OpenAI released a new coding model today, GPT-5.3-Codex. The company said the new model has improved “reasoning and professional knowledge capabilities” and will operate 25 percent faster than its predecessor.

Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s chief rivals, also released a new coding model today, Claude Opus 4.6. Earlier this week, OpenAI also launched the Codex app for macOS, a new app interface for managing multiple AI agents at once.

Crucially, OpenAI says that the new GPT-5.3-Codex model is its “first model that was instrumental in creating itself.” Anthropic said something similar about Clade Cowork recently, and engineers at OpenAI and Anthropic say almost all their coding is now done by AI.

In a blog post announcing GPT-5.3-Codex, OpenAI wrote, “The Codex team used early versions to debug its own training, manage its own deployment, and diagnose test results and evaluations — our team was blown away by how much Codex was able to accelerate its own development.”

Why does it matter if an AI model helped create itself?

People who believe in the technological singularity, or “the singularity,” talk about a tipping point at which technology becomes self-improving, leading to an uncontrolled explosion of technological advancement. And now we have some real-world examples of AI improving itself. (At least, according to the AI companies behind the announcements.)

We don’t know exactly how much GPT-5.3-Codex was involved in its own development, but the news does reveal just how advanced frontier AI models have become, particularly in writing code.

“With GPT‑5.3-Codex, Codex goes from an agent that can write and review code to an agent that can do nearly anything developers and professionals can do on a computer,” the OpenAI blog post reads.

GPT-5.3-Codex is available now in the Codex app.

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.

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The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you’re proud to be an American.

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories

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

Here are today’s Connections categories

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

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 #970 is…

What is the answer to Connections today

• Cultural symbols of the U.S.: AMERICAN FLAG, APPLE PIE, BALD EAGLE, BASEBALL

• Collide with: BUMP, BUTT, KNOCK, RAM

• Blue things: BLUE THINGS

• Lees of Hollywood: ANG, BRUCE, CHRISTOPHER, SPIKE

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? Get all the Strands hints you need for today’s puzzle.

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.