Technologies

Claude’s Research Feature Can Now Spend 45 Minutes Looking for Answers

Anthropic announced better research skills and new software integrations for its flagship gen AI tool.

Anthropic’s Claude generative AI model can now spend more time searching for answers to your queries — if you pay for the right plan.

Claude can also integrate with other apps, including PayPal, Cloudflare, Jira and Confluence, with more expected soon, Anthropic announced in a blog post on May 1. Anthropic also expanded the ability to access web search to include all paid plans.

This year, the AI industry has been in a race for new and more useful features, and research is a big part of it. Google’s Gemini has a tool called Deep Research that is available to all users for free. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Deep Research mode is available to anyone with a paid plan. (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.)

These deeper research tools can search the web and pull together more complete answers to your queries. The AI models will often cite the source of information, although you should still verify it because of the risk of errors known as hallucinations.

Regardless of what AI tool you use, «the thing about this is you’ve got to check the sources. It’ll make up the sources too,» Alex Mahadevan, director of the MediaWise media literacy program at the Poynter Institute, told me.

Anthropic said its improved research function can spend five to 45 minutes finding and reviewing sources. Those sources can come from internal sources — like your own documents or apps you’ve connected — or from external sources it finds on the internet. The model breaks requests down into smaller parts and handles each separately, then compiles a full report.

The advanced research function is available in beta on Anthropic’s Max, Team and Enterprise plans. The Max plan starts at $100 per month. Anthropic said it will soon be available on the more affordable Pro plan, which costs as little as $17 per month, depending on how you pay.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, May 2

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 2.

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.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword was going pretty smooth for me until I hit 7-Across. I had the final four letters, but it seemed like the first letter should be R, which would not work. Thankfully, 1-Down was so easy, I was able to figure it out from that answer. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. 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 at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Do some legwork?
Answer: SQUAT

6A clue: Deep, narrow valley
Answer: GULCH

7A clue: Worn and shabby
Answer: TATTY

8A clue: Word below «To» on a gift card
Answer: FROM

9A clue: $2.90, for a N.Y.C. subway ride
Answer: FARE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «___ Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band»
Answer: SGT

2D clue: Fancy word for «beverage»
Answer: QUAFF

3D clue: Prefix with marathon for a race over 26.2 miles
Answer: ULTRA

4D clue: Line memorizer
Answer: ACTOR

5D clue: Herb often paired with rosemary
Answer: THYME

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

To Celebrate May the 4th, Ask Alexa These Star Wars Questions

Hrrmmm. Your Amazon virtual assistant, talk like Baby Yoda you can make. Yes, hrrmmm.

Alexa, May the Fourth be with you. For Star Wars Day, May 4, fans may choose to celebrate by watching Star Wars movies, or by scooping up games or merchandise. But if you have virtual assistants that use Amazon’s Alexa, such as an Echo or Dot, you can get your Star Wars fix for free from the comfort of your couch. Admittedly, there are not a whole galaxy of options, but try out the questions and commands written in bold below.

Alexa, tell me a Baby Yoda joke.
Alexa, tell me a Star Wars joke.
Alexa, how cute is Baby Yoda?
Alexa, talk like Baby Yoda.

Want some galactic humor? You can ask Alexa to tell you a Star Wars joke or even more specifically, a Baby Yoda joke. («What’s Baby Yoda’s favorite bedtime story? Goodnight, That’s No Moon.») You can ask her, «Alexa, how cute is Baby Yoda?» or ask her to talk like Baby Yoda, but in my experience, she only has one or two answers for each of those, so don’t keep repeating your requests.

Space Images From NASA and Beyond Make Star Wars Feel Very Real

+15 More

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Alexa, begin my Jedi lessons.
If you really want to educate yourself like Luke Skywalker, saying «Alexa, begin my Jedi lessons» will set her off with nine lessons in the world of Star Wars. Welcome, Padawan!

May the 4th: The 41 most powerful Star Wars spaceships, ranked

+39 More

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Alexa, use the Force.
When I tried this, Alexa offered up Star Wars jokes, mostly, but occasionally some interesting movie trivia. Did George Lucas really take the inspiration for the Millennium Falcon’s shape from a hamburger with a bite out of it? Sounds like he did. Alexa knows her Star Wars stuff.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 2, #221

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 221, for May 2.

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

Connections: Sports Edition features a fun mix of categories today. The blue and purple answers jumped out at me, and hint — the purple ones might have done so because I live in Seattle. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Getting ready to play.

Green group hint: Not South Carolina.

Blue group hint: Think Tour de France.

Purple group hint: Long-gone teams.