What's on Your Mind?

When Luis von Ahn, Duolingo’s CEO, sent an internal memo about AI last year, he didn’t expect it to go viral—or to ignite a firestorm about the future of work. Now he unpacks what he got right, what he got wrong, and what the backlash taught him about the real limitations of AI. It’s a candid reckoning with hype, growth, and the surprisingly complicated promise of technology in education. 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 Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time…

Anthropic has just announced Claude Design, a tool that lets teams generate and iterate visual design outputs through natural-language prompts. On the surface, it’s hard not to like the proposition: competent layout and typography on demand, fewer blank-page moments and faster shipping for everything from landing pages to pitch decks. When it comes to typography, it will make design faster, easier and cheaper. The problem is that it also makes design more likely to converge, because it defaults to what works: what’s legible, familiar and proven. In other words: safe, usable, generic. That genericness isn’t just an aesthetic issue. It reduces recognition, makes bra…

The closest thing to the idealized mall you recall either from personal memory or from cultural lore exists on a block in the Soho neighborhood of New York City, New York Magazine aptly dubbed “Tween Row.” On a recent spring afternoon, tween girls outfitted in cable knit cardigans, pink camis, hoodies, and lowrise jeans, chatted with each other (or their willing parents) as they popped into favorite shops: Brandy Melville, Edikted, Princess Polly. As of May 14, Tween Row will get a new tenant jockeying for their attention: Victoria’s Secret’s Pink. The store, the first designed by creative director Adam Selman, points to the retail experiences Gen Z and Gen Alph…

When SpaceX filed an FCC application earlier this year proposing to launch a million satellite data centers into orbit, the company argued the project would have no meaningful environmental impact. On SpaceX’s website, Elon Musk made the case for space-based AI infrastructure in simpler terms: “It’s always sunny in space,” he wrote, arguing that orbital data centers are “obviously the only way to scale.” When SpaceX filed an FCC application earlier this year to launch a million satellite data centers into space, the company said that the plan wouldn’t have any environmental impact. But researchers say the climate calculus is far more complicated than that. Yes…

Multiple reports this week revealed that General Motors is cutting hundreds of jobs in its IT department—but not with the intent to replace them outright with AI. The layoffs are reportedly impacting about 600 employees, or about 10% of the IT team, and the job cuts are partly designed to allow the company to bring on new employees with specific AI skills. General Motors has confirmed the layoffs and suggested they were part of a broader change to its IT operations. “GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “As part of that work, we have made the difficult de…

Does the high price of gas have you considering a hybrid for your next vehicle? We don’t blame you, especially if you drive a lot. Fortunately, there are lots of hybrids to choose from, and many don’t cost much more than their non-hybrid counterparts. But to recoup the extra cost of a hybrid the quickest and start saving money, we don’t recommend purchasing just any hybrid. The car experts at Edmunds outline four tips that will give you the tools you need to find a hybrid that will maximize your savings. Aim for hybrids with the shortest payback periods New hybrids typically cost more than similar gas-only vehicles, so aim for a hybrid that doesn’t cost much more t…

Anthropic on Wednesday launched Claude for Small Business, a new package of agentic workflows, skills, and connectors designed to automate business tasks common to smaller companies. Claude for Small Business includes workflows for payroll planning, month-end close, business performance monitoring, and marketing campaign management. It also includes skills, or reusable capability packages for AI agents, focused on cash-flow forecasting, invoice chasing, contract review, lead triage, content strategy, and more, Anthropic says. Users get connectors, or integrations, to commonly used platforms including QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, DocuSign, Google Workspace, …

The country that gave the world ABBA punches far above its weight in global pop music. In early April, Zara Larsson was the fourth-biggest female artist on Spotify, behind Taylor Swift, Olivia Dean, and Raye. The month prior, Larsson had become the first Swedish artist to top the Billboard Global 200. Her fans were delighted. So were Swedes. Sweden’s music industry is a clear example of soft power. An army of Swedish songwriters and producers appear in the credits of pop hits. Max Martin has written more chart-toppers than anyone except Paul McCartney. The Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, and Robyn are household names. With a population of just 10.6 million people, Sw…

Yeti’s logo is simple: just its name written in an all-caps sans-serif font, placed within a rounded rectangle. But to speak to new consumers, they’re getting rid of the one element that gives it brand recognition. In a new campaign created in collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy Portland, Yeti deleted the “Yeti” in its logo to make room for other four-letter words, like “Hike,” “Surf,” Golf,” “Fish,” “Hunt,” and “Snow.” They’re all written in the Yeti brand font, which closely resembles the bold grotesque sans serif Archivo Black. For the company, which was founded in 2006 and marks its 20th anniversary this year, it’s about broadening its reach. The word variat…

Cinemark is giving customers a break at the box office this summer. The movie chain that operates over 300 theaters in the U.S. just announced it’s offering a major deal on tickets as part of its Summer Movie Clubhouse program. The program, which kicks off on May 13, will bring a series of family-friendly films to 285 Cinemark theaters across the country. Showings will run from June 1 through August 6, but tickets are already available on Cinemark.com, in the app, and at participating box offices. The price for tickets? Just $1.75. “We continue to see that younger audiences treasure the shared, immersive experience of going to the movies, and Cinemark is thr…

You won’t want to miss a chance to look up tonight into the sky, in the early morning hours on Thursday, May 14. Before dawn, skywatchers are in for a treat with a rare sighting of the moon, Saturn, and Mars as they a form a gorgeous, cosmic triangle in May’s dark sky. Here’s everything to know about this unique skywatching event. What’s happening? The moon, Saturn, and Mars will form a cosmic triangle as the sun rises before dawn in the early hours of Thursday morning. The razor-thin moon will be in its waning crescent phase (day 27 of its 29.5 day cycle), and appear as a mere sliver in the sky, as only 8% will be lit up by the sun, according to Space.com.…

In early 2000, with their company on the brink of failure, Netflix founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph flew to Dallas to meet with Blockbuster executives. As the story is told, they offered to sell their company for $50 million and got laughed out of the room. Humiliated, but determined, they built a business that toppled the industry giant. That version is almost certainly not true, but it remains popular with pundits who like to tell it at fancy conferences. It gets told and retold because it reinforces how we like to imagine things. Everybody loves a good “David vs. Goliath” story, and the idea of wily young entrepreneurs outsmarting big corporate fat cats fi…

Threads is rolling out Meta AI, which will provide real-time context when mentioned in a post or reply. Connor Hayes, head of Threads, posted on the app Tuesday about the thinking behind Meta AI’s new feature. “We’re starting to test a way to get context on a Threads conversation by mentioning Meta AI in a post or reply. This will start in a handful of countries today and expand over time,” Hayes posted. “Conversations here move fast. A lot of people want to look things up before jumping in. We want to make that easier. Ask Meta AI to get real-time context about a trend, breaking story, or get recommendations right in the conversation.” The new Meta AI Threads…

In Seattle, the average price of a gallon of gas is now $5.96, a 30-cent increase from only a month ago and a $1.50 increase from a year ago. The United States and Israel’s conflict in Iran, and the constricted flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, has caused gas prices across the country to soar. That’s made workplace commutes more costly for Americans already facing an affordability crisis. For students, staff, and faculty at the University of Washington, though, they have a new way to get to work if they want to ditch their cars. The university recently set up a partnership with Ridepanda, which allows companies to offer e-bike and scooter subscriptio…

According to Amazon employees, the company is pushing them to incorporate more and more AI in their workflows. What exactly they should be using it for is less clear—leaving the door open for employees to waste AI resources on unnecessary tasks. As detailed in a new report by The Financial Times, Amazon employees are reportedly using the company’s new internal AI tool MeshClaw to create extraneous AI agents, not to increase productivity, but to drive up AI activity. The employees say Amazon is tracking their consumption of AI tokens, incentivizing some of their colleagues to prioritize quantity over quality when it comes to the technology. Amazon employees sou…

In 2011, Palantir created a combined role for their solutions engineers and integration engineers. The company called this new role “forward-deployed engineers,” or FDEs, for short. An Andreessen Horowitz blog post dubbed the recasting “title arbitrage,” arguing that Palantir had created this new title to signify the important, new capabilities and powers evolving at the company. Put simply: FDEs are people who can sell AI products to businesses while also teaching AI models how to work for said businesses. More than a decade after Palantir popularized the title, tech CEOs are betting that FDEs are the next big thing in the industry. “Forward deployed engineers, o…

China’s Alibaba said that growth accelerated for both its artificial intelligence and cloud businesses in the latest quarter, driven by the AI boom, even though overall revenue rose just 3% to 243 billion yuan ($36 billion). Revenue from its Cloud Intelligence Group, which focuses on cloud computing and AI developments, jumped 38% in the January-March quarter from a year ago to 41.6 billion yuan ($6.1 billion). That was faster than the 36% and 34% growth in the previous two quarters, respectively. However, Alibaba recorded an overall of 848 million yuan ($125 million) loss from operations for the quarter, a key measure of profitability of its core operating busine…

As the weather gets warmer, 7-Eleven is readying for the summer with discounted prices, cold drinks, and loyalty rewards. Leading up to Slurpee day on July 11 (or 7/11), the convenience store chain will roll out a “Slurpee Drink Happy Hour,” offering large Slurpees for just a dollar. The catch? The program is only open to those enrolled in 7-Eleven’s loyalty programs, 7Rewards and Speedy Rewards. First introduced in 1966 by 7-Eleven, the Slurpee is one of the company’s hero products, offering buyers a frozen and colorful carbonated drink. For those wishing to cash in on the summer promotion, it will be offered at select 7-Eleven, Speedway, and Stripes location…

On prediction markets, users can bet on anything and everything. But for those swinging big wins, is it just luck? Some users don’t seem to think so. In one recent event contract on Polymarket, users are wagering on the final storylines for the characters in the latest season of Euphoria, creator Sam Levinson’s HBO series about the messy lives of young people. The market, titled “Who will die in Euphoria: Season 3?,” ranks Nate Jacobs (played by Jacob Elordi) and Rue Bennett (the lead character, played by Zendaya) as the characters with the highest likelihood of dying this season, at 82% and 61%, respectively. Set to resolve by May 31, the same day as the seas…

LinkedIn on Wednesday joined what’s become a near-daily drumbeat of layoff announcements among tech companies. The Microsoft-owned company will reportedly eliminate about 5% of its headcount, which might total roughly 875 employees based on the latest headcount estimate. The cuts are part of a broader reorganization, as LinkedIn CEO Daniel Shapero detailed in an internal memo to staff. As has been true among several other tech companies recently, Shapero didn’t specifically mention AI as a reason for the layoffs in his missive sent at 7 a.m. Pacific. Rather, he emphasized a shifting landscape, according to the text of his memo obtained by Business Insider. “…

All writing is autobiographical. Even if you’re not explicitly writing about your own experience, it shows up in the topics you choose, the details you focus on, even the things you leave out. Key example from my trove of nearly 3,000 articles here on Inc. over the years: a study I latched onto a decade ago about the single thing wealthy families do to give their kids a leg up on the world. The answer, drawn from University of Southern California research, was straightforward: They buy the neighborhood. The insight wasn’t so much about money as it was about what money makes possible. Stable schools, stable peer groups, and stable environments. The specific …

Below, Dan Pontefract shares five key insights from his new book, The Future of Work Is Grey: The Untapped Value of Age in the Workforce. Pontefract is a six-time award-winning author and a leadership and corporate culture strategist. He has spent more than 20 years in senior leadership roles at TELUS, SAP, and BCIT, serving as a chief learning officer and chief envisioner. In 2018, he founded his own firm, the Pontefract Group, to help leaders and organizations improve leadership and corporate culture. What’s the big idea? Organizations are overlooking a major, unavoidable shift—the aging workforce—and those that learn to value and integrate people of all ages…