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GoFundMe has launched a centralised hub of verified fundraisers for victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting, Australia's deadliest such attack in 30 years. Sixteen people were killed in the shooting, including one of the two gunmen, while over 40 more were injured.

SEE ALSO: Grok spread misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting

On Sunday afternoon, two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration by Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Mass shootings are exceedingly rare in Australia, with the events of last weekend leaving the entire country reeling. The Bondi attack was Australia's deadliest mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people, an event which sparked major reform of gun laws. Australia is already working to further strengthen its gun control laws in the wake of the Bondi shooting.

Unfortunately, it isn't unheard of for scammers to prey on people's goodwill in the wake of such events by setting up fraudulent fundraisers. These charity scams typically claim they're raising money to support victims, but have no real connection to those impacted and no intent to give them the funds. 

To counter this, crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has created a hub of Bondi Beach shooting fundraisers which have been verified by its Trust and Safety Team. Those who wish to help the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting can donate to these fundraisers, which are also backed by GoFundMe's guarantee of a full refund if they do turn out to be fraudulent.

A memorial has been set up at Bondi for the victims of Sunday's mass shooting. Credit: Saeed Khan / AFP via Getty Images

There are currently four fundraisers featured in GoFundMe's hub. Two are raising funds to support the families of two victims killed in the shooting: 10-year-old Matilda and 41-year-old Rabbi Eli Schlanger. A third is in support of Ahmed al Ahmed, a 43-year-old shop owner who attacked and disarmed one of the shooters. He was shot multiple times in the arm, and is currently recovering in hospital. The fourth fundraiser is gathering money for both Ahmed and the families of the victims more generally.

As of writing, donors have given over $AU2.8 million ($1.9 million) to these four GoFundMe campaigns combined, spread across almost 48,000 individual donations. Over $AU2 million ($1.3 million) of this was donated to the GoFundMe for Ahmed, with many donors also leaving messages of support from around the globe.

"You showed us that Australia is home for all of us, and when it counts, we protect each other," wrote donor Zhen Liu.

GoFundMe regularly creates verified fundraising hubs for high profile events, having previously done so for multiple U.S. mass shootings.

Australians line up to donate blood at the Town Hall Lifeblood Donor Centre in Sydney the day after the Bondi Beach mass shooting. Credit: George Chan / Getty Images

Aside from contributing to fundraisers and laying flowers at Bondi, Australians have responded to the shooting by turning up in droves to donate blood. Long lines quickly formed at donation centres, breaking Australian Red Cross Lifeblood's previous record for most blood, plasma and platelets given within 24 hours.

"We’ve seen an overwhelming, record breaking response from the community," Australian Red Cross Lifeblood said on its official Facebook page. "Please consider donating blood or plasma in the coming weeks, as the need is ongoing into January."

As 2025 comes to a close, we're taking a moment to look back at the hardware, gadgets, and tech that defined our year. But instead of sharing a boring list all at once, we're counting down to the holidays in style. Welcome to How-To Geek Wrapped 2025.

When it comes to charging my devices, I want everything to be the fastest and most convenient possible. At one point, I even 3D printed my own MagSafe mounts to help with charging my iPhone at my desk, but when I got Anker’s new Prime Wireless Charging Station, it solved every power problem I had at my desk.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

Cheery.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

SUNNY

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A tiny green bug.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for December 16, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

APHID

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Cranky.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for December 16 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for December 16, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

MOODY

Hurdle Word 4 hint

A clique.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for December 16 Hurdle Word 4 answer

CABAL

Final Hurdle hint

Fruit-flavored gelatin.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

JELLO

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you're a film buff.

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.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable 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.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for December 16, 2025 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:

• Yellow: Get moving!

• Green: Lineage

• Blue: Films by an iconic director

• Purple: Musical sounds

Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Dances

• Green: Descendants

• Blue: Hitchcock movies

• Purple: Starting with percussion instruments

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 #919 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Dances: BOLERO, FOXTROT, MAMBO, QUICKSTEP

• Descendants: BROOD, FAMILY, OFFSPRING, POSTERITY

• Hitchcock movies: LIFEBOAT, ROPE, SPELLBOUND, SUSPICION

• Starting with percussion instruments: BELLHOP, CHIMERA, DRUMROLL, RATTLESNAKE

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.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for December 16, 2025

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 a good judge of character.

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.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

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.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for December 16, 2025 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for December 16, 2025 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Let me count the ways

The words are related to personality.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe positive personality traits.

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 High Praise.

NYT Strands word list for December 16

• Charming

• Funny

• Smart

• Beautiful

• High Praise

• Kindhearted

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.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're constantly changing.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. 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 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for December 16, 2025 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for December 16, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A shift.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

The letter E appears twice.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

SEGUE

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle 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.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for December 16, 2025

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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 Wordle.

Global internet traffic grew 19 percent this year. That's according to Cloudflare, which just released its "Cloudflare Radar 2025 Year in Review" report, a look-back on the year in online behavior.

As more and more humans are spending more and more time online than ever before, we're starting to see some cracks in the digital divide. This was the year that AOL dial-up internet officially died (RIP), but also a year in which satellite companies like Starlink brought the internet to some of the most remote corners of Earth.

The report also includes some revealing statistics on the state of the web in 2025. Cloudflare provides a broad range of internet services, and it's one of the core pillars that make up the infrastructure of the internet. The world was reminded of that this year when a Cloudflare outage led to downtime and errors for many popular websites and apps, such as Spotify, Google, Snapchat, Discord, and Nintendo.

Cloudflare also acts as a traffic gatekeeper of sorts for many websites, which also makes the company uniquely qualified to prognosticate about the state of the online world.

You can check out the entire report for yourself, but here are some key takeaways that stuck with us.

AI bots account for a lot of traffic

As AI companies send out crawlers and bots to scrape as much of the internet as they can, many websites are reporting spikes in bot activity. And the Cloudflare Radar report bears this out: AI bots now account for 4.2 percent of all HTML requests, the company says.

SEE ALSO: Merriam-Webster names "slop" the word of the year, and boy was 2025 sloppy Internet traffic primarily grew in the second half of the year

"Our ongoing reliance on the Internet is reflected in continued global Internet traffic growth," Cloudflare says. "This trend line starts mid-January, allowing for Internet activity to normalize following the return to work and school after the New Year."

The company's stats show traffic growing slowly and staying flat from January through July, then growing in the back half of the year.

Google is still the king of the internet

Google is currently sparring with OpenAI on the future of AI — but in terms of internet users, it remains unmatched.

Per Cloudflare, Google is the most popular internet service in the world, followed by Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. ChatGPT didn't even make the top 10.

Google also provides the "highest traffic Verified Bot" (GoogleBot), the top search engine, and the most-used web browser (Chrome).

SEE ALSO: GPT-5.2 vs Gemini 3 — How the two heavyweight models compare on benchmarks, price, and feature set Android is still more popular than iOS

Cloudflare found that Android devices account for 65 percent of online traffic, while iOS traffic makes up the remainder.

The company notes that this varies widely by region, with iOS adoption peaking at 70 percent in some areas. In the United States, iOS accounts for 56 percent of mobile traffic.

Starlink is helping the internet grow

Love Elon Musk or hate him, there's no denying that his Starlink service played a massive role in the growth of the internet this year.

Starlink saw a 2.3x growth rate over the past year, and that stayed pretty steady throughout. This year, Starlink and SpaceX recorded a major milestone — they launched their 10,000th satelite.

ChatGPT is the top AI service

The report found that ChatGPT is the most popular AI service (as opposite to internet service), which may come as no surprise. What was a surprise? Despite recent advances with Gemini 3, Google Gemini ranked only fourth, with Claude/Anthropic and Perplexity both outranking it.

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

The Apple TV app on Android now supports Google Cast, meaning it's easier than ever to stream the platform's shows and movies to other devices from your phone or tablet.

TL;DR: Store 8TB of your data for life for a one-time price with this FileLu Cloud Storage Premium Plan lifetime subscription, on sale now for $649.99 (reg. $1,600).

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With smartphones essentially glued to our hands, we’re constantly creating more data, and it has to be saved somewhere. If you’re looking for a cloud storage solution that offers enough storage to grow with you — without increasingly expensive subscription costs — it’s time to check out FileLu Cloud Storage.

Right now, you can secure 8TB of storage with a lifetime subscription to FileLu Cloud Storage Premium Plan for $649.99 (reg. $1,600).

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Stop spending a fortune on cloud storage month after month and own your cloud storage outright with FileLu. This service was designed for everyone, from professionals to families, and offers a safe, secure way to store your data for a one-time price.

FileLu Cloud Storage isn’t just more affordable, it’s also more private. All your file transfers are secured with SSL, and everything is encrypted to keep your content safe. If you need to share something, you can create shared storage spaces for family or coworkers, with no limit on how many you can create.

This lifetime subscription gives you 8TB of cloud storage space, with flexible upload options. Upload your content via the web, FTP, FTPS, WebDAV, Rclone, API, URL Upload, or FileLuSync. It will be speedy thanks to global CDN-powered speed for uploads and downloads, and you don’t have to worry about file size limits. You can even upload thousands of files simultaneously.

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Sometimes, the Merriam-Webster word of the year is predictable. And 2025 was one of those years.

Extremely unsurprisingly, the famous and venerable publisher of dictionaries and other reference materials declared "slop" its word of the year for 2025. According to Merriam-Webster, slop is defined as "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence," which feels pretty apt if you've been using the internet in the past calendar year.

The internet saw an explosion of slop in 2025. A slop volcano, if you will. On social media apps, music streaming services, video platforms, group chats, The White House X feed, and our inboxes, AI slop feels inescapable.

Slop might have been an easy choice for Merriam-Webster, but that doesn't make it wrong. This year, AI-generated nonsense and deepfakes proliferated across the internet like never before. Short-form video feeds are now full of cute but questionably real animal videos, and Facebook is overflowing with bizarre AI images of amputated soldiers holding signs that say "no one likes me." That last part is true, I've seen a ton of it.

So, why is 2025 the year of slop?

Big tech corporations worked hard to make sure the internet was filled with as much AI content as possible. For the first time, AI video models like Google's Veo 3 and OpenAI's Sora 2 made it possible to create realistic videos almost instantly. While a trained eye can usually spot an AI-generated video, it's getting harder and harder to tell if viral videos are real.

Meta even released its own short-form videos app specifically for watching AI-generated clips, and it wasn't the only big tech company that released an infinite slop machine in 2025. Generative AI has been around for a couple of years now, but 2025 felt like the tipping point, when companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta decided it needed to be a load-bearing part of their business strategies.

Heck, people are even talking about putting anti-deepfake clauses in their wills now. In 2025, AI went from being a curiosity to being ubiquitous, and "slop" exemplified that trend.

This had far-reaching consequences for internet vernacular, as "slop" became shorthand for anything generic and disposable, regardless of whether or not AI was involved. In the world of video games, for example, "friendslop" became a term for low-stakes cooperative multiplayer games in 2025. For others, the term applies to the latest output from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or any number of low-impact streaming-exclusive shows and movies. It's become synonymous with "content for content's sake," as it were.

Our own digital culture and tech reporters could barely keep up with the slop machine this year. From emotional support kangaroos and bunnies jumping on trampolines to sexual deepfakes and disturbing political memes, slop is everywhere you look. We even made some slop ourselves.

Slop can be harmless fluff, or it can have a darker side, but it's filling up the internet's trough like never before.

So, there's no denying it — 2025 was the year of slop, at least according to the dictionary of record. I can't really say they're wrong.

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

Whatever the occasion that has you looking for dad gifts (Father's Day, Christmas, Hanukkah), stay far away from clichés like whiskey stones and pocket knives. Unless your dad is an avid tie collector and seriously *lives* for ties, then avoid this played-out gift too. Instead, the best gifts for dads say, “I see your hobbies and I respect them." We've even got some unique ideas you may not have seen before. (We have two words for you: Fire. Harpoon.) From the latest gadgets from Apple, Sony, and Vizio to hip menswear finds, we think you'll find something your old man will love.

The free and open-source media center application Kodi just received another update. Kodi 21.3 is rolling out with some great improvements for Xbox consoles and Linux systems, as well as a pile of bug fixes for other platforms.

Look, we all know impossible guys who say they don't need anything. It's why finding Christmas gifts for dads is so notoriously difficult. But here at Mashable, we take gift-giving very seriously, and we're up for the challenge. We've spent the year testing the latest gadgets and reporting on the latest trends, from retro-themed Legos to new flagship noise-cancelling headphones. We've also got some unique gifts for men that probably wouldn't occur to you — one of the benefits of scouring the internet for a living.

Remember: The best gifts for men should make your guy feel seen. They should make him feel like you truly get him. So, before you click “buy” on something that will definitely require a gift receipt, let us take the wheel and show you some of the year's best gift ideas for men that are sure to make an impression — whether it's for Christmas, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, birthdays, or something else. And if you need even more gift ideas, check out some of our favorite gifts for boyfriends.

The em dash has emerged as a telltale sign of AI usage, at least in the popular imagination. It even has a name — the "ChatGPT dash." Right or wrong, the Internet is pretty well convinced that the em dash is a warning sign that you're reading something that's been written by generative AI.

There's actually a reason for this. AI is trained on basically everything that humans have ever written, and writers in particular use the em dash a lot. (Even presidential candidates have a tendency to overuse it.) Thus, AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Grok have learned that it’s a part of our flow, and they've gone out of their way to include this punctuation mark to make their output feel more natural. Research suggests that em dashes became twice as common right around the time when AI use started to go mainstream.

As a general enjoyer of the em dash, the revelation that the dashes were becoming telltale signs of AI use prompted me to smack my favorite button on the internet, and I have supported any and all pushback to the notion that my beloved em dash is an end-all-be-all giveaway when identifying AI-generated text.

SEE ALSO: How to identify AI-generated text

Of course, AI chatbots are regularly being updated, and AI companies are also getting wise to this complaint. So, Reddit users have been sharing other clues that a text was written by AI. In case you're curious, here are some of the top tells, although it's important to keep in mind that there is no tried-and-true way to detect AI, unfortunately. Real humans will use these writing techniques as well. 

“And honestly?”

Many Redditors have noticed that AI will ask “and honestly?” when making a point. In context, it would look something like this: 

“The sky is blue. And honestly? Blue is a pretty color.”

This kind of hackneyed sentence structure is apparently quite common from AI, and can be useful in picking out an AI-generated response. Typically, humans engaging on social media don’t tend to talk this way unless they’re being performative, so it definitely comes off as off-putting in general conversation. Many other Redditors came forward to complain about AI’s overuse of the phrase “And honestly?” as well as similar phrases like “The result?” and “The best/worst part?”

“No fluff”

The phrase “no fluff” doesn’t necessarily have a specific name like some other examples on this list, but it's another phrase that Redditors have claimed they’ve seen in AI-generated text all the time. There’s no example needed for this one, as “no fluff” is a self-contained phrase that means the same thing in every context. 

It's mostly used to denote that the text immediately following it is free from “fluff,” which is unnecessary filler words or phrases that add length without adding value. In practice, the addition of “no fluff” would indicate that the post is taking itself quite seriously while using an unserious phrase to back it up. Some AIs tend to use this more than others, per Reddit. 

The thing is, the phrase “no fluff” is intrinsically fluff, and many Redditors have expressed distaste in how often it’s used by AI. It seems to happen most often when users ask AI to get to the point quickly, while others point out that AI’s use of “no fluff” is analogous to humans using the phrase “not gonna lie.” 

Short, fragmented sentences back to back

Another common theme many Redditors noticed is AI’s tendency to use a lot of short, fragmented sentences for emphasis. This one is pretty common in day-to-day speak, but generally less common to have so many of them backed up against one another. My favorite example of this uses the prior example as well. 

“And honestly? That’s damn powerful. You’re not just changing. You’re evolving. I see it. Others see it. And that’s rare.”

The prior example is a total of eight sentences, and it really should be closer to three. Redditors have noticed that these short, janky sentences are used to convey emotional weight, like you might see in a novel or movie script. However, it seems as though AI has gone off the deep end with this mechanic, and its overuse is quickly becoming a telltale sign of either an AI-generated response or a very, very cringe writer. 

“It’s not X. It’s Y.”

In the same vein as short, emotionally charged sentences comes the “it’s not X, it’s Y” sentence structure that seems to be overused by AI. In practice, these types of sentences look like this: 

“This is not a rant. It’s a reflection. Not a complaint, but an observation. It’s not chaos, it’s clarity."

This is kind of a branch off of the short, fragmented sentences example from earlier, but it’s such a common occurrence within that subset that it warrants its own discussion. You may also see this described as “contrast framing.”

Redditors comment that they often catch AI doing both “it’s not X, it’s Y” and short, fragmented sentences in tandem. Once the pattern emerged, it didn’t take long for other Redditors to express their extreme distaste for this particular signal that AI is at work. 

Overuse of signposting

As someone who used to enjoy signposting, this one made me irrationally angry, but alas, AI has borrowed yet another literary device from us humans. Signposting is the use of words or phrases to guide the reader to the next part of the text. Here’s an example: 

“There are two things you should know. Firstly, item one. Secondly, item two. The key point is that there are two things.”

There are tons of examples of signposting words and phrases, including “in contrast,” therefore, however, “in addition,” and many others. This also may manifest in longer phrases like “the key point is” or “here’s the takeaway.” In an effort to sound more human, AI leans on these phrases to create a sense of flow in its responses, but Redditors have noticed that AI tends to rely on them way more heavily than the typical human. For now, users have gone out of their way to prompt the AI to not talk this way, but it rarely helps. 

Generic engagement prompts

This is mostly seen on social media. Most content creators use some sort of engagement prompt, arguably the most famous of which is “like, subscribe, and ring the bell” on YouTube. AI does something like this in text, but it tends not to flow as well. See below for an example. 

“This is what I have to say. I’m curious what others think.”

The phrase “curious what others think” is, by far, the most used example when it comes to generic engagement prompts in a social media message. This is most frequently found on LinkedIn posts and on Reddit. 

This particular thing has a caveat. Lots of humans use this phrase as well, and its use doesn’t necessarily mean that AI is being used. Redditors say that the key action is when accounts ask for engagement in this manner and then never engage back. Some users posit that AI does this because it’s learned from social media tendencies, but AI isn’t human, so it doesn’t (and can’t) respond back.

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

Although it feels like forever ago, we actually had a lot of new GPU launches in 2025. Their availability and pricing were both disappointing, but at least the benchmarks were nice to look at.

Jaguar isn’t exactly pumping out cars these days, but the brand still knows how to make headlines. The all-electric Type 00 concept teases where Jaguar wants to go with styling and tech, and yes, it’s divisive.

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Conduent, a business services company that provides healthcare billing, has begun sending notices to people affected by a massive data breach affecting 10.5 million people, making it one of the largest breaches of its kind. At least some of the affected individuals had their names and Social Security numbers exposed to an unknown third party, according to notification letters Conduent shared with state attorneys general.

Per The HIPAA Journal, the Conduent data breach would be the eighth-largest healthcare data breach ever recorded.

In a notice to Maine residents, Conduent states, "Presently, we have no evidence or indication of actual or attempted misuse of your personal information."

Conduent provides medical billing, Medicaid screening, toll collection, and a variety of other services to businesses and governments around the world, and thus has access to highly sensitive personal data.

Many states require entities to inform residents when their data has been exposed. In recent months, Conduent has begun sending notices to various state attorney general offices, as well as affected individuals, the company says.

The Oregon Department of Justice Consumer Protection Division reports that the breach affected 10,515,849 individuals. And in October, Conduent notified the New Hampshire Attorney General that "the personal information of the affected individuals included their name and Social Security number."

It is not clear if all 10.5 million impacted individuals had their Social Security numbers exposed, however. Mashable contacted Conduent for more information, and we'll update this story if we receive a response.

Conduent said that it became aware of the data breach on Jan. 13, 2025, and that an "unauthorized third party" had access to part of its system from Oct. 21, 2024 to Jan. 13, 2025.

"On January 13, 2025, we discovered that we were the victim of a cyber incident that impacted a limited portion of our network. We immediately secured our networks and initiated an investigation with the assistance of third-party forensic experts. Our investigation determined that an unauthorized third party had access to our environment from October 21, 2024, to January 13, 2025," reads the template of a notification letter sent to residents of Maine.

The letter also states that "Conduent has been working diligently with a dedicated review team, including internal and external experts, to conduct a detailed analysis of the affected files to identify the personal information contained therein."

Large-scale data breaches have affected many private and public organizations in recent years. Two data breaches at AT&T recently resulted in a $177 million class action settlement.

When cybercriminals gain access to private data, such as names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers, victims face a heightened risk of identity theft. If you believe your personal information has been exposed, you can take proactive steps to protect yourself from scammers and identity thieves.

Have a story to share about a scam or security breach that impacted you? Tell us about it. Email submissions@mashable.com with the subject line "Safety Net" or use this form. Someone from Mashable will get in touch.