Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

As demand for EVs declines, electric automaker Rivian is taking this time to adapt its business and expand its brand. Rivian’s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe joins Rapid Response to explore the company’s recent $5.8 billion partnership with Volkswagen, the ongoing risk assessment for self-driving features, and how Rivian’s AI-enabled ‘technological plumbing’ can accelerate the brand beyond incumbent manufacturers. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leader…

At its factory in Illinois, Rivian will soon use more than 100 retired EV batteries in an on-site power system that will help it save money on electric bills. The electric automaker is one of the first customers of Redwood Materials’s new energy storage business, which takes old or discarded EV batteries—in this case, from Rivian’s own vehicles—and deploys them in a second life on the grid. By making it possible to charge when there’s excess energy available and the cost of electricity is low, the project “can generate significant cost savings that directly contributes to a reduction in the cost of our vehicles,” says Andrew Peterman, who runs Rivian’s advanced en…

It doesn’t look like a Rivian truck, but a new electric bike took shape at the EV company. A startup called Also, which spun out from the EV maker earlier this year and raised $105 million, launched the $4,500 e-bike today, along with a delivery quad for logistics companies and another four-wheeler that consumers could use instead of a typical cargo bike. The idea sparked three years ago, after Rivian founder RJ Scaringe met with Chris Yu, head of product and innovation at the bike brand Specialized. “We connected over a really basic question, which is: why doesn’t that magical experience that you get out of a Rivian exist in anything smaller than a car?” say…

Since first appearing on the Masters of Scale podcast at the height of the Ozempic-Wegovy-Zepbound boom, Zach Reitano, CEO of Ro, has helped scale his company into a leading provider of branded GLP-1s—grabbing headlines with a 2026 Super Bowl ad featuring tennis champion Serena Williams and landing a major partnership with Novo Nordisk for the pill version of Wegovy. Now Reitano has new challenges to address: the long-term health unknowns of the medications, the cultural backlash to “Ozempic face,” and what this wave of disruption could mean not just for pharma but for the future of healthcare. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted…

Rob Reiner, the son of a comedy giant who became one himself as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation with movies such as “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally …” and “This Is Spinal Tap,” has died. He was 78. Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were found dead Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirmed their identities but could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Authorities were investigating an “apparent homicide,” said Capt. Mike Bland with the Los Angeles Police Department. The Los …

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are famously close, with a friendship that spans five decades. The actors were first seen together in The Godfather Part II, but their friendship has propelled them to do several other films together, including Heat and The Irishman. Today, they appear in a different creative project: a campaign for the luxury outerwear label Moncler. The campaign is premised on expanding the definition of warmth. Moncler, which is known for creating warm jackets, also wants to be known for the warmth of feeling between friends and loved ones. In the imagery for the campaign, De Niro and Pacino are captured in black-and-white by Platon, the renowne…

Robert Rodriguez wants to give you a cut of the action—in more ways than one. The director, writer, and producer behind movies including El Mariachi, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, and Sin City recently announced Brass Knuckle Films, a new initiative inviting fans to become investors in action films. Powered by global investment platform Republic, Brass Knuckle Films will allow everyday fans to back projects from Rodriguez’s production company Troublemaker Studios, share in the profits, and access perks including exclusive previews, set visits, discussions with Rodriguez and his creative team, and even the chance to have their own idea made into a movie. Each …

Robinhood said on Tuesday it is rolling back the event contracts that would let users bet on the result of the Super Bowl clash this weekend, after the online brokerage received a request from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The halt comes just a day after the launch of the product. Robinhood said it was “disappointed by the outcome.” “We are heeding their directive to cease offering these contracts despite the fact that the CFTC has not deemed Kalshi’s football championship contracts illegal,” said Lucas Moskowitz, Robinhood’s general counsel. Representatives for Kalshi and the CFTC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. …

Trading platform Robinhood, best known for introducing a new generation of traders to the stock market, crypto, and ETFs, is growing up alongside its customers, moving one step closer to becoming a full financial service company the likes of Fidelity or Charles Schwab. On Wednesday, the digital brokerage announced plans to launch Robinhood Banking this fall, a one-stop service that provides “traditional checking and savings accounts with luxury benefits,” as well as Robinhood Strategies, a wealth management product. Customers will need a Gold subscription, which runs $5 a month or $50 a year, to open those individual and joint checking accounts, which will allow u…

Stock trading platform Robinhood has announced its newest offering: the Robinhood Platinum Card. The upgraded option comes two years after the company unveiled its first credit card, the Gold Card. “We built the Gold Card to be the best card for everyday spending, and customer demand showed us there was room to push the boundaries even further,” Deepak Rao, the vice president and general manager of Robinhood Money, said in the announcement. “The Platinum Card offers higher limits, elite rewards and luxury benefits, and raises the bar for what customers should expect from a premium credit card.” Although you can request access, the new Platinum Card is invit…

Robinhood is betting that its customers want to trade on absolutely everything. On Tuesday, the popular stock-trading app unveiled a slate of updates to its prediction markets business, aggressively expanding into sports. Now, Robinhood users can trade contracts tied to specific professional football players’ performances, as well as pre-packaged combos for individual games. Early next year, customers will be able to combine up to ten outcomes — such as winners, spreads, and totals — into a single, custom-built contract. Robinhood’s news site, Sherwood, is also launching a new sports newsletter, Scoreboard. Eventually, Robinhood plans to launch contracts that sp…

As it faces a growing number of lawsuits alleging it helps facilitate child sexual exploitation, online gaming platform Roblox has unveiled a new age verification system. That system, however, could open it up a different sort of criticism. The popular app, which has roughly 151 million users, announced last week that it plans to require a facial age check for all users who utilize the Roblox chat system. User verification can be accomplished by either submitting a government ID or by submitting a selfie, which AI will examine to estimate the age of the user. The verification will begin rolling out in early December in select markets (which do not include the U.S.…

A new report has uncovered a community of Roblox players who digitally re-create and “play” through real-life school shootings. Known as “Active Shooter Studios,” or A.S.S., the group has attracted hundreds of fans on Roblox with detailed recreations of horrific mass shootings, including Columbine, Uvalde, and Parkland, according to a report published this week by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. The disturbing games are created by anonymous users using Roblox’s in-game tools and browser. In one game viewed by Bloomberg, more than 60 players surrounded a school holding pitchforks, chanting the white supremacist phrase “You will not replace us.” Th…

Roblox, a gaming app used by nearly half of the entire U.S. population of under-16s, has rolled out a new mandatory safety feature to put a stop to children communicating with adults on the platform. Starting on January 7, players in the U.S. were required to submit to facial age estimation via the app to access the chat feature, although age verification remains optional to play the games themselves. Users in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands are already required to complete an age check to chat with other users, but the requirement will now roll out to the U.S. and beyond. The verification is being processed by a third-party vendor, Pers…

A group of internet businesses, including Roblox, Google, OpenAI, and Discord, have cofounded a nonprofit called Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST). The new organization will fund free, open-source tools for online businesses to promote online safety, says Naren Koneru, Roblox’s vice president of engineering, trust, and safety. The move follows years of efforts by Roblox to restrict inappropriate messaging on its platform, which is widely used by children and has at times come under fire for not doing enough to combat sexual content and adult sexual predators. And while human moderators are part of that equation, AI and automation have become critical for in…

A new mandatory safety feature requires Roblox users in the U.S. to submit to facial age estimation via the app to access its chat feature. The online gaming platform announced it was implementing the system to prevent children younger than 16 from communicating with adults. About 42% of Roblox users are younger than 13. But a cursory scroll on eBay found that various listings of age-verified Roblox accounts are available for purchase, some for as little as $2.99. This allows the purchaser to sign in to the account without having to use any ID or facial scan, voiding the new safety feature Roblox has implemented. The description of one listing (since removed) rea…

Roblox is updating its child protection features again, rolling out restricted Kids accounts for users ages 5 through 8 and Roblox Select accounts for users 9 through 15, both with parental controls and other age-based restrictions. Users will be required to go through an age verification process, generally based on live selfies or a government-issued ID—or be effectively restricted to content approved for the youngest users. Since January, age verification has also been required to use the platform’s chat features, with users under 18 generally restricted to chatting people relatively near to them in age. “We’ll be going through a transition period where we’ll…

Roblox is stepping up its age verification system for users who want to privately message other players and implementing age-based chats so kids, teens, and adults will only be able to message people around their own age. The moves come as the popular gaming platform continues to face criticism and lawsuits over child safety and a growing number of states and countries are implementing age verification laws. The company had previously announced the age estimation tool, which is provided by a company called Persona, in July. It requires players to take a video selfie that will be used to estimate their age. Roblox says the videos are deleted after the age check is …

The Ford Mustang Mach-E cruises down a London road choked with traffic, using its onboard AI system to avoid jaywalkers and cyclists, and navigate roadwork as it drives to its destination. The autonomous vehicle from British startup Wayve Technologies is on a test run ahead of the U.K. government’s robotaxi trials set to launch in the spring. Tech companies including U.S. company Waymo and China’s Baidu also plan to take part in the pilot program, making London the latest arena in the global robotaxi competition. While self-driving cabs aren’t new, London’s ancient road layout and busy streetscapes could pose special challenges for the technology. There’s also skeptici…

In 1933, construction workers building the Rockefeller Center in New York City put up a tree around Christmas to celebrate the season. This simple action unintentionally started a beloved holiday tradition the whole world would come to enjoy. Fast-forward to tonight, and a much larger tree will be illuminated, signaling that the holiday season has officially begun. The 2025 Rockefeller Tree Lighting ceremony will be televised tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Here’s everything you need to know about the jolly event, including how to tune in. The 411 about this year’s Rockefeller Christmas tree Every year, head gardener Erik Pauze tirelessly searches for the perfect tre…

Shares in Rocket Lab Corp were heading for their second day of gains on Monday after the aerospace manufacturer was named as one of four companies that will build tracking satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA). The stock (Nasdaq: RKLB) was up more than 4% in premarket trading on Monday as of this writing. That’s in addition to a jump of 17% on Friday when the news was announced. Share are now trading at record highs. What did the Space Development Agency announce? The SDA, a unit of the United States Space Force, said on Friday that it awarded four companies with contracts to build 72 satellites—or 18 apiece—with the aim of expanding missile …

Shares in Rocket Lab Corp were heading for their second day of gains on Monday after the aerospace manufacturer was named as one of four companies that will build tracking satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA). The stock (Nasdaq: RKLB) was up more than 4% in premarket trading on Monday as of this writing. That’s in addition to a jump of 17% on Friday when the news was announced. Share are now trading at record highs. What did the Space Development Agency announce? The SDA, a unit of the United States Space Force, said on Friday that it awarded four companies with contracts to build 72 satellites—or 18 apiece—with the aim of expanding missile …

It’s easy to forget how big a splash the first Roku box made when it debuted on May 20, 2008. At launch, the device worked only with Netflix, best known at the time as a mail-order Blockbuster rival that was just ramping up its streaming service. The 10,000 movies and shows you could watch skewed toward the random and musty: Back then, Netflix’s mail-order DVD service offered 10 times as many titles. But the $100 Netflix Player by Roku took a process that had been geeky at best—getting internet video onto a TV—and made it approachable and affordable. In the unassuming gadget, wrote The New York Times’s Saul Hansell, “I think you can see the future of video.” Hanse…