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How did you get to this article? Maybe you opened a link in an email, or you navigated from the Fast Company home page. Perhaps you Googled “agentic AI” and this figured in the results. The point is, you almost certainly clicked, scrolled, tapped, or typed your way here, because that’s the digital grammar that shapes nearly every online experience. But that 30-year-old paradigm is about to change. Agentic AI is ripping up the rulebook, by creating a new layer of intelligent, autonomous mediation between us and the digital world. Personal shopping agents will handle routine purchases, while in the workplace, agents will automate workflows and streamline procurement. …

Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald The President’s surge of immigration enforcement. As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands ahead of a Thursday morning test vote, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats sa…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is rejecting Democratic demands on health care as unserious but says a government shutdown is still “avoidable” despite sharp divisions ahead of Wednesday’s funding deadline. “I’m a big believer that there’s always a way out,” the South Dakota Republican said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “And I think there are off-ramps here, but I don’t think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there.” Thune said Democrats are going to have to “dial back” their demands, which include immediately extending health insurance subsidies and reversing…

The Senate early Friday morning approved Homeland Security funds to pay Transportation Security Administration agents and most other agencies, but not the immigration enforcement operations at the heart of the budget impasse that has jammed airports, disrupted travel and imposed financial hardship on workers. The deal, which the Senate approved unanimously without a roll call, next goes to the House, which is expected to consider it Friday. “We can get at least a lot of the government opened up again and then we’ll go from there,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “Obviously, we’ll still have some work ahead of us.” With pressure mounting to resolve the 42…

The Senate took the first step to end the government shutdown on Sunday after a group of moderate Democrats agreed to proceed without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who say Americans want them to continue the fight. In a test vote that is the first in a series of required procedural maneuvers, the Senate voted 60-40 to move toward passing compromise legislation to fund the government and hold a later vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire Jan. 1. Final passage could be several days away if Democrats object and delay the process. The agreement does not guarantee the health care subsidies will be exten…

Two U.S. senators sent a letter to Tinder parent Match on September 24 pushing for action against dating scams on the company’s platforms and asking for information about its efforts to detect fraud and protect its users. In a letter to Match CEO Spencer Rascoff, Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan and Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn asked the company to provide documents about its policies and procedures related to fraudulent activity on its platforms. Romance scams often involve fraudsters creating alluring but fake profiles on dating apps, stringing along victims for weeks or months before asking for gifts or money. “We are also concerned that Match, throu…

It’s no secret that children and adolescents have a lot more eyes on them these days thanks to everything from social media to cameras in everyone’s pockets. This experience (along with encouragement from brands such as Disney) has created space for young people to mimic adults, embracing cosmetics and anti-aging creams. Now, Italy’s consumer protection regulator says it is looking into the marketing strategies of some of the main contributors to this phenomenon: beauty companies. The country’s Competition Authority (AGCM) has launched two investigations into Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics for allegedly failing to clearly indicate that their products are not…

The discovery of the body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national who studied physics at Brown University, earlier this week in a New Hampshire storage facility brought closure to two alarming cases. Authorities say they believe Valente, a 48-year-old who recently arrived in Boston, was behind the December 13 mass shooting at Brown University, and the December 16 murder of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro. The identification of Valente brings calm to communities worried about a mass killer on the loose. But it also puts the lie to theories floated by right-wing influencers, including Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire. In recent days, Maguire, acting …

Serena Williams is joining the ownership group of the WNBA’s first Canadian franchise, the Toronto Tempo, the team announced Monday. She will partner with Larry Tanenbaum, Chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures for the Tempo, who will begin play in the 2026 season. “I am thrilled to announce my ownership role in the first Canadian WNBA team, the Toronto Tempo,” said Williams. “This moment is not just about basketball; it is about showcasing the true value and potential of female athletes — I have always said that women’s sports are an incredible investment opportunity. I am excited to partner with Larry and all of Canada in creating this new WNBA franchise and legacy.…

Rachel Taylor began her career as a creative director in the advertising business, a job that gave her plenty of opportunity to micromanage the final product. “I had control of the script,” she remembers. “I could think about the intonation, and I could give the actor notes.” That was before she pivoted to helping AI companies shape the personality of their assistants. Rather than handing a digital helper a script, the best she can do is point it in the right direction: The technology “sometimes feels like a toddler that you give a permanent marker to and see what it writes on the wall,” she says. After joining DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman’s startup Inflect…

Graduation season is upon us, which means copies of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! are flying off bookstore shelves—since whimsical Seussian life advice has been the go-to gift for new graduates since 1990. But handing over a picture book seems especially unhelpful for the class of 2026. While every generation of young graduates seems to face a unique set of woes in their early adulthood, this year’s new grads are coming up against some particularly turbulent times. AI is gobbling up the entry-level jobs that new graduates need to get their foot in the door. Adding insult to injury, commencement speakers are encouraging grads to embrace their new AI overlords. But …

While Zoom is unquestionably the biggest name in videoconferencing, its free tier has some limitations—particularly the 40-minute time cap on group meetings. The good news is that several excellent platforms offer generous free plans capable of handling everything from brief check-ins to extended sessions. Ready to explore other options? Check out these free Zoom alternatives. Google Meet If you’re already embedded in the Google ecosystem, Google Meet is about as convenient as it gets. Joining meetings is straightforward, accessible via a web browser without needing software downloads, or through dedicated mobile apps. Its free tier supports up to 1…

Matt Ries has lived in Florida only three years, but everyone told him last summer was unusually hot. That was followed by three hurricanes in close succession. Then temperatures dropped below freezing for days this winter, and snow blanketed part of the state. To Ries, 29, an Ohio native now in Tampa, the extreme weather—including the bitter cold—bore all the hallmarks of climate change. “To me it’s just kind of obvious,” said Ries, a project manager for an environmental company and self-described conservative-leaning independent. “Things are changing pretty drastically; just extreme weather all across the country and the world. . . . I do think humans are speeding up …

Feeld markets itself as “the dating app for the curious.” For most of its users, that means curiosity about kink and casual sex—but its newest tool asks you to be curious about yourself. As a favorite platform for the kink, fetish, and non-mongamous communities, Feeld is a place where taboos are the norm. But a new survey from the app suggests that kink is more mainstream than dominant culture would have you believe. And Feeld’s new tool, Reflections, accompanies the data by letting anyone, Feeld users and otherwise, assess their own relationship with nontraditional sex. Feeld surveyed thousands of both its own users and external respondents for opinions on the pe…

Imagine, just for a second, that Post Malone and Shane Gillis are your neighbors—not in a now-you’re-rich-and-live-among-pop-stars-and-comedy-elite way, just your average suburban cul-de-sac situation. This is what Bud Light has been asking of us in its recent Super Bowl ad teasers. In one, we see Post and Gillis through a doorbell cam. In another, Gillis is outlining the rules of actually drinking in a beer ad (no bueno). These were mere sips of what was to come. Today, Bud Light decided to jam a proverbial screwdriver into the side of the can and let the world shotgun its full big game ad ahead of time. Now we know what the tucked golf shirts and jorts hyp…

Investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary once declared that to succeed in business you must be willing to grind out 25 hour work days. He has since walked back on that idea, calling it, in his own words, “sheer stupidity.” In fact: “The worst advice I hear young founders talk about all the time is that they want to work 18 hours a day. How stupid is that?” O’Leary said in a video posted on his Instagram page last week. The eat-sleep-work lifestyle—also known as the “996” schedule first imported from China, which stands for 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—has since gained momentum among Silicon Valley tech companies. Despite his previous declarations, O’L…