Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Meta officially announced a sweeping round of layoffs today that will impact thousands of employees across the business, or about 10% of the company’s 78,000-person workforce. In a memo to employees today—obtained by Business Insider—Meta remained coy about the rationale for the layoffs, using the same language as in prior internal communications. “As previously shared, we have decided to reduce headcount as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” the company wrote in the memo, which was signed by “Meta Leadership” and offered no further explanation for the job cuts. It se…

Big Tech is on a spending spree, forecast to drop a staggering $650 billion on artificial intelligence (AI) in 2026 alone—and that’s just for Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. The companies are ramping up their investment in an increasingly competitive, high-stakes arms race, pouring hundreds of billions into massive data centers and semiconductors, in hopes of establishing a long-term strategic advantage in their quest to dominate the future of technology. With all four reporting earnings within the last week, Wall Street’s reaction may be an indication that investors are increasingly worried about the large spend, and relative payoffs, from the AI investments. …

Want to know how much you spent on Uber Eats this past year? If the answer is no, bad luck. Just days after Saturday Night Live dropped a satirical skit about an “Uber Eats wrapped,” Uber brought the feature to life with a year-end recap. Around this time each year, platforms from Spotify to YouTube start rolling out personalized recaps, breaking down how users spent their time over the past 12 months. The next logical step? A full accounting of every Uber trip taken and every guilt-ridden Uber Eats order placed this year. On Monday, the company launched its new year-in-review feature called “YOUBER,” which compiles users’ activity across both Uber and Uber E…

In 1998, five kids met in a cafe in Belgrade. Still in their 20s, they were, to all outward appearances, nothing special. They weren’t rich, or powerful; they didn’t hold important positions or have access to significant resources. Nevertheless, that day, they conceived a plan to overthrow their country’s brutal Milošević regime. The next day, six friends joined them and they became the 11 founders of the activist group Otpor. A year later, Otpor numbered a few hundred members and it seemed that Milošević would be the dictator for life. A year after that, Otpor had grown to 70,000 and the Bulldozer Revolution brought down the once-unshakable dictator. That’s how …

My earliest memory of travel insurance was the life insurance vending machines that used to populate airports up until the early 1980s. For those too young to remember this bizarre part of 20th century air travel, these kiosks offered very short-term life insurance policies that cost $2.50 (paid in quarters) for coverage of up to $62,500. Since these pre-travel policies were marketed to anxious flyers, it seemed clear the insurance companies were capitalizing on fear rather than offering a needed product. Over the intervening decades, I never revised my opinion of travel insurance. I’ve been lucky enough to never need travel insurance, but my family’s recent trip …

Every organization believes it’s in the productivity business. Every executive thinks faster, longer, more densely packed meetings equal better results. They’re wrong. The meetings that actually work—the ones where breakthroughs happen and teams leave energized rather than depleted—operate on a completely different logic. They’re designed around how human brains actually function, not how we wish they would. By helping organizations transform their cultures through my Move. Think. Rest. (MTR) framework, I’ve watched the same pattern emerge: Companies spend millions on the latest collaboration software and meeting tech, then squander the opportunity by applying the…

Your insurance needs change over time. The policies that work for a single, 20-something professional renting an apartment with three roommates may be completely wrong for the same person after marriage, babies, and a cozy mortgage in a good school district. If you’re struggling to determine how your coverage should change over time, the following guidelines can help. Auto insurance: Follow the bell curve Basic car insurance offers liability coverage, in case you cause an accident that injures a third party or damages their property. This is the kind of insurance that nearly every state in the nation requires drivers to carry. While liability coverage protects …

Big firms are fighting for talent and offering major perks to match. Here’s how you can position yourself to be in the middle of a bidding war. View the full article

If you’re finding yourself contemplating whether you can get an extension on this year’s tax return, you’re not alone. Forty percent of Americans still haven’t filed. There’s something almost perverse about the IRS placing tax day smack-dab in the middle of the loveliest month of the year. Want to enjoy the warm weather, cherry blossoms, and the sunshine reflecting off the pasty white skin of everyone venturing outside for the first time since last fall? Too bad! You have to excavate all of your financial decisions from the previous year while simultaneously trying to remember your math skills—or risk the wrath of an IRS agent named Spike. That’s why it’s somethi…

AI is already transforming how organizations operate, compete, and create value, and adoption is accelerating across industries. Businesses that are experimenting with AI and learning how to move from initial ideas to deployment are building the infrastructure to deliver value both now and in the future. Those that are waiting—for the technology to mature, for conditions to stabilize, for someone else to figure it out first—risk finding that a competitor has upended their market before they’ve even begun adapting to this new era. Given the current chaos in global markets and geopolitics, the temptation to avoid change and pursue a defensive strategy is strong. But it …

This month, Anthropic announced that it had built an AI model so powerful it couldn’t be released to the public. Claude Mythos had autonomously discovered thousands of critical security vulnerabilities across all major operating systems and web browsers. Anthropic chose to make the model available only to a consortium of technology companies, giving them an opportunity to patch vulnerabilities and strengthen defenses before models with similar capabilities inevitably fall into the hands of those who would exploit them. This development shines a light on the potential future dangers that the rapid evolution of AI models brings with it. These kinds of powerful models wi…

When I first ventured into self-employment a few years ago, I received a lot of advice from fellow freelance writers: Know your worth. Don’t take low-paying work. The advice was valid, as too much low-paying work is a recipe for burnout. But to the newly self-employed, I would say: Know your worth. And also, there are very valid reasons to take low-paying work, if it can help launch your business. You can open the right doors without selling yourself short. The project is good for your portfolio Potential clients will expect “proof” that your work is good—especially if it’s the type of work that can be displayed in a portfolio (design, video, writing, or…

The missed promotion. The botched presentation. The project that went sideways despite our best efforts. We’ve all been there, stuck in what I call failure’s funk: that heavy mix of shame, fear, and paralysis that keeps us replaying mistakes long after they’ve passed. In both life and work, this funk doesn’t just feel awful, it blocks learning. We’re so busy avoiding, denying, or criticizing ourselves that we miss the insight failure offers. We often hear that failure is life’s best teacher, but learning from it isn’t automatic. It doesn’t happen just because we failed; it happens because we do the inner work, reflecting, reframing, and choosing to respond differe…

Do you share your innermost thoughts with ChatGPT? You might want to think twice—or at least change your settings fast. View the full article

Large language models are quietly reshaping the way people write research papers—and scientists are catching colleagues using AI to do their work. View the full article

A few years ago, I discovered a tomato sauce recipe that was surprisingly simple: just canned tomatoes, butter, salt, and an onion. It inspired me to experiment, adding this and that each time to see how the flavor changed. Today, I’d call myself an amateur sauce expert. I know exactly how long it needs to simmer, what shade of red signals it’s ready, and how to improvise with whatever’s in the fridge. As my kitchen exploits remind me, experimentation is part of learning. It wouldn’t be the same if I’d just asked ChatGPT how to make sauce each time. I’d be outsourcing my culinary creativity and losing the teachable moments that come from trial and error. As New Yo…

It’s almost the end of the year, and for many, that means health flexible spending account (FSA) funds are set to expire. FSAs allow employees to set aside pretax money to pay for healthcare expenses such as copays, some medications, and deductibles. But many people aren’t aware that the funds don’t always roll over into the next calendar year after December 31. Sometimes, employers will provide grace periods of up to two and a half months past the end of the year to allow for extra time to use your FSA funds. Others may allow you to carry over up to $660 per year. But 33% of employers have a hard deadline, so if you don’t use your funds by the end of the year, they’r…

The AI revolution is redefining business and tech leadership—and no one is standing more squarely on the front lines than product leaders. Once seen as a behind-the-scenes role, the CPO is now one of the most powerful voices in the executive suite. In 2020, only 4% of the Fortune 1000 had a CPO, a number that has since ballooned to almost 50%. In the next few years, we expect to see that figure grow to 70%. At Products That Count, the nonprofit for product managers I chair, we’ve spent the past year talking to almost 1,000 CPOs at companies ranging from startup unicorns to Fortune 100 giants like Salesforce, Walmart, and Microsoft. What we’ve heard is clear: The o…

Raquel Urtasun is the founder and CEO of self-driving truck startup Waabi as well as a computer science professor at the University of Toronto. Unlike some competitors, Waabi’s AI technology is designed to drive goods all the way to their destinations, rather than merely to autonomous vehicle hubs near highways. Urtasun, one of Fast Company’s AI 20 honorees for 2025, spoke with us about the relationship between her academic and industry work, what sets Waabi apart from the competition, and the role augmented reality and simulation play in teaching computers to drive even in unusual road conditions. This Q&A is part of Fast Company’s AI 20 for 2025, our roundup…

In its early days, the odds seemed good that YouTube was destined for failure. After a false start as a dating website, it wasn’t clear whether the company could cover the cost of streaming video content, or avoid the fate of Napster, which was sued out of business for copyright infringement. But after getting acquired by Google in 2006, and deciding to share ad revenue with creators a year later, YouTube went on not only to survive, but also to revolutionize the entire media ecosystem—from “double rainbows” to the “Ice Bucket Challenge.” In 2024, YouTube took in $36.3 billion in ad revenue, and today it is the most-watched video provider in the U.S.—not just among s…

The average person changes jobs every two years and nine months, according to a survey by the career advice website Career Sidekick. If you work for 40 years, that translates to about 15 jobs—and 15 resignations. While the conversation can feel difficult, it’s important to be thoughtful about how you say goodbye, says Melody Wilding, author of Managing Up: How to Get What you Need from the People in Charge and human behavior professor at Hunter College in New York City. “A lot of people boomerang back to a company, team, or manager in a fairly short time,” says Wilding, who is also a contributor to Fast Company. “Having strong relationships with leaders and colleague…

A journalist is assigned a profile of a prominent politician on a tight turnaround. With the interview just hours away, she asks ChatGPT to generate a list of questions. Satisfied with the 30 questions churned out in under a minute, she shares them with her editor to make sure no stone is unturned. The editor nearly rewrites the list entirely. It’s missing questions about pivotal early-life experiences, why the senator dropped out of college, parting ways with her first campaign manager, and more. All of these missing questions stem from understanding the larger context and years of honing editorial judgment—the kinds of things AI can’t replace. Just as generative…

Imagine you need to organize a meeting with people in Portland, Tokyo, and Sydney at the same time. Off the top of your head, what’s a time that’d actually work for everyone? Don’t feel bad if you’re befuddled. Time zones are confusing! You can try to memorize the time difference between different cities, but even that only works some of the time. Daylight Saving changes the time in some places but not others, for one thing—and in the hemisphere opposite yours, it changes it in the opposite direction. That’s why you shouldn’t try to schedule meetings across time zones off the top of your head. No matter how crafty you may be, there are just too many factors to kee…