Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

For 40 years, Cisco has been best known for building routers, switches, and other networking technology that connects computers within offices, data centers, and across the internet. Cisco’s also a software business, known for its cybersecurity products and familiar applications like the conferencing and communications platform Webex. And last year, the company announced the $28 billion acquisition of big data company Splunk, part of Cisco’s growing role in powering data-driven AI technology. Cisco also last year named Jeetu Patel as executive vice president and chief product officer, with the goal of breaking down barriers within the company as it bets big on provi…

It’s hard to imagine any industry not having to contend with the deepening sociopolitical division in America—brand marketing included. McCann Worldgroup’s intelligence unit Truth Central creates studies on what their clients are grappling with including data privacy, wellness, and Gen Z. And the past few years have paved a clear path toward their latest study: The Truth About America, which the team exclusively unveiled this weekend at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. “We saw that not just our clients in America but our clients everywhere were asking more and more questions about America. What is going on in this moment? How do we navigate this market?” says Laura…

One of the most effective factors in containing the spread of HIV has been the widespread availability of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). A PrEP regimen—which has grown to include daily pills or injections every few months—can decrease the chances of HIV infection by up to 99%. To build on those gains, in 2021, the federal government, under the Affordable Care Act, mandated that health insurers fully cover PrEP, as well as clinical visits and the labs required every three months. But an upcoming hearing before the Supreme Court could upend that mandate. The case—brought by six individuals and two companies—is focused on whether mandating coverage of PrEP violates the …

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. This week, Zillow economists published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will fall by 0.9% between April 2025 and April 2026. After a series of downward revisions—beginning in January, when Zillow’s 12-month national home price forecast was +2.9%, and subsequently lowered each month until reaching -1.7% last month—Zillow has finally stopped downgrading its outlook. That said, it’s fair to call the Zillow economist bearish, given that for this forecast to be correct, 2025 …

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. We all want our companies to make a real difference, but how often does our message truly cut through the noise? It’s a complex challenge: How do we ensure our genuine efforts to create social impact actually resonate with the people we want to reach? Because in today’s world, simply doing good isn’t enough; we need to communicate the impact of that work effectively to build trust and inspire re…

Life is full of bittersweet moments, such as when children leave a happy home to strike out on their own. Big Bear bald eaglets Sunny and Gizmo, the offspring of California’s internet-famous eagles Jackie and Shadow, are getting ready to do just that. And the eagle family’s one-million-plus social media followers can watch them fly from the nest for the first time. This act is known as fledging and can happen anytime between 10-14 weeks old. The official fledge window for the eaglets started on Tuesday, and fans who love watching the eagles on the live nest web camera operated by the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) hope the eaglets take their sweet t…

In the middle of a Monday workday, I found myself writing fanfiction for a stranger on the internet who wanted to read a scenario of themselves with a pit of quicksand. I was logged onto “Your AI slop bores me,” a new gamified website designed by programmer Mihir Maroju. The site is a parody of popular chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Except instead of asking an AI your most random, silly, out-of-left-field questions, “Your AI slop bores me” directs your requests to an actual random person on the internet. “In a world looming with the threat of ai stealing your job, save humanity by stealing ai’s job,” the site’s description reads. Accord…

Lawrence Cappello is an award-winning professor of U.S. legal & constitutional history at the University of Alabama and a graduate of New York City Public Schools. He is the author of None of Your Damn Business: Privacy in the United States from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age (University of Chicago Press) and a certified information privacy professional (CIPP/US & CIPM). His work on the right to privacy has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, The Hill, and other media outlets. What’s the big idea? In an age of constant connectivity, privacy can feel like a thing of the past—but award-winning professor Lawrence Cappello makes…

A New York-based AI startup called Hebbia says it’s developed techniques that let AI answer questions about massive amounts of data without merely regurgitating what it’s read or, worse, making up information. To help generative AI tools answer questions beyond the information in their training data, AI companies have recently used a technique called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG. When users ask a question, RAG-powered AI typically uses a search-engine-style system to locate relevant information it has access to, whether that’s on the web or in a private database. Then, that information is fed to the underlying AI model along with the user’s query and an…

Another food recall is underway: “Berry Buddies, berries & pancakes” breakfast snack packs sold at Kroger and Meijer supermarkets in 13 states have been recalled after it was discovered that packaging failed to list wheat and eggs as ingredients on the label, according to an announcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The item includes fresh blueberries and mini pancakes, and is generally found in the refrigerated section, produce aisle, or deli departments of the stores. Not including these ingredients on the label poses a risk of serious reactions to those allergic to either or both wheat and eggs. Here’s what you need to know about the re…

During Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Democratic Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota asked him about his stance on people who take antidepressants. “I know people, including members of my family, who’ve had a much worse time getting off of SSRIs than they have getting off of heroin,” Kennedy responded. While many of Kennedy’s beliefs are questionable, he’s voicing a common misconception around SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Approximately 13% of Americans take SSRIs, which are a type of antidepressant that work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. …

Apple Watch sales are enduring a years-long backslide. While Apple first launched its watch in 2015, sales didn’t spike until the pandemic, when consumers were highly focused on their health. But competitors quickly caught up, with fitness-focused companies like Garmin integrating more smart technology. Meanwhile, Apple stumbled in adding compelling new features—getting into some legal spats along the way. For the past three years, Apple Watch sales have declined year-over-year, according to research firm IDC. In 2022, Apple sold 43 million units; by 2024, that number dropped to 34 million. The Apple Watch also lost market share, falling from 29.6% to 22.5%, while…

On Friday, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar in the northern part of the country. Reuters reports the quake’s epicenter was about 17.2 km (about 10.6 miles) from Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city with a population of about 1.5 million people. The quake destroyed buildings, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure in the country. So far, 1,700 people have been confirmed dead and 3,400 injured, but officials say the final death toll may pass 10,000. The quake also hit neighboring Thailand, bringing down a 33-story building with people inside. In Myanmar, the effects of the natural disaster are intensified due to the civil war the country has…

Scam calls are turning the world on its head. The Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimates that scammers stole a staggering $1.03 trillion globally in 2023, including losses from online fraud and scam calls. Robocalls and phone scams have long been a frustrating—and often dangerous—problem for consumers. Now, artificial intelligence is elevating the threat, making scams more deceptive, efficient, and harder to detect. While Eric Priezkalns, an analyst and editor at Commsrisk, believes the impact of AI on scam calls is currently exaggerated, he notes that the use of AI by scammers is focused on producing fake content, which looks real or on varying the content in messages d…

Daters: It might be time to spring clean your dating app profile. More than 50% of young Americans have gone on a date with someone who looked different from their profile photos, according to a new survey from dating app Hily. That’s led 54% of Gen Z and 62% of millennial daters to either end a date early or decline a second one, Hily found after surveying 3,700 dating app users earlier this month. “For a variety of reasons, quite a few people don’t regularly update their profile pics, some not even when their looks change,” the company wrote in an accompanying blog post. “Women tend to be afraid of being judged for their appearance, while men feel like the …

When the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena in January, Patricia Lopez-Gutierrez and her children had to flee from the house they’d been renting for a decade. Lopez-Gutierrez also lost work: She’s a housecleaner, and her clients lost their own homes in the fire. “I’ve been here for 18 years, and I really don’t want to leave this area,” she said through a translator. “My children and their schools are here. I’m trying to get more work so I don’t have to leave.” As she struggles to pay her bills—including at her rental house, which ended up surviving the fire but was so heavily damaged by smoke that she’s desperate to find a new place to live—she turned to St. Vince…

Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey is doing it the way she learned how to coach, pacing the sideline in stylish attire in a time when most coaches favor far more casual attire. “When I first got into coaching, I learned under a Hall of Fame coach,” Ivey said. “Being coached under Coach (Muffet) McGraw, her whole staff dressed up. Coaching with her we dressed up. That’s kind of the fabric of Notre Dame, and what I’m used to style-wise.” As the NCAA Tournament heats up, the styles of Ivey, LSU’s Kim Mulkey, Alabama’s Nate Oats and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley stand out in a sea of coaches in team polo shirts and quarter-zip pullovers. There are a handful of coaches on the men’…

(Reuters) – Elon Musk said on Friday that his xAI has acquired X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction for $45 billion, including $12 billion debt. “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said in a post on X, adding that the combined company would be valued at $80 billion. Neither X nor xAI immediately responded to a request for comment. The billionaire’s AI startup, which was launched in 2023, recently raised $6 billion from investors in a funding round that valued the company at $40 billion, sources told Reuters earlier…

Currently, America is experiencing its worst flu season since 2009, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As a matter of fact, the CDC says there are so many cases that this season is now classified as being “high severity” for all age groups. That’s the first time a flu season has acquired that designation since the 2017–18 season. Still, some states are faring better than others. Here’s what you need to know about the current 2024–25 flu season and where outbreaks are the worst. 16,000 dead from flu so far The 2024–25 influenza season is having a significant impact on the health and well-being of Americans. According to …

Our workplaces are undergoing the next technological revolution, brought on by the warp-speed growth of artificial intelligence (AI). Generative AI is a total game changer for how we work. One day, we’ll look back and wonder how we did our jobs without this technology. But not today. Many of us are still living firmly in the discovery period of AI at work, and we’re dealing with a big dichotomy. Employees are incredibly curious about how to use AI to make their jobs easier and accelerate their growth, but very few people feel like they know how to do that. The results of a recent Wiley survey of around 2,000 individuals across a range of job roles and industries …

Disney might tout its rides and character IP when it looks to lure people to its theme parks around the world, but once visitors get there, the draw is an escape from reality. Fans call it the “Disney Bubble”: The day-to-day world melts away and you’re immersed in an environment that is carefully crafted (and controlled) by Disney. The Disney Bubble is designed to let vacationers to take one step away from the real world for the length of their stay. Distractions are minimized. You don’t even need to pull out your wallet. Paying for things like a souvenir or a snack can be done with just the tap of your phone or Magic Band. The Bubble is why many guests prefer t…