Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Nearly a year after Adobe first teased video AI features, the company is finally bringing its new video AI model to market. Today, the company is launching its Firefly Video Model in public beta. The model comes alongside a new Firefly web application, which essentially gathers all of Adobe’s AI tools, including existing features like Text to Image and Generative Fill, under one roof. Users can access Firefly’s web app through two subscription tiers—Firefly Standard and Firefly Pro—which retail for $9.99 and $29.99 per month, respectively. [Image: Adobe]What is Adobe’s new Firefly video model?Firefly Video Model is Adobe’s answer to existing video models like Open AI’s S…

Featuring Monica Dinsmore, Head of Esports, Electronic Arts; Joe Franzetta, Head of Sports, Roku and Tony Khan, Founder, CEO, GM, and Head of Creative, All Elite Wrestling. Moderated by Yasmin Gagne, Staff Editor, Fast Company. When it comes to sports entertainment, networks and streamers are in heated bidding wars for exclusive rights, new leagues are disrupting incumbents, and the “esports winter” is thawing out to create new opportunities for the massive industry. Hear how execs from Roku, All Elite Wrestling, and EA Sports are rewriting the rules of their industries and shaping the future of sports entertainment. View the full article

A new artificial intelligence company from one of the cofounders of OpenAI is quickly becoming one of the most highly valued AI firms in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI) is in the process of raising in excess of $1 billion with a valuation topping $30 billion. Bloomberg reports San Francisco-based Greenoaks Capital Partners is leading the deal and plans to invest $500 million itself. Greenoaks did not reply to a request for comment about the investment. $30 billion might be well short of the $340 billion valuation OpenAI boasts, but it’s still well above many others in the space, including Perplexity, which has a $9 bi…

Are you suffering from “Zoom fatigue?” Exhausted from being on video calls multiple times a week, or even every day? Well, it may be because you’re sick of looking at your own face, according to a new study. That study, from researchers at Michigan State University and published in the journal PLOS One, discovered that “facial appearance dissatisfaction” could explain the weariness people are experiencing when using videoconferencing technology. Our increased reliance on virtual meetings in the workplace, especially with the rise of remote work, means we are spending a lot more time on camera, which has significant implications for workplace productivity and indiv…

In HBO’s hit show Succession, patriarch Logan Roy pitted his children against each other for the top spot of leading his media conglomerate. Those who’ve seen the show will know how it ends, but what if he took a different route? What if he established a collaborative, multi-generational leadership team to guide Waystar RoyCo into the future? Granted, it would have made for far less dramatic tension (and probably fewer award wins) for the show. But for Roy’s shareholders, it would’ve been a smarter move in a rapidly changing media industry. Succession planning is a non-negotiable principle for any thriving organization, yet it’s also one of the hardest to get right. …

A child-size table and small chairs make up the centerpiece of a playroom. It’s where children do crafts, host tea parties for their dolls, play hide-and-seek, and build forts. So it makes sense that people buy a lot of them: By 2030, Americans will spend an estimated $12 billion on play tables. [Photo: Bauen] The market is flooded with sets, ranging from inexpensive ones like Ikea’s $50 version to more design-forward varieties like Lalo’s $300 set. Still, husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Lynn and Cassidy Rouse believe there’s room in the market for a better-designed version. More specifically, they wanted to create a set that was indestructible, easy to assemble, us…

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Well, this year was a wild ride. As we turn the page to 2025, it’s time to set intentions and make our own agency New Year’s resolutions. If your company is anything like ours, you’ve already met with your internal teams to determine what steps you will take to level up this year. This isn’t one-size-fits-all. Your approach may look entirely different, depending on your: Ni…

The discovery of a huge unexploded World War II-era bomb caused transportation chaos in Paris on Friday that included the suspension of high-speed rail links with London and Brussels and the closure of a vital road artery in the French capital, hobbling France’s busiest train station, dashing travelers’ weekend getaway plans and giving commuters a major headache. The cascade of transport woes spread from the rail to the road network, with Paris police announcing the closure of the A1 highway and sections of the capital’s always-busy ring road around the city, as bomb-disposal experts worked to make the half-ton explosive safe. Eurostar, operator of sleek high-speed trai…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. There was a time when data centers were quietly built throughout the country…just another utility necessary to meet the need of businesses and consumers. Today, they’re bigger and more power hungry, and that’s drawing a new level of attention. So much so that, in a recent rezoning hearing attended by hundreds of residents, attendees expressed concerns about the proliferation of data and data cen…

Many things irk people about the way modern companies operate. Workplace communication tools and so-called enterprise social media platforms are among the low-stakes but high-impact bugbears. Reading through the latest dull update from that guy in accounts who continually spams the work comms platform, or worrying about when and how to engage with a problematic post can cause plenty of stress. Having to keep up with colleagues on a workplace communication platform annoys many. But new research suggests the much-maligned tools might actually serve a purpose—and can benefit workers and the businesses they work for. Princeton University professor Manoel Horta Ribeiro…

Does it feel to you like there are way too many AI assistants to keep track of? Between ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, DeepSeek, and others, it’s hard to remember what each one excels at—if anything. Beyond just the underlying differences in large language models, each AI assistant has its own features, integrations, premium features, and peculiarities. I’m writing this guide both for myself and for anyone who wants to stay informed about generative AI. While I have some reservations, I also think it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s available. Rather than getting into the technical details of how these AI assistants work, I’ll focus o…

In 1957, Hollywood released The Deadly Mantis, a B-grade monster movie starring a praying mantis of nightmare proportions. Its premise: Melting Arctic ice has released a very hungry, million-year-old megabug, and scientists and the U.S. military will have to stop it. The rampaging insect menaces America’s Arctic military outposts, part of a critical line of national defense, before heading south and meeting its end in New York City. Yes, it’s over-the-top fiction, but the movie holds some truth about the U.S. military’s concerns then and now about the Arctic’s stability and its role in national security. A poster advertises The Deadly Mantis, a movie released …

Whether you’re setting up a new Windows PC or looking to enhance your current setup, there are some life-changing apps you can grab for free that will transform how you use your computer. From screen grabbing to file searching to quick launching and more, these essential apps will supercharge your productivity—all for the low, low price of nothing. ShareX: Screen captures and then some Windows includes a basic screen-capture tool. Don’t settle for it, though: Get ShareX, which rivals even paid screen-grabbers. You can create custom-capture regions that remember your preferences, set up automatic uploads with instant-link copying, and configure workflows tha…

Elon Musk is a visionary genius to some, unpredictable and dangerous to others. Love him or loathe him, Musk’s personality looms as large as his net worth. This is consistent with decades of scientific research highlighting a strong connection between personality and entrepreneurial talent. There is a range of character traits and dispositions that make entrepreneurs different from others, especially when they succeed in their ventures. Psychologists often describe personality in terms of the Big Five traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) and also warn about the “Dark Triad” of darker traits (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, …

For about 20 years, Docusign has been known as a tool for collecting digital signatures—helping businesses replace paper forms with electronic versions that are just as secure and legally binding. Just over a year ago, the company announced its development of an “intelligent agreement management,” or IAM, platform. This platform uses AI not only to gather signatures but also to assist with creating new agreements and organizing contracts after they’ve been signed. These features contributed to strong earnings in Docusign’s most recent quarter, beating analyst expectations and helping customers transform contracts from hard-to-manage text files and paper printouts into act…

Global sustainability models are failing. They’ve been designed to showcase ethical trade and environmental responsibility, but they fundamentally misunderstand how global supply chains operate—especially the critical, unseen work at the beginning of essential value chains such as critical minerals. For decades, these models have burdened African merchants, miners, and farmers—the backbone of global industries from cocoa to lithium—while corporations further along the chain claim the benefits. The systems celebrate end products, like sleek electric vehicles (EVs) or iPhones, while ignoring the heavy lifting at the start of the work, where it’s most difficult. Th…

You’re applying for a job and made it to the next step in the hiring process: the dreaded personality assessment. Few people like to take these tests—especially when a job offer hinges on it. And are these tests even legit? You want to showcase that you’re right for the job, and some of the questions seem like no-brainers. For example, if you’re asked to assess statements such as “I like to learn new skills” by choosing from “strongly agree,” “agree,” “neither agree nor disagree,” “disagree,” “strongly disagree,” you’ll likely choose “strongly agree.” Others are more nuanced, such as being asked to complete this sentence: “When I set goals at work, I choose …

Duolingo launched 148 new language classes that were built by generative AI, the company announced Wednesday. The move, which more than doubles it current language offering, comes as the gamified learning platform is facing criticism for replacing contract workers with artificial intelligence. “Developing our first 100 courses took about 12 years, and now, in about a year, we’re able to create and launch nearly 150 new courses. This is a great example of how generative AI can directly benefit our learners,” Duolingo CEO and cofounder Luis von Ahn said in a press release. “This launch reflects the incredible impact of our AI and automation investments, which have…

In a 2014 commencement address at her alma mater Dartmouth College, TV writer and producer Shonda Rhimes told students, “Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means I am failing in another area of my life. If I am killing it on a Scandal script for work, I am probably missing bath- and storytime at home.” Her comments are true reflections of what work-life balance is, says Janna Koretz, clinical psychologist and founder of Azimuth, a Boston-based provider of therapy services. “When people think about balance, they think about it feeling good and being the right amount of everything,” she says. “I think—especially m…

Ben Sweeny, the salesman-turned-comedian behind that online persona Corporate Sween, says that bosses should waterboard their employees. “Some companies drown their employees with boring surveys and useless questionnaires,” he proclaims in a satirical video posted to LinkedIn a few months ago. “I drown my employees with two to three gallons of water, an incline table, and a hand towel.” Though the clip may seem racy for LinkedIn, a social network that’s earned a reputation as a reliable if buttoned-up venue for job networking, it has to date earned over 5,000 views and has reached over 7,000 unique members. And for Sweeny, its success is no surprise: Why shouldn…

Starbucks is shaking things up with a new approach to its cold drink cups. Instead of the usual clear plastic, many locations are now serving iced drinks in cold compostable cups—a big step toward cutting down on plastic waste. The switch officially rolled out on February 11 across 14 states, according to Fox Business. A Starbucks spokesperson confirmed that the company “switched to commercially compostable cups and lids as part of our efforts to reduce waste and meet local market requirements.” Right now, about 580 stores have made the change, which is just a small fraction of Starbucks’ 17,000+ locations in the U.S. But if you’re grabbing an iced coffee in Calif…

Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a new chip that it said showed quantum computing is “years, not decades” away, joining Google and IBM in predicting that a fundamental change in computing technology is much closer than recently believed. Quantum computing holds the promise of carrying out calculations that would take today’s systems millions of years and could unlock discoveries in medicine, chemistry and many other fields where near-infinite seas of possible combinations of molecules confound classical computers. Quantum computers also hold the danger of upending today’s cybersecurity systems, where most encryption relies on the assumption that it would take too l…

Siri Chilazi is a senior researcher at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Iris Bohnet is a professor of business and government at Harvard Kennedy School and co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program. What’s the big idea? Fairness is not merely a choice; it is a way of moving through the world. For life and work to exhibit more fairness, people need to embed fair behavior into everyday choices, routines, and systems. Everyone can show up in ways that allow for a diversity of people to be seen, heard, and valued at the table. Below, co-authors Siri and Iris share five key insights from their new book, Make Work Fair: Data-Dri…

The world is in chaos, and many of us wish this wasn’t reality but a video game. Coperni, the French fashion label, captured this sentiment in its recent Paris Fashion Week show. The brand’s designers—Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant—wanted to re-create old-school gamer culture, with the theme of “LAN Party,” which was an event in the ’90s where people would gather together to compete in video games. Coperni brought together 200 people to play games like Fortnite and Rocket League for 24 hours. The show captured the aesthetic of the ’90s, along with that era’s fascination with futuristic digital realities, like those depicted in films like Hackers and The Matrix. W…

Andy Merolla is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Jeffrey Hall is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the director of the Relationships and Technology Lab at the University of Kanas. What’s the big idea? Individually, most day-to-day interactions may seem trivial, but they add up to an important personal and societal opportunity. We all engage in our own unique ecosystem of everyday communication—our very own social biome. Meaningful engagement with others is critical to health and wellbeing, but we live in a time when any kind of engagement is dwindling. So, even if we don’t get ev…