The Download: AI puzzles and a path to our nearest star system

AI models have progressed from solving only 18% of New York Times Connections puzzles in late 2024 to near-perfect performance by early 2025, highlighting both their rapid improvement and remaining gaps where humans still outperform them. Meanwhile, the nonprofit Fermi Explorer Mission announced a spacecraft using a novel AI-derived trajectory to reach Alpha Centauri by 2029, a journey that could take up to 80,000 years.