Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

After artificial intelligence made waves in content creation across Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and digital advertising (such as Puma’s recent AI-powered campaign), the technology is now stepping into the world of animation. Traditionally a craft requiring meticulous storytelling, careful planning, frame-by-frame adjustments, and long rendering times, animation is now being streamlined by AI—dramatically reducing production time and costs. Vidu AI, a generative video platform developed by Chinese AI firm ShengShu Technology, recently announced a partnership with Los Angeles-based animation studio Aura Productions to produce a fully AI-generated sci-fi anime serie…

The first Mission: Impossible film came out in 1996 when star Tom Cruise was 34 years old. Fast-forward to Memorial Day weekend 2025: Cruise is 62 and there’s speculation that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning could be the last movie in the franchise. Is this just a marketing ploy to get fans in theaters to kick off the summer blockbuster season? Who knows. Let’s take a look at the history of these films, their box-office earning power, and what Cruise himself has said about the movies over the years. A brief history of the Mission: Impossible franchise The Mission: Impossible films are based on the 1966 TV series of the same name, which was created by…

Blue-check verification is nothing new in the world of social media, but Bluesky is only now making it available to any “notable” accounts. The social media company has launched an application that allows users to apply for this authentication and receive a blue check. Bluesky first launched a form of verification in 2023 that required users to put a domain as their handle. For example, a brand or magazine could show its validity by using its official website as an identifier. Meanwhile, individuals who worked for the company could then make their usernames @name.wesbite.com. According to Bluesky, over 270,000 accounts took part in this option over its first two …

The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday that the helicopter tour company whose sightseeing chopper broke apart in flight and crashed in New York, killing the pilot and a family of five visitors from Spain, is shutting down operations immediately. The FAA, in a statement posted on X, also said it would launch an immediate review of New York Helicopter Tours’ operating license and safety record. The move came hours after New York Sen. Chuck Schumer had called on federal authorities to revoke the operating permits of New York Helicopter Tours. The company’s sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair and plunged into the Hudson River Thursday, killing the tourist…

Rumor has it that soda fountains at a handful of gas stations and convenience stores across the Midwest are serving a thicker, more syrupy variant — with extra sweetness. Aptly dubbed “heavy soda”, the drink option can be traced back to a singular post on the subreddit r/Soda, and a few TikTok videos. “You know when the gas station fountains have this option you’re in gods country,” creator Kate Boyer wrote in the caption of a post earlier this year. The video has since gained almost seven million view. The drink has recently been picked up by a number of news organizations. Not to be confused with the recent dirty soda or protein soda trends, heavy soda is all …

A federal judge has denied Elon Musk’s request for a court order blocking OpenAI from converting itself to a for-profit company but said she could expedite a trial to consider Musk’s claims against the ChatGPT maker and its CEO. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled late Tuesday that “Musk has not demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits” in his request for a preliminary injunction. She offered to hold a trial in her California courtroom as soon as this fall, “given the public interest at stake and potential for harm if a conversion contrary to law occurred.” Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker and CEO Sam…

In my coaching, I pride myself on helping clients get to the root of their issues, instead of offering Band-Aid solutions. At the same time, I’ve found that sometimes people are so overwhelmed with all they have to do that they have difficulty making time for the deeper reflective thought that coaching requires. In these situations, I offer some quick and easy-to-implement best practices to help reduce their sense of overwhelm. Managing your work calendar effectively is one of the most crucial steps toward feeling more in control of your professional life. When your calendar is well-organized, it reduces stress, increases productivity, and ensures that you are focusin…

Starbucks baristas will soon have a new dress code that’s meant to center the coffee chain’s signature brand color. Beginning May 12, employees will be required to wear solid black tops along with bottoms that are khaki, black, or blue denim under the coffee chain’s longtime signature-green apron. Starbucks Green is a rich, earthy green that appears in Starbucks partner aprons going back to 1987, and it’s also the color of its well-known Siren logo. The company calls the color its “most identifiable asset,” and by putting the color at the center of its new dress code, the coffee chain is extending its brand guidelines around Starbucks Green to employee dress as the co…

A new study shows that bird flu has silently spread from animals to some veterinarians. The study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention echoes two smaller ones that detected evidence of infection in previously undiagnosed farmworkers. In those studies, several of the infected workers remembered having symptoms of H5N1 bird flu, while none of the veterinarians in the new paper recalled any such symptoms. The new study is more evidence that the official U.S. tally of confirmed human bird flu infections — 68 in the last year — is likely a significant undercount, said Dr. Gregory Gray, an infectious disease researcher at the University o…

One of the things that I love about working for myself is that I don’t need to ask anyone’s permission before making a decision. If I want to make a change, I go for it, on whatever timeline makes sense for me. But the freedom of solopreneurship can be a double-edged sword. Since you don’t need approval from other people, nothing is stopping you from chasing every shiny tool, course, or strategy that promises to solve your problems. The ability to say no to distractions is an underrated skill for solopreneurs. There’s a difference between making strategic decisions and letting yourself be pulled in a million directions. You need to master the former and resist t…

The internet posts and side projects of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) worker Jordan Wick could give some clues for how Musk’s efficiency group might attempt to use AI to downsize and retool the government. During the last half of February, Wick, who has a DOGE email account associated with the Executive Office of the President and now is embedded in the General Services Administration (GSA), posted to his GitHub page the code for several tools that appeared to be related to DOGE’s work. The page was discovered by political reporter Roger Sollenberger at the end of last month. Wick posted the code for a tool that automatically downloads DMs from Twitt…

For decades, corporate leadership has been dominated by analytical prowess. Ascending the corporate ladder often meant demonstrating value through meticulous spreadsheets, precise forecasts, and detailed execution plans. Vision was acknowledged, but only when accompanied by a comprehensive road map. This paradigm, however, is shifting. In today’s era of rapid change, emotional complexity, and cultural fragmentation, linear strategies are insufficient. The most impactful leaders can envision new futures, cultivate emotional connections, and distill complexity into relatable narratives. The next generation of C-suite executives won’t just be adept operators; they will …

If you’re in charge of an editorial team, you’re used to objections from the rank and file about using AI. “It gets things wrong.” “I don’t know what it’s doing with my data.” “Chatbots only say what you want to hear.” Those are all valid concerns, and I bring them up often in my introduction to AI classes. Each one opens a discussion about what you can do about them, and it turns out to be quite a bit. AI hallucinations require careful thought about where to apply fact-checking and “human in the loop.” Enterprise tools, APIs, and privacy settings can go a long way to protecting your data. And you can prompt the default sycophancy out of AI by telling it to give you c…

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s workplace advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer your biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: What should I do if my coworker is using AI unethically? A: This is a question that feels new but is actually just an evolution of a classic workplace issue. You can slot any number of issues in the place of “AI” and the problem is essentially the same: What’s the best way to handle misconduct at work? The answer for all situations, including this one, comes down to a few factors: 1. Do you know (or just suspect) your coworker is doing something they s…

After six years in the game, Nuuly, the clothing rental service from Urban Outfitters, has done what few thought possible: turned a profit. In an industry full of flashy failures and billion-dollar burns, Nuuly is quietly winning with a strategy that’s shaking up fashion and business. View the full article

The sky is about to get a lot clearer. NASA’s latest infrared space telescope, SPHEREx—short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer—will assemble the world’s most complete sky survey to better explain how the universe evolved. The $488 million mission will observe far-off galaxies and gather data on more than 550 million galaxies and stars, measure the collective glow of the universe, and search for water and organic molecules in the interstellar gas and dust clouds where stars and new planets form. The 1107-lb., 8.5 x 10.5-foot spacecraft is slated to launch March 2 at 10:09 pm (ET) aboard a SpaceX Fa…

Kendrick Lamar isn’t just a Grammy-winning rapper—he’s also behind pgLang, a groundbreaking creative company shaping the future of media, music, and storytelling. But what exactly is pgLang? And how is it redefining the creative agency model? This is FC Explains, where Fast Company breaks down the most innovative companies of the year. View the full article

Zipline’s cofounder and CEO Keller Cliffton charts the company’s recent expansion from transporting blood for lifesaving transfusions in Rwanda to retail deliveries across eight countries—including high-profile partnerships with the likes of Walmart, Chipotle, Panera, and the Mayo Clinic. Zipline’s do-good health efforts and commercial deliveries are all part of Cliffton’s vision for a radical, new transportation network that meets consumers’ desire for accessibility and speed. 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 Res…

Last week, Amazon became the latest company to announce massive layoffs. In a memo, senior vice president of people experience and technology, Beth Galetti, revealed that the company would let go of “approximately 14,000” employees, citing AI innovations and a fast-changing world. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones),” Galetti wrote. “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.” …

“The gyoza needs to look a little whiter. It’s too pink.” Nigel Ng is genially micromanaging the look and feel of Fried, an animated series that will premiere on YouTube later this year. His feedback comes during an early planning session at Toonstar, the company producing the show, which is headquartered in a former furniture warehouse in downtown L.A.’s arts district. Ng has every right to be fussy about Fried’s world. The show represents the cartoon debut of Uncle Roger, the volatile middle-aged Chinese guy he has portrayed in live-action YouTube videos since 2020. They famously depict the character growing agitated as he watches western chefs—such as Gordon Ramsay, …

You may not have heard of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, but he’s one of a handful of people responsible for the current AI boom. As VP of Research at OpenAI, Amodei helped discover the scaling laws that project how much smarter an AI gets when given increasing amounts of computing power. He holds PhDs in physics and neuroscience and is probably a genius. Amodei, who left OpenAI in 2021 to found Anthropic, which claims to be a more safety-conscious AI company and is now valued at $61 billion after closing its latest funding round, spoke at Anthropic’s developer day in San Francisco Thursday. He’s quirky, refreshingly frank, and often funny. Here are some of his spicier quips…

The AI boom is driving an explosive surge in computational demands and reshaping the landscape of technology, infrastructure, and innovation. One of the biggest barriers to widespread AI deployment today is access to power. Some estimates suggest AI-driven data centers now consume more electricity than entire nations. The World Economic Forum projects a doubling of energy use by data centers from 2024 to 2027, driven by the energy-intensive nature of AI workloads. This surge in electricity demand is transforming the utilities industry and redefining how and where data centers are built—power is no longer a given. In the U.S, electricity usage is growing for the first …

I’m a writing professor who sees artificial intelligence as more of an opportunity for students, rather than a threat. That sets me apart from some of my colleagues, who fear that AI is accelerating a glut of superficial content, impeding critical thinking and hindering creative expression. They worry that students are simply using it out of sheer laziness or, worse, to cheat. Perhaps that’s why so many students are afraid to admit that they use ChatGPT. In The New Yorker magazine, historian D. Graham Burnett recounts asking his undergraduate and graduate students at Princeton whether they’d ever used ChatGPT. No one raised their hand. “It’s not that they’…