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We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon's Big Spring Sale (spanning seven days from March 25 to March 31) gives shoppers the chance to grab great deals on everything from tech to home goods. It's Amazon's second-ever spring sale, and while it may not be as flashy as Prime Day, it's still packed with discounts that are hard to ignore. Prime members get the best deals, so if you want in but don’t want to commit, Amazon’s 30-day free trial of Prime does the trick—just remember to cancel after the sale. One of the better deals in the mix is the EufyCam S3 Pro (2-Cam Kit with HomeBase 3), now going for $439.99, marked down from $549.99—it's lowest price ever, according to price-trackers. It's still pricey, no doubt, but it’s one of the few security cameras that manages to deliver actual 4K resolution without locking you into a subscription plan. eufy Security eufyCam S3 Pro 2-Cam Kit, Solar Camera Outdoor Wireless, MaxColor Night Vision, 4K Security Camera with Solar Panel, Face Recognition AI, Expandable Local Storage, No Monthly Fee $439.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $549.99 Save $110.00 Get Deal Get Deal $439.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $549.99 Save $110.00 The cameras come equipped with Eufy's MaxColor Vision technology, which uses AI-powered image enhancement and an impressive f/1.0 aperture to deliver vivid nighttime footage that's almost daylight-clear. Plus, the added benefit of the SolarPlus 2.0 panel means you can go nearly an entire year without charging the camera, provided it gets an hour of direct sunlight daily. All of this is backed by the included HomeBase 3 (with 16GB of built-in local storage, expandable up to 16TB if you ever need it), which acts not only as a storage hub but also as a siren-equipped central control for Eufy's security lineup, ensuring local video storage without recurring cloud fees. That said, while the IP67-rated EufyCam S3 Pro offers a robust feature set—two-way audio that allows you to communicate through the camera, customizable motion detection zones that can be adjusted to avoid false alerts, and AI-powered system that can distinguish between people, pets, and vehicles, ensuring you only get the notifications that matter—it’s important to note that integrating it with Apple's HomeKit can be a bit of a headache, with resolution dropping to 1080p and necessitating an iCloud subscription for video storage (which kind of undercuts the whole no-subscription appeal), according to this ZDNet review. View the full article

Director of communications Matthew Doyle quits after just nine months in post View the full article

A new pair of studies from MIT Media Lab and OpenAI found that those who use the chatbot most heavily also experience the most loneliness. The catch-22: it’s unclear whether this is caused by the chatbot itself or if lonely individuals are simply more likely to seek out emotional bonds. Researchers analyzed millions of interactions and found that only a small number of users rely on ChatGPT for emotional support—but those who do are among its heaviest users. The MIT study found that higher daily usage of ChatGPT “correlated with higher loneliness, dependence, and problematic use, and lower socialization.” Since loneliness is a tricky feeling to quantify, researchers said they measured both users’ subjective feelings of loneliness and their actual levels of socialization. The studies also found that heavy users were more likely to consider the chatbot a “friend” or attribute human-like emotions to it. Those engaging in “personal” conversations with the chatbot reported the highest levels of loneliness. If they set the chatbot’s voice mode to the opposite gender, those levels were even higher. It’s been over two years since OpenAI released ChatGPT. While researchers emphasize that these studies are preliminary, they reinforce existing concerns about how AI chatbot tools are affecting people’s lives—both online and offline. ChatGPT attracts 400 million users weekly worldwide. Some use it to win arguments or even as a substitute for therapy, despite warnings from health professionals. Others call ChatGPT their “best friend.” “Interactions with chatbots that cater to your preferences and are trained to be as polite and affirming as possible might help in the moment when you interact with them, but they also slowly chip away from your ability to deal with the messy real world and complex human interactions,” says Sandra Matz, Columbia Business School professor and author of MINDMASTERS: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior. “The problem is that we’d need to understand this more causally by assigning people to use or not use chatbots and then studying the impact of these experiences on loneliness,” she adds. “Obviously, something that comes with ethical questions if we’re playing around with people’s experience of loneliness.” There’s been increasing scrutiny of the negative effects of interacting with AI chatbots—and for good reason. Decades later, researchers are still trying to fully grasp the impact social media has had on mental health. When it comes to AI chatbots—well, I guess we’ll check in again in a couple of years and see. View the full article

As return-to-office policies take hold and fully flexible work arrangements decline, employees are re-adapting to in-person interactions. One of the biggest challenges? Giving and receiving constructive feedback. Unlike praise, constructive feedback highlights areas for improvement—a critical driver of individual and organizational success, yet one that many find difficult. Whether remote or in-person, various factors, like overestimating negative consequences or fearing relationship fallout, often make both giving and receiving feedback feel high stakes. While virtual feedback has its own challenges—limited nonverbal cues, potential misinterpretation, and technological barriers—the shift back to in-person conversations introduces new complexities. Body language, tone, and the immediacy of face-to-face exchanges add layers of nuance that leaders may feel less practiced in navigating. Now more than ever, leaders and teams must navigate feedback thoughtfully. Here’s how to make in-person feedback a tool for growth—ensuring it strengthens, rather than strains, workplace relationships. Anchor yourself in the right mindset Before giving constructive feedback, get into the right headspace. The goal is to help the other person grow—not to vent frustration, prove a point, or put someone in their place. If emotions are running high, step back. Feedback should come from a place of support and a genuine desire to see the other person succeed, which in turn strengthens the team and organization. Stay centered, and make sure your words and tone reflect that intention. Choose the right time and place Giving feedback soon after observing behavior, reviewing work, or having a key interaction keeps it relevant and actionable—but timing and environment matter. In-person conversations offer the potential for richer dialogue, but only if done right. Avoid squeezing feedback into rushed moments, like between back-to-back meetings, where neither party has the focus needed for a meaningful exchange. Choose a time when both people are centered and not overwhelmed. Opt for a neutral space, such as a meeting room rather than your office, to minimize power imbalances, and ensure it’s free from interruptions to foster an open, productive discussion. Be specific Vague feedback falls flat. Instead of saying, “You always interrupt” or, “You’re not a team player,” point to a concrete moment: “In yesterday’s Ops meeting, you raised your voice several times and spoke over others. After that, the room got quieter.” Speak from personal observation—what you saw, heard, and when it happened—rather than assuming how others felt or making broad character judgments. This keeps feedback clear, actionable, and easier to receive. Get the nonverbal part right It’s easy to focus mainly on what you’re going to say, but don’t forget how you say it, including the part that involves no words at all, which is much more important when you can’t hide behind a screen. Tone and body language are thought to make up the vast majority of how communication is received. Speak in an even tone, including about challenging topics. Maintain good eye contact but not in a scary, intense way. Lean forward to communicate engagement and care. Avoid postures that convey defensiveness, like having your arms crossed tightly. Don’t fear silence In our always-on world, it’s tempting to fill every space with words. Instead, try to be comfortable with silence, whether by pausing more frequently as you speak or not pushing for an immediate response from the other person. Silence, even a few seconds, creates time and capacity to become aware of and process emotional responses, contributing to a more genuine interaction that will help both parties understand and support each other. Mind the generational gap Members of different generations may prefer different modes of feedback. Gen Z may want an approach that takes into account their values and sources of meaning (“I know collaboration matters to you, so here are some ways I see you doing it well and some areas for improvement”), while boomers may be more focused on outcomes and practical advice. Ask for feedback—genuinely Asking for feedback regularly from your team members models important leadership behavior and promotes an open, growth-oriented, high-performance culture. But it has to be a genuine request, and employees you manage may be reluctant to be honest for fear of retaliation. Be empathetic to that reality. Avoid asking for feedback in the same conversation where you’re giving it. It can feel transactional or make the other person hesitant to share openly. If you don’t want to hear it, don’t ask for it. And remember: How you respond to feedback will determine whether the person feels comfortable providing any feedback in the future. Feedback skill is as much about receiving as giving. It’s human nature to react defensively, but try to take a breath and open yourself to what is being communicated, especially if it’s coming from a place of support. Ask for specifics if they’re not provided. While listening, ask yourself, “How might this feedback be true? How does it fit with how I see myself?” And remember: Feedback is a gift. It is one of the most impactful experiences that supports growth. Practice, practice, practice Some people may be “naturals” when it comes to communicating feedback, but most aren’t. Luckily it’s a skill that can be improved. Think of feedback-giving as a muscle to strengthen. One way to do that is to start with low-stakes situations (say, giving feedback to a team member after a specific activity like a presentation) and work up to more sensitive areas of improvement like patterns of behavior or communication. View the full article

That old, familial feelingView the full article

When OpenAI announced earlier this week that image generation was now directly available within ChatGPT, a lot of the initial examples used advertising to show how it works. Powered by OpenAI’s flagship multimodal model GPT-4o, the updated chatbot can now create visuals straight from its chat interface. Turbo Design founder Shane Devine posted an image of his prompt asking the platform to turn a generic office scene into a McDonald’s ad. His reaction to the results: “We’re cooked.” We are cooked pic.twitter.com/LfWizvSEoh — Shane Levine (@theShaneLevine) March 26, 2025 Other examples floating around in reaction hypothesized how the new tool would replace traditional photoshoots. Much like Levine’s comment, the mood appeared to be yet another sign of death at the door of traditional advertising creatives. Is it the future of all banner ads and bus shelter posters? If that McDonald’s spec ad is any indication, we’ve still got a long way to go. For Fast Company’s Brand New World podcast, I’ve been talking to creatives, ad agency execs, and CMOs about the impacts of, and strategies around Gen AI tools. They all focus on the utility of these tools to help humans, not replace them. Even for its own Super Bowl ad, OpenAI only used Sora as a concepting tool. CMO Kate Rouch told me at the time, “Because we made this on a pretty compressed timeline, it really helped the creatives prototype, experiment with camera angles, and things like that, all to speed up the process.” Deepthi Prakash, Omnicom Advertising Group COO, says this latest update is a really valuable integration, allowing for a more conversational experience, and a more natural “sparring partner” to help identify insights and translate them to visual ideas. “The quality of the visuals isn’t at par with the best specialized technologies out there,” she says. “But it’s certainly good enough for a strategist or a business leader to help develop and communicate concepts and ideas.” Omnicom-owned agency network TBWA announced its CollectiveAI platform last June. Integrating platforms like ChatGPT, as well as others from Google, Adobe, Microsoft, and more. Its tools are trained on the company’s past work to create social content and brand materials for clients, among other things. For Prakash, this new update simply improves their existing quiver. “This doesn’t really change things for us,” she says. “But hopefully, it accelerates the development of tools that are designed not just for specific tasks, but for entire workflows so that AI moves from being a set of tools to being a real partner in the creative process.” Omid Farhang is the founder and CEO of award-winning independent ad agency Majority. He says this new update feels like the first time he ever watched Netflix on his phone. “A moment that I knew for sure was coming yet still couldn’t help feeling utterly dazzled that it’s here,” says Farhang. Far from the existential dread expressed in some of the social media reactions to the new update, Farhang sees profound opportunity especially for smaller creative firms. “It feels like for the first time ever, being a small, young company is a competitive advantage,” he says. “Because we have no legacy departments and antiquated processes to undo; we can harness AI with less fear, more nimbleness. More malleability. More playfulness. More audacity.” Farhang advises any creative professional to embrace any and all the new AI tools. “Since the dawn of man, every generation operates under the delusion that they’ve hit the height of human potential, until an innovation emerges that reminds us we are perpetually the chrysalis, never the butterfly,” says Farhang. “All this chatter, speculation, daydreaming and resistance about AI are shrieks from the cocoon.” View the full article

For the better part of the last half-century, the world has traveled to California to experience Silicon Valley. They’ve heard from Stanford dropouts-turned-unicorn founders, toured dazzling tech campuses, spoken with shrewd venture capitalists, and discussed, ad nauseum, the region’s core DNA. They’ve come to scoop up the secret fertilizer, take it back home, and sprinkle it onto the local soil in the hopes of magically growing “Silicon Prairie,” or “Silicon Heartland,” or Silicon Fill-in-the-Blank. In reality, few places in the United States—almost none outside a handful of big coastal cities—have succeeded. Eventually, hopeful communities have abandoned their “innovation hubs” after disappointing results. But not all of them. Among the rare successes of a burgeoning tech hub, Tulsa stands out. I know because I helped lead the city’s reinvention. So, in understanding how northeast Oklahoma managed to establish a growing innovation economy, other places may finally be able to carve out a sustainable path in tech. The task isn’t simple—there are no shortcuts. But that’s because, in the end, there’s no secret ingredient. It simply comes down to whether cities can find the niche that corresponds with their strength and exploit it. No place will be able to compete with Silicon Valley’s money—but great gobs of capital sit in various locales, and yet few have become tech hubs. No place can replicate the Valley’s concentration of talent—but for all the celebrated universities, few have spawned notable clusters of innovation. That’s not what’s really important. Here’s what istruly important: Having a community think carefully about what their value add can be to the greater world of tech, and how they can lean into that specific attribute. Innovation economies grow from the bottom-up, not the top-down, and they can be tailored to fit your city. Thisis what Tulsa is doing so successfully—and it’s the reason that I’m convinced other cities can do the same. When I was recruited to Tulsa in 2019, the economy’s two pillars—oil and gas—were both on the ropes. Like many other midsized cities, there was rising alarm that Oklahomans were poised to be left behind by AI, the state’s manufacturing and service jobs gutted by automation. So, the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation asked me to lead an effort less to make the region a mini-Silicon Valley, and more to help Tulsa find what I call its “tech niche”—its own special place in the 21st century economy. As one cowboy hat-wearing entrepreneur told me, “We don’t want to be San Francisco. We want to be the best version of ourself.” But that just raised a series of questions that most cities struggle to answer: What should the community’s tech identity be? How could we create durable jobs? Where should we deploy scarce capital? The economic development organization I founded, Tulsa Innovation Labs, led a community-wide effort to answer those questions. We looked initially at education technology and discarded it as a focus—Tulsa simply didn’t have a competitive advantage in that realm. We then looked at agriculture technology and set that aside too—the potential impact of investing in that cluster wasn’t sufficient to building a resilient tech economy. Instead, we zeroed in on four areas where we believed we could create the critical mass of activity necessary to reinvent Tulsa’s economy: virtual health, energy tech, advanced air mobility, and cyber. Having narrowed the field, we raised over $200 million in four years to invest in those clusters and put ourselves on track to create 20,000 jobs. The question today is what other older industrial economies such as St. Louis, Buffalo, and Cincinnati can learn from Tulsa’s experience. And the lesson is surprisingly simple: Rather than try to emulate Silicon Valley, they should find their own tech niche and then invest in infrastructure that fuels growth in those clusters. To do that, they need to follow four principles. First, cities should build on existing industries Every city has longstanding employers with expertise that can be transitioned to tech. Tulsa’s energy companies were facing intense disruption thanks to climate change. And although Oklahoma’s aerospace industry is largely in maintenance, repair, and overhaul—not tech—the industry’s regional facilities offered existing infrastructure and talent with valuable skills that can translate. Tulsa’s challenge was to build on top of those important assets to spark growth in emerging technologies. Second, cities need to identify their strongest opportunities in tech Cities should pick a few tech clusters that are adjacent to existing industries and show long-term growth trends, thereby building a bridge to a more vibrant economy. Given its legacy as the oil capital of the world, Tulsa’s prime opportunity was energy tech. As was advanced air mobility given the region’s strong history in aerospace and the energy industry’s use of drones to monitor pipelines. While it’s understandable that many startups want to be in Silicon Valley, others are realizing it’s wiser to build near established industries with the ready-made partners they provide and the dynamic ecosystems they can offer. Third, those searching for a niche should ensure it promises a range of jobs San Francisco is a cautionary tale because the explosion almost exclusively of high-paying positions for the most educated has increased housing prices and widened inequality. Choosing clusters that offer jobs demanding a variety of skills and education levels—jobs open to those without bachelor’s degrees—can drive inclusion. In Tulsa, we selected cyber in part because workers with skills-based credentials are essential to the industry. About a third of the 20,000 jobs Tulsa is on track to create are accessible without a bachelor’s degree. Finally, cities should select a niche that allows them to lead Midsized cities need not compete with major tech hubs. Instead, they should search for specific clusters, sub-clusters, or parts of an industry’s value chain in which they can lead. For virtual health, Tulsa’s opportunity was in remote care solutions—technologies that, for example, enable remote glucose monitoring. Virtual health also has nice synergies with cybersecurity, which keeps those remote systems safe, as well as advanced air mobility in which drones could deliver pharmaceuticals to rural parts of the region. The specific clusters that comprise your tech niche should reinforce each other. Silicon Valley is a unicorn, and for too long, it has been viewed as the model for places that can’t possibly recreate it. This myth has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with a national innovation economy that leaves out most Americans and dismisses the Heartland as “flyover country.” Places like Tulsa can thrive in the decades to come if they find the right niche. Pulling off an economic renaissance isn’t easy to do, but it’s entirely realistic. For anyone living in a place that’s being left behind by tech, know that you can write your own future if you and your neighbors work together and grow from the inside out. View the full article

Over the past three months, in a small print shop in Toronto, a group of people has been hard at work making the impossible possible: a book that can be read only when you pour water over it. The “Dehydrating Book” is the first of its kind. It was printed with a special hydrochromic ink that is invisible to the naked eye and becomes visible only when it’s wet. It is 100% waterproof and ships in a pouch full of water. Why? To raise awareness about the global water crisis. [Photo: The Gas Company Inc.] The project is a close collaboration between Water for People, a global nonprofit that helps bring clean water and sanitation systems to underserved communities around the world; communications firm Edelman; and Toronto-based graphic arts studio the Gas Company. Water for People and Edelman came up with the concept. And after three months of iteration (and many sleepless nights) the Gas Company made it a reality by crafting a whopping 130 waterproof books. One of them could be yours free—if you subscribe to the Water for People newsletter and win the raffle that will ensue. [Photo: The Gas Company Inc.] The water crisis, made tangible “This book needs water. Just like millions of children in Latin America.” This is the opening line on Water for People’s website, and the sentiment behind it is literal. According to a UNICEF 2021 study, more than 1.42 billion people—including 450 million children—don’t have enough water to meet their everyday needs. That is one in five children worldwide whose ability to focus, learn, and achieve their potential is hampered by illnesses and decreased cognitive performance caused by a lack of clean drinking water. Water quality issues are so difficult to detect and monitor that the World Bank has called it “the invisible crisis.” By making a “dehydrating book,” the team wanted to make the crisis visible: When water disappears, so do opportunities like education. “The Dehydrating Book is symbolic of the current realities and obstacles of communities in Latin America,” says Mark Duey, Water for People’s CEO. “The region is currently facing a water crisis that’s holding children back.” But no such book had ever been made before. [Photo: The Gas Company Inc.] The making of a waterproof book Doug Laxdal founded the Gas Company in 1996. Since then, he has built a strong reputation for “kookie projects,” as he puts it. In 2022, his team made a completely fireproof version of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to raise awareness of book burnings and bans in the U.S. (The Unburnable Book fetched $130,000 at a Sotheby’s auction, and all proceeds went to PEN America.) Laxdal recalls that when he was first asked to make an “unburnable” book, he knew exactly what to do. This time around, he wasn’t so sure. “A waterproof book is like putting metal in a microwave,” he told me on a recent video call. “You just don’t it.” After he hung up with Edelman, his only thought was: What the hell am I going to do? If you google “waterproof books” you’ll find a smattering of options, from plasticky baby books to “all-weather” notebooks, but the Dehydrating Book proved to be a whole other ball game. It had to be waterproof, and the ink had to stick to the page without washing away, and the text had to appear only when you poured water over it. A game of trial and error First on Laxdal’s to-do list was the book cover. His first instinct was to utilize plastic, but the four plastic manufacturers he reached out to weren’t interested in the project. In the end, he landed on white acrylic, also known as plexiglass, which comes in a gloss finish but in this case was sanded down to a matte surface using an orbital sander. The cover closes around the pages of the book almost like a jewelry box. Then came the pages. Laxdal experimented with a flurry of materials, including Tyvek (a type of synthetic material that’s often used to wrap buildings during construction) and polyester. The former wrinkled under water, the latter made the pages too stiff. Other options simply weren’t suitable for the kind of ink he had to use. Various test runs using pouches filled with water for a few days yielded unworkable results: Some ink either bled into the water or turned sticky, effectively gluing the book shut. The final version is made with a synthetic paper called SuperYupo (regular Yupo wasn’t good enough). The book covers are acrylic. The outside is lined with another sheet of SuperYupo that is glued to the covers using a waterproof adhesive from 3M. The pages are sewn with standard polyester thread. Laxdal’s team printed the first layer of text with a UV litho press, which uses ultraviolet light to instantly cure the ink onto the page. Laxdal likens the process to UV-cured gel nail polish, except in this case, the UV machine is almost 100 feet long. Then, they used a silkscreen press to apply enough layers of hydrochromic ink to conceal the text printed underneath. Finally, they placed the book inside a plastic pouch and dunked it in a small aquarium so the water could flow inside the pouch before it was sealed. In a live demo on Zoom, I watched as graphic designer Layla Laxdal (Doug’s daughter) poured a glass of water over an open book, and instantly, a brightly colored hummingbird appeared on the page. The story, cowritten with students from Palmira, a village in Peru’s Cascas Valley, follows a group of animals, led by a thirsty hummingbird named Lupita, who travel through Peru in search of water. A spokesperson from Edelman explains that the message behind the book is “el agua es vida,” (or “water is life”): “It’s a motto that the community lives by, and it is a powerful reminder for us readers that without water, children can’t thrive.” By the end of my interview with Laxdal, some 40 minutes later, the image that came into view during the demo had started to fade, apart from one patch in the center where the water had pooled. That patch was still bright. View the full article

When Michael White struck out on his own after stints at DoorDash and Square, his plan was to help tech employees access the value of their equity while their companies were still private. But as White and his cofounder Gautam Gupta enabled workers to get a line of credit, they found that most people were using it to finance a home purchase. “It makes sense,” White says. “That’s a big reason people seek liquidity—or that’s one of the first things that people do if they have an exit. So it really led us to dive deeper into that and ultimately pivot.” In 2024, White and Gupta relaunched their company Multiply Mortgage as an employee benefit that helps aspiring homeowners secure a mortgage. The company is licensed to originate mortgage loans in 19 states and works with mortgage brokers in nearly every other state. Through Multiply, workers can access expert advisors and discounted mortgage interest rates—and more recently, the company has also expanded to include more comprehensive education resources about financial wellness. For now, the benefit will remain a free service for employers, owing to Multiply’s business model in which the company earns a commission on mortgage origination from all of its lender partners. (White does, however, note that the company might start charging companies down the road, “as we build out more of the value that we’re providing companies.”) Working with employers also gives Multiply a built-in pool of potential customers and lowers the steep cost of customer acquisition across the mortgage industry. Beyond that, building an AI-powered platform has enabled Multiply to reduce its labor costs while continuing to bolster crucial elements of the business; the company recently closed a $23.5 million Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins that will go toward getting its product in front of more workers and improving on its personalized services. “We’re not building a self-serve mortgage,” White says. “For as complicated and stressful as this transaction can be, having a really high level of client service can make it go a lot more smoothly. So we’re really investing heavily in our team of mortgage advisors.” In the past decade, companies have started offering workplace benefits that help support employees through various personal experiences, from fertility treatments to mental health support and menopause-related care. At the moment, many benefits managers and HR teams are daunted by the rising costs of healthcare, not to mention the overwhelming number of niche employee benefits now on the market. “If medical insurance is going to consume basically all of your budget, companies have to make some pretty hard choices in other places,” White says. Multiply’s pitch to companies like Ramp—the booming fintech startup that is one of its customers—is certainly appealing from a financial perspective, but the return-to-office movement has also created an environment in which some employers are looking for ways to lure their workers back to the office or court prospective employees. Another buzzy tech startup is currently using Multiply in part because its employees are expected to relocate to cities that are not traditional tech hubs. “They are in the process of building out those teams with engineers that wouldn’t typically live in those places,” White says. “So what we’ve seen them doing with us is including us in their recruiting materials and really highlighting how this might not have been where you were otherwise going to live—but look at the quality of life that you can have. Look at what you’re able to afford from a home perspective; you can buy a home here, and here’s a resource that you can use to make that even more attainable.” Some fully remote employers, on the other hand, are offering Multiply’s services because of the geographic range the platform promises. “The fact that we can help their employees in Michigan just as well as we can help their employees in California makes a big difference for them,” White says. Companies have also found that providing Multiply as an employee benefit has encouraged some people to consider buying a home even if they previously assumed it was out of reach—or, at a minimum, use the service to evaluate their options. “One thing that’s been really cool is how much employees are just exploring what homeownership could look like for them, evaluating how much they could afford [and] renting versus buying,” White says. “They’re able to take advantage of this resource, as well. They have unlimited access to those advisors.” For some clients, the lower interest rates they secured through Multiply—which can be discounted by up to 0.75% and save them an average of $5,100 annually—have made all the difference in terms of being able to afford home ownership. Like other players in the workplace-benefits space, White also makes the case that may be most appealing to companies and HR teams who are sifting through a dizzying array of potential offerings. Going through a divorce or buying a home can be a lengthy, emotionally taxing experience, one that inevitably bleeds into the workplace. “If you know what to expect and you know how to adequately prepare for it, you can take a lot of the stress out of the process—which is great from the company’s perspective,” White says. “If you have this big thing happening outside of work that’s stressful and distracting, then that’s going to degrade performance at work.” View the full article

Founder of electric and hydrogen-powered truckmaker was found guilty in 2022 of lying to investorsView the full article

CoreWeave’s faltering IPO is a symptom of market enshittificationView the full article

When filmmaker Travis Gutiérrez Senger reflects on Asco’s legacy, he quickly notes they were more than an art group; they created a movement, one with remarkable influence on Chicano art history. “That movement continues today, and it’s very expansive,” he says. “There’s a lot of books, films and things that will be written about Asco over a period of time. And this was our contribution in some ways.” He’s referring to Asco: Without Permission, a documentary that chronicles the story of the 1970s art group founded by multidisciplinary artist Patssi Valdez, muralist Willie Herrón III, painter and performance artist Gronk and writer and photographer Harry Gamboa Jr. They met as teens, formed as young adults, and called their group “asco”—“nausea” or “disgust” in Spanish—after one of their early DIY exhibits. Their conceptual work and performance art spoke to the exclusion of Chicanos from the mainstream art world and the systemic police brutality endured by the Mexican American community in East Los Angeles. All four founding members of Asco became some of the most notable Chicano artists, later exhibiting works in revered museums around the United States. But in their early days, the group was denied access to the notable galleries and museums. They created their own avenues in the form of public performances, murals, and more to exhibit their work, their way. “To behave badly is the most ethical thing you can do,” said executive producer Gael García Bernal at the film’s South by Southwest film festival premiere earlier this month. “You’re building identity and questioning and unmasking the facade and the farce that exists.” Bernal and Diego Luna executive produced the film under their production company El Corriente del Golfo. The film has yet to find distribution. Speaking with the Associated Press, Gamboa and Valdez praised Gutiérrez Senger’s approach to their history. Both members, who appear in the documentary, saw the film for the first time with a crowd of fans and a group of young Chicano artists whose art was inspired by Asco’s early rebellion. “I felt the film really kind of captured the essence of all of us working together,” said Gamboa. Valdez says it was a special moment for her, as the only woman in the founding group, to be given equal time and understanding. “For the first time, I was given an equal voice in the group that hadn’t happened before,” she said, citing how previous stories of the group only highlighted her male collaborators. Without permission Asco emerged at the height of the Chicano civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. It was a time of heightened political and racial tension amid the East LA walkouts, protesting education inequality, and the Chicano Moratorium, an anti-Vietnam War movement during which many Mexican Americans were victims of police brutality. Muralists and collectives popped up as Latino artists sought to process the systemic injustice taking place in their communities. “The response to such violence was to create art,” said Gamboa Jr. He wanted to alter the mainstream perception of Chicanos and present the possibilities and avenues someone can create despite societal constraints. For Valdez, being the only woman meant she was no stranger to a double dose of both racism in society and the sexism weaved within conservative Latino households, where young women were expected to keep quiet. “I couldn’t stand it. So I was able to act out these forms of censorship through the performance work in Asco,” said Valdez, who once taped herself to a public wall in a piece titled Instant Mural, a metaphor on feeling captive. One of Asco’s most known works is Spray Paint LACMA. Gamboa, Gronk and Herrón spray painted their names on the side of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art after Gamboa says he was told by a curator, “Chicanos are in gangs, they don’t make art.” “There was another era when people said, ‘Latinx art, you know, doesn’t exist. It’s not a thing. It doesn’t belong. It’s not part of American art,’” said Pilar Tompkins-Rivas, the chief curator and deputy director of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Asco’s neighborhood performance art would often draw stares, and even crowds. In Station of the Cross, the group carried a large cross to the local military recruiting office to protest the Vietnam War. In 1974, Gamboa took a photo of Gronk posed as the victim of gang violence to bring attention to the media’s sensationalist coverage of crime in East Los Angeles. In the documentary, Gamboa claims that a local news station ran the piece as an actual story. Asco’s work as a group remained in obscurity from the mainstream. It was not until 2011 when LACMA mounted Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972-1887, the first retrospective to present the group’s performance and conceptual art. On display was an image of Valdez, taken by Gamboa, standing above the graffiti art. Life had presented Asco with its full-circle moment. “Latino history has always been erased,” said Gutiérrez Senger. “Asco: Without Permission is a story of winning a battle, not a war.” “No Movies” and Latino representation A 1974 photograph of Valdez shows the artist glammed up in a gold top, holding a golden statue of a cobra. She had won best actress at the Aztlan No Movie Awards—a fictional award show Asco created as commentary on the lack of Latino representation in Hollywood. The group was inspired by Hollywood cinema and popular culture, but knew the likelihood of starring in studio films was limited, unless they wanted to play a maid, cartel leader or gang member. “Hollywood movies, rock ’n’ roll. That’s what I was about,” said Valdez. “And that’s why I responded in the way I did with my artmaking.” Gamboa photographed Herrón, Gronk, and Valdez using cinema stock to capture the essence of their favorite films. The series was called No Movies and later inspired their satirical award show. Gutiérrez Senger was drawn to it and pays homage throughout the documentary by featuring a group of young Chicano artists—including local Los Angeles artists like Fabi Reyna and San Cha—in short films inspired by Asco’s signature DIY style. “I think it’s a necessary obligation as a Latino if you’re making films to fight very, very hard to put brown people on screen and behind the camera and to try to create films about our history,” said Gutiérrez Senger. “We have rich stories, and we have a rich history.” Asco: Without Permission includes testimonials from respected Latino artists, including actor Michael Peña and comedian Arturo Castro, who have broken into the mainstream but know the importance of preserving history. “Our history as Latinos is not in the history books. The movements that we’ve had are not in the history books,” Peña says in the documentary. Although it often feels like progression is slow, Valdez says artists need to continue to voice their opinions and “misbehave and not ask for permission.” “You do not need permission to be yourself. You do not need permission to be creative. You do not need permission to be intellectual,” said Gamboa. “And the thing is, you cannot allow yourself to be repressed or silenced and or visually curtailed from presenting works.” —By Leslie Ambriz, Associated Press View the full article

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Many schools and colleges are underperforming when it comes to sex education. Going beyond the classroom condoms-and-bananas approach, a group of students have taken it upon themselves to deliver sex ed, TikTok-style. The TikTok account @sexedforguys, which has more than 117,000 followers, started as a school project by four students at Colby College, a private liberal arts school in Maine. Launched in 2022, the account features skits tackling consent, toxic masculinity, and homophobia—essential lessons in a time when manosphere content is flooding For You Pages and Gen Z boys and men are more likely than baby boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than good. The channel began as part of a study on privilege at elite all-boys schools, led by professor Adam Howard, chair of Colby’s education department. His research highlights how these institutions often fall short—especially when it comes to sex education. While working with student researchers, Howard asked how they could best share their findings. Their answer? TikTok. Howard told Rolling Stone that TikTok was the perfect platform for sharing his research for two reasons: First, that’s where young people are (55% of TikTok users are younger than 30). Second, it provides a much-needed counternarrative to some of the worst content on the app. “Guys could be scrolling through their TikTok and Andrew Tate will pop up, but as they scroll maybe Sex Ed for Guys will pop up and it’ll start having them think a little bit differently,” Christopher Maichin, a 20-year-old junior at Colby, told Rolling Stone. “I think the greatest part of it is that they are getting education without even knowing it. They’re watching a funny video but they’re learning about consent.” Several of the TikTok account’s videos have gone viral, including “Respecting Women Workout” (which has 11 million-plus views) and the game “That’s What’s Up!/What’s Up With That?” (which has more than 3 million views). “Setting boundaries with your partner: That’s what’s up! Backflips: That’s what’s up! Using racial and homophobic slurs: What’s up with that?” the boys say to the camera. Their video goes on to praise the 2013 Florida Gulf Coast March of Madness run, night-vision goggles, and “asking your partner about their day.” “This is unironically how we defeat the alt-right pipeline,” one user commented under the video. Another wrote: “this could actually save america.” View the full article

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Hundreds of AI tools emerge every week. I’ve picked five new ones worth exploring. They’re free to try, easy to use, and signal new directions for useful AI. 1. Sesame: Talk with a surprisingly lifelike AI Of all the AI bots I’ve communicated with, this one sounds the most lifelike. Pick either Maya or Miles to talk with for free in Sesame’s conversational demo. Try one of these topics. You can download your conversation afterwards. It’s deleted from the company’s servers within 30 days to protect your privacy. I’ll keep an eye on this company: Sesame aims to build “an ever-present brilliant friend and conversationalist, keeping you informed and organized, helping you be a better version of yourself.” Another intriguing new AI conversationalist: I’m also intrigued by my experiments with Natura Umana’s “AI people.” Rather than one AI bot that covers everything, the NatureOS ecosystem hosts multiple conversational bots, each with a different focus. I’ve talked with Hector about well-being and Athena about fitness. The NatureOS interestingly includes hardware, so you can summon these lifelike AI characters with a quick tap of special earbuds. (See a video demo.) 2. Convergence: Assign tasks to an AI agent Ask Convergence’s AI agent to buy groceries for you, find a gift on Amazon, get you a restaurant reservation, research what people say about your company, or do any number of other tasks. This is just one of many new AI agents trained to use a Web browser for you, and none are yet fully reliable. When I tasked Convergence with making a list of LinkedIn profiles of speakers at the upcoming Perugia International Journalism festival, it got some right and many wrong. With simpler tasks your odds of success are higher. You can request up to five tasks for free per day, or pay $20/month for an unlimited number of tasks. 3. Scribe: Transcribe super accurately Until April 9, Scribe—a remarkably accurate new transcription model from ElevenLabs—is completely free. In my tests it got the names of websites right, whereas most transcription tools get those wrong. It also captured tiny speech nuances so well that I’d recommend this over other tools for anything requiring top accuracy. It works in 99 languages. 4. Google Career Dreamer: Imagine a new job Dream up potential new directions for your career with this simple, well-designed free site. You don’t have to log in, enter your name, or share any personal info. Just type in the kind of work you do and confirm whether you have certain skills and interests. Add your education if you want. The AI immediately gives you a “career identity statement” and shows you a map of jobs that might interest you. Hover over any to learn more about them. You can even open up nearby job openings in that field. You can then jump to Gemini, Google’s alternative to ChatGPT, to work on a cover letter or continue your career ideation. Gems are now free You can now create a free Gemini “Gem,” which is an AI tool customized with your specific instructions and up to 10 documents you upload. It’s Google’s answer to ChatGPT’s Custom GPTs. Try this: Create a new “Career Gem” by uploading your resume, past cover letters, career planning docs, and any other relevant materials. Provide instructions if you have a particular style, language, or approach in mind. This new trained AI assistant you’ve customized can then help you anytime you return to it to refine a cover letter, update your resume, practice for an interview, or even brainstorm career ideas. Alternative: You can use Google’s default “Career Guide” gem without uploading anything, but it’s not personalized. 5. Adobe Enhance Speech: Improve audio Adobe recently upgraded its audio cleanup tool. Upload any audio recording with background noise and immediately get a clean version to download. There are new sliders for adjusting the enhancement and background noise. You can then use Adobe Podcast to edit the cleaned audio by trimming the transcript just as you would in a Google Doc. It now works for recordings in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. If you’re making a podcast, you can choose from royalty-free sound collections with intros, outros, transition sounds, and background music. It’s free to try for a month and included with existing Adobe subscriptions. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. View the full article