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The widening movement is pulling in people from all walks of life, united by a worry that Big Tech will cash in while average Americans bear the costs.

After once backing liberal causes, the Google co-founder has praised President Trump, donated to Republicans and spent $57 million to try to block a California billionaire tax.

Samsung's newest foldable is feeling more and more real as time goes on.

No, not the Galaxy Z TriFold, which launched and was then discontinued so fast that it feels like it never happened at all. I'm talking about the new "Wide" foldable that's rumored to launch this summer alongside the follow-ups to last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 phones.

Leaker Sonny Dickson took to X (via 9to5google) to post some alleged dummy models of Samsung's foldable lineup for this summer, which includes both the Fold 8 and Flip 8, as well as the new Wide phone.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. SEE ALSO: Samsung is selling refurbished Galaxy Z Fold 7 phones for more than new ones

In the photos, you can clearly see a device with a significantly different form factor from the other two currently existing phones. The Fold 8 and Flip 8 models look pretty similar to last year, but the Wide one is more squat and, well, wide when unfolded, making it almost reminiscent of Google's first Pixel Fold. Its inner display is said to have a 4:3 aspect ratio, making it distinct from other available foldables right now.

I say "right now" because many people expect the Samsung Wide model to compete with the heavily rumored iPhone Fold, said to launch later this year. Apple's long-gestating foldable is thought to be shorter and wider than something like a Z Fold 7, so it's possible and perhaps even likely that Samsung wants to pre-empt that device with one of its own. A recent leak suggested Samsung's next batch of foldables will be announced in July, so we don't have to wait long to find out, at any rate.

SAVE $35: The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (32GB) is on sale for $164.99 at Amazon, down from the standard price of $199.99. That's an 18% discount and it comes with three months of free access to Kindle Unlimited.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (32GB) $164.99 at Amazon
$199.99 Save $35   Get Deal

We're in a mellow time in terms of sales. The next major event will happen over Memorial Day weekend and the next big Amazon sale is Prime Day in either June or July. It's not often we see discount on Amazon's own devices outside of major sale times, but we're all in for a little treat today.

As of April 27, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (32GB) is on sale for $164.99 at Amazon, marked down from the list price of $199.99. That's an 18% discount that shaves $35 off the normal price.

Over the years, Amazon has expanded its lineup of Kindle e-readers, but the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition remains Mashable's favorite for those who read often. It comes with a handful of upgrades that frequent readers will find well worth the added price.

For starters, it's Amazon's fastest Paperwhite and it comes with an auto-adjusting front light. It also comes with 32GB of storage which is double what the largest standard Kindle Paperwhite offers. Mashable Shopping Reporter Samantha Mangino's in-depth review of the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition mentions its wireless charging is also a big step up, as is the excellent battery life.

SEE ALSO: The Kindle Paperwhite has dropped to its best price in 2026 — act fast to save $25

"With a 7-inch screen, the SE got a slight size increase, while the resolution of 300 ppi and maximum brightness of 94 nits remain the same between generations," explained Mangino. "That being said, the display on this generation looks higher contrast, making it sharper and easier to read. Plus, it remains waterproof, perfect for taking along to the bathtub, beach, or pool."

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is also an ad-free experience and as a bonus, Amazon is tossing in three months of access to Kindle Unlimited for free. The service gives readers access to over five million e-books which ordinarily comes with a price of $11.99 per month.

With summer vacation coming up quickly, make sure you have an e-reader that'll help you get through that reading list. Snag the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (32GB) while it's on sale at a rare discount that'll save you $35. Happy reading!

SAVE 17%: As of April 27, you can get the 34-inch Alienware 34 curved gaming monitor for $289.99 at Amazon, down from $349.99. That's a 17% discount or $60 savings.

34-inch Alienware 34 curved gaming monitor $289.99 at Amazon
$349.99 Save $60   Get Deal at Amazon

If you're upgrading your PC gaming setup, it pays to do a little research. To get the most out of visually rich games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Elden Ring, you'll want a monitor that makes you feel immersed (i.e., a curved ultrawide screen), has a fast refresh rate so nothing blurs, and doesn't cost a total fortune.

SEE ALSO: The best gaming laptops of 2026: Check out our top picks

Right now, you can get all of those features at Amazon for under $300. As of April 27, the Alienware 34-inch curved gaming monitor is on sale for $289.99, down from $349.99. That's a 17% discount or $60 savings. It's also just $20 more than its all-time low price.

This monitor has a 34-inch ultrawide display with a 1500R curve, which basically wraps the game around you so you don't miss any details. It also features a 180Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time. It even comes with a matte screen to reduce glare and hardware-based low blue light tech to save your eyes during those longer marathon sessions.

Oakland, Calif., where Elon Musk’s trial against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, starts on Monday, is not exactly known as a hub of the tech industry.

The impact of the ruling was not immediately clear, but it could send a chilling signal to Chinese tech founders seeking to team up with foreign companies.

Not long ago, creating a solid presentation, a clean infographic, or a sharp data visualization meant you either knew your way around design software or you paid someone who did. That has changed, though. There's now a slew of AI-powered tools that let pretty much anyone put together professional-looking visuals and interactive graphics in minutes. 

Obviously, these tools are still rolling out, but there's a range of options out there you can play with right now. Here's a guide to some of the best visual AI tools.

Why would you want to use visual AI tools?

The goal of visual AI tools is largely to help you with the technical side of things, so you can focus on the vision for how they should look — and describe that vision in natural language.

In terms of what people actually use them for, a few areas stand out. Turning raw data or statistics into infographics is a big one — instead of manually placing numbers, icons, and text blocks yourself, you feed a tool your data and get back something structured and visual. Flowcharts and process diagrams are another great way to use these tools, particularly when you're mapping out a complicated workflow and really don't want to spend an hour dragging connector lines around.

The biggest time-saver might be building full presentations from raw text. You can take a rough outline or a messy block of notes and end up with a multi-slide deck in only a few minutes. Beyond that, these tools handle tasks such as creating custom background graphics, generating data visualizations and charts, and even creating video content for courses. Even something straightforward, like adding visual elements to documents to improve engagement and accessibility, gets a lot faster when AI is making layout and styling decisions.

None of this means the tools nail everything, but when it comes to speed and ease of use, they can be pretty helpful.

Design and presentation platforms

When you need to build presentations, diagrams, or infographics without staring at a blank canvas, there are a handful of consumer-friendly platforms with AI features that handle most of the heavy lifting. You'll also find AI tools in familiar software suites. If you're working in Word or PowerPoint, take advantage of Microsoft Copilot. If you prefer the Google Workspace suite, Gemini can quickly generate slides, charts, graphs, and more.

Gemini can analyze and visualize data for you. Credit: Google Use Gemini to turn Google Sheets data into charts and graphs. Credit: Google

Canva is another widely used tool in this space. It used to be a more manual visual builder, but over the past few years, it has developed its Magic Studio suite, which can generate full presentations from a single text prompt. All you have to do is describe what your presentation is about, and Canva puts together a structured deck that you can then tweak to your liking. There's also Magic Write, which taps into a large language model to expand, refine, and summarize written content. For people who've never opened design software in their lives, the fact that Canva handles both the visual layout and the writing makes it one of the most complete options out there.

FigJam AI, which lives within the Figma ecosystem, offers a slightly different angle. It's especially good at automated diagram generation. You give it text inputs, and it converts them into flowcharts, mind maps, organizational diagrams, and so on. FigJam can automatically reorganize and categorize content, too — you can just dump a pile of unstructured ideas into it, and it'll sort them into logical groupings with visual structure. That's useful when you're trying to make sense of complex information before turning it into a formal presentation.

Venngage is more specialized, zeroing in on infographics and visual content designed specifically for educational materials. If you're a teacher looking to convert lesson plans or data sets into visually engaging handouts, Venngage was built with exactly that workflow in mind.

Custom image and graphics generation

By now, most major AI services have image generation baked in somewhere. Anthropic is one of the few exceptions, but the AI company just rolled out a new design tool specifically to help make charts, graphs, and documents. So, no matter which AI chatbot you prefer, it can probably help you with your next presentation.

If you prefer working in ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot excels at image generation and data visualization. You can even create custom, interactive visualizations that demonstrate a particular scientific principle or data set.

There are also a number of AI image generator models that are used in professional tools. These include the likes of Midjourney, which launched in 2022 and quickly built a reputation for producing highly detailed, aesthetically impressive images from text prompts. Adobe Firefly is Adobe's consumer-facing take on generative visuals, and its big advantage is tight integration with Adobe's broader creative suite. Stable Diffusion takes the open-source route, which appeals to more technical users who want deeper control over how generation works or who'd prefer not to depend on a subscription service.

Practically speaking, these tools all let you do similar things. The quality gap between AI-generated images and traditional stock photography has closed a lot, though it hasn't vanished completely — AI images still occasionally produce weird artifacts or inconsistencies that a trained eye will spot.

SEE ALSO: ChatGPT can now generate visuals for math and science lessons Video and animation tools

Video production has always been one of the most time-consuming and expensive forms of content creation. AI is starting to shift that, especially for educational and training content.

Synthesia is the standout consumer-facing tool here. It generates realistic, animated videos and voiceovers entirely from text. You write a script, pick an AI-generated presenter (or build a custom one), and the platform produces a video that looks surprisingly close to a traditional talking-head setup. What's also nice is how easy it makes updating content; if you need to change a line in your script or update a statistic, you just regenerate the video instead of reshooting the whole thing.

This is particularly valuable for creating course materials and educational content when you don't have the luxury of traditional production timelines. Think about an online course creator who needs 30 lesson videos, or a company rolling out training materials across multiple languages. That said, while the tech has gotten dramatically better, AI-generated presenters still often land in uncanny valley territory. The movements and expressions can feel off, which may affect how viewers receive the content. For a lot of use cases, the speed and cost trade-off is worth it, but it's not a perfect stand-in for a real person on camera in every situation.

Don't forget to check your work

Before you go all-in on AI-generated visuals, there are a few practical realities worth considering. Quality and accuracy concerns are probably at the top of the list. AI-generated images can contain errors, inconsistencies, or visual representations that are misleading. You will need to verify that charts, graphs, and infographics accurately represent the information they're supposed to convey. On top of that, generated designs can come across as generic or cookie-cutter if you don't put time into customizing the output.

There's also a learning curve that's easy to underestimate. These tools get marketed as effortless, but using them well still requires knowing how to write good prompts and having at least a basic understanding of design principles. Of course, the cost of these tools also matters. Plenty of platforms have free tiers, but those tend to come with limitations. Getting to the premium features usually means a subscription or usage-based pricing, and those costs stack up fast if you're bouncing between multiple tools across different categories. Educational or enterprise discounts sometimes exist, but they're not always easy to find.

And finally, you will want to disclose that you used AI. There's a growing expectation around being upfront when visuals are AI-generated. Using fully AI-produced graphics in educational or professional settings without acknowledging it raises ethical questions about transparency. As norms and rules in this space continue to take shape, leaning toward disclosure is generally both the safer and more responsible call.

So you've been accused of using artificial intelligence to cheat at school — and you're innocent. 

You must now somehow prove, despite your instructor's suspicions and the alleged evidence, that you completed the assignment or exam on your own. Yet without convincing proof, such as the kind provided by a computer forensic analyst, it can be nearly impossible to acquit yourself. 

SEE ALSO: What's your college's AI policy? Find out here.

"It's a very difficult situation to be in to be an innocent student who's been accused of an academic integrity violation that you didn't commit," says Dr. Julie Schell, assistant vice provost of academic technology at the University of Texas at Austin. "I think students are in a real bind when that happens to them."

Mashable asked Schell and other experts how innocent students can navigate these charges. They provided the below tips and strategies: 

1. Be sure you didn't actually cheat. 

Schell says students should generally be diligent about doing the cognitive work assigned to them rather than outsourcing it to AI. That includes blatant examples like feeding a set of problems into a chatbot and presenting the answers as your own. 

Still, students don't always perceive their actions as cheating, says Dr. Sara Brownell, President's Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

Brownell, a biology education researcher, surveyed her own large lecture class in spring 2025 and found, to her surprise, that all types of cheating had become rampant. Students, who could respond anonymously, not only used AI to complete their work, they also shared answers to homework questions, and used their phones as a remote clicker to make it appear they were in class answering questions when they were elsewhere. 

SEE ALSO: College professors don't know how to catch students cheating with AI

That's when Brownell realized cheating had become far too easy and that students needed abundantly clear instruction on what constituted an academic integrity violation, particularly regarding AI use. She now regularly talks to students about cheating and urges them to review each instructor's syllabus for their AI policy, in addition to closely reading their institution's academic integrity, student conduct, and AI use policies. 

If you have unintentionally violated one or more of these policies, you may have cheated. 

2 .Think carefully about how to respond to your instructor. 

Schell understands why an innocent student would feel angry, disappointed, and defensive. Yet she strongly urges students to respond to the instructor who accused them of AI cheating by appealing to the ideal of higher education.

She believes that many faculty members would hear out a student who speaks passionately about why learning and mastering the material is important to them. 

Students can also ask to demonstrate to the instructor that they understand the concepts being taught and tested, Schell says. 

"If students come at it very defensive, it's likely going to be less of a functional discussion." - Dr. Sara Brownell, Arizona State University.

Brownell agrees that a student's engagement style matters, even if that feels unfair. 

"If students come at it very defensive, it's likely going to be less of a functional discussion," she says. 

Instead, she recommends assuming the best and calmly making the case in your defense. (Brownell thinks instructors should also assume the best of the student.)

3. Ask for help with AI cheating accusations 

Andrew T. Miltenberg, the senior litigation partner at the law firm Nesenoff & Miltenberg, regularly represents university students accused of cheating with AI.

In his experience, students don't always grasp the enormity and consequences of the accusations. They may also be embarrassed to discuss the situation with friends, family, and supportive faculty. Nevertheless, Milternberg is adamant that students should ask for help. 

"The minute you get notice that there has been an allegation of academic integrity violation, don't assume you can deal with it yourself," Miltenberg says. "At best, it's going to be bad, and at worst, it's going to be a serious change in the trajectory of your career."

Cheating accusations may result in suspensions or transcript marks, which can raise red flags for future employers or graduate admissions officers, Miltenberg says. He has represented students afraid they won't be able to apply to law or medical school or get a job in finance. 

While a lawyer can't present your case before the committee that typically reviews academic integrity violations, Miltenberg says they can help develop arguments in a student's defense, prepare them for questioning, and evaluate whether the school has followed its own procedures.

Students, regardless of whether they have a lawyer, have other important options. 

Schell recommends contacting a student government representative about how academic integrity violations are handled, what rights students have in the process, and how to advocate for those rights to the school's administration. 

In some cases, the school may appoint a faculty advisor to help the accused student navigate the proceedings, but the advisor doesn't advocate on the student's behalf. 

SEE ALSO: Kids aren't learning to spell anymore 4. Learn about how academic integrity cases are handled. 

Academic integrity violations are typically heard by a student and faculty committee that reviews the allegations and evidence. Miltenberg says these hearings often move on a faster timeline than students may expect. 

Before a hearing, the student may be summoned to meet with the instructor or the dean to discuss the accusations. 

Miltenberg has represented students who attended such meetings and felt pressured to admit to cheating in exchange for a lesser penalty. He recommends not accepting responsibility when you're innocent. 

If possible, a student should ask for information about the evidence supporting the accusation and what proof they can submit in their defense. 

Miltenberg says students don't always get clear answers to these questions. That information may be provided later in an academic integrity violation hearing. 

He also notes that students sometimes produce evidence of their original work, such as Google Docs editing history, that often doesn't persuade the instructor or committee. 

In some of his cases, Miltenberg has relied on forensic computer analysts who can identify a student's keystrokes and metadata to prove they didn't just copy and paste text into a Google Doc. Still, these experts are expensive and not always available promptly. 

Schell remains optimistic that innocent students can prevail against cheating accusations, but she's aware that students are feeling increasingly scared about being erroneously flagged as cheaters. Some, she says, are even purposely adding mistakes to their writing to avoid false accusations.  

"I just think when we're in an environment like that, and we're creating a culture where students feel like they have to do that," she says, "we're really losing sight of why we're here."

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will require some knowledge of popular U.S. sports and pop culture.

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.

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. The sports Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words, and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise 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 before the game ends.

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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: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. 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: Get out of here

• Green: Hollywood MVPs

• Blue: Draft day trivia

• Purple: No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Types of Outs in Baseball

• Green: Sports Films Nominated for Best Picture

• Blue: Running Backs Drafted in Top 10

• Purple: Mentioned in "We Didn't Start the Fire"

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 #581 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Types of Outs in Baseball — FLY, FORCE, STRIKE, TAG

• Sports Films Nominated for Best Picture — MARTY SUPREME, MONEYBALL, ROCKY, SEABISCUIT

• Running Backs Drafted in Top 10 — BUSH, JEANTY, LOVE, SPILLER

• Mentioned in "We Didn't Start the Fire" — CALIFORNIA BASEBALL, DIMAGGIO, MARCIANO, SUGAR RAY

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.

As colleges and high schools try to figure out how to integrate AI into the classroom responsibly, students aren’t waiting for permission. Young people often lead the way in adopting new technology, and students may actually know more about AI than their teachers. And for these young people, AI is just a few button presses away at all times. 

As the technology proliferates more in day-to-day life, many higher learning institutions have taken it upon themselves to include AI in the learning process to prepare students to use it correctly once they graduate. 

There isn’t a standard for how AI should be used in colleges, at least not yet, and with approximately 4,000 degree-granting higher learning institutions in the U.S. alone, colleges are tackling AI in some interesting ways. 

Middle and high school is where it starts for most kids

AI education starts in middle and high school these days. There are more than 14,000 middle schools and 23,000 high schools in the United States, and the U.S. lacks a cohesive, nationwide approach to AI eduction like you'd find in China.

Generally speaking, AI policy starts at the state level, where governments pass laws to require schools to come up with some sort of AI policy. As an example, Ohio mandated that the state’s Department of Education come up with AI rules no later than Dec. 31, 2025. 

SEE ALSO: What is Alpha, the AI-only school of the future?

This is still ongoing as of this writing, but schools are starting to come around. Per a study by Bowdoin College, 31 percent of high schools have an AI policy in place as of August 2025. Sometimes, these policies are more about what students should not do with AI rather than teaching them how to use it. For instance, some high schools with AI policies largely prohibit students from passing off AI-generated work as their own and require students to cite when they use AI for school projects. Students also typically need permission from teachers to use AI in the first place. 

Meanwhile, some public and private school districts are taking it upon themselves to train students for an AI-first future. MIT recently published an open-source AI ethics curriculum that middle schools can use to introduce students to AI and teach them how to use it responsibly. Lessons focus on basic AI literacy, ethics, and data training basics.

At the college level

Colleges are swiftly putting general rules for AI use into place to guide students toward ethical AI use. Some schools, like the University of Georgia, have relaxed rules when it comes to AI, allowing students to use it as long as the instructor says it’s OK. UGA’s example is pretty close to what most colleges do. Students are generally allowed to use AI for basic tasks like correcting grammar or basic research, but AI is typically not allowed to complete assignments for the student. 

This seems to be the pattern that colleges are starting to follow, with some variation on how strict the rules are. For example, Vanderbilt lets faculty decide how students can use AI in their classes, but the college requires all students to disclose when they use AI for their coursework. Rice, by contrast, considers using any idea generated by AI to be plagiarism. These policies often extend to college admissions, with most colleges having rules against using AI to write any part of an application essay. 

However, rules and college AI policies are not the only way colleges are preparing students for AI. 

Adding AI to the curriculum

There are few better ways to prepare students for a life in the AI age than actual classes on the topic. This is also becoming increasingly common in universities. Big-name schools such as Cornell and Harvard have taken this approach, as have many smaller liberal-arts colleges. Students studying diverse subjects such as biology, computer science, and engineering can now take classes on applying AI to these fields.

In fact, some schools are even baking an education about AI into undergraduate studies. One famous example is Ohio State University’s AI Fluency program, which embeds AI fluency directly into the curriculum, making it mandatory for students to learn about AI as they progress through their studies. The University of Florida is doing the same, as are several others. 

It’s likely that more courses and mandatory curriculum inclusion are coming over the next five to 10 years as colleges figure things out, but the march to teach this technology has already begun. 

Full-blown majors

The next extension of teaching AI to students is allowing them to make a career out of it, and some colleges are already preparing students for that life. Multiple large colleges have opened up new AI degrees, allowing students to get a Bachelor of Science in the study of AI. This is relatively new and still ongoing, but colleges are jumping on the train in increasing numbers. 

The first such university to do so was Ohio University. It launched its program in 2024. More colleges have added similar degrees to the ranks, with LSU, Kennesaw State, and Northwestern being some of the most recent additions to the list. All three colleges announced their programs in March 2026, and they’re either available now or will be in the fall semester. 

AI has already been shown to be a viable career path. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon are aggressively hiring AI professionals, along with companies like Lockheed Martin, AMD, and the AI companies themselves, like OpenAI. Goldman Sachs predicts that the market for AI jobs will increase over the next decade, so colleges preparing students for that reality is no surprise. 

A long way to go

While AI literacy programs are still in their infancy at the middle and high school level, expect to see a lot more AI integrated into K-12 education in the years ahead. Already, many teachers are using AI to help them with lesson plans, while students are using AI to help study and complete assignments.

At the college level, educators are still learning how to navigate a world with an increasing amount of AI, and some are doing it faster than others. However, the patterns are pretty clear. More colleges have rules on ethical AI use to teach students how not to use generative AI (and avoid cheating accusations in the process), along with classes to help them better understand this burgeoning technology, and entire fields of study for those who want to make AI their career. These initiatives aren’t present at every college, but they’re getting there, and quickly. 

Applying to college can be extremely stressful for students and their parents alike. To help make the process a little easier, some of them are turning to artificial intelligence for help. And even though generative AI is still a relatively new technology, it has already changed the college applications process in surprising ways.

So, before you complete your next application, learn how the admissions process is evolving to incorporate AI.

College essays are becoming less important

The first domino to fall was the time-honored college essay. These essays are meant to give students a chance to show off their personality, writing voice, and writing competence. However, some teenagers are turning to AI to help speed up the essay-writing process, and colleges know it.

Unfortunately, there's no sure-fire way to identify AI writing. As a result, many colleges are placing less emphasis on these essays altogether.

How many students are using AI to write college essays? It's impossible to know for sure. Scholarships360, a website that helps students find scholarships, ran 1,000 student essays through an AI detection tool, which flagged 42 percent of them. And although AI detection tools are known to be unreliable, surveys show that more than half of Gen Z uses AI on a weekly basis, including for help with college applications.

Scholarship360 CEO Will Geiger told The Hechinger Report that he began noticing student essays using similar language to one another, and how each essay felt sterile and spiked with words that teenagers didn’t typically use. The formatting and length were also dead giveaways, per Geiger. 

Duke University has famously stopped giving numerical ratings to students’ application essays or even taking them into consideration at all, with AI being one of the major reasons. “Essays are very much part of our understanding of the applicant; we’re just no longer assuming that the essay is an accurate reflection of the student's actual writing ability,” said Christoph Guttentag, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Duke University, to the Duke Chronicle.

Students aren't the only ones using AI

According to a study by Foundry10, nearly 30 percent of students and teachers now use AI consistently for college applications. As mentioned previously, students are primarily using it to help write admission and scholarship essays, while teachers are using AI to help write recommendation letters, which are often included in college applications. 

This has been a double-edged sword. AI has certainly made it easier for teachers and students to produce these essays and letters, but if their writing sounds like it was generated by AI — even if it wasn’t — that could hurt a student’s application.

In addition, Foundry10’s study shows that letters and essays written with AI are generally regarded as less authentic and competent than those written manually.

Colleges often use AI during admissions, too

Despite a general distrust of AI-generated college essays, many colleges still trust the technology to read and summarize those same student essays. Virginia Tech became one of the first major U.S. public colleges to publicly employ such a system by using AI to review student essays for admissions, a system that rolled out for the 2025-26 school year. Colleges like UNC-Chapel Hill are also using AI to analyze applicants' essays.

On the other end of the spectrum, several colleges also use AI to check for AI writing. Brigham Young University uses software to check for AI-generated content and plagiarism, for instance. Caltech also uses AI to analyze research projects from applicants, and even to assist with early interviews. 

Per GradPilot, roughly 50 percent of admissions offices in the U.S. now use at least some form of AI, whether it’s to read essays, check for plagiarism, summarize recommendation letters, or process transcripts. The true number is unknown, as it’s estimated that many colleges use AI without saying so to avoid media scrutiny.

Students applying for college should expect that the college will use AI to some extent. 

Some colleges have outright banned the use of AI

Whether or not using AI will get your application flagged depends heavily on which college you apply to. The University of Georgia is perfectly OK with students using AI, albeit responsibly, and even has a pilot program in 2026 that gives some students licenses to use ChatGPT. So, using generative AI to apply to Georgia is probably perfectly alright, as long as most of the work is still done by the student. 

Other colleges have taken a much harder-nosed approach, outright banning the use of AI and promising punishment to students who use it. Brown University is one such example where students are forbidden from using AI for anything other than “basic proofreading.” Other colleges with similar restrictions include Georgetown, Yale, and Duke. 

Thus, part of any student’s application process in 2026 and beyond should be to double-check the AI policy for any college they apply to. Using AI the wrong way, or while applying to the wrong college, may cause an automatic rejection. 

New AI tools for college admissions

Students and parents now have a ton of new tools available to help them prep for and apply to college. This includes the tools young people might be using every day, like ChatGPT and Grammarly, plus purpose-built tools to track admissions. Tools like Kollegio, ESAI, and KapAdvisor can help young people streamline the application process or even find schools to apply to.

There are also a ton of AI study tools for high schoolers who need help with homework, SAT/ACT prep, and any other assignments.

SEE ALSO: 7 AI tools you can use to enhance your work life

Finally, some students are using AI as a general-purpose admissions counselor, the New York Times recently reported. While ChatGPT can help students find colleges to apply to or simply act as a sounding board, students should also know that AI chatbots still hallucinate and make mistakes.

AI will continue to change the admissions process

AI will keep changing the college admissions process in the same way digitization did nearly 30 years ago. Back in the old days, applicants had to do everything with physical paper until the internet revolutionized the process, allowing students to apply faster and to more colleges with less effort. 

AI’s ability to automate a lot of the processes has that same potential, and in some cases, has already helped students and admissions officers. The rules are still being written in real-time as colleges navigate the AI landscape and students find new ways to use AI.

For the time being, the best practice is not to rely on AI for personal essays, and to check colleges' AI policies before applying.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Chatbots are changing the way we access information and what we gain from it. It's happening online, in workplaces, and, over the last few years, in schools themselves. 

In the wake of early mass adoption of ChatGPT — years before its parent company OpenAI added age-specific tools and restrictions — schools, including in Los Angeles and New York City, banned chatbots in the classroom outright. Many school officials feared generative AI tools would be used primarily to cheat, and there are still concerns that AI can hamper learning or exacerbate mental health concerns, including child exploitation. 

But in the years since launch, some K-12 systems have partially reversed course and embraced AI. Sentiment among teachers has shifted, and students are using AI more routinely. The move may also be influenced by an intentional investment by AI developers hoping to get their products in the hands of teachers and students alike. Thousands of colleges, for example, have deals with AI developers, including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic — the three companies have also launched "tutor" versions of their products to general users. 

On the K-12 level, these AI giants, and others like Canva and Microsoft, have designed tools specifically for teachers and introduced gated AI agents to students themselves. Many schools are in the midst of renegotiating existing educational contracts with such companies to account for free AI products — technology that didn't exist when some institutions agreed to add digital product suites to student and faculty computers.  

AI tech is evolving rapidly, and many questions remain. Here's how the nation's three largest school districts approach artificial intelligence:

NYC Public Schools

New York City's public school system serves more than 900,000 students across 1,597 public schools and nearly 300 charter schools. The Education Department is the city's largest agency, with plans to expand services to a new pre-K program, as well. It was also one of the first to ban ChatGPT, and then unblock it. 

New York City Public Schools recently announced a new set of AI guidelines for students, teachers, and families created by its AI Task Force. Previously, individual schools took on the responsibility of designing their own policies to address urgent concerns about AI. NYC's rulebook is one of the most user-friendly Mashable has seen so far, but many specifics about AI student use are still unclear.  

How should NYC teachers approach AI?

NYC Public Schools mandates all AI tools go under what is known as the ERMA (Enterprise Review Management Application) process. ERMA oversees privacy and security rules, and now includes parameters for appropriate AI use, including: the need for human oversight and review, a prohibition on inputting personal student information into unapproved AI systems, AI tool-specific age restrictions, and discretion over AI outputs.

The guidelines also explain the school system's "traffic light" approach to AI: every potential AI use case is categorized as green (approved), yellow (careful judgment needed), or red (prohibited).

NYC schools can't use AI to make decisions regarding class placement, graduation, eligibility, or discipline, for example. AI cannot be used to create Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), prohibit a student from choosing a specific path of coursework, or confer grades. AI cannot be used to provide emotional or therapeutic counsel to students, and AI-powered surveillance is prohibited. The use of student data for AI training is banned. 

Yellow light cases include using AI tools to evaluate data sets and translating critical information for students and parents. Educators get the green light to use AI for tasks such as scheduling, generating accessible materials, and refining communications.   

Can NYC students use AI?

For now, students are allowed to use AI for basic "research, exploration, and creative projects," according to NYC Public Schools, but it must be used with educator oversight. The system considers student use of AI in learning a "yellow light" use case, and students aren't encouraged to incorporate AI without their teachers' involvement. 

NYC Public Schools has not yet decided if students are banned from using personal chatbots or the extent to which AI tools can be used to complete homework assignments outside of school. Meanwhile, parent advocates have called for a two year moratorium on the technology outright, citing the district's lack of concern for long-term learning consequences, privacy, and the environment.

"Our students are already encountering AI beyond school walls," the public school system writes on its website. "The question is whether they are equipped with critical thinking, ethical grounding, and creative agency—or left to navigate AI alone."

SEE ALSO: What's your college's AI policy? Find out here. Los Angeles Unified School District 

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which serves more than 376,000 students, has been trying to rein in unhampered tech use by students. In 2025, the Los Angeles Unified School District joined several other school districts across the country in implementing a bell-to-bell student cellphone ban, prohibiting phone use during school hours. 

In April, the LAUSD school board unanimously approved a new resolution limiting access to technology in classrooms, including instituting screen time restrictions and banning devices for kindergarten and first-grade students.

AI, however, has remained elusive. Following an initial block on ChatGPT, LAUSD introduced its own AI chatbot, "Ed," in 2024. The chatbot was shuttered just three months later, after its developers went out of business, and the district's superintendent has recently been under federal investigation for alleged ties to the company. Months before, an LAUSD AI task force drafted its first usage policies, which are no longer available on the LAUSD website.  

However, updated AI policies were distributed in an April 2024 policy bulletin. Across the board, users are only permitted to use district-approved tools, and educators must obtain consent from parents or legal guardians before using certain apps with students. LAUSD employees and users are not allowed to upload copyrighted materials or "share any confidential, sensitive, privileged or private information when using, prompting, or communicating with any AI tools." They must independently verify AI outputs and be wary of hallucinations and bias.

Can LAUSD students use AI? 

Students under the age of 13 are banned from using any generative AI tools (and social media), according to the Los Angeles Times. Older students are allowed to use AI under specific conditions and with administrator approval.  

As of September, LAUSD also recommended student AI training, including an annual "digital citizenship" course, and distributed a Responsible Use Policy for students and parents to sign.

Students can't upload personal information to district-approved chatbots, illegally download materials, or upload copyrighted materials, and must properly cite all sources. They cannot use AI to generate hateful speech or facilitate bullying. 

The policy doesn't oversee personal chatbot use outside of the district network.

Chicago City Public Schools

Last year, Chicago's public school system (CPS) published a lengthy AI Guidebook, pledging to fully integrate generative AI across CPS during the 2025-2026 school year. The system, serving around 316,000 students at 630 schools, is part of a Gates Foundation-funded case study on implementing AI in K-12 schools. 

In line with other school policies, students and teachers can only use AI tools permitted by the district. Currently, most chatbots, including ChatGPT and Claude, are not approved for use. Teachers, not students, can use Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. 

Educators must follow age restrictions set by AI companies and monitor student use. While CPS allows teachers to use AI detection tools to catch plagiarism, the district warns educators should be cautious of false positives. 

Can Chicago public school students use AI?

Students are encouraged to use administrator-approved AI tools at CPS schools for tasks such as brainstorming, summarizing information, and setting deadlines and schedules. CPS says students can use approved tools to create digital media or generate creative writing prompts. Students are also encouraged to use GenAI as a study partner and consult AI-powered search engines as needed. However, many of these tools (such as Perplexity or Nano Banana) are not on the list of approved products.

Students are required to cite any AI used in their assignments, which must be "fundamentally" generated by the student. AI plagiarism is handled through the existing Student Code of Conduct. Teachers are tasked with monitoring students' appropriate use of AI.

Nationwide AI policies  

Despite an increase in AI use by students and teachers, policies to foster responsible AI use lag across the country. A 2025 survey by government-funded research nonprofit RAND found that 80 percent of students felt their teachers didn't teach them how to use AI for schoolwork. Fewer than half of school principals cited having AI policies, and only around a third of teachers reported having academic integrity policies that addressed AI use. 

Meanwhile, around 34 state-level education departments have issued AI policy recommendations, according to AI literacy organization AI for Education. The federal government, including First Lady Melania Trump, has pushed for greater tech integration in children's education. Miami-Dade County schools, the fourth largest school system in the U.S., recently announced a partnership with Google to pilot new classroom AI tools.

Rise of AI-only K-12

While public schools figure out the best way to approach the new technology at scale, private, tech-backed programs are fully embracing AI. This includes the rise of AI-only schools, including a Department of Education darling known as Alpha schools. In direct opposition to the prevailing advice abided by public school districts — to keep humans in the loop at all times — Alpha replaces human teachers with screens, offering students just two hours of AI-powered instruction facilitated by adult "guides," not education professionals. 

Alpha is backed by private equity investors, including its co-founder and school "principal" Joe Liemandt, who has funneled personal cash into the AI "school of the future." Meanwhile, public school funding has been on the decline. According to estimates for the 2026 school year, public funding for K-12 schools dropped by 11 percent. Districts across the country are facing teacher shortages and educator turnover rates. AI can only do so much. 

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Whether you're skeptical of the AI hype or counting on them to get you through finals, the reality is that AI tools are showing up in classrooms whether you asked for them or not.

The upside: many AI companies are actively courting college students with steep discounts. So, if you're a college student hunting for deals on AI services like Gemini or Copilot, this guide's for you.

In addition to the deals in this guide, your college may also offer access to a variety of AI tools at a reduced or free rate. Here are the AI college discounts available right now.

Google Gemini + NotebookLM

Google's student offer is probably the most generous on this list. Eligible college students 18 and older can get the Google AI Pro plan — normally about $20 a month — completely free for a full year. That gets you access to Gemini 3.1 Pro, NotebookLM, Deep Research, and 5TB of storage, among other perks.

NotebookLM is the quiet standout here. You feed it your source material — lecture recordings, PDFs, textbook chapters — and it organizes, summarizes, and lets you ask questions about it. It can even generate audio study guides. Worth noting: set a calendar reminder before the year is up, because it will start charging you automatically.

Sign up at gemini.google/students.

Perplexity Education Pro

Perplexity's AI-powered search tool offers a dedicated student tier, Education Pro, at $10 a month — half the standard price — after verifying your enrollment through SheerID. Beyond the discount, student accounts get expanded citation counts, file and image uploads, access to a guided learning mode with flashcards and quizzes, and broader access to its Academic and Research features. It's a more source-transparent tool than most, which makes it a reasonable choice if you care about where information is actually coming from.

Sign up at perplexity.ai.

Wolfram Alpha Pro

If your coursework involves a lot of math, physics, or chemistry, Wolfram Alpha Pro has long been a quietly useful tool. The student plan runs $5 a month (billed annually at $60), and it unlocks step-by-step solutions, practice problems, guided calculators for calculus and algebra, and extended computation time. A Premium tier at $8.25 a month adds even more. The free version exists but won't show you how to get to an answer, which is usually the whole point.

Sign up at wolframalpha.com/pro/pricing/students.

Microsoft 365 (with Copilot)

Microsoft actually has two separate offers worth knowing about, and most students don't realize either exists. First, the base Office 365 Education plan — which includes web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Teams, and Copilot Chat — is completely free for students at eligible institutions, donated directly by Microsoft with no strings attached. If your school qualifies, you may already have access and not know it.

For students who want more than the browser-based versions, Microsoft is currently running a limited-time promotion giving college students 12 full months of Microsoft 365 Premium at no cost, just by signing up with a college email. That tier unlocks the full desktop apps across multiple devices, expanded cloud storage, and deeper Copilot integration baked into the productivity tools you're already using.

The practical advice here: check with your school first. If your institution is already enrolled in Office 365 Education, you have free access to the core tools without doing anything. The premium offer is worth grabbing separately if you need the desktop apps or want more storage.

Sign up at microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office.

What about ChatGPT?

OpenAI no longer offers a dedicated student discount for ChatGPT, but the good news is that GPT-5.2, one of OpenAI's flagship models, is currently available to all users at no cost. OpenAI also works directly with some universities to provide campus-wide access, so it's worth checking with your school before paying for anything.

A note before you spend anything

Most of these services have free tiers that handle basic tasks reasonably well. Before committing to a paid plan, check whether your college already covers any of these tools — many schools have institutional licenses for Google Workspace, Microsoft, or others. Spending money on software you already have access to is its own kind of homework mistake.

It should also be noted that a discounted subscription doesn't come with a free pass to use these tools however you want. AI policy varies wildly from campus to campus — some professors welcome it as a research aid, others treat AI-assisted work the same as plagiarism, and many fall somewhere in the murky middle.

A few major universities have published approved tool lists, but most haven't yet, so the safest move is to ask before you submit anything. Getting caught submitting AI-generated work as your own isn't just an academic integrity problem — it can follow you. These tools work best when they help you understand the material, not do the thinking for you.

At a glance, the pitch for The Sheep Detectives seems less like an actual movie that exists and more like an unhinged Mad Libs page: From the co-creator of TV's The Last of Us, Craig Mazin, comes a cozy crime comedy in which Hugh Jackman stars as a misanthropic shepherd, whose unexpected death spurs his furry flock into amateur investigating. Lending their voices to these sleuthing sheep are Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall, and Bella Ramsey. At the helm sits Kyle Balda, director of Minions: The Rise of Gru. And for good measure, the rest of the human cast includes the likes of Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, and Emma Thompson. 

Incredibly, The Sheep Detectives is a real movie. Frankly, it could have been a deeply stupid movie with bad CGI animation and a predictable solution, and I still would have been pleased that it even existed at all. I just love a big swing for its bonkers ambition. But props to Balda and his kooky cast, because The Sheep Detectives is so much more than silly fun. It's a smart parody of the detective stories with a cheeky sense of humor, a sensational ensemble, and an ending so poignant that I actually teared up! 

It might sound like sheer hyperbole, but I mean this sincerely: The Sheep Detectives is an utter crowd-pleaser sure to be one of the most entertaining movies of the year. 

If you love Only Murders in the Building or The Thursday Murder Club, you'll adore The Sheep Detectives.  Regina Hall as the voice of Cloud, Chris O’Dowd as the voice of Mopple and Julia-Louis Dreyfus as the voice of Lily in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Based on Leonie Swann's 2005 novel Three Bags Full, The Sheep Detectives begins on the farmland of George Hardy (a terrifically game Jackman), a lonely shepherd who dedicates his life to the care of his sheep. Through voiceover, George explains that he doesn't care much for people, but he loves his flock. Then, he introduces each ram, lamb, and ewe by name. There's the fluffy diva Cloud (Regina Hall), the spunky lamb Juno (Ramsey), the sage-like Mopple (O'Dowd), the rambunctious twin rams (both voiced by Brett Goldstein), and his favorites, the tawny-colored Lily (Louis-Dreyfus) and the surly black sheep, Sebastian (Cranston). 

At the end of each day, George settles down with the setting sun and a mystery novel, which he reads aloud to his sheep. He suspects they understand neither hide nor hair of these detective stories, but he treasures the tradition all the same. Little does George know that when speaking amongst themselves, the sheep compare notes each night, hoping to crack the case ahead of the novel's sleuth. It's always Lily who gets it right. So, when one morning they find George dead in their meadow, Lily leads the others in finding his killer. 

With Sebastian and Mopple at her side, she travels to the nearby village to size up the suspects, including a grimacing butcher (Conleth Hill), a rival shepherd (Tosin Cole), the rude bed-and-breakfast proprietor (Chau), and a mysterious stranger (Gordon), whose arrival in town is quite suspicious. 

Of course, while Lily and her flock understand English, they don't speak it. So, they'll need to figure out how to communicate their findings with investigative journalist Elliot Matthews (Galitzine) and the village's only police officer, Tim Derry (Braun). Along the way, they'll not only use what they've learned from George's books, but also face some hard truths about what it means to be a sheep. 

Cozy crime has a new masterpiece in The Sheep Detectives.  Nicholas Braun stars as Officer Tim Derry and Molly Gordon as Rebecca Hampstead in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Craig Mazin's script doesn't spoof detective stories. Instead, like Scream did for slashers, The Sheep Detectives draws attention to the tropes of its genre to better subvert them. Lily dedicatedly notes how motive, means, and alibis are all crucial pieces of information. But both she and the cop soon realize that solving a murder isn't as simple as a checking off the boxes in a game of Clue. Humor comes not only from the weird twists the investigation takes, but also from the inventive ways the sheep find to communicate their message to this clown of a cop. 

Braun is a solid fool in the role, bouncing not only off the CGI sheep, which are brought to life with animation that finds a cozy spot between photo-real and cutesy critter. He also plays the foil to smarter figures, like Galitzine's reporter, Gordon's could-be femme fatale, and Emma Thompson's lawyer, whose tongue is as sharp as her attire. 

Emma Thompson stars as Lydia Harbottle in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Alex Bailey / Amazon MGM Studios

Mazin shrewdly brings together archetypes from a cozy English village and from film noir to create a thrilling conflict of tone. Reflecting this mash-up, The Sheep Detectives repeatedly leaps from bouncy comedy to tense moments around the murder investigations. And Balda's ensemble manages each leap with grace. Louis-Dreyfus shoulders the lead, making Lily vibrant, determined, and on occasion rattled. Cranston recalls his Isle of Dogs performance, playing a mangy animal whose yearning to belong and fear for self-preservation are at odds. O'Dowd brings a dopey sweetness that matures into a solemn sincerity as The Sheep Detectives grapples less with the mystery than with the grief of George's death. As these sheep butt heads over the case, there's terrific tension because of how the animation and voice work knits together to create characters who feel absolutely real, even in their wacky scenarios. 

Allow me to give my favorite non-spoilery example. In this quaint village, where a festival consists of three small booths arranged in a line behind the bed-and-breakfast, every shop seems to have a neon sign. Not the expected hand-painted wooden sign announcing their shop name. Neon. I first noticed it at the butcher shop, where the grimacing butcher was interviewed under neon pink signs resembling butcher knives. Later, I saw the words "police station" emblazoned in blue neon. And then, during a walk-and-talk where much exposition was being laid down, we see two big green wrenches on the side of a building... in neon, of course. Then, the characters walk past a sign that serves as an explanation and punchline for a joke I didn't even realize was being set up. It read: "Nancy's Neon — huge discounts for locals." 

It's a small, blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag. But it had me cackling. And beyond that, it bolstered The Sheep Detective's genre-mashup by infusing the small English village coziness with the harsh lighting of a neo-noir neon signage. The Sheep Detectives is filled with thoughtful elements like this that reflect the layers Balda, Mazin, and their terrific cast have built in. 

The Sheep Detectives is fun for the whole family.  Laraine Newman as the voice of the Fainting Sheep and Hugh Jackman as George Hardy in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

For grown-ups who love a mystery to solve, The Sheep Detectives offers a murder case that is curious and not easy to crack. The suspects, played by dazzling comedic performers, are colorful, quirky, and even a bit cranky, adding a burst of energy to each interrogation.  

For kids who love animal movies, The Sheep Detectives smartly offers furry, funny heroes who offer life lessons in an easy-to-understand way. Sure, this movie involves death, murder, and grief. But there's no blood and little violence. Plus, death is not taken lightly by man or beast here. Actually, how Lily and her flock learn to face what has happened to George could be a learning moment for kids, as it's explained simply but sensitively. 

The humor here ranges from physical comedy to quips to visual gags and sheep shenanigans. And as such, The Sheep Detectives is a rare thing, a comedy unashamed to be a comedy. Yet with Mazin's eye for detail and Balda's skill for crafting sheer silliness, The Sheep Detectives is more. It's a feel-good movie that's sure to delight all ages. 

The Sheep Detectives opens in theaters May 8. 

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will test your knowledge of multiple American sports.

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.

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. The sports Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words, and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise 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 before the game ends.

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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: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. 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: Going, going...

• Green: AKA

• Blue: First name

• Purple: One of a kind

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Hard-Hit Baseball

• Green: NBA Teams With Singular Nicknames

• Blue: ____ Johnson

• Purple: What "1" Might Mean

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 #580 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Hard-Hit Baseball — FROZEN ROPE, LASER, LINER, SCREAMER

• NBA Teams With Singular Nicknames — HEAT, JAZZ, MAGIC, THUNDER

• ____ Johnson — FLAU'JAE, GUS, LANE, RANDY

• What "1" Might Mean — FASTBALL, PITCHER, POINT GUARD, TOP RANK

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.

Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest financial partner, will to continue to license the start-up’s technology but will no longer be its exclusive licensee.

TL;DR: Live stream Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs (Game 5)for free on YouTube. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Denver Nuggets are on the brink of exiting the NBA Playoffs. The Minnesota Timberwolves have so far managed to keep Nikola Jokić quiet in their first-round matchup, but can they finish the job at the Ball Arena in Game 5? Rudy Gobert will need to deliver another defensive masterclass.

If you want to watch Nuggets vs. Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs (Game 5) for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Nuggets vs. Timberwolves?

Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs starts at 10:30 p.m. ET on April 27. This game takes place at the Ball Arena.

How to watch Nuggets vs. Timberwolves for free

Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs is available to live stream for free on YouTube.

This free live stream is geo-restricted to India, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in India, meaning you can access free live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Stream the NBA for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a VPN (we tested ExpressVPN and it worked great)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in India

4. Visit YouTube

5. Watch the NBA for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Learn More

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer money-back guarantees or free trials. By leveraging these offers, you can watch NBA live streams without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch select games from the NBA before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the NBA?

ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing free live streams on platforms like YouTube, 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 secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream the NBA for free with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Amazon has the Magic: The Gathering Avatar The Last Airbender Jumpstart Booster Box on sale for $94.32, down from its $167.76 list price. That saves you $73.44 on 24 Jumpstart Boosters, each with 20 Avatar-themed Magic cards.

Opens in a new window Credit: Magic: The Gathering Magic: The Gathering Avatar The Last Airbender Jumpstart Booster Box $94.32 at Amazon
$167.76 Save $73.44 Get Deal

The Avatar: The Last Airbender expansion has been one of the most fun to hit the Magic: The Gathering trading card game in recent times, and it’s thankfully becoming more affordable in steady price cuts.

As of April 27, the Magic: The Gathering Avatar The Last Airbender Jumpstart Booster Box is on sale for $94.32 at Amazon, down from its $167.76 list price. That’s a 44% discount, saving you $73.44 on the full box. Since this display includes 24 Jumpstart Boosters, that works out to about $3.93 per pack before tax.

For anyone who’s recently jumped into MTG, Jumpstart boxes are designed to make getting into the game as easy as possible. Instead of drafting, deckbuilding, or sorting through a pile of singles first, you just grab two boosters, shuffle them together, and you’ve got a playable deck ready to go. 

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Lands are already included, so this is especially useful if you want something that works for quick games, newer players, or friends who like Avatar but haven’t fully fallen into Magic just yet.

This box comes with 480 cards in total, with 20 cards in each of the 24 packs. There are 46 possible Avatar: The Last Airbender-themed pack variants, letting you relive different scenes, characters, and elemental combos from the acclaimed Nickelodeon series. The packs can also be mixed with other Jumpstart boosters, giving you more ways to stretch the format later.

For more from the newest MTG expansion, you can grab the Strixhaven Play Booster Box for around $140. Meanwhile, Magic: The Gathering’s Final Fantasy Play Booster Box is still available for just under $185. 

Workers trying to log in to Microsoft Outlook experienced unexpected problems Monday morning, with some users receiving error messages and unexpected signouts.

On its official Microsoft service status page, the company confirmed that some Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise customers were experiencing a service interruption, directing them to X for more information.

The Microsoft 365 Status page on X stated that some customers were unable to log in to the email software.

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"We've discovered some users may experience intermittent sign‑in failures, including 'too many requests' errors, or unexpected sign‑outs. We're analyzing service telemetry further to identify any potential next steps and mitigation actions."

The platform DownDetector also reported a spike in user error reports beginning around 5 a.m. ET Monday morning, with a majority of users identifying login issues as the problem.

(Disclosure: DownDetector and Mashable are both owned by the same parent company, ZiffDavis.)

Microsoft Outlook also experienced an outage in January.

This is a developing story...