What's on Your Mind?

The coffee might be poured by a human hand, but behind the counter, something far less traditional is calling the shots at an experimental café in Stockholm. San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs has put an artificial intelligence agent nicknamed “Mona” in charge at the eponymous Andon Café in the Swedish capital. While human baristas still brew the coffee and serve the orders, the AI agent—powered by Google’s Gemini—oversees almost every other aspect of the business, from hiring staff to managing inventory. It is not clear how long the experiment will last, but the AI agent appears to be struggling to turn a profit in Stockholm’s competitive coffee trade. The ca…

Your family group chat’s favorite daily word game is about to get an adaptation for the screen. In a series of press releases published this morning, The New York Times and NBC announced a new joint venture: a game show series based on Wordle, The Times’ fan-favorite word-guessing game. The show will be produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio in partnership with Electric Hot Dog (Jimmy Fallon’s production company) and The Times. Wordle’s popularity is part of a broader, successful Games operation at The Times that’s turned users’ interactions with the publication into a daily ritual. And the forthcoming TV show is just the latest evidence of how much o…

A $20 smoothie and a $19 single strawberry could only belong in one place: Erewhon, the luxury grocery chain and celebrity hot spot in Los Angeles. But as of last week, it’s not the only so-called hypebeast grocer in West Hollywood. Just a few blocks away from one of Erewhon’s various locations, Laurel Supply, a giant market filled with natural light and timber interiors, looks unmistakably like an Erewhon to those passing by. The team behind the venture are the owners of the neighboring restaurant Laurel Hardware, meaning they had a deep knowledge of the area before opening, which, according to the local newspaper WEHO Times, was years in the making. Lau…

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat in April, another lackluster showing for the housing market during what’s traditionally its busiest time of the year. Existing home sales edged up 0.2% last month from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. Sales were unchanged compared to April last year. The latest sales figure fell short of the roughly 4.12 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Sales have been hovering close to a 4-million annual pace now going back to 2023, far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2-million. And hom…

British pop star Dua Lipa is suing Samsung Electronics for at least $15 million in damages alleging the South Korean electronics company illegally used a copyrighted image of her without permission. The legal complaint filed Friday in the United States District Court for the Central District of California alleges Samsung used an image of Lipa for some of its television cardboard boxes in circulation last year. According to the lawsuit, Lipa accuses Samsung of violating her “right of publicity” as well as infringing on her copyright and trademark rights. The image in question is allegedly taken from a performance at the Austin City Limits music festival in 2024. Ac…

First you choose a partner, then you choose a genome? For this episode of FC Explains, Fast Company Senior Writer Ainsley Harris digs into the rapidly growing world of embryo genetic screening, including IVF startups like Orchid and Nucleus that offer parents the ability to select embryos based on genome sequencing. Proponents say this kind of genetic testing helps optimize health outcomes and prevent hereditary disease. Parents say it’s giving their kids the best shot at life. On this episode of FC Explains we dig into why some scientists have called polygenic embryo screening “modern snake oil,” and why others are calling for an urgent, society-wide conversation abo…

“I’m fine”—a vast majority of women utter those two words reflexively in various scenarios, when they’re not, in fact, fine. Now, Megababe is tackling this so-called ‘comfort tax’ with an ad campaign designed to encourage women to better advocate for themselves. On Monday, the personal care brand unveiled a series of bright orange-and-white ads across New York City that underscore how women have normalized discomfort. The campaign marks Megababe’s first foray into social-first messaging. It comes alongside the results of a March survey it conducted, which found that 85% of women would rather be uncomfortable than inconvenience someone else. Women claiming to b…

Naomi Osaka once believed that winning meant saying yes to everything. Over the years of her successful tennis career, though, the four-time Grand Slam champion says that doesn’t ring true anymore. As the new ambassador for vitamin and supplement company Olly’s Mental Health Awareness Month campaign, Osaka got candid about setting boundaries, pushing through fatigue and the success myth she used to believe. “I used to think success meant saying yes to everything that came with it,” Osaka wrote in a personal essay for Fortune. “Now I see it differently. I’ve been able to achieve what I have by holding boundaries.” In the piece, Osaka reflected on her decision t…

Climate change is making your allergies worse, in part by creating longer and more intense pollen seasons, according to a growing body of research from a number of scientists and physicians. “We know that climate change is leading to greater amounts of pollen in the atmosphere,” says Paul Beggs, an environmental health scientist and professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who published a 2024 paper on the link between climate change and asthma. “It’s changing the seasonality of the pollen. It’s changing the types of pollen that we’re exposed to.” With pollen season already underway in many parts of the U.S., the AccuWeather 2026 US Allergy Forecast…

After weeks of extreme drought across Florida, a wildfire has broken out in the Everglades, burning more than 5,000 acres. The fire, called the Max Road Miramar Fire, is located outside of Miami, and was first reported on Sunday. By Monday around 11 a.m., it had burned at least 5,600 acres, according to the Florida Forest Service, and was only 30% contained. In images and videos of the Max Road Miramar Fire, massive plumes of black smoke fill the sky; the smoke has caused low visibility on major roadways. Interactive wildfire maps provided by Watch Duty and Esri’s Wildfire Aware are tracking the fire’s spread in real time. Many may think of the…

Golf fans are eagerly awaiting the start of the 2026 PGA Championship, which kicks off this week. From May 14 to the 17th, the biggest 156 names in golf will compete to earn the coveted Wanamaker trophy. Last year’s winner Scottie Scheffler, 29, who took home the trophy for the first time, will return as the defending champion. Other big names will include Rory McIlroy, who is coming off of two consecutive Masters titles and is trying for his third PGA win and seventh major title. Other star players to watch are Cameron Young, Jon Rahm, and Bryson DeChambeau. This year, the tournament will take place at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania, a location that hasn’t …

Critics of AI caution that as a relatively new technology, its long-term effects on the human brain are still unknown. But a new study shows that AI could be just as dangerous in the short-term, with sessions of AI use only 10 minutes long leading to impaired brain performance. The study, conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, Oxford, MIT, and UCLA, challenged participants to complete a set of fraction-based math problems. Half the group was tasked to solve the problems on their own, while the other half was given access to an AI assistant powered by OpenAI’s GPT-5 model—only to have that AI helper removed without warning for the test’s final three problems. …

In the United States, we recognize a separation between church and state, but does that delineation apply to work, too? That’s an earnest question from a self-identifying choirboy—literally, I grew up in church and I direct the choir—who has been asked throughout my career to leave religion out of my work. Do we need the Jesus reference in the deck? Do I have to use Bible scripture in that essay? Is the religious example in the class lecture necessary? It’s almost always polite but definitely unambiguous: ease up on the religious stuff because it likely doesn’t have a place here because the workplace is neutral. But is that really so? The entire global workweek struct…

Wordle, the game originally designed as a gift for the creator’s partner, has been a national obsession for years. Now it’s becoming a television game show. NBC has greenlit a new series centered around the game, which will run in prime time. Today anchor (and self-confessed Wordle megafan) Savannah Guthrie will host. The show will be executive produced by Jimmy Fallon and The New York Times, which owns Wordle. The show is scheduled to premiere in 2027 and casting is underway. If you’re interested in being a contestant on the show, you can apply at wordle.castingcrane.com. (The game will be played in teams of three, so you’ll need to find a couple of buddies or fa…

In our 2026 Performance Marketing survey with Harris Poll, we asked more than 300 marketing decision-makers about the trends and investments they predicted for 2026. The biggest takeaway—75% report increased expectations for accountability. And nearly two-thirds say leaders now evaluate them based on pipeline contribution rather than traditional top-of-funnel metrics like lead volume. For years, marketers have argued for a more meaningful seat at the revenue table, one that is measured on business outcomes instead of activity. That shift is happening. Leaders are asking marketing teams to deliver revenue outcomes without giving them the visibility to understand, p…

The Kentucky Derby is back this weekend with visitors and viewers alike preparing their extravagant hats and mint juleps for the annual Run for the Roses. The storied event takes place Saturday, May 2, at Churchill Downs in Louisville. This year marks the 152nd edition of the first leg of the Triple Crown, one of the most prestigious horse racing events worldwide. Last year’s race broke viewership records, bringing its broadcaster, NBC, around 21.8 million viewers, the highest in almost three decades. While up to 20 horses can run the race, three of the qualifying 3-year-old thoroughbreds have already been scratched from this year’s event. To race in the…

Anil Menon might have the world’s spaciest resume. After several years as a NASA flight surgeon, he became SpaceX’s medical director in 2018, where he authored research on the effects of space on the human body. In 2021, he was selected as a NASA astronaut and has spent the past several years training for his own journey to space. Along the way, he also supported his wife, Anna Menon, who traveled to space on a private mission in 2024 and was herself selected as a NASA astronaut last year. Somewhere in the margins, Menon has also served as an Air Force Reserve member and emergency room doctor. Now, he’s finally heading to space himself. This July, Menon will trave…

When you interact with a chatbot, there’s a good chance that everything you say, and every prompt you give, isn’t just used to generate replies to your queries. Nearly every chatbot company on the planet also uses the information you provide to train its AI models. This can leave your privacy—and even your employer’s confidential information—exposed. But you can mitigate these privacy risks by telling chatbots not to use your data for training. Here’s how. What is AI chatbot training? In order for a chatbot to provide knowledgeable and (hopefully) accurate answers, the underlying large language model (LLM) that powers it needs to assimilate a massive amount of info…

You may or may not have ever realized it, but for more than six decades, the CIA published an incredible resource called The World Factbook​. It was a free reference guide to all the countries on Earth, along with several non-state entities such as the European Union, and it was filled with all sorts of eye-opening info. You might’ve noticed I’m referring to it in the past tense. That’s because after having maintained this project since 1962—first as a printed book and then in more recent years online—the CIA unceremoniously discontinued and deleted The World Factbook earlier this year. But, as so often happens, the internet has come to the rescue. And now this on…

At one point or another, most of us have stared at our computer screen and wondered: Is this it? For some, it’s a passing feeling. Yet, for others, that boredom turns into lingering dissatisfaction, leading to quiet quitting, or even walking away from a job entirely, which rarely solves the deeper problem. New data from Gallup shows that while only 30% of workers think it’s a good time to find a new job, more than half are actively looking anyway. In a decade and a half of working as a therapist, I’ve met a lot of smart, creative people who feel capable of more, if only they could figure out where to direct their energy. These restless souls (and I count myself among…

For those who don’t remember what life on the internet looked like in 2023, here’s a refresher: girl dinner, the Roman Empire, and a TikTok algorithm painted purple from the McDonald’s Grimace Shake. The trend was simple, albeit strange: a user would film themselves trying out the purple McDonald’s beverage and then immediately cut to a horror-movie scene of their own faked death. The purple vanilla-berry-flavored milkshake was rolled out by the fast food chain in June of that year as a limited-edition menu item in honor of one of the chain’s mascots, Grimace. While the fake death trend garnered over 2.9 billion views on TikTok, and reportedly boosted sales by…