Tech
Mark Zuckerberg announces Muse Spark, the first AI model from Meta Superintelligence Labs
Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday that Meta Superintelligence Labs has reached its first major milestone: a new family of AI models called Muse, with the debut model, Spark, available now. In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said that Muse Spark now powers an updated version of Meta AI, which users can access online at meta.ai or in the Meta AI app.
"Muse Spark is the first step on our scaling ladder and the first product of a ground-up overhaul of our AI efforts," a Meta announcement stated.
Spark is designed to be particularly capable in areas tied to everyday personal use — tasks like visual understanding, health, shopping, and social content. Looking ahead, Zuckerberg said Meta is building products that go beyond answering questions, toward AI that acts as agents "that do things for you."
Future AI models in the Muse lineup will also include new open-source releases.
Muse Spark is the first big product from Meta Superintelligence Labs
The announcement marks the public debut of work that has been underway — and at times turbulent — since last summer. When Zuckerberg first laid out his vision for "personal superintelligence" in a July 2025 manifesto, the ambition was an AI that helps people pursue their own goals rather than one controlled from the top down.
To build it, Meta went on one of the most aggressive hiring sprees in recent memory, personally recruiting more than 50 researchers from rivals including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, and bringing in former Scale AI chief Alexandr Wang to lead its new superintelligence research group.
Then, just as quickly, Meta froze hiring altogether — citing routine budget planning — and restructured the team into four smaller units focused on research, superintelligence development, products, and infrastructure. Zuckerberg explained the pivot by saying he believes breakthrough AI work is best done by compact teams who can hold the full picture in their heads, rather than sprawling organizations.
The whiplash raised eyebrows amid broader market jitters about whether the AI boom is sustainable. An MIT study circulating at the time found the vast majority of companies deploying AI were seeing no financial return.
In his original manifesto, Zuckerberg drew a sharp philosophical line between Meta and its competitors, arguing that some AI labs want to concentrate superintelligence and pipe its output to humanity like a utility. Meta sees it differently, he said.
In Wednesday's Muse Spark announcement post, he once again framed the lab's founding goal as "putting personal superintelligence in everyone's hands" — with the underlying belief that empowering individuals, not centralizing intelligence, is how humanity moves forward.
Wednesday's Muse announcement will be the first concrete product to emerge from these multi-billion-dollar investments. (Meta allocated $72 billion in AI development in 2025 and is expected to spend up to $135 billion in 2026.)
Muse Spark: Benchmark performance
So far, Meta's Llama family of AI models has lagged far behind its rivals on AI leaderboards. Whether Spark lives up to the superintelligence branding remains to be seen, but after months of hiring drama, restructuring, and big-picture theorizing, Meta has finally put something on the table.
As Zuckerberg put it: "I'm looking forward to sharing more soon."
As part of its Muse Spark announcement, Meta Superintelligence Labs released its scores on popular AI benchmark tests such as Humanity's Last Exam (HLE), ARC AGI 2, and GPQA Diamond. These scores could not be independently verified at this time, but Meta did release information on its testing methodology for Muse Spark.
Overall, Meta reported mixed results when comparing Muse Spark to frontier models such as Claude Opus 4.6 Max, Gemini 3.1 Pro High, GPT 5.4 Xhigh, and Grok 4.2, with Muse Spark outperforming on some benchmarks and underperforming on others.
Meta released a table comparing benchmark performance for Muse Spark.
Credit: Meta
How to try Muse Spark from Meta
Muse Spark is available online now. Desktop users can access the new AI model online at meta.ai. Mobile users can also try Muse Spark in the Meta AI app. Additionally, Meta said that select users will be able to access a private API preview.
To compete with reasoning models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, Meta is also releasing a "Contemplating" mode for Muse Spark, "which orchestrates multiple agents that reason in parallel."
"This allows Muse Spark to compete with the extreme reasoning modes of frontier models such as Gemini Deep Think and GPT Pro. Contemplating mode provides significant capability improvements in challenging tasks, achieving 58% in Humanity’s Last Exam and 38% in FrontierScience Research."
Contemplating mode is not yet available; Meta said it will be released gradually at meta.ai, but did not provide a timeline for its release.
Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be a little easier if you love baseball.
As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections: Sports Edition?
The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. 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.
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:
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Yellow: East Coast
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Green: Back end
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Blue: They don't call it soccer
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Purple: Past and present names
Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: AL East Teams
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Green: First Words of Football Positions
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Blue: Premier League Managers
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Purple: Nicknames for the Dodgers Franchise, Over Time
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 #573 is…
What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?
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AL East Teams — BLUE JAYS, ORIOLES, RAYS, YANKEES
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First Words of Football Positions — DEFENSIVE, RUNNING, TIGHT, WIDE
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Premier League Managers — EMERY, GUARDIOLA, MOYES, SLOT
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Nicknames for the Dodgers Franchise, Over Time — BRIDEGROOMS, DODGERS, ROBINS, SUPERBAS
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you have a sweet tooth.
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.
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.
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
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:
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Yellow: Lippy
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Green: Gowns
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Blue: Played in Vegas
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Purple: Sweet treats
Here are today's Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: Cheeky
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Green: Dress measurements
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Blue: Cards in Texas Hold 'Em
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Purple: Last words of candy brands in the singular
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 #1043 is…
What is the answer to Connections today
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Cheeky: ARCH, FRESH, SASSY, WISE
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Dress measurements: BUST, HIPS, LENGTH, WAIST
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Cards in Texas Hold 'Em: FLOP, HOLE, RIVER, TURN
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Last words of candy brands in the singular: CAP, DUD, KID, MINT
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.
Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're constantly changing.
Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, 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.
By 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 preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Small change
The words are related to changes.
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe fine-tuning.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today's spangram is There I Fixed It.
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
NYT Strands word list for April 19
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There I Fixed It
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Adjust
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Modify
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Alter
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Improve
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Tweak
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Refine
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.
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