Stocks Slip; Consumer Outlook Up Slightly

Two in-form teams vying for European qualification meet at St. James' Park.

If you’re like any other AI aficionado, you’ve probably been testing all the latest image generators on the market. You may have noticed a perceptible change over the past few months, particularly in how hyper-realistic these images have become—almost eerily so. While major tech firms like OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft face multiple lawsuits over the use of written content, including cases brought by authors and organizations like The New York Times, less attention has been given to the use of images of actual people. AI image generators are artificial intelligence tools that can whip up images in seconds based on just a few words.

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer. 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.

TikTok said it could go dark on Sunday, the day the ban is set to take effect. Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesTikTok may go dark Sunday unless Biden ensures the ban won't be enforced. The Supreme Court upheld a law requiring TikTok's US operations to be sold by Jan. 19 or face a ban.

A startup called Scenexus has unveiled plans to build digital twins of cities around the world. A spin-off from Dutch research organisation TNO, Scenexus launched this week with a new platform for urban planning. The software blends multiple datasets to clone entire cities and regions. Planners and engineers then use the replicas to precisely analyse the impacts of their ideas.

Four billion years ago, Earth was a fiery, tumultuous world of molten rock, volcanic eruptions, and toxic skies, with searing heat and the constant threat of asteroid impacts. Thankfully, our planet has cooled off a bit since then. Nevertheless, the Earth still radiates vast amounts of geothermal energy. It’s a clean, limitless, always-on power source lying beneath our feet — we just have to dig for it.