Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

When it comes to artificial intelligence, a handful of publicly traded companies tend to dominate the discussion. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla get the lion’s share of the attention – and deservedly so. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find a host of other companies laying the groundwork for the next layer of AI disruption. Futurum Equities, a new division of the tech research company Futurum Group, has compiled a list of disruptors, who despite not being among Wall Street’s vaunted Magnificent 7, are making waves in the AI world. Rankings were derived using a proprietary algorithm that examines both the company’s current stat…

Let’s face it: The fact that AI is amazing is no longer all that … amazing. The technology is under ever-increasing pressure to prove its real-world value for consumers, businesses, and researchers in specific contexts. These honorees in the applied AI category are proving AI’s worth for fashion advice, pharmaceutical advice, coding, and much more. Alta For bringing AI to personal styling For people who lack style expertise or time for outfit planning, the task of choosing what to wear can be a daily frustration. Alta built a personal AI stylist app that generates outfits based on users’ actual wardrobes, lifestyle, budget, weather, and upcoming events—whether they’re …

LinkedIn is often seen as the purview of recruiters and thought leaders. But the professional networking platform is quietly attracting a rather unexpected audience. According to recent data, 18- to 24-year-olds now make up 20.5% of its user base. That tracks, as college students and recent grads enter a cutthroat job market, eager to build a personal brand and online résumé that might help them stand out from the competition. What’s more surprising is that high schoolers are also getting in on the game younger than ever, treating the platform as a means to get ahead. High school students are discussing how having a professional online presence before even beginn…

President Donald The President signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks. The shutdown magnified partisan divisions in Washington as The President took unprecedented unilateral actions — including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers — to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands. The Republican president blamed the situation on Democrats and suggested voters shouldn’t reward the party during next year’s midterm elections. “So I just want to tel…

Pharrell Williams has high hopes for the Met Gala, the first to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years to have a menswear theme. “I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that,” he recently told Vogue. “It’s our turn.” Indeed. And welcome to the first Monday in May. How to watch the 2025 Met Gala Vogue will livestream the gala starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on Vogue.com, its YouTube channel and across its other digital platforms. Teyana Taylor, La La Anthony and Ego Nwodim will host th…

At a time of broken climate pledges and an economy-wide bearhug of automation and artificial intelligence, the dominant themes of the recently announced 2026 National Design Awards—climate action, sustainability, dedication to craft—are a refreshing reset. Rewarding innovation and impact among U.S.-based designers, the awards are both an honor and a pulse check on the state of design. This year’s group of winners represent a diverse group of practitioners and firms exploring ways that work in design and the arts can counteract environmental catastrophe and re-center the human hand in shaping the future. Honorees include the indigenous underpinnings in the textiles…

Curving walls of clay brick and the dappled light of a forest canopy make up the design of the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion, the annual architectural installation that has become one of the field’s most prestigious commissions. This year’s pavilion is being designed by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo of LANZA atelier, a Mexico City-based architecture studio. An annual installation outside the Serpentine art gallery in London’s Kensington Park that is freely open to the public from June through October, the Serpentine Pavilion is high-brow design that’s unusually accessible. Isabel AbascalAlessandro Arienzo Hitting the premise on the nose, LANZA atelier’s desi…

The torches designed for Milano Cortina 2026, next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Italy, were made in service of the flame. Named Essential, the reusable, ultra-minimalist torch has a flared, open-top design meant to show viewers how the flame is generated because “what’s important isn’t the torch, but the flame,” Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti tells Fast Company. The design is meant to showcase the flame in motion. “The open-top design is crucial to how the flame comes to life,” explains Ratti, who designed the torch with his eponymous firm, Studio Carlo Ratti Associati. The torches were developed by Eni and Versalis, both official supp…

Here’s a sentence that’s likely never been seen before in human history: The 2028 Olympic Games have an official air taxi. Archer Aviation, an electric air taxi company based in California, announced that it’s been named the Official Air Taxi Provider for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, as well as for the Paralympic Games and Team USA. Archer’s electric air taxis will be zipping around the skies in Southern California during and around the Olympics, shuttling VIPs, athletes, and anyone else who books a ride around various sites in the greater L.A. region. That includes Dodger Stadium, SoFi Stadium, Hollywood, and LAX airport. Archer’s CEO, Adam Goldstein, t…

Last week, in subway stations and train cars across all five boroughs of New York City, stark black-and-white print ads appeared featuring a variety of servile messages. “I’ll never leave dirty dishes in the sink,” one read. “I’ll never bail on our dinner plans,” another said. “I’ll binge the entire series with you,” a third promised. The ads—which rolled out on September 25 in the form of more than 11,000 car cards, 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels—are part of a massive outdoor campaign for Friend, a wearable AI company billed as a portable “companion.” Since the campaign rolled out, it has received overwhelming criticism from local New Yorkers, with…

Imagine a Yelp-style user-review site that lets users generate and post AI video reviews of local businesses. Say one of these videos presents a business in a bad light, and the business owner sues for defamation. Can the business sue the reviewer and the review site that hosted the video? In the near-to-immediate future, company websites will be infused with AI tools. A home decor brand might use a bot to handle customer service messages. A health provider might use AI to summarize notes from a patient exam. A fintech app might use personalized AI-generated video to onboard new customers. But what happens when someone claims they’ve been defamed or otherwise harmed by s…

As always, many of this year’s best apps are ones you’ve probably never heard of. Sure, there are some big names on this list, particularly in the buzzy field of artificial intelligence, but the real standouts of 2025 innovated on a smaller scale. They give you better ways to take notes or remember things, write with just your voice, have fun snapping photos, or even indulge in some gaming classics. For this list, “apps” include desktop and mobile software, along with browser extensions and web tools. Some apps are entirely new, while others received transformative updates that make them worthy of a fresh look. Hopefully, you’ll discover something that quickly bec…

Recently, I overheard a conversation at a local coffee shop: “Thank god for the new administration and finally taking a stand against DEI,” said one of the men to another, as they sipped their coffee. “It’s ridiculous and unfair, completely ruining work. We can finally get back to business.” I leaned in a bit further to try and listen in as I paid for my Earl Gray tea. “Well . . . I’m not sure that’s entirely true,” the other man said hesitating. “I think that . . . ” “Finally, we can get back to raising standards,” the other individual interrupted. “It’s about time! By the way, are you going to the game next week?” The other individual looked uncomfortable as the co…

I’ve sat across from enough designers to know that the moment someone starts questioning whether to leave their role, they rarely lack options, they lack permission. And most of the time, that permission is being held hostage by a story that got repeated so many times it just became as normal as talking about the weather. Now I’m not talking about fear you can name and argue with. What I’m describing is different. Quieter. It’s the background noise that makes staying feel like wisdom and leaving feel like recklessness. It shows up in how designers talk about their timelines, their readiness, their gratitude. And it is, almost without exception, learned. The script…

A smooth retail experience depends on efficient shipping and hassle-free purchases, two elements that can create significant cost implications for retailers. These honorees in the commerce category are developing infrastructure that can make more efficient use of freight trucks, streamline theft detection, and ease the checkout process in warehouse club environments. Flock Freight For reducing inefficiency in truckloads When it comes to freight trucks, wasted space is wasted money. Flock Freight estimates that the equivalent of one in three trucks runs empty because of inefficient deck-space utilization. The Certified B Corporation has built on its patented Shared Truck…

The coming years offer an opportunity to transform education. AI can provide precise insights about student needs and deliver lessons in a way that resonates with students’ interests and learning style. However, the technology also raises questions about academic integrity and the future nature of learning and teaching, questions that emerging tools are taking thoughtful approaches to addressing. Amira Learning For accelerating literacy with AI and neuroscience The Amira Reading Suite is designed to capture virtually every aspect of a student’s reading performance, using AI and neuroscience to prioritize instruction needs. Thanks to a partnership with Anthropic, the plat…

“We are fully committed to AI adoption,” the CEO told me, proud of the company’s recent employee training initiatives. “But is AI just another tool in their toolbox, or a new way of working?” I asked. Silence. “Your number one enemy is the lack of an answer to this question,” I continued. “Your employees are hearing doomsday predictions about how AI will soon eliminate their jobs, so they resist and reject these technologies. Most importantly, they have no idea who they will become after AI is adopted,” I concluded. This isn’t the first time I’ve witnessed this overly enthusiastic, roll-the-dice approach to AI. Once again, technologists are scaring business leaders in…

I have spent the better part of a decade helping thousands of first-time founders raise their first round of outside capital, and evaluating thousands more for investment. In all of these data points, I found a pattern that explains every single VC round. In the last six months, I’ve seen this pattern play out more dramatically than ever before. Founders are failing to raise without ever really knowing why. I find myself bringing it up again and again to help folks who are raising. So I decided to write about it. Because every founder should know exactly where they fall, and plan accordingly. The only 3 types of rounds in venture capital There are three core reasons …

For home business owners, developing executive presence can significantly impact your credibility and influence in the market. What skills do you think are essential for establishing your presence? Confidence: Demonstrating self-assurance in your decisions and actions can inspire trust and respect from clients and partners.Communication: The ability to articulate your ideas clearly and persuasively is crucial for engaging your audience and driving your message home.Composure: Maintaining a calm and collected demeanor, especially in challenging situations, can enhance your leadership perception and decision-making abilities. Have you worked on building your executive pres…

Over the last decade, dozens of cities have reshaped streets around cycling and slower, safer, healthier travel. Take Paris: at rush hour, boulevards that were once packed with cars are now filled with thousands of people on bikes, newly planted trees, and cleaner air. In a detailed new analysis, the urban design consultancy Copenhagenize ranked 100 global cities on how far they’ve come to make it easier to bike—examining everything from changes in bike infrastructure to whether cities are promoting cargo bikes for delivery and teaching kids to bike in school. Nearly all top-ranked cities are in Europe, where strong pro-bike policies have lowered speed limits, added se…

In a Rye, Colorado, cattle pasture now subbing for the moon, an otherworldly vehicle bumps along a scrubby course of furrows and mounds, weaving around rocks and kicking up a fine dust. It’s an open-concept machine dubbed Falcon—a silver solar-powered rectangular frame on wheels, with a partial roof, windowless sides, and a spacious cockpit flanked by monitors and steering controls. An engineer sits in one of its two seats for safety as the vehicle autonomously navigates around obstacles to a location dictated by Mission Control 160 miles away. Suddenly, a wheel hits a rock, and Falcon halts, relaying real-time feedback to Mission Control. There, an operator revises a co…