Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. Will native-AI operating systems run our computers in the near future? Samantha, the AI that Theodore falls in love with in the 2013 movie Her is actually an OS. That’s how he meets her: He buys a new OS called OS1 (“it’s not just an operating system, it’s a consciousness”) and “she” is its persona. Samantha becomes his intuitive and personalized companion to all his digital stuff, from email to video games. ChatGPT set off the generative AI boom in part because consumers (not just aca…

You’ve signed up to attend a conference or industry event, and when the day finally arrives, you probably experience some regret. Thoughts run through your head, such as “Why do I have to go?” “I have too much work to do.” “I won’t know anyone.” “I can make connections online.” Sound familiar? Entering a room full of strangers or, worse yet, people in your field that you admire can make you feel like you’re a kid again, walking into your first day of kindergarten. It’s intimidating, but worth it because nothing replaces live connections, says Rebecca Grinnals, cofounder of the luxury wedding and event business conference Engage! Summits. “You can’t put a price o…

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you carefully laid out all the context for your manager, only to have them cut you off? Or maybe you’ve found you’re eager to dive into the tactical details of a project while they keep steering the conversation back to vision. These moments can leave you frustrated and confused. You’re doing what seems logical, yet somehow it’s not landing. The good news is that these disconnects usually aren’t about your competency or the quality of your ideas— they’re about different styles. Studies have found that two primary dimensions shape how people communicate and approach their interactions at work. The first is dominanc…

In the short time since Graza’s 2022 launch, the wunderkind olive oil slinger has become a standout in a crowded market with its dynamic duo of extra-virgin olive oils: Sizzle for cooking and Drizzle for finishing—cleverly packaged in matte-green squeeze bottles. On Tuesday, Graza introduced its third product to the lineup, the high-heat cooking oil Frizzle. It’s being sold online as well as in select Whole Foods locations nationwide in squeeze bottles and a company-first nonaerosol spray bottle. Made from the remaining pressed olives from Graza’s flagship oils, Frizzle is extracted and refined without the use of chemicals or solvents. The natural refinement proc…

Struggling to get enough spinach in your diet? Rather than rustling up a salad or green smoothie, one TikToker has a rather unusual hack to ensure she hits her daily greens goal. “I call it dinosaur time,” TikTok user @sahmthingsup said in a video posted last month, wherein she stands over the sink and stuffs handfuls of raw spinach into her mouth. While it may not be the most appetizing way to consume the leafy greens, the food “hack” has already racked up more than one million views. “For added enrichment, put on a dinosaur documentary,” one user commented. Another added: “My life changed when I realized I could do this with any food I should be getting…

In mountain ranges around the world, glaciers are melting as global temperatures rise. Europe’s Alps and Pyrenees lost 40% of their glacier volume from 2000 to 2023. These and other icy regions have provided freshwater for people living downstream for centuries—almost 2 billion people rely on glaciers today. But as glaciers melt faster, they also pose potentially lethal risks. Water from the melting ice often drains into depressions once occupied by the glacier, creating large lakes. Many of these expanding lakes are held in place by precarious ice dams or rock moraines deposited by the glacier over centuries. Too much water behind these dams or a landslide into t…

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. In most companies, generative AI is full of contradictions. On one hand, 67% of business leaders predict that GenAI will transform their organization in 2025, according to a KPMG survey. On the other, just 36% of executives say their company has a well-defined vision for AI. The core issue: Nearly 2.5 years after ChatGPT’s introduction, most companies are still stuck in what I call “prot…

America’s love of chicken might only be matched by its love of celebrities. Now, this unexpected combination is turning out to be key for restaurant chains hoping to win over loyal customers. Leading consumer behavior and market research company Circana recently released its annual “Definitive U.S. Restaurant Ranking,” providing insights on the 50 largest restaurant chains in the country. The report revealed that a collective $1 million was spent by consumers in restaurants every minute, with 2024 marking the fourth consecutive year of growth in consumer restaurant spending. It comes as more recent data shows a troubling start to 2025 for some chains. McDonald’s, …

Francesco Ferretti had a problem. His research expedition to track white sharks in the Mediterranean was suddenly adrift—the boat he’d arranged had vanished into the pandemic’s chaos of canceled plans and family emergencies. With scientific equipment packed and a team of seven researchers ready, the marine biologist found himself scanning the horizon for solutions. It was then that Ferretti turned to six-year-old Yachts for Science, a matchmaking service linking wealthy boat owners with cash-strapped researchers. Soon, an owner of a private yacht offered to help. Though weather conditions limited their time on the water and forced a relocation between countries, t…

Over the last month, Jamie Dimon has rapidly emerged as one of the most vocal proponents of the return-to-office movement. During a recent appearance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the J.P. Morgan Chase CEO could not help but complain—again—about workers who were pushing back on RTO policies. When fielding a question about his recent colorful remarks on RTO, Dimon noted that it was only “people in the middle” who were unhappy about going into the office. “If you work in a restaurant, you’ve got to be in. You all may not know this, but 60% of Americans worked the whole time,” he said, seemingly in reference to the pandemic. “Where did you get you…

The Humane Society of the United States is going global. The nonprofit animal advocacy organization has officially rebranded as the Humane World for Animals to better communicate its existing, broader work. Beyond the local shelters it’s perhaps best known for, the group works on behalf of animals to combat wildlife trafficking, factory farms, and animal testing, among other causes, globally. The new name and look, which its sister organization Humane Society International also adopted, is an attempt to reflect that. Building a brand to communicate international advocacy The rebrand also follows existing international coordination among its former country-…

Living in Los Angeles and paying $1,000 a month for rent seems like a fantasy for many cash-strapped tenants, or a rental figure from decades ago. But a new proposal from architecture and design firm Gensler and the Pew Charitable Trust underscores the idea that more affordable urban living can be found in old, vacant office buildings. The analysis, which was initiated and funded by Pew and nonprofit Arnold Ventures, looks at the potential of a new kind of building conversion in Houston and Los Angeles, two U.S cities where this type of conversion would currently be legal. The aim is to build a better version of single-room occupancy units, or SROs, that have pr…

Kendrick Lamar. Drake. Lady Gaga. The charts of music streaming services pretty much all look the same these days, with familiar names dominating the top spots—except on up-and-coming Spotify competitor Audiomack. The current No. 1 album on Audiomack belongs to Nigeria’s Seyi Vibez, whose hypnotic Afrobeats tracks have amassed around 1.8 billion plays on the platform. Vibez is one of many African and Caribbean artists who have found breakout success on the platform. Many of them consistently draw larger audiences on Audiomack than on Spotify or Apple Music, largely due to the platform’s strong presence in local markets. “We are the most-used streaming service in a…

Betty White is making her mark on the nation’s snail mail. The beloved actor of “The Golden Girls” fame was celebrated with a new U.S. Postal Service stamp at a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the Los Angeles Zoo on Thursday. Fans that were crowded behind barricades cheered as a blue curtain dropped to reveal the stamp featuring a portrait of White against a violet-colored background with lighter shades of bubbly spots in a nod to her sparkling personality. She wears a blue polka-dot blouse and peeking out of her blond curls is an earring shaped like a pawprint. “When I was working on the stamp surrounding myself with Betty White videos and pictures, I felt lik…

During Milan Design Week—which encompasses Salone del Mobile, a furniture fair now in its 63rd edition, and Fuorisalone, the exhibitions held off-site—the Lombardian city transforms into a spritz-fueled celebration of all things design. Historic villas open their doors to become showrooms for new products and furniture, interior designers and architects flex their creativity in site-specific installations, and emerging practitioners debut work to an international audience that is eager to discover fresh, exciting ideas. And let’s not forget the brands. Milan Design Week has transformed from an interiors-focused event into a significant platform for fashion, auto…

The generative AI revolution has turned into a global race, with mixtures of models from private companies and open-source initiatives all competing to become the most popular and powerful. Many choose to promote their prowess by demonstrating their performance on common tests and levels within regular rankings. But the legitimacy of those rankings has been thrown into question as new research published in Cornell University’s preprint server arXiv shows it’s possible to rig a model’s results with just a few hundred votes. “When we talk about large language models, their performance on benchmarks is very important,” says study author Tianyu Pang, a researcher at S…

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the United States finds itself in the midst of another public health crisis. This particular pandemic is a psychological one: widespread loneliness and isolation. About half of adults in the U.S. report feeling lonely—what former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has characterized as an epidemic. The increase in social isolation has extensive costs for “schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished,” he wrote in 2023. As a business school professor who studies intergenerational relationships, I believe that our workplaces hold untapped potential for alleviating …

Spotify just opened up a new stream of revenue for podcasters. That is, if they’re uploading video. What was once an audio-first medium, podcasting is now increasingly filmed and produced. That started on YouTube, which is now racking up one billion podcast viewers a month. While Spotify has hosted podcasts for a decade now, the company is suddenly racing to stay competitive, rolling out new features and monetization tools. That includes their Partner Program, which allows podcasters to earn money directly from the streams of premium subscribers, so long as they’re using a video aspect. “We decided to focus on video because that’s where we see a lot of audiences…

The employees of bankrupt retailer Big Lots have had to live with a lot of uncertainty ever since the company announced in mid-December that it was going out of business and closing all its stores. Just over a week later, Big Lots announced that it had struck a deal with Gordon Brothers Retail Partners to transfer some Big Lots assets to Variety Wholesalers and other retailers. According to the announcement, that meant some Big Lots locations, between 200 and 400 stores, would stay open and operating, potentially saving thousands of jobs. Unfortunately, there’s yet no word on which Big Lots locations will continue to operate, leaving many Big Lots workers uncerta…

With the advent of generative AI and other advanced technologies like quantum computing, we are entering a period of massive innovation. It is likely we are about to see more future-facing products and services than we witnessed in the past 25 years. These companies will disrupt current industries and change the way we work, live, and play. This creates a new paradigm in how companies identify the best opportunities and how those ideas are developed, branded, and activated. For the past 40 years, I have had a front row seat to some of the world’s most valuable brands’ early days. Lexicon Branding played a role in developing names for hundreds of iconic brands and prod…

Morningside Park, a beloved neighborhood park in Miami with sweeping views of Biscayne Bay, will soon pilot an innovative approach to coastal resilience. BIOCAP tiles, a 3D-printed modular system designed to support marine life and reduce wave impact along urban seawalls, will be installed on the existing seawall there in spring 2025. BIOCAP stands for Biodiversity Improvement by Optimizing Coastal Adaptation and Performance. Developed by our team of architects and marine biologists at Florida International University, the uniquely textured prototype tiles are designed to test a new approach for helping cities such as Miami adapt to rising sea levels while simulta…

It’s a story that sounds almost too outrageous to be true. Deel, a $12 billion company in the HR tech space, is facing serious allegations of corporate espionage, according to a lawsuit filed by its competitor, Rippling. The lawsuit—filed earlier this month in a California court—claims Deel orchestrated a “multi-month campaign to steal a competitor’s business information with help from a corporate spy.” Rippling alleges that Deel planted an employee to infiltrate its operations, targeting customers in an effort to lure them away. According to the suit, the alleged spying lasted over four months. During that time, the employee (identified in court documents only by…

This year, high-profile companies like Amazon and JPMorgan have embraced strict policies to get their employees back into the office full time, eliminating the option of hybrid work altogether. With limited exceptions, workers who choose not to comply with these new mandates are unlikely to keep their jobs—let alone get a raise. One company, however, is willing to shell out thousands of dollars to lure workers back to the office. According to a CNBC report, the celebrity video platform Cameo has promised each of its employees an additional $10,000 annually in exchange for coming into the company’s Chicago-based office four days a week. “We really felt like we want…

Pretend you and 99 peers had to duke it out against a gorilla. Would your squad emerge victorious? That debate has been dividing the internet over the past few days. The conversation originally surfaced on Reddit back in 2020, when a user posed the question in the r/whowouldwin subreddit. It recently reignited after the question was put to X users last week. The viral post—now with over 288 million views—suggests that 100 men could defeat a single gorilla if everyone was “dedicated” to the task. Since then, arguments have raged across social media. MrBeast even joined the discussion: “Need 100 men to test this, any volunteers?” he wrote, alongside a fake thumbnail…