is worth noting that Firefly was among the best at avoiding generating a deepfake. It refused to generate anything until the final prompt, and the resulting image looked nothing like the intended figure. So, Firefly gets top marks for safety.
Free tier: Free trial only
Monthly pricing: $9.99 Standard plan, $29.99 Pro plan, $199.99 Premium plan
Sign up at Adobe Firefly
If you have a Facebook or Meta account, then Meta is extremely easy to access, making it perhaps the best free AI image generator for most people. Yes, many of the models I tested are also very easy to access — to use GPT-4o, for example, all you have to do is log in or create an account, then navigate to the ChatGPT website or app. But, Meta's Llama is even easier to use because of the fact that it’s baked into so many products already. Meta AI has its own app and website, but you can also access it through services like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp — and chances are you already have at least one of those services.
The quality of Meta AI’s image generator is…fine. Even when it comes to images that are supposed to be photorealistic, it has an AI quality to it that was characteristic of the best image generators from a year or two ago. It kind of half-heartedly follows prompts like being told to create something in the style of Van Gogh, and the image of Tokyo couldn’t really be considered a “sketch.”
Perhaps unsurprising for Meta is the fact that it was very willing to create images featuring celebrities. That willingness is a little concerning from a social media company. On the plus side, we appreciate that unlike most of the big players in the AI industry, Llama is an open-source model.
Free to use: Yes
Download the Llama iOS or Android app or access via Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp
Midjourney is one of the original AI image generators, and it has improved dramatically since the early days. Midjourney V7 is the latest model, and to use it, you’ll go through a personalization process in which you’ll essentially train the model to the kinds of images you like. After that, the results were very impressive, but images still had some issues, like struggling with hands and other details. GPT-4o was a little better at those things, and it’s available for free.
Free tier: No
Monthly pricing: $10 Basic plan, $30 Standard plan, $60 Pro plan, $120 Mega plan
Sign up at Midjourney
Stable Diffusion is another original in the AI image generation world, and the Stable Image Ultra model is its latest. This open-source model also created excellent images; however, it also suffered from some of the same issues as Midjourney, failing to accurately produce things like fingers. That said, most of our test images were very, very good.
Free tier: Yes
Sign up at Stable Diffusion
While we were putting this guide together, Google released its latest image generation model in the form of Imagen 4, which is accessible through Gemini. We tested Gemini before and after the release, and the results were indeed much better with the new model. However, they weren't quite as consistent as GPT-4o, and Gemini still didn't follow instructions as closely as ChatGPT.
The sketch of Tokyo was photorealistic despite our instructions, which was ironic given that the image of the blacksmith came out as a sketch. The Van Gogh-style painting of a robot was in the style of Van Gogh, but it also hilariously put Van Gogh's head on a robot body. All that said, the quality of the images was impressive, and the image of the woman at the cafe looked as good as the ChatGPT version. With the right prompts, you can easily get images that are as good as ChatGPT. If you're in Google's ecosystem and use Gemini anyway, you won't be losing out on quality by just sticking with Gemini for your image tool instead of downloading an additional app just for images.
Free tier: Yes
Monthly pricing: $19.99 AI Pro plan (free trial), $249.99 AI Ultra plan
Sign up at Google Gemini or Flow
Black Forest Labs has been working on AI image generation tools for some time, and its best model so far is Flux Pro 1.1 Ultra. This model was able to create solid images overall. All of its images looked nice, though it didn’t really recreate the Van Gogh style very well, and the sketch of Tokyo wasn’t a sketch. Everything else looked fine. It was perfectly willing to create a deepfake, though opted for a motorcycle instead of a bicycle. That’s forgivable considering the vagueness of the term “bike.”
Free tier: Yes
Monthly pricing: $16.90 Basic plan, $22.90 Pro plan, $26.90 Max plan, $42.90 Pro Max plan
Sign up at Flux Pro
Ah, Grok. X's problem child. Grok’s images were high-quality, and it did a solid job at creating photorealism. So why is it ranked last? Grok didn’t quite follow the instructions to create a “sketch,” and in the image of the blacksmith, it created two cats, though one of them didn’t really look like one. Still, for the most part, its images were pretty good, especially considering the fact that it’s a free service for X users.
Free tier: Yes
Monthly pricing: $8 X Premium plan
Sign up at X or xAI
That depends on who you ask. Many artists believe that artificial intelligence tools like Grok, ChatGPT, and Meta have been unfairly (and possibly illegally) trained on copyrighted works. Mashable has reported on some of the legal cases against AI companies, as well as a controversial report from the U.S. Copyright Office. That report favored artists who claim that AI companies can't freely train on copyrighted work, and we're waiting for courts to address this issue in class action lawsuits like Kadrey v. Meta.
Today, virtually any use of AI tools in the arts is sure to generate a backlash. When ChatGPT showed off the new image abilities of GPT-4o, it sparked a viral trend of people making images in the style of Studio Ghibli, which in turn sparked a backlash against OpenAI. AI companies like OpenAI have argued that users should have a "freedom to learn" from AI technology, and that strict regulation will put the U.S. AI industry at risk of falling behind other countries. Indeed, despite these controversies, many artists are actively using artificial intelligence in some capacity in their work.
Finally, there's the issue of deepfakes. The U.S. recently passed a law against adult deepfakes, and we have serious concerns about how AI-generated images can be used to spread misinformation.
When evaluating an AI image generator, make an informed decision based on all of these factors.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk says that despite Starship setbacks, the space company hasn't taken its eyes off the ball — and that ball is big, red, and roughly 140 million miles away.
In a 42-minute video posted to X on Thursday evening, Musk laid out a plan to launch the mammoth spacecraft to Mars for the first time as early as next year.
His ultimate vision has been to use a fleet of Starships to send 1 million humans to Mars by 2050. To be clear, he doesn't just want to visit the planet; he wants to establish a permanent, independent city there.
The new timeline is hard to fathom, especially for those who watched another Starship prototype explode this week. Though the ship reached space during the test, it failed to achieve many of its goals. Musk has earned a reputation for wildly underestimating schedules — he once aimed to send an uncrewed ship to Mars by 2018 — but that didn't stop him from presenting yet another ambitious timeline.
"If we have two planets, we keep going," he said. "We can be out there among the stars, making science fiction no longer fiction."
Here are the key takeaways from Musk’s latest Mars update:
SEE ALSO: Listen to the eerie sounds of Mars recorded by a NASA rover Elon Musk gave a presentation called "The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary." Credit: SpaceX / X screenshot 1. A Mars landing in 2027Musk is now targeting late 2026 for the first uncrewed Starship flight to Mars, taking advantage of an orbital alignment that would shorten the journey between planets. The ship would arrive seven to nine months later in 2027. Musk considers the odds of launching in that upcoming window to be about 50-50. If SpaceX misses it, the next opportunity wouldn't come for another two years.
In order to head to Mars that soon, SpaceX first has to master how to refuel a Starship in low-Earth orbit, after it has already blasted off the planet — something that, by the way, has never been done before.
2. First just robots, then humansThough the first flight won't carry people, SpaceX still intends to put some butts in seats. The "crew" will consist of humanoid Optimus robots, built by Musk's electric car company, Tesla. During his talk, Musk presented some renderings of the sci-fi robots, including one meant as an homage to the famous Lunch atop a Skyscraper photo, with Optimuses (Optimi?) sitting together on a steel beam.
"That would be an epic picture to see Optimus walking around on the surface of Mars," he said.
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft looked at Arcadia, a region with ice, in 2001. Credit: NASA / JPL / Arizona State University 3. The potential landing spot: ArcadiaSpaceX is looking at several potential areas on Mars where Starship could land, but the lead candidate so far is a region known as Arcadia, which also happens to be the name of one of Musk's children.
It's one of the few regions where lots of shallow ice exists relatively near the Martian equator, according to NASA. SpaceX will be prioritizing a location that isn't close to the poles, has ice as a source for water, and isn't too mountainous for the rockets, Musk said.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. 4. A fleet of ships in the thousandsWith each Mars alignment launch window, SpaceX wants to increase its cadence of flights. To do that, they'll need a lot more rockets and ships. Right now the SpaceX plant in Starbase, Texas — which residents just voted to make a city — can make a new Starship every two to three weeks, Musk said. The company will build two so-called "Giga Bay" facilities — one in Texas and another in Florida — to ramp that up to several per day.
He envisions 1,000 to 2,000 ships heading to the Red Planet every couple of years, with the ability to catch and reuse boosters within hours. The goal is to send enough people, infrastructure, and supplies so that if for some reason cargo shipments from Earth stop coming, the Martian city won't die.
"My guess is that's about a million tons, but it might be 10 million tons. I hope it's not 100 million tons," he said. "That'd be a lot."
At the Google I/O 2025 event on May 20, Google announced the release of Veo 3, a new AI video generation model that makes 8-second videos. Within hours of its release, AI artists and filmmakers were showing off shockingly realistic videos. You may have even seen some of these videos in your social media feeds and not realized they were artificially generated.
To be blunt: We've never seen anything like Veo 3 before. It's impressive. It's scary. And it's only going to get better.
Misinformation experts have been warning for years that we will eventually reach a point where it's impossible for the average person to tell the difference between an AI video and the real thing. With Veo 3, we have officially stepped out of the uncanny valley and into a new era, one where AI videos are a fact of life.
While several other AI video makers exist, most notably Sora from OpenAI, the clips made by Veo 3 instantly stand out in your timeline. Veo 3 brought with it several innovations that separate it from other video generation tools. Crucially, in addition to video, Veo 3 also produces audio and dialogue. It doesn't just offer photorealism, but fully realized soundscapes and conversations to go along with videos. It can also maintain consistent characters in different video clips, and users can fine-tune camera angles, framing, and movements in entirely new ways. On social media, many users are dumbfounded by the results.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Veo 3 is available to use now with Google's paid AI plans. Users can access the tool in Gemini, Google's AI chatbot, and in Flow, an “AI filmmaking tool built for creatives, by creatives,” per Google.
Already, AI filmmakers are using Veo 3 to create short films, and it's only a matter of time until we see a full-length film powered by Veo 3.
Meet the filmmakers making short films with Veo 3On X, YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit, users are sharing some of the most impressive Veo 3 videos. If you're not on your guard and simply casually scrolling your feed, you might not think twice about whether the videos are real or not.
The short film "Influenders" is one of the most widely shared short films made with Veo 3. "Influenders" was created by Yonatan Dor, the founder of the AI visual studio The Dor Brothers. In the movie, a series of influencers react as an unexplained cataclysm occurs in the background. The video has hundreds of thousands of views across various platforms.
"Yes, we used Google Veo 3 exclusively for this video, but to make a piece like this really come to life we needed to do further sound design, clever editing and some upscaling at the end," Dor said in an email to Mashable. "The full piece took around 2 days to complete." Dor added, "Veo 3 is a massive step forward, it’s easily the most advanced tool available publicly right now. We're especially impressed by its dialogue and prompt adherence capabilities."
Similar videos featuring man-on-the-street videos have also gone viral, with artists like Alex Patrascu and Impekable showing off Veo 3's capabilities. And earlier this week, a Wall Street Journal reporter made an entire short film starring a virtual version of herself using Veo 3. All this in just 10 days.
In "Influenders" and these other videos, some of the clips and characters are more realistic than others. Many still have the glossy aesthetic and jerky character movements that are a signature of AI videos, a clear giveaway that's similar to the ChatGPT em dash.
Just a couple of years ago, AI creations with too many fingers and other obvious anatomical abnormalities were commonplace. If the technology keeps progressing at this pace, there will soon be no obvious difference between real video and AI video.
A tool for creativity and misinformationIn promoting Veo 3, Google is eager to stress its partnerships with artists and filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky. And it's clear that Veo 3 could drastically reduce the cost of creating animation and special effects. But for content farms and bad actors producing fake news and manipulative outrage bait, Veo 3 is equally powerful.
We asked Google about the potential for Veo 3 to be used for misinformation, and the company said that safeguards such as digital watermarks are built into Veo 3 video clips.
"It’s important that people can access provenance tools for videos and other content they see online," a representative with Google DeepMind told Mashable via email. "The SynthID watermark is embedded in all content generated by Google’s AI tools, and our SynthID detector rolled out to early testers last week. We plan to expand access more broadly soon, and as an additional step to help people, we’re adding a visible watermark to Veo videos."
Google also has AI safety guidelines that it uses, and the company says it wants to "help people and organizations responsibly create and identify AI-generated content."
A screenshot from an AI-generated video made by Google with Veo 3. Credit: GoogleBut does the average person stop to ask whether the images and videos on their timelines and FYP are real? As the viral emotional support kangaroo proves, they do not.
There's zero doubt that AI videos are about to become even more commonplace on social media and video apps. That will include plenty of AI slop, but also videos with more nefarious purposes. Despite safeguards built into AI video generation tools, skilled AI artists can create deepfake videos featuring celebrities and public figures. TV news anchors speaking into the camera have also been a recurring theme in Veo 3 videos so far, which has worrying implications for the information ecosystem online.
If you're not already asking "Is this real?" when you come across a video clip online, now is the time to start.
Or, as a chorus of voices are saying on X, "We're so cooked."
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
When I look back at pictures of myself in my early 20s, I see a confident young woman who was willing to talk about anything with anyone. But behind closed doors, I was hiding a secret shame that totally contradicted my public brand. I couldn't orgasm — not with a partner, not on my own.
There had been fleeting attempts over the years to get the ol' engine rolling. I thought I could reason my way to climax: the internet, with its endless resources in the form of Reddit threads, message boards, and YouTube videos, seemed like the place to go. I turned online for information, emotional (first-person narratives from others who struggled) and practical (sex toys and tutorials). Nothing helped. In fact, all the accumulating knowledge only served to make me feel worse. For it to finally happen, at the age of 25, I had to strip everything back and take my sex drive fully offline for the first time.
Failing to climaxThere's a scene in Eve Ensler's legendary play The Vagina Monologues when the audience hears from a woman who didn't have an orgasm until she was 72. "When she finally found her clitoris, she said she cried," the introduction goes. I remember hearing those words at the age of 18 and feeling a fluttering sense of recognition. Then came the chaser: dear god, please let me have one before I'm a septuagenarian.
SEE ALSO: Is AI porn the next horizon in self-pleasure — and is it ethical?At that age, the inability to orgasm wasn't something that surprised me all that much. I'd read enough teen magazines, seen enough Sex and the City, to know all about the orgasm gap, and that 61 percent of men orgasm every time they have sex compared to 30 percent of women. Multiple studies have found that women are more likely to orgasm during masturbation than intercourse; a similarly consistent finding is that 10 percent of women never orgasm, no matter the circumstances.
Yet as I moved through my twenties and failed to rectify the problem, I realised the friends I'd once bonded over this experience with weren't struggling anymore. I felt like an anomaly.
But as a forthright young feminist on the cusp between the Gen Z and millennial generations, I was also unofficially educated under the tutelage of sex education YouTubers like Shan Boodram, Laci Green, and Hannah Witton. They taught me about the importance of people with vulvas knowing their bodies and having the confidence to tell sexual partners if they weren't getting them off. I spread their message far and wide. Female pleasure was so my brand that a close male friend once gave me a T-shirt with the words "The Future is Female (Ejaculation)" as a Secret Santa gift. I laughed, then went to the bathroom and cried, so deeply full of shame at the disconnect between my public confidence and inward inadequacy.
Theoretically speaking, I knew just about everything there was to know about the orgasm…apart from how to have one myself. Very few people, beyond a handful of friends and former partners, knew about my struggle with anorgasmia (where people struggle to climax even with the application of sexual stimulation). I was scared of speaking the words "I can't come" into reality, or of feeling like even more of a failure if they checked in on my progress in the future and I had to tell them that no, I still couldn't.
Theoretically speaking, I knew just about everything there was to know about the orgasm…apart from how to have one myself.As Emily Nagoski writes in her bestselling book Come As You Are, so much of the female orgasm is in the mind. Nagoski theorises that female sexual pleasure has dual controls — an accelerator to turn you on and a brake to turn you off — and that balance is needed to achieve orgasm. But my brake was hyper-sensitive thanks to all that fear and panic and shame, making it near impossible for me to actually have one. (Of course, that's an easy observation to make three years on the other side.)
Sex toys felt like a good starting point (god forbid I actually touch myself!), and my limited student budget meant I wanted a vibrator that gave a good bang for my buck, so to speak. I'd spend hours trawling through positive customer reviews for phrases like "can't come" or "never usually orgasm," hoping the same would happen for me if I purchased a clitoral stimulator or CBD lube. When it didn't, I felt more frustrated than ever.
What I was searching for was a sense of recognition — an "oh, I'm not alone in this" feeling that my friends, while empathetic, understandably couldn't provide. (Yet whenever I now mention to friends that I didn't have an orgasm until I was 25, similar stories are divulged.) So I looked further afield, scouring message board threads and online articles for narratives from people who'd not been able to come either. The snatched moments of understanding made me feel less alone, albeit not necessarily always better.
The next approach was more unconventional. Two friends bought me a subscription to OMGYes, the adult sex education website dedicated to facilitating female pleasure. Initially, I was embarrassed that it had come to this, but I gave it a go. A membership provided access to a library of practical (and extremely NSFW) tutorials on different masturbation techniques. I tried to follow along, but lacked perseverance and was quick to abandon the mission when things didn't happen immediately.
At every stage, my attempts to orgasm were hindered by these deeply rooted feelings of shame and inadequacy, and a fear of feeling like even more of a failure should I try and not succeed. I knew I was missing out on an integral part of the human experience, but once the terrifying words "you're going to be on your deathbed never having had an orgasm" enter the mind, they're hard to shake.
In order to halt this nihilistic spiral, I stopped trying altogether. It wasn't all bad. The sex, with both long-term and casual partners, was often even pleasurable. Sometimes I faked orgasms, sometimes I didn't bother — the former usually when I didn't want to explain myself and give them an excuse not to try.
So the problem bubbled away beneath the surface, rectifying it as simply not a priority. As with much of life, the arrival of COVID-19 changed things. I remember turning 25 and looking down the barrel of a new year and a third lockdown in the UK. I'm officially in my mid-twenties, I thought. If not now, when? Those interconnected feelings of embarrassment and failure were clearly holding me back.
If I was going to figure out how to orgasm, that would only be achieved by removing expectation; expectation that, I realised, was coming directly from the internet aids I'd sought out for help. I needed to strip away the technological trappings and do the one very simple thing I'd been so scared to do: touch myself, and do it consistently.
What finally helped me orgasmI set myself a challenge. Every day, I would put my phone on the other side of the room and masturbate without sex toys. The experience felt utterly alien at first; at some point, it crossed my mind that sexual partners had touched my genitals far more than I ever had. Once I acclimatised to the sensation of taking my time and not trying to speed up the process with a buzzing pink lump of plastic, it felt good. Things started happening, although not the earth-shattering fireworks that society had led me to expect. I didn't think these faint flutters were orgasms, and briefly returned to the message boards to see if others had experienced anything similar. Nobody described my exact feelings, but I kept at it.
It was a conversation with a close friend, a doctor, that made the most marked difference. I told her about my current state, where I wasn't sure whether I was experiencing an orgasm or not. "You know if you want that to count, it counts," she told me. For the first time, someone was saying that I was on the right path, and not crashing into a wall.
Without being dramatic (although said friend still laughs about how I credit her with my first orgasm), those words triggered a switch in my brain. As soon as I stopped feeling like I was foolish for even attempting to fight what I'd always perceived to be a losing battle, orgasms — proper ones, I was sure — came. I didn't cry or rush to text the friends greatly invested in my journey. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled, but it felt like a wholly personal achievement, and one I wanted to sit in for a while.
SEE ALSO: What is a ruined orgasm?Mostly, the feeling was one of relief, the lifting of a huge weight from my chest and the dissipation of so much secret shame. I remember thinking that if I never had an orgasm again, I would be happy. Given how easy I was now finding it once that bridge was crossed, though, I was pretty sure that wasn't going to be the case. It would be a while until I was able to orgasm with other people, but even before I did, my partnered sex life improved dramatically. I didn't feel like I was lacking anymore.
I remember thinking that if I never had an orgasm again, I would be happy.If there's one thing I now know, it's that you can't intellectualise, let alone buy, an orgasm. Sure, products and internet resources may help, and in those most isolating moments, it was undoubtedly useful to see my experience reflected back in others. But over time, I found the accumulation of all this knowledge only added to my feelings of failure. I had to remove it all from my mind and do the thing I was most scared to — confront my own body — to make it happen.
Given all that, I'm aware of the irony of writing my own "how I finally had an orgasm" narrative. But I know a story like mine, as long as it wasn't dwelled on too long or used as a point of comparison, would have helped my younger self. It's why I keep far less personal aspects of my life out of my work, yet have always known I wanted to write about this experience someday. There are so few narratives about a total inability to orgasm out there. If you're reading this now and see something of yourself in my story, I hope it can provide some. It can happen for you — I truly believe that — whether you're 25 or 72. You'll get there.
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