Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

In January, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, announced that it would use its chatbot to develop an AI tutoring system for more than a million students in El Salvador. The announcement came on the heels of similar ones from OpenAI, which is connecting students in Kazakhstan with its ChatGPT Edu services, and from Microsoft, which is similarly equipping students and teachers in the United Arab Emirates with AI-based tools and training. While other countries are executing on national infrastructure projects for the AI era and treating it as an economic imperative, here in the United States, we can’t seem to move past a narrative of how AI makes it easier…

In the high-stakes world of revenue orchestration, a quiet but costly friction is slowing down deals. It isn’t market volatility or budget cuts—it’s a fundamental disconnect between the generations tasked with closing the sale. Steve Cox, CEO of the newly merged sales tech powerhouse SalesLoft and Clari, sat down with me recently to discuss a startling finding from their latest report: generational conflict is costing sales organizations an estimated $56 billion in lost productivity annually. That’s not a typo. Billion, with a B. “When Boomers hear ‘AI makes you faster,’ what they really hear is ‘You’re too slow,’” Cox explains. Meanwhile, 39% of Gen Z sellers pre…

The Social Security Administration is rolling out some big changes to how it handles disability payments while also upgrading its customer service. The changes come in the aftermath of a major overhaul by DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, in 2025, which resulted in the layoffs of more than 7,000 workers. First, let’s take a look at disability payments. The new process aims to cut the time it takes to determine eligibility for Social Security, speed up the time it takes beneficiaries to receive their checks, and, according to the Washington Examiner, reduce the agency’s current backlog. The SSA had a backlog of claims that was on track to exc…

Jurors in a bellwether trial about the impacts of social media on children watched a deposition of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday that explored what the architects of Facebook and Instagram knew from internal research about the negative experiences of young users and how the company responded. New Mexico’s attorney general alleges that Meta violated state consumer protection laws in failing to disclose what it knew about the dangers of addiction to social media as well as child sexual exploitation on the company’s platforms. Attorneys for Meta say the company discloses risks and makes efforts to weed out harmful content and experiences — acknowledging that some ba…

Late last month, frozen food manufacturer Ajinomoto Foods North America announced a recall of roughly 3 million pounds of not-ready-to-eat products after customers reported finding glass in rice. In the U.S., many of the recalled products were sold at Trader Joe’s locations. Now that the recall has been dramatically expanded, with new products being pulled from the shelves. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On March 3, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) posted a recall notice announcing that Ajinomoto Foods North America was expanding its earlier recall to include an additional 33 million pounds of various ready-to-eat and not-re…

The job market is tough right now: AI résumé filters, the rise of ghost jobs, and waves of industry-wide layoffs. Many workers cling tightly to their jobs in this environment, a phenomenon known as “job hugging.” But a surprising number of mid-career millennials aren’t scrambling to avoid redundancy. Instead, they admit they’d prefer an external push out the door because the alternative—voluntarily navigating a chaotic job market—feels far too risky. And experts say it’s a trend that should leave the cohort right below millennials worried. A recent survey of 2,000 Gen Z and millennial workers in the US by online education platform ELVTR found that 37% of mill…

Starbucks customers who love collecting the company’s loyalty rewards stars for each dollar they spend are in for a change this morning. America’s No. 1 coffee chain is launching its revamped rewards program today, March 10. With it comes a tiered loyalty membership program and a new structure for earning stars and new rewards. Here’s what you need to know. The former Starbucks loyalty rewards system is no more Before today’s launch of the new rewards program, Starbucks’s previous loyalty system was more straightforward. Under the old system, which was in place from around 2019 until yesterday, there were no membership tiers. In that program, all Starbucks…

A streamlined application makes it easier than ever to apply to Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators. Here are six reasons why you should apply to our eighth annual BWFI program. 1. Brand exposure. Every ranked company and all those earning honoree status in a category will appear in the fall (September) issue of the magazine and on fastcompany.com. 2. Talent retention. Public recognition as a Best Workplace for Innovators honoree provides powerful third-party validation that enhances your ability to recruit and retain top talent. 3. Editorial access. Fast Company editors will review all applications; the application represents an opportunity to highl…

Few brands can point to a specific date for their downfall. For Sonos—once the darling of home audio—that date is May 7, 2024, when it rolled out a disastrous app update that left many of its 15 million customers confused by hardware and software features that were suddenly unusable. When all was said and done, more than a decade of brand trust was flipped like an off switch. Now Sonos is taking its first major steps to earn back trust and audiophile stature with a new brand strategy and the launch of two new speakers: the Sonos Play and Era 100 SL. The Sonos Play is framed as a “callback” to the original Play:1 speaker that invented the smart wireless speaker ca…

Google is rolling out new AI features designed to quickly flesh out Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides using data from the web and your existing Google files. The overall aim is to eliminate much of the busywork involved in filling out templated documents, transferring data from saved files or internet sources into spreadsheets, and tweaking slide presentations to add new facts and figures—all while reflecting the personal and professional preferences expressed in people’s previous work. “It’s not enough to simply generate a generic email or brief,” says Yulie Kwon Kim, VP of product for Google Workspace. “People want AI to understand your specific context, delivering result…

In 2012, NASA launched two probes into space: Van Allen Probe A and Van Allen Probe B. Their goal was to collect data on charged particles passing through Earth’s magnetic field. Those particles can wreak havoc on communications and other technologies on our planet, so understanding them is important. In 2019, the Van Allen Probes’ mission ended. With its fuel spent, the “A” probe is set to reenter Earth’s atmosphere today, and the parts of it that are not burned up upon reentry may crash onto our planet in the next 24 hours. Here’s what you need to know. Which probe is crashing? Thankfully, we only need to worry about one probe crashing into Earth to…

The parents of a girl critically wounded in a school shooting in Canada alleged in a civil lawsuit Monday that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI knew the shooter was planning a mass attack. OpenAI has said it considered but didn’t alert police about the activities of the person who months later committed one of Canada’s worst school shootings in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on Feb. 10. OpenAI came forward to police after Jesse Van Roostselaar killed eight people and then herself last month, saying the attacker’s ChatGPT account had been closed but that she evaded the ban by having a second account. The legal claim filed in the British Columbia Supreme Court alleged that OpenAI …

For over 40 years, “Mac vs. PC” has been technology’s most iconic rivalry. Yet in many ways, it’s been an indirect one. Apple, being Apple, has mostly stuck to computers with four-digit price tags—a rarefied territory where it can make the products it wants to make, not just the ones a given price point allows. Meanwhile, one of the best things about Windows PCs is that there’s something for everyone, including folks who don’t have a ton of money to spend. Every once in a while, though, Apple does ship something whose identity is defined by its attractive cost. I can’t think of any example more potentially impactful than its latest laptop, the MacBook Neo. It goes on sal…

Today Adobe is launching the public beta of its new AI assistant for Photoshop Web and Photoshop Mobile. The company’s impressive new assistant technology enables anyone to do seemingly flawless photo editing—Nano Banana style—by prompting the apps. Then it ups its power by giving you easy and precise ways to interact with that software—whether it’s via voice or using your finger to navigate the interface. Photoshop Mobile and Web have included AI features for a while. The web version already had Adobe Firefly generative AI features like generative fill and generative expand. The previous mobile version of Photoshop became truly usable because it smartly integrated AI to …

Everything from global turmoil to inflation has caused consumers to tighten their purse strings. While many businesses have subsequently reported lower sales, some companies are still seeing significant success. On Tuesday, March 10, The Lego Group announced impressive 2025 financial results that included a 12% increase in revenue year-over-year. The privately held Danish toy company reached 83.5 billion Danish kroner (DKK), about $13.2 billion, up from 2024’s 74.3 billion DKK, about $11.6 billion. Similarly, the company’s operating and net profit rose 18% and 21% YOY, respectively. Lego also reported a 16% increase in consumer sales, a figure it primarily …

If you’re traveling soon, some grueling wait times at the airport may be in your future thanks to a partial government shutdown. But to make matters even more complicated, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is not currently updating its sites during the partial shutdown, meaning fliers can’t easily check TSA wait times before heading to the airport. “Due to the lapse in federal funding, this website will not be actively managed,” the Department of Homeland Security, which manages TSA, wrote in a Feb. 17 statement. “This website was last updated on February 17, 2026 and will not be updated until after funding is enacted. As such, information on this websi…

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is planning to take his Pershing Square management company (PS) public. But in doing so, Ackman is taking an unusual route: He is also starting a new fund, Pershing Square USA (PSUS), and if you want to get in on the Pershing Square management company’s initial public offering (IPO), the only way to do so is to buy shares in the new fund first. Here’s what you need to know about Pershing Square’s IPO: Pershing’s combined IPO When announcing its intention to go public, Pershing Square Inc. also announced that it will launch a new fund called Pershing Square USA (PSUS), and investors in the new fund will receive a set number…