What's on Your Mind?

It’s more obvious than ever why recording encounters with federal agents matters: without bystander videos, it would be much harder to disprove the government’s Orwellian lies about how Alex Pretti was killed last Saturday. But there are also risks when you pull out your phone to take a video at a protest or if you see an ICE agent abducting, say, a 5-year-old child. Here’s what to know about how to protect your technology and yourself. The First Amendment gives you a right to record “It’s really important to start with the fact that individuals have a First Amendment right to record police officers and law enforcement,” says Maria Villegas Bravo, counsel at t…

Meta’s fourth-quarter results jumped past Wall Street’s expectations thanks to solid advertising revenue, sending shares sharply higher in after-hours trading Wednesday. The company earned $22.77 billion, or $8.88 per share, in the October-December quarter. That’s up 9% from $20.84 billion, or $8.02 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue grew 24% to $59.89 billion from $48.39 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $8.21 per share on revenue of $58.5 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. “Once again, Meta surpassed analysts’ earnings expectations for the quarter, cementing its position as one of the world’s most dominant…

As Italy prepares for the 2026 Winter Olympics, a crucial part of the prep is the manufacturing of artificial snow; the Olympics organizing committee plans to make 2.4 million cubic meters of the stuff. The practice has become more and more common as climate change leads to warmer temperatures and less reliable snow packs. But as climate change worsens, artificial snow won’t even be enough to help certain countries host the Winter Games. By mid-century, the number of countries that could potentially host the Winter Olympic Games could be cut nearly in half, according to a recent study from the University of Waterloo. Currently, the International Olympic Commi…

Some blind and low-vision fans will have unprecedented access to the Super Bowl thanks to a tactile device that tracks the ball, vibrates on key plays and provides real-time audio. The NFL teamed up with OneCourt and Ticketmaster to pilot the game-enhancing experience 15 times during the regular-season during games hosted by the Seattle Seahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings. About 10 blind and low-vision fans will have an opportunity to use the same technology at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California, where Seattle will play the New England Patriots on Feb. 8. With hands on the device, they will feel the location …

Back on February 6th, 2017, a teenaged Sabrina Carpenter tweeted, “Is there a way to look attractive while eating Pringles asking for a friend.” Is there a way to look attractive while eating Pringles asking for a friend — Sabrina Carpenter (@SabrinaAnnLynn) February 6, 2017 Now, nine years later, the pop star is doing exactly that—in the brand’s Super Bowl ad campaign. Created by agency BBDO New York, the teaser shows Carpenter treating her Pringles like a flower bouquet, plucking chips while saying, “He loves me, he loves me not . . .” For Pringles, the spot represents the perfect formula for celebrity partnership. “Our partner talent has to be a ge…

A new dating app called Known, which went live earlier today in San Francisco, wants to offer users a dating experience that is far less gamified—and far more enabled by artificial intelligence. The app, which uses voice-based conversations with an AI to match people to prospective romantic partners, is the latest evidence that the next generation of dating apps isn’t looking to maximize matches. In other words, there’s no swiping. Known, founded by former Stanford University students Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen, uses an AI-based chat interface that interviews prospective daters and gauges their interests and values. Then, the app uses a model—which the company sa…

When New York-based Autumn Myers, 31, was interviewing for her current digital marketing job, she pushed back the interview date so it didn’t fall during Mercury retrograde. “Those jobs have always ended up in more grief for me,” she tells Fast Company. Myers also looks up her colleagues’ zodiac signs to guide her interactions with them. For example: People born under fire signs often thrive in leadership roles, but they can struggle with impulsiveness. Earth signs tend to be more dependable, but they can be risk-averse. “It’s very Scorpio of me to be that calculated,” she admits. “But it’s needed sometimes.” Myers isn’t alone. According to a 2024 Harris Pol…

We live in a world of increasing change. The international order is shifting and political certainties are evaporating day by day. Technological shifts are changing how we experience the world and interact with others. And in the workplace, AI is poised to unleash what might be the most revolutionary set of changes humanity has experienced since the first hunter-gatherers settled down to grow crops and build cities. But while change is everywhere, we still find it hard to manage. The statistics around organizational change have always been brutal. For at least the last quarter century, corporate transformation efforts have failed at a remarkable rate: only three out o…

Just in time for the Super Bowl, PepsiCo is cutting the price of Doritos, Cheetos, Lay’s, Tostitos, and other snacks by up to 15%. The move comes after consumers complained the chips were too pricey. “Our customers . . . have been honest with us about how rising everyday costs are making their daily decisions harder. Message received,” PepsiCo said in a statement. “Lowering the suggested retail price reflects our commitment to help reduce the pressure where we can,” PepsiCo Foods U.S. CEO Rachel Ferdinando added. The new discounted prices roll out this week, ahead of this Sunday’s big game, one of the biggest days for snack purchases. PepsiCo said supermarket…

It’s easy to be charmed by the first delivery robot you see. I was driving with my kids in our Chicago neighborhood when I spotted one out the window last year. It was a cheerful pink color, with an orange flag fluttering at about eye level and four black-and-white wheels. It looked almost like an overgrown toy. When I told the kids that it was labeled “Coco,” they started waving and giggling as it crossed the street. Over the months that followed, spotting Cocos rolling down the sidewalk became one of our favorite games. Then, last fall, another type of delivery robot appeared. This one was green and white, with hardier all-terrain wheels and slow-blinking LED …

It’s Q1 2026. Your chief financial officer is cutting innovation budgets by 20%. Your AI pilot showed 94% accuracy improvements. The LLM is yielding solid results. You’re getting defunded anyway. The reason? You solved a problem AI can solve. Your budget-holder needed you to solve theirs. Companies launch AI pilots that produce results, then stall at scale. The team’s diagnosis: “They don’t get it.” What’s really going on: These projects never earned budget-holder buy-in. Passing the budget-holder test requires three things pilot teams fall short on: analytic proof that you move their needles, execution confidence that scale is achievable, and relational t…

Work has a way of waking up parts of us we thought we’d outgrown. You can move forward professionally, take on more visible roles, and be widely regarded as capable—and still find yourself unsettled by moments that seem, on the surface, fairly ordinary. A comment lingers longer than expected. A meeting leaves you tense for days. A role you worked hard to earn suddenly feels exposing rather than energizing. When that happens, it’s tempting to assume something is wrong now: that you’re underprepared, out of your depth, or simply not built for this level of responsibility. But often, what’s being stirred up has less to do with the present moment than with experiences…

U.S. job openings fell to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish. The Labor Department reported Thursday that vacancies fell to 6.5 million in December — from 6.9 million in November and the fewest since September 2020. Layoffs rose slightly. The number of people quitting their jobs — which shows confidence in their prospects — was basically unchanged at 3.2 million. December openings came in lower than economists had forecast. The economy is in a puzzling place. Growth is strong: Gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — advanced from July through September at the faste…

It’s tax season. Americans will pay an average of $10,489 in personal taxes—about 14% of the average household’s total income. Most will do so because they think it is their civic duty. Many believe they are morally obliged to obey the law and pay their share. But as tax day approaches, many Americans will bemoan their tax bill and complain that it is unfair. So, how are we to know if paying taxes is the right thing to do? Perhaps philosophy has some clues? Reasons to obey the law Many philosophers agree that we should obey the law. In The Crito, for example, Plato describes Socrates’s choice after the Athenian jury sentenced him to death for impiety. Crito…

When Howard Schultz joined—and later acquired—Starbucks in the 1980s, he was deeply inspired by the communal culture of Italian coffee bars. From the beginning, Schultz envisioned Starbucks as more than a transactional stop for coffee. He wanted to build a community-centered space for people to congregate and connect. That vision helped redefine what a coffee shop could be. In recent years, however, that vision has lost momentum. Shifts in how and where people work, rising costs, and intensifying competition have challenged Starbucks’s dominance in the coffee shop landscape. In New York City, the company recently lost its position as the city’s largest coffee chain …

Hello, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. “Programming, as it turns out, is just typing.” Talking at Cisco’s AI Summit in San Francisco on February 3, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made that pithy observation to sum up the phenomenon of people using AI coding tools to simply describe in plain language software they want to exist, with an algorithm doing the heavy lifting. The comment came during a wild, wide-ranging riff on how AI is changing the world, and Huang kept joking that his chatter might have been influenced by several glasses of wine. (Hey, he was the after-dinner speaker.) But even if alcohol-fueled poetic license was involved, the sentiment capt…

Organizational leaders are witnessing a steep and unprecedented rise in employee healthcare costs that is eroding bottom-line profitability. According to data from the Business Group on Health, these costs are projected to rise by 9% this year, representing a 62% increase since 2017. To put it in perspective, this represents an incremental hit of nearly $1 million to the bottom line for a midsize organization of 500 people. What CFOs are now confronting is a tipping point where the average total cost to insure an employee is nearing $20,000 annually. Notably, it is specifically mental health claims that are driving the spike. PwC’s 2026 Medical Trend report shows that…

The European Union on Friday accused TikTok of breaching the bloc’s digital rules with “addictive design” features that lead to compulsive use by children, in preliminary charges that strike at the heart of the popular video sharing app’s operating model. EU regulators said their two-year investigation found that TikTok hasn’t done enough to assess how features such as autoplay and infinite scroll could harm the physical and mental health of users, including minors and “vulnerable adults.” The European Commission said it believes TikTok should change the “basic design” of its service. The commission is the EU’s executive arm and enforcer of the 27-nation bloc’s Digital …

Just because you’re an ultra-talented global celebrity doesn’t mean you’re a shoo-in for an amazing gig. In fact, even stars have to apply to jobs, just like the rest of us. Just ask Charlie Puth, who’ll be singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl LX Sunday night. It shows how humility fuels success for even someone at the top of their game—in this case, a dream opportunity for one of pop’s biggest stars on entertainment’s biggest stage. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, the “We Don’t Talk Anymore” singer spoke frankly last month about how he applied and auditioned to sing the national anthem, and how he’s elated for the gig. He shared that perfor…

Big Tech is on a spending spree, forecast to drop a staggering $650 billion on artificial intelligence (AI) in 2026 alone—and that’s just for Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. The companies are ramping up their investment in an increasingly competitive, high-stakes arms race, pouring hundreds of billions into massive data centers and semiconductors, in hopes of establishing a long-term strategic advantage in their quest to dominate the future of technology. With all four reporting earnings within the last week, Wall Street’s reaction may be an indication that investors are increasingly worried about the large spend, and relative payoffs, from the AI investments. …

This weekend, a showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, some star-studded commercials, and a Bad Bunny concert are taking place. Regardless of which part of Super Bowl LX is most important to you, it is all going down on Sunday, February 8, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Here’s a quick recap before kick-off. How did the Seahawks and Patriots get to Super Bowl LX? This isn’t the first time that the Seahawks and Patriots have faced off in the championship game. In 2015, Seattle was defeated by the Patriots 28-24 after an eleventh-hour interception on the one-yard line. New quarterbacks Drake Maye and Sam Darnold m…

Working at the office all day was a struggle for Nicola Sura. She’d seen the toll that working a corporate job had taken on her mom’s physical and mental health, and she never wanted the same thing to happen to her. Around six months into Sura’s first full-time role in 2019, she started questioning her life choices, as well as those of everyone around her. “I was, like, how are people doing this? Everyone seems completely fine. Everyone’s just going about their day,” Sura, who works in corporate retail, tells Fast Company. “It was killing me to just be there for eight hours at my desk.” The move to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic was when Sura …

Lawyers for social media companies will be working overtime in the coming weeks as several major trials get underway addressing the potential harms to children caused by popular sites and apps. At the same time, efforts to deflect at least one major future case have fallen short, increasing pressure on tech giants to agree to an independent assessment of how they protect teen users. The convergence of these developments creates a potential perfect storm for the industry, one that could result in both financial damages and changes to the algorithms that encourage users to keep scrolling for longer and longer periods of time. Much of the focus is on a bellwether tri…

When COVID-19 hit, our business came to a sudden halt. One moment our calendar was full, the next, meetings and engagements were disappearing. Companies we’d worked with for years shifted their focus overnight, pouring their energy into keeping doors open and team members safe. Like so many others, we found ourselves sidelined—and facing some hard conversations. While uncertainty hung heavy in the air, our small team was unusually open with each other. We talked candidly about the challenges, the personal toll, and what it might all mean for the business. Without setting out to do so, we had built a foundation of psychological safety—one that made navigating a global …

At work, we still talk about careers like they’re ladders. As if success must be a straight line upward: more responsibility, bigger title, better office. But that old image isn’t just outdated. It can be harmful. Ladders come with an unspoken message: if you’re not climbing, you must be falling. If you experience job loss, the ladder metaphor makes you feel like you slipped off and can’t recover. If you take a step sideways, it makes you look like you stalled and aren’t motivated. If you change careers completely, it can feel like you have to start from scratch. Most people don’t need any more pressure or extra worry about what others think, when they’re already …