Technologies

Elk with tire stuck around its neck for years finally freed

Wildlife officers in Colorado had been trying to track down the elk for two years.

Over the weekend, a bull elk in Colorado had a great weight taken away. The 600-pound (272-kilogram), 4.5-year-old elk had been wearing a tire around its neck for at least two years. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers finally caught up to the animal, tranquilized it and removed the tire.

The officers had to cut off the elk’s antlers to get the tire off, but that’s not as horrifying as it sounds. Bull elks shed their antlers annually, so this one will just be ahead of the curve.

«We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tire off in any way possible,» wildlife officer Scott Murdoch said in a statement on Monday.

Thanks to an alert from a local resident, the officers swung into action on Saturday and tracked the bull to where it was hanging out with a herd of about 40 animals.

The successful attempt came after a series of other tries. It took a few minutes to free the elk from its burden, reverse the sedation from the tranquilizer and let it rejoin its herd. The tire was full of wet pine needles and dirt, so the elk should be feeling quite a bit lighter after the removal.

The operation was a long time in coming. The elk first came to the attention of Colorado Parks and Wildlife back in mid-2019. A 2020 video detailed the elk’s predicament and efforts to track it down.

The officers reported the elk was in surprisingly good condition, with a little hair rubbed off and a small wound on its neck. «I was actually quite shocked to see how good it looked,» Murdoch said.

The elk isn’t the only wild animal to end up in a difficult situation. The agency said it has seen elk, moose, deer and bears entangled in everything from hammocks to holiday lighting to laundry baskets.

«The saga of this bull elk highlights the need for residents to live responsibly with wildlife in mind,» Colorado Parks and Wildlife said. «That includes keeping your property free of obstacles that wildlife can get tangled in or injured by.»

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 9, #1634

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 9, No. 1,634.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little tricky. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has two vowels.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with E.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to being insulting or derogatory.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is SNIDE.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Dec. 8, No. 1633 was GRAVY.

Recent Wordle answers

Dec. 4, No. 1629: TULIP

Dec. 5, No. 1630: AMONG

Dec. 6, No. 1631: WAIST

Dec. 7, No. 1632: FLUTE

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, Dec. 9

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 9.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s a tough one today, and might take longer than usual. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Apt profession for someone named Rosemary or Ginger
Answer: CHEF

5A clue: Get to go, as leftovers
Answer: BOXUP

7A clue: Word that can precede Bowl or Glue
Answer: SUPER

8A clue: Intense anger
Answer: RAGE

9A clue: «Cut that out!»
Answer: STOP

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Stephen Colbert’s network
Answer: CBS

2D clue: Noted group of 24
Answer: HOURS

3D clue: One living abroad, informally
Answer: EXPAT

4D clue: Spanish for «fire»
Answer: FUEGO

6D clue: Do some kitchen work
Answer: PREP

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Technologies

AI Saves Workers Less Than an Hour Each Day, New OpenAI Report Shows

AI adoption is rapidly expanding across industries, but workers are saving only 40 to 60 minutes per day, on average.

OpenAI’s 2025 ‘The State of Enterprise AI’ report provides an in-depth look at how businesses are using AI tools within real companies. Drawing on anonymized usage data from more than 1 million business customers, along with a survey of 9,000 workers at nearly 100 organizations, the report presents a picture of increased AI adoption and integration in the workplace.

«Across surveyed enterprises, 75% of workers report that using AI at work has improved either the speed or quality of their output,» the report states. Also, the report says that «75% of users report being able to complete new tasks they previously could not perform.»

However, the productivity gains might not be as universal and widespread as anticipated: on average, ChatGPT Enterprise users save less than an hour of time per day, according to the report.

Below is a breakdown of the report’s major findings.

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Report shows productivity gains, but it’s not universal

Despite the hype surrounding AI at work, the latest data from OpenAI suggests that the reality for most employees is modest. In its report, the company says that on average, ChatGPT Enterprise users save only about 40 to 60 minutes per active workday.

That’s not nothing, but it’s nowhere near the sweeping productivity overhaul that many hoped for. In a workday filled with meetings, emails and tool overload, an hour reclaimed can feel like a minimal benefit rather than a tidal shift in productivity.

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

A few key findings

The report finds AI adoption within companies is growing fast. Weekly messages in ChatGPT Enterprise have increased nearly eightfold in the past year, and the use of structured workflows, such as custom GPTs, has risen 19 times. Companies are pushing more complex prompts, too, with reasoning-token usage increasing more than 320-fold.

But the outcomes don’t scale at the same rate. Workers say they complete certain tasks more quickly — like IT troubleshooting, campaign creation and coding improvements — yet the day-to-day gains still add up to roughly an hour on average.

A divide between heavy AI users and everyone else

OpenAI’s data shows a widening gap between «frontier» users — defined by OpenAI as those in the 95th percentile of adoption intensity — and the average worker, however.

Frontier employees send about six times more messages than average users. Unsurprisingly, these heavy users report bigger gains of over 10 hours a week. They build workflows around AI, automate routine tasks and turn the tool into a dependable co-worker instead of an occasional assistant. Though arguably, around 2 hours per day of saved time is still relatively moderate.

OpenAI frames the report as a snapshot of where enterprise AI stands today, rather than a final verdict. The company suggests that future gains could come not from the model itself, but from how organizations reshape processes and workflows around it.

But for most workers, AI is still a sidekick. Useful, but not transformative. It helps speed things up. It may even make some work less tedious. But the typical worker saving under an hour a day points to a technology that is powerful, yet still limited. The big question now is whether those numbers will keep climbing, or whether an hour a day is closer to the ceiling than AI enthusiasts want to admit.