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The Federal Emergency Management Agency faced fresh upheaval Thursday just weeks before the start of hurricane season when the acting administrator was pushed out and replaced by another official from the Department of Homeland Security. The abrupt change came the day after Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL who held the job for the last few months, testified on Capitol Hill that he did not agree with proposals to dismantle an organization that helps plan for natural disasters and distributes financial assistance. “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” he said Wednesday. President Donald The President has suggested that individual states, not the federal government, should take the lead on hurricanes, tornadoes and other crises. He has been sharply critical of FEMA’s performance, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa, will run FEMA for the time being. He does not appear to have any experience in managing natural disasters. He currently serves as the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction. The administration made no statement about any potential permanent nominee. Nor did the White House answer questions about Richardson’s background, the impact of Hamilton’s testimony or whether the president personally ordered his dismissal. An administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Hamilton was offered another government job that would be a better fit for him, but did not say what that job would be. FEMA staff were notified of the change in leadership through a brief email. Through a January executive order, The President established a review council tasked with “reforming and streamlining the nation’s emergency management and disaster response system,” according to Homeland Security. The 13-member council is chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During Hamilton’s appearance before a House Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday, he shared concerns about how FEMA assistance is administered. He also said the agency had “evolved into an overextended federal bureaucracy, attempting to manage every type of emergency no matter how minor.” But when Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, asked Hamilton how he felt about plans to eliminate FEMA, Hamilton said he did not believe the agency should be eliminated. “Having said that,” Hamilton continued, “I’m not in a position to make decisions and impact outcomes on whether or not a determination such as consequential as that should be made. That is a conversation that should be had between the president of the United States and this governing body.” In a statement Thursday afternoon, DeLauro expressed support for Hamilton and accused the Republican president of firing “anyone who is not blindly loyal to him.” “The The President administration must explain why he has been removed from this position,” said DeLauro. “Integrity and morality should not cost you your job.” —Chris Megerian and Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Associated Press View the full article

SBU arrests two alleged agents it says were ran by the Hungarian military intelligence serviceView the full article

No president is immune to the tides of historyView the full article

AI bots want to help with your web searches as well as everything else, and Claude is the latest artificial intelligence assistant to get the ability to look up information online—whether that's the latest news headlines or the latest prices on gadgets. "With web search, Claude has access to the latest events and information, boosting its accuracy on tasks that benefit from the most recent data," says developer Anthropic. The feature is available now across all paid plans, and is "coming soon" for free users. Web search is a different kind of challenge for AI models, testing their ability to sift through and assess content published on the web, rather than embedded in its training data. Here's how Claude gets on—and compares to Google Gemini and ChatGPT. Using web search in Claude Enabling the web search feature. Credit: Lifehacker To give Claude web access, click the sliders button in the prompt box, and enable the Web search toggle switch. The AI bot will then refer to the web at large as and when it deems it appropriate to your query, but if you want to make sure it uses online information as part of its response, include something like "search the web" in your prompt. When a web search is invoked, Claude will notify you as part of the response, and typically takes a little longer to come back with an answer. When the answer does appear, you get small citation buttons at the end of certain sentences, so you know where the information has come from. Click any citation to jump to that website in a new tab. You can run just about any query you might type into Google, covering everything from weather forecasts and sports scores to deep dives into music history and help with fixing computer problems. As usual, you can then follow up with more questions about the results Claude has given you. It's easy to see the potential for AI to upend the way we search the web, in how it offers a more natural, nuanced experience than the standard list of links on Google. It's not without its problems though—not least whether these AI bots can be trusted, and where they're going to get their information from if real human beings have no incentive to publish on the web any more. Getting the news of the day Picking out the current tech news. Credit: Lifehacker I tasked Claude with bringing me the tech news headlines of the day, and in fact it ran two web searches to make sure it got everything. I read the tech news every day, and Claude did an okay job, here: The stories were mostly new, and mostly relevant, though the citation links tended to go to front pages of news sites, rather than individual articles. Gemini was about on a par with Claude, though it did manage to link to specific articles, not just news hubs. Almost every result was from the last few days, taken from a reputable source, and relatively significant in the world of tech news, though there were some misses—a new Samsung phone in India, for example, which I don't really care about. Over to ChatGPT, and the OpenAI bot was probably the worst of the lot when it came to returning results I cared about from sites that are the most respected in the tech news space (though you could argue that's a subjective call). It still did fine, but I preferred the results I got from Claude and Gemini. When asked to return the latest news from Lifehacker, Claude couldn't do it, and ChatGPT just listed the headlines from the current home page without links. Gemini actually gave me the latest stories, complete with links, so works the best here—though the better option is probably just to open Lifehacker in your browser. Checking facts online Claude knows its movies... or rather, knows to check Wikipedia. Credit: Lifehacker Onto fact checking: I tested Claude with a movie question I already know the answer to. How many Oscars were won by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? It got the right answer, and the right year, and gave the context that it's only the third film in history to get all five big Academy Awards: Best director, best actor, best actress, best picture, and best adapted screenplay (see if you can guess what the other two movies are). Gemini also got the answers and the context of the big five win. Its sources covered a wider variety of sites and even YouTube, whereas Claude stuck to Wikipedia and the official Oscars site. It gave a shorter, more terse response than Claude, and didn't include background information on box office takings. As for ChatGPT, it again managed to put together an accurate answer, with the useful context about the big five success and the other movies that have managed the feat. Like Claude, it stuck mainly to Wikipedia, but it did something neither Claude nor Gemini did: It included a video from YouTube of the best picture Oscar presentation. These kinds of web searches aren't particularly taxing. More complex questions may pose more problems, especially if the answers aren't readily available and the AI gets tempted to make them up. I did try and trick these AI bots into thinking Daniel Day-Lewis won two best actor Oscars in consecutive years, but all three correctly identified that this never happened. Going shopping with AI Claude isn't much use for shopping on the web. Credit: Lifehacker Online shopping could be transformed by AI. While actual people will always be better than bots at picking out the right purchases, AI can quickly scrape and summarize the opinions of real human beings and package them in a clean, friendly interface while taking a cut of the sales. It's like having a smart assistant with you, with no need to wade though masses of information or search results. I asked Claude to recommend a quirky present for myself, based around sports or movies, and it dutifully searched for pages listing quirky sports and movie gifts. It did fine at picking out some ideas, but I think this is one query I could've just run myself through Google without troubling AI. Gemini gave a more personalized, chattier response. It didn't provide any web links in this case, perhaps because Google wants to keep you going to its main search engine for these sorts of queries: Unlike Claude or ChatGPT, Google already makes a lot of money getting users to click through on purchasing links from its shopping search results. ChatGPT gave the most useful results here, perhaps thanks to its recent shopping upgrade. The sources it listed were similar to the ones Claude used, but it provided some distinct top picks, together with pricing and links to buy them on the web. Further down the line, this could well be one of the ways OpenAI makes back some of its money. Web search is clearly still a work in progress for all these AI tools. In some cases it works better than a traditional Google search, but not always, and there's always the issue of how far you can trust these confident, polished answers without checking on the original sources they're getting their information from. Disclosure: Lifehacker’s parent company, Ziff Davis, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems. View the full article

Since 1974, William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco’s Jackson Square has been one of the city’s most iconic destinations for its seemingly endless stock of art, design, and architecture books. As the store was approaching its 50th year in business with a fresh owner, the Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity, it discovered a problem: It had run out of stickers to label its books. Then it discovered another problem—it didn’t have a formalized logo to print more. But as luck would have it, a fairly competent design firm resided just across the street that offered to help: LoveFrom. “It’s a store we loved. And if we didn’t get to design [their brand], it would have been like, ‘we wish we could have done that!” says Chris Wilson, designer at LoveFrom. “It’s something that falls into that category of projects we do for the love of doing them—quite organic by just being in the neighborhood and going in the store.” The ongoing health and legacy of San Francisco is a core reason that Jony Ive founded his studio in his favorite neighborhood, Jackson Square, which sits in the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid. Ive first visited the neighborhood in 1989, and fell in love with William Stout, along with other local gems. When he left Apple to build LoveFrom, he did so here, right next door to Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective, around the corner from his hardware startup with Sam Altman called io Products. After acquiring nearly $90 million in real estate, Ive is a landlord to several businesses in the neighborhood where he’s offered to lower rents, and LoveFrom has offered pro bono design services to many of its neighbors, like the local three Michelin star restaurant Quince, hoping that rising tides raise all boats. It all makes for a nice story. But the effect of this financial and creative investment on the ground level really has been something to watch. I’ve visited the neighborhood several times over the past few years, and have witnessed firsthand how the once sleepy blocks are now bustling with activity—like a successful game of SimCity playing out IRL. The William Stout bookstore is a preservation project unto itself, acquired by the Eames Institute in 2022, ensuring that the beloved destination will stick around into the foreseeable future. “We don’t want it to disappear,” says Lauren Smith, chief experience officer at the Eames Institute, who takes our call from deep in the William Stout stacks. “It’s important to the San Francisco design community and the neighborhood. There aren’t many architecture book stores left in the world.” Rebuilding a brandWhen Wilson and fellow LoveFrom designer Antonio Cavedoni (who in a past life developed Apple’s San Francisco typeface) began searching for the store’s original logo, they learned William Stout never really had one; instead, the company’s small sign wrote out the store’s name in the typeface Washington upon a square placard, and that seemed to inform letterheads and other brand assets. It was a bit quirky and a bit architectural, but it didn’t feel codified into a larger, scalable brand system. “We kind of thought there was something to hold onto there,” says Wilson. “There’s a lot of stuff that was a bit odd and a bit weird. We loved some of that, but we just wanted to rationalize these things.” The team started by breaking down the core square into five equal quadrants. Then, they looked more closely at the typeface to fill them. Washington was a contemporary (albeit retro) typeface when the store opened. A mix of serif and sans serifs, some of its cleaner geometries (like a perfect circle O) made it appealing for a design store, but the Art Deco style—while spirited—felt too prescriptive of one particular era to represent the entirety of William Stout’s purview. The obvious choice would have been to do what many do in this situation (and indeed, what William Stout had to do fill some of its brand needs throughout the years): opt for Futura, a now ubiquitous geometric typeface that has similar qualities to Washington. But instead, LoveFrom modified Washington into a new typeface it calls “LF Washington” with permission from Russell Bean, the creator of the typeface. Designers evened out the cap heights of Washington, while lowering the midlines that made for the high waisted Art Deco look. Meanwhile, LoveFrom drew new numbers that more closely align with the new letterforms. LF Washington sings on William Stout’s new sign. (The LoveFrom industrial design team created it custom out of enameled steel.) But it also looks straightforward as it balances atop photos to promote William Stout events. For times that the typeface needs to be more expressive, or playful, Cavedoni was inspired by another 1970s typeface’s—Avant Garde—approach to ligatures with its overlapping Os and letters nested inside other letters. Later, Cavedoni was joyed to discover that Frank Lloyd Wright took an all-around similar approach in his own branding, making all these decisions feel pretty appropriate for an architectural bookstore. The brand beyond the typeAs the team considered the brand colors, it started with those on the original sign: black, white, and red. LoveFrom mostly stuck with this color system, but it expanded a palette of synergistic hues inspired by two of Le Corbusier’s famed color studies. LoveFrom contracted illustrator Satoshi Hashimoto to create a series of illustrations. His vaguely mid-century cartoon style captures a kinetic energy that, as Wilson explains, juxtaposes the more formal architectural typography. “We wanted to soften [the type] with the warmth of what it feels like to walk in the store,” says Wilson. “There’s some jazz playing, the doors open, and you see the light inside the store.” It’s yet another illustration of LoveFrom’s sense of whimsy offsetting its stricter approaches to geometry. These illustrations are perfect tote bag or T-shirt fodder, but they also introduce a subtle and sweet part of William Stout’s e-commerce UX. Anyone visiting the newly launched William Stout website will be welcomed by an illustration of the shop’s storefront, drawn by Hashimoto. But what they might not realize until visiting again is that this storefront (and its solitary tree) changes with the seasons—yellow in the fall and adorned with multicolor lights in the winter. The front door is sometimes open and sometimes closed (matching the open/closed hours of the building). And if you look really closely, you will spot a bird somewhere in the scene—which was something of a mascot for Ray and Charles Eames. Click on it, and you’ll be ushered to the Eames Institute. While not technologically complex, the evolving illustration a clever way to bridge a physical store with a digital shop that I’m a bit surprised I haven’t seen before. “The website is definitely a way for us to get a bigger reach; we’re a very small square foot storefront in San Francisco,” says Smith. “But we want that shopping experience to feel like coming into the store.” The new William Stout brand and website is live today. View the full article

When the state of New York adopted a new whole-of-state approach to cybersecurity a few years ago, encompassing everything from transit to schools to power and water supplies, officials were still reeling from an attack that plunged part of Long Island into the paper-and-fax era of the ’90s. Just before Christmas in 2021, a group of hackers, leveraging aging systems and outdated firewalls, quietly slipped into a computer in the Suffolk County clerk’s office and began spreading out across the network. It didn’t help that, over the following months, local officials ignored multiple warnings—including from the FBI—that something was amiss. When a ransomware attack eventually began months later, city services, including 911 operations, were knocked offline; some websites were out for months. Even though it didn’t pay the ransom—the hackers, linked to the group AlphV/BlackCat, would lower their demand to $650,000—the county eventually paid over $25 million to get its systems back up. The damage didn’t stop there either, with the data of residents and employees, such as Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers, still floating around the dark web. The next year, Gov. Kathy Hochul made moves to step up the state’s cyber posture, including boosting cyber spending and launching a statewide cyber strategy, an approach that unifies services and integrates local governments into its larger plan. As part of a 2023 regulatory overhaul, public and private entities across the state are now required to take specific measures to secure systems and to disclose cyber incidents and ransomware payments to the state. In 2022, Hochul also appointed the state’s first chief cyber officer, Colin Ahern, to lead cross-agency efforts to keep New York safe from attacks. Previously first deputy director of New York City’s Cyber Command and acting chief information security officer for the city, Ahern got his start in cybersecurity in the Army reserves. He retired as a company commander in the Army Cyber Brigade, where he oversaw the creation of a specialized cyberspace operations organization. Colin Ahern Given his resumé, Ahern is particularly attuned to the ways governments at all levels can collaborate around better cybersecurity. For years, New York and other states have relied on federal support in the form of information sharing and technical resources backed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), as well as millions in cyber funds. A four-year, $1 billion federal grant program that launched in 2022 has proved especially helpful for cash-strapped localities, where IT resources are stretched thin, technology is be out-of-date, and security practices may be minimal. Still, states need more help: Nearly two in five state-level CISOs say they are not getting the support they need to keep threats at bay, according to a Deloitte survey last fall. And that number could rise: at CISA, recent budget cuts have decimated technical services states rely on, and put those federal funds at risk. Fast Company spoke with Ahern about the impact of the federal cuts on states, the role that Washington can and should play in state-level cybersecurity, and the AI-backed threats that keep him up at night. This interview has been edited for clarity. There are big questions now about how cuts in Washington are impacting cybersecurity at the state and local level. But before all that: what does the threat landscape look like right now? The threat landscape continues to deteriorate really across two axes. Number one: we see a significant convergence, really accelerating in the last three or four years, that collapses the distinction between different threat actors. There are the advanced persistent threat actors [APTs], aka nation-state actors, like those interested in espionage—like the so-called Salt Typhoon hacks allegedly perpetrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security against the telecommunications industry—or military-focused preparations for cyber warfare. That includes Volt Typhoon, the alleged penetration by the People’s Liberation Army of China into our critical infrastructure, including water and power and other things. The third category has always been financially motivated cybercrime of varying degrees of sophistication. On the low end, script kiddies, hacktivists, individuals. And on the high end, the increasingly accelerated professionalization of the cybercrime industry, magnified by a couple of things. Most principally, the ability to rapidly monetize the access to these systems via ransomware, and then extract value from those compromises in the form of a double extortion. And the whole ransomware ecosystem. Right now, what we’ve seen is this convergence, a collapse from these three distinct groups, with their three distinct capabilities and three distinct target sets and three distinct motivations. We’re now seeing a collapse into everything and all of the above. You’re seeing Russian state-affiliated actors, astroturfing or moonlighting as ransomware operators. You’re seeing an increasingly blurred distinction between espionage and cyber warfare, like Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon. And then you’re seeing the capabilities resident in these three different threat actor groups really not become that distinct at all. And that’s not because everyone’s getting worse. That’s actually because everyone’s getting better. And on top of that, everyone’s getting better at the same time as increasing government digitization, post-COVID consumer expectations, and other things. People have more and more technology systems, and they expect more and more of them. And that increases the threat surface. So the convergence along these two axes really means that everyone really has to raise their game. How has New York State’s upped its game in recent years? I think New York State has a very important and powerful story to tell. In August of ’23, the governor released the state’s first ever whole-of-state cybersecurity strategy, and it really laid out a vision for making the state more unified by increasing access to cybersecurity tools and services, and making us more resilient by continuing to invest in critical infrastructure—especially lifeline critical infrastructure—both from a capital, grant perspective, but also in minimum standards that the state can promulgate. There’s also a focus on preparation, because we can either succeed together or we can fail separately. We’re in the final stages of our budget, and we have several legislative and financial enhancements to the state cyber posture that the governor has made since she got into office. For example, she’s doubled the size of the Cyber Analysis Unit, the Computer Crimes Unit, and the Internet Crimes Against Children’s Center at the New York State Police. She’s invested tens of millions of dollars in shared services for local governments. Her shared services program covers nearly 100,000 government computers in 55 counties in more than 30 cities, villages, towns, police departments and sheriff’s offices across the state. So the governor has, I think, an extremely impressive record of delivering efficient, scalable, value-added services to local governments and county governments especially, who are under-resourced to say the least. Are there things that are really keeping you up at night now, in terms of types of attacks and types of targets? I have two little kids, so a lot of stuff keeps us up at night… but I would say artificial intelligence. We’ve really seen the ability of AI to rapidly enhance the capability of moderately sophisticated threat actors. A person who knows their way around Kali Linux, a person who knows what a git commit is, who now can, with the use of AI, really enhance their own capabilities. Say you have a situation in which you have a very popular open source package, then there’s a new path release for that open source package. Previously, to reverse engineer a security vulnerability from a recent software patch is both time consuming, tedious, error-prone and requires non-trivial expertise. So we’re not saying that Joe, Josephine, anybody could do this, but you take a person who kind of knows what they’re doing already and knows what they want: Now, with the aid of AI, they themselves can do work that used to take other very highly-skilled people days or even weeks. They now have the ability to rapidly reverse engineer software packages—in particular, open source packages where the source code is therefore widely known and inspectable—and then rapidly extract the vulnerability, weaponize that vulnerability in the form of an exploit, and then use that. So AI is really reducing the flash-to-bang time of patch-to-exploit: Where it used to be seven days, 15 days, 30 days, now we’re seeing one day, two days, three days. And those were capabilities that only APTs used to have. Now you can go on Hacker News and find out how to do it. How would you describe the role of the federal government in the state’s cybersecurity? We think the state has been a good partner to the federal government. We have partnered closely. And it’s no secret that we’re watching with concern, like many, the cuts across federal agencies, the lack of confirmed leaders in key positions, and overall signs of that nature. In a circumstance where world events continue to conspire to make cyber increasingly relevant and important, states have tools. But states need the federal government to lead on coordination, unification, major incident response. And that’s not even to mention there’s things that only the federal government can do, be they offensive or interstate or other issues. Are there other things that you think the federal government is best positioned to do when it comes to cybersecurity? And what benefits to states are you most worried about losing? I actually led a bipartisan public comment at the end of the Biden administration on the CIRCIA (the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act). This was actually legislation passed in The President 1 about the required disclosure of cyber attacks. So we think that one of the things that only the feds can really do is this information sharing and operational collaboration. Our comment—which was signed by South Carolina and Ohio and New Jersey and on and on—really talked about how states and the federal government need to not just share information, but collaborate, in order to resolve the impacts that we potentially see from devastating cyber attacks, especially those against critical infrastructure. Everyone’s talking about supply chains these days, but a damaging cyber attack could very well take a long time to replace if those systems need to actually be replaced. Many are confused about what the funding cuts in Washington will mean for state cybersecurity. I wonder what it looks like from your side: are people scrambling to try to figure out contingencies for the future? Are they scratching their heads? All the above. Good information can be difficult to come by, but we continue to engage with our federal partners and our elected representatives in both houses, in both parties. But we’ve made very clear publicly and otherwise to the administration that we have partnered with the federal government for decades on these issues, and we want and expect that to continue. And obviously we’ve been worried about some of the enormously concerning reporting we’ve seen out of Elon Musk’s DOGE about data. We want Republicans, we want Congress to exercise their oversight powers, like the governor has said on numerous occasions. Do you think that there are certain things that need to change in terms of how the federal government and the states think about cyber? Do you see reasons for optimism? I think there is some optimism. I would note that the two most significant advancements in the capabilities of the US government—to coordinate defensive activity and even prosecute and hold our adversaries at risk—happened really under The President’s first administration, with the creation of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency, and the significant expansion of their capabilities, resources, and appropriations. Then, I think there were some significant coordination advancements under Biden’s term, including the first national cyber director. So we’d like that forward momentum to increase and even increase in pace. But it remains to be seen how that’ll play out. One thing I would note is, there have been some recent bipartisan moves to take a hard look at how we’re organized in cyber. In December of last year, there was an amendment added to the National Defense Authorization Act talking about the need to study how the U.S. government and especially the Dept. of Defense is organized in cyber, a.k.a., The Cyber Forces study [to examine the viability of a new armed service]. It was actually watered down at the end of the Biden administration, but it remains in the law, and I think there’s wide acknowledgement that we need to take a look at how we’re organizing. And that amendment had bipartisan support and multiple sponsors in both parties in Congress, so I think there’s some optimism on that front. Speaking of bipartisanship, how do you think about the political tint that’s shaded the conversation about cybersecurity? It’s unfortunate, because I think there’s wide acknowledgement that we need to essentially do two things at once, and do them even faster and better than before. On the one hand, we all need to collectively raise our game because the adversaries are continuing to raise theirs, and that means falling in love every single day with the basics: multi-factor authentication, patching systems, risk management, certain response plans, et cetera. And on the other hand, our adversaries are seeking to do bad things, and we need the capabilities, especially those that can only be resident in the federal government, to deter them in cyberspace. And we should be very clear about what we find not acceptable: attacks against critical infrastructure, hospitals and schools, et cetera. And we could be somewhat circumspect in the manner in which we will deter our adversaries. We wouldn’t wanna give ’em a playbook or anything like that, but certainly the use of economic tools, sanctions, some of the indictments that have come down from the Dept. of Justice, naming and shaming cyber actors, including Russians and Chinese ones, and obviously offensive cyberspace operations. We need all of those tools to be ready, willing, and able to be used in furthering our national interest. Where do you see the US’s interest in offensive capabilities, in more aggressive actions, fitting in alongside a defensive mindset? Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery and I wrote a piece in the Washington Post talking about some recent reporting—which was later denied in some fashion, ex post facto—about cessation of planning for Title 10 [offensive] Russian cyber operations. So we’re on the record as saying that we need an all-of-the-above approach, and we need to be planning. But in addition to that, I do think that the The President administration has been very clear that they seek to hold our adversaries at risk, that they are interested in deterrence. They’ve made no secret of that, and I applaud that. It just seems reasonable that we can’t expect different results with the same capabilities, the same organizations, so time will tell. Senator Kristin Gillibrand from New York has been extremely influential on the issue of the Cyber Forces for many years. We’ve worked closely with her staff, and I’ve written publicly in support of her amendment [requiring the Pentagon to study the creation of a Cyber Force]. But like I said, it would be unfortunate for that to be caught up in the political maelstrom that it potentially could be. Trade wars tend to escalate cyber tensions too. How much of a concern are the White House’s tariffs from a cybersecurity perspective? I think a significant concern, and the governor has been extremely vocal and clear on the role of uncertainty and the importance of our trade partnerships, especially our partnerships with our NATO allies. New York is the gateway to Europe, as she said. But we also have an extremely close relationship with Canada. One thing I’d say on the tariff front is—and the governor actually has met with the counsel general, and has discussed this ad nauseum publicly: we have important projects that deliver power from Canada, our close trading partner. One is called the Champlain Hudson Power Express. It brings hydro electric power north from Canada and south into New York. And I don’t know if you’ve heard of this thing called artificial intelligence, but it requires enormous amounts of power [laugh]. And for us to maintain our competitive edge, New York is actually in the process of building one of the largest semiconductor software foundries in the world: Micron Technologies, tens of billions of dollars of investment, tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs. And so these tariffs: obviously the economic uncertainty, the impact to real people’s lives, bank accounts, is important. But for us to maintain an edge in cyber, AI and semiconductors, we need our trading partners. We need clean energy. And these are not issues that happen in silos or vacuums from each other. View the full article

Apple could owe you part of a class action lawsuit settlement centered around the company’s voice assistant, Siri. The settlement was reached in January, and Apple agreed to set aside $95 million to pay people who allegedly had their conversations or queries recorded after unintentionally activating Siri. Here’s what you need to know about the settlement, key dates, and how to determine whether you can participate in the $95 million payout. What is the settlement about? Back in 2014, Apple added a “Hey, Siri” hotword command that, when spoken, automatically triggers Siri on a compatible Apple device to listen to what is being said. The feature was meant to be useful to users by allowing them to trigger the voice assistant without having to physically press or tap a button. But sometimes people could trigger Siri using the “Hey, Siri” voice command unintentionally or accidentally. The lawsuit alleged that the resulting words or conversations Siri picked up after these unintended activations were then shared with third parties or advertisers—and thus had their privacy violated. As with nearly every class action lawsuit that it settled, Apple denied any wrongdoing. As the iPhone maker told Fast Company in January, “Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019. We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.” Now, users who are included in the settlement can begin filing claims for their share of the $95 million. Who is included in the Siri settlement? Not everyone who owns an Apple device is included in the settlement. In order to be part of the settlement class, you must meet several requirements, according to the official settlement website. Those include: You must have owned or purchased a Siri-enabled iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV. Those devices must have been owned or purchased between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024. You must reside in the United States and/or its territories. Your “confidential or private communications” must have been “obtained by Apple and/or were shared with third parties as a result of an unintended Siri activation.” How do I know if I am included in the settlement? People who are known to be included in the settlement will have received an email or postal communication saying they have been identified as a settlement member. However, if you have not received such communication but still believe that you may be a settlement member, you can contact the settlement administrator. How much can I get from the settlement? The amount you received from the $95 million settlement depends on various factors. Apple agreed to pay out $95 million to settle the class action suit, but some of that $95 million will go to pay for things like attorneys’ fees and other costs. Whatever is left over will be distributed to the settlement members on a pro rata basis. Claimants are allowed to submit claims for up to five devices. Payments per device will be capped at $20 each. That means that a claimant is most likely to receive no more than $100. However, note that the settlement website says that payment amounts could increase or decrease depending on the number of claims filed. The final payment amount per device will not be known until all claims are submitted. What should I do if I am part of the settlement? If you are part of the settlement, you should file a claim using the claim form on the settlement website. Keep in mind that you only have until July 2, 2025, to file a claim. Any claims are expected to be paid after the final court hearing in August 2025. Full details of the class action settlement can be found on the settlement website here. View the full article

Diplomats say pact’s provisions on strategic sectors is template for WashingtonView the full article

Key Takeaways Enhanced User Experience: The new LinkedIn features a streamlined interface and improved navigation, simplifying content sharing and profile management for users. Dynamic Content Tools: Users can now leverage LinkedIn Stories, Live video capabilities, and improved sharing options to engage their audience and showcase their brand effectively. Advanced Networking Opportunities: The platform connects small businesses with over 700 million users, facilitating valuable relationships and collaborations with industry influencers and potential clients. Powerful Analytics and Advertising: New analytics tools provide detailed insights into user behavior, while advanced advertising options enhance targeting and ROI for marketing campaigns. Focus on Professional Branding: Enhanced profiles allow businesses to clearly communicate their mission and services, creating a stronger professional identity and increasing brand visibility. Navigating Challenges: While the new features offer significant advantages, small businesses must adapt to changes and ensure transparency regarding privacy and user comfort to maintain effective engagement. LinkedIn has transformed into more than just a professional networking site; it’s now a dynamic platform that shapes how you connect, share, and grow your career. The recent updates have redefined user experience, making it easier for you to showcase your skills and engage with industry leaders. With features designed to enhance visibility and foster connections, the “new LinkedIn” empowers you to build a personal brand like never before. Whether you’re job hunting, networking, or sharing insights, this revamped platform offers tools that can elevate your professional journey. Get ready to explore how these changes can benefit you and help you stand out in a competitive job market. Overview of New LinkedIn New LinkedIn offers enhanced features for small businesses aiming to strengthen their online presence and engage with their audience. You can leverage these updates to boost visibility and build your brand effectively. Key Features Introduced Enhanced Profile Options: New profile sections allow you to showcase your business’s mission and services. You can feature video content or customer reviews, highlighting your unique brand voice. LinkedIn Stories: This ephemeral content format helps you engage viewers through storytelling, fostering community interaction and increasing your audience targeting precision. LinkedIn Live: Live video capabilities enable real-time engagement with your followers, enhancing brand awareness and creating opportunities for customer interaction. Content Sharing Options: You enjoy improved tools for sharing user-generated content, which encourages engagement and builds trust among your social media followers. Paid Ads: New advertising tools target specific demographics effectively, allowing for better ROI through calculated social media marketing campaigns and organic growth strategies. User Experience Enhancements Intuitive Interface: The streamlined design simplifies navigation and optimizes your content sharing efforts, helping you manage posts and interactions effortlessly. Content Calendar: Built-in scheduling tools enable you to maintain a consistent posting routine, improving your engagement rate across the platform. Advanced Analytics: Access to social media analytics allows for detailed insights into user behavior, helping you refine your social media strategy and maximize engagement through informed decisions. Mobile Accessibility: Enhanced mobile features ensure you can manage your brand’s LinkedIn presence on the go, crucial for maintaining robust community management. Networking Opportunities: New connection features facilitate networking with industry influencers, fostering partnerships that expand your reach and enhance your marketing efforts. By utilizing the new features and improvements on LinkedIn, you position your small business for growth in today’s competitive landscape. Comparing New LinkedIn to Previous Versions The new LinkedIn enhances your experience with notable changes that set it apart from earlier versions. These upgrades empower you to maximize visibility and interaction, crucial for small business success. Interface Changes The interface changes on LinkedIn streamline navigation, making it easier for you to manage your profile and company page. The redesigned Activity section allows you to prominently showcase your preferred content types. You can select which activity appears first, increasing your content’s reach and engagement. The new media section replaces the old photo and video categories, letting you share a broad range of visual content like infographics and presentations. This flexibility enhances your content creation strategy, improving brand awareness and storytelling. Functionality Improvements Functionality improvements target user interaction and content sharing, essential for small business social media strategies. The introduction of a Featured Section on Company Pages allows you, as a Super Admin, to highlight up to three key posts at the top of your page. This feature facilitates better community management and keeps your audience engaged with important updates. Enhanced content sharing tools and advanced analytics provide deeper insights into social media performance, helping you refine your marketing efforts. Improved audience targeting options further optimize paid ads, increasing the effectiveness of your social media campaigns. These enhancements position you to achieve organic growth and improved engagement rates on LinkedIn, driving your small business forward. Benefits of Using New LinkedIn New LinkedIn offers several advantages for small businesses, focusing on expanding networks and enhancing professional branding. Networking Opportunities LinkedIn’s global reach connects you with over 700 million users. This vast network provides opportunities to interact with professionals, potential clients, and industry leaders, crucial for small business growth. You can establish valuable relationships through engaging with content and participating in groups, allowing your business to thrive in a competitive landscape. Networking through LinkedIn can lead to partnership opportunities and collaborations that drive mutual success. Professional Branding LinkedIn empowers you to create a strong professional identity. By showcasing your business’s mission and services through enhanced profile options, you amplify your brand visibility. New features like LinkedIn Stories allow for dynamic storytelling, presenting your brand voice in an engaging way. Content creation becomes easier with improved sharing tools, and video content can capture audience attention effectively. Consistency in your messaging across LinkedIn helps build brand awareness and fosters customer interaction, essential for your overall social media strategy. Challenges and Limitations Navigating the new LinkedIn landscape presents challenges and limitations for small businesses. Understanding these hurdles ensures effective engagement on this platform. User Adaptation Adapting to LinkedIn’s recent changes can pose difficulties for users. Technical issues arise frequently, including problems with posting comments, sending messages, or managing business pages. These issues disrupt networking and hinder communication. Small businesses relying on precise outreach strategies such as social media marketing may find engagement rates decreasing. Ensuring your team understands the updated features and functionality of the platform becomes essential in maintaining an effective social media strategy. Privacy Concerns Privacy scrutiny affects user comfort on LinkedIn. The platform’s tightened restrictions on data scraping limit access to publicly available information. This change complicates tasks such as audience targeting and content creation for social media campaigns. Small businesses must prioritize transparency and user trust in their brand voice. Failing to do so can result in decreased community management effectiveness and hindered brand awareness efforts. Staying up-to-date with privacy regulations enhances your brand’s credibility and encourages customer interaction on social media platforms. Conclusion Embracing the new LinkedIn can significantly enhance your professional journey. With its innovative features and user-friendly interface, you’re well-equipped to showcase your skills and build meaningful connections. For small businesses, these updates offer powerful tools to engage with your audience and strengthen your brand presence. By leveraging enhanced profile options and dynamic content sharing, you can foster community engagement and drive growth. As you navigate this evolving platform, stay informed about privacy regulations and best practices to maintain trust and credibility. By doing so, you’ll not only adapt to changes but thrive in a competitive landscape. Frequently Asked Questions What is the main focus of the article about LinkedIn? The article focuses on LinkedIn’s evolution into a dynamic platform for professional networking and career growth. It highlights recent updates that improve user visibility and connection opportunities, ultimately helping users showcase their skills and build a personal brand. How does LinkedIn benefit job seekers? LinkedIn offers job seekers enhanced visibility through improved profile options and networking tools. The platform allows users to connect with professionals, showcase skills effectively, and share insights, which are essential for standing out in a competitive job market. What new features are available for small businesses on LinkedIn? LinkedIn has introduced enhanced profile options, LinkedIn Stories for storytelling, and LinkedIn Live for real-time engagement. These features, along with advanced analytics and targeted ads, help small businesses strengthen their online presence and foster community engagement. How does the new LinkedIn improve the user experience? The new LinkedIn features an intuitive interface, streamlined navigation, and improved content sharing tools. Changes such as the redesigned Activity section and enhanced media options increase user engagement and make managing profiles and company pages more effective. What challenges do small businesses face with the new LinkedIn? Small businesses may encounter user adaptation issues, technical problems, and privacy concerns in the new LinkedIn landscape. These challenges can disrupt networking, hinder communication, and complicate compliance with privacy regulations, affecting engagement rates. Why is professional branding important on LinkedIn? Professional branding on LinkedIn is crucial as it enhances visibility and interactions with potential customers and partners. Utilizing features like enhanced profile options and storytelling through LinkedIn Stories helps small businesses create a strong brand presence that fosters customer engagement. How can small businesses expand their networks on LinkedIn? Small businesses can expand their networks on LinkedIn by utilizing the platform’s global reach of over 700 million users, engaging in targeted content sharing, and leveraging networking opportunities to form partnerships and collaborations that drive growth. Image Via Envato This article, "Unlocking Success with the New LinkedIn: Elevate Your Brand and Networking Opportunities" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Key Takeaways Enhanced User Experience: The new LinkedIn features a streamlined interface and improved navigation, simplifying content sharing and profile management for users. Dynamic Content Tools: Users can now leverage LinkedIn Stories, Live video capabilities, and improved sharing options to engage their audience and showcase their brand effectively. Advanced Networking Opportunities: The platform connects small businesses with over 700 million users, facilitating valuable relationships and collaborations with industry influencers and potential clients. Powerful Analytics and Advertising: New analytics tools provide detailed insights into user behavior, while advanced advertising options enhance targeting and ROI for marketing campaigns. Focus on Professional Branding: Enhanced profiles allow businesses to clearly communicate their mission and services, creating a stronger professional identity and increasing brand visibility. Navigating Challenges: While the new features offer significant advantages, small businesses must adapt to changes and ensure transparency regarding privacy and user comfort to maintain effective engagement. LinkedIn has transformed into more than just a professional networking site; it’s now a dynamic platform that shapes how you connect, share, and grow your career. The recent updates have redefined user experience, making it easier for you to showcase your skills and engage with industry leaders. With features designed to enhance visibility and foster connections, the “new LinkedIn” empowers you to build a personal brand like never before. Whether you’re job hunting, networking, or sharing insights, this revamped platform offers tools that can elevate your professional journey. Get ready to explore how these changes can benefit you and help you stand out in a competitive job market. Overview of New LinkedIn New LinkedIn offers enhanced features for small businesses aiming to strengthen their online presence and engage with their audience. You can leverage these updates to boost visibility and build your brand effectively. Key Features Introduced Enhanced Profile Options: New profile sections allow you to showcase your business’s mission and services. You can feature video content or customer reviews, highlighting your unique brand voice. LinkedIn Stories: This ephemeral content format helps you engage viewers through storytelling, fostering community interaction and increasing your audience targeting precision. LinkedIn Live: Live video capabilities enable real-time engagement with your followers, enhancing brand awareness and creating opportunities for customer interaction. Content Sharing Options: You enjoy improved tools for sharing user-generated content, which encourages engagement and builds trust among your social media followers. Paid Ads: New advertising tools target specific demographics effectively, allowing for better ROI through calculated social media marketing campaigns and organic growth strategies. User Experience Enhancements Intuitive Interface: The streamlined design simplifies navigation and optimizes your content sharing efforts, helping you manage posts and interactions effortlessly. Content Calendar: Built-in scheduling tools enable you to maintain a consistent posting routine, improving your engagement rate across the platform. Advanced Analytics: Access to social media analytics allows for detailed insights into user behavior, helping you refine your social media strategy and maximize engagement through informed decisions. Mobile Accessibility: Enhanced mobile features ensure you can manage your brand’s LinkedIn presence on the go, crucial for maintaining robust community management. Networking Opportunities: New connection features facilitate networking with industry influencers, fostering partnerships that expand your reach and enhance your marketing efforts. By utilizing the new features and improvements on LinkedIn, you position your small business for growth in today’s competitive landscape. Comparing New LinkedIn to Previous Versions The new LinkedIn enhances your experience with notable changes that set it apart from earlier versions. These upgrades empower you to maximize visibility and interaction, crucial for small business success. Interface Changes The interface changes on LinkedIn streamline navigation, making it easier for you to manage your profile and company page. The redesigned Activity section allows you to prominently showcase your preferred content types. You can select which activity appears first, increasing your content’s reach and engagement. The new media section replaces the old photo and video categories, letting you share a broad range of visual content like infographics and presentations. This flexibility enhances your content creation strategy, improving brand awareness and storytelling. Functionality Improvements Functionality improvements target user interaction and content sharing, essential for small business social media strategies. The introduction of a Featured Section on Company Pages allows you, as a Super Admin, to highlight up to three key posts at the top of your page. This feature facilitates better community management and keeps your audience engaged with important updates. Enhanced content sharing tools and advanced analytics provide deeper insights into social media performance, helping you refine your marketing efforts. Improved audience targeting options further optimize paid ads, increasing the effectiveness of your social media campaigns. These enhancements position you to achieve organic growth and improved engagement rates on LinkedIn, driving your small business forward. Benefits of Using New LinkedIn New LinkedIn offers several advantages for small businesses, focusing on expanding networks and enhancing professional branding. Networking Opportunities LinkedIn’s global reach connects you with over 700 million users. This vast network provides opportunities to interact with professionals, potential clients, and industry leaders, crucial for small business growth. You can establish valuable relationships through engaging with content and participating in groups, allowing your business to thrive in a competitive landscape. Networking through LinkedIn can lead to partnership opportunities and collaborations that drive mutual success. Professional Branding LinkedIn empowers you to create a strong professional identity. By showcasing your business’s mission and services through enhanced profile options, you amplify your brand visibility. New features like LinkedIn Stories allow for dynamic storytelling, presenting your brand voice in an engaging way. Content creation becomes easier with improved sharing tools, and video content can capture audience attention effectively. Consistency in your messaging across LinkedIn helps build brand awareness and fosters customer interaction, essential for your overall social media strategy. Challenges and Limitations Navigating the new LinkedIn landscape presents challenges and limitations for small businesses. Understanding these hurdles ensures effective engagement on this platform. User Adaptation Adapting to LinkedIn’s recent changes can pose difficulties for users. Technical issues arise frequently, including problems with posting comments, sending messages, or managing business pages. These issues disrupt networking and hinder communication. Small businesses relying on precise outreach strategies such as social media marketing may find engagement rates decreasing. Ensuring your team understands the updated features and functionality of the platform becomes essential in maintaining an effective social media strategy. Privacy Concerns Privacy scrutiny affects user comfort on LinkedIn. The platform’s tightened restrictions on data scraping limit access to publicly available information. This change complicates tasks such as audience targeting and content creation for social media campaigns. Small businesses must prioritize transparency and user trust in their brand voice. Failing to do so can result in decreased community management effectiveness and hindered brand awareness efforts. Staying up-to-date with privacy regulations enhances your brand’s credibility and encourages customer interaction on social media platforms. Conclusion Embracing the new LinkedIn can significantly enhance your professional journey. With its innovative features and user-friendly interface, you’re well-equipped to showcase your skills and build meaningful connections. For small businesses, these updates offer powerful tools to engage with your audience and strengthen your brand presence. By leveraging enhanced profile options and dynamic content sharing, you can foster community engagement and drive growth. As you navigate this evolving platform, stay informed about privacy regulations and best practices to maintain trust and credibility. By doing so, you’ll not only adapt to changes but thrive in a competitive landscape. Frequently Asked Questions What is the main focus of the article about LinkedIn? The article focuses on LinkedIn’s evolution into a dynamic platform for professional networking and career growth. It highlights recent updates that improve user visibility and connection opportunities, ultimately helping users showcase their skills and build a personal brand. How does LinkedIn benefit job seekers? LinkedIn offers job seekers enhanced visibility through improved profile options and networking tools. The platform allows users to connect with professionals, showcase skills effectively, and share insights, which are essential for standing out in a competitive job market. What new features are available for small businesses on LinkedIn? LinkedIn has introduced enhanced profile options, LinkedIn Stories for storytelling, and LinkedIn Live for real-time engagement. These features, along with advanced analytics and targeted ads, help small businesses strengthen their online presence and foster community engagement. How does the new LinkedIn improve the user experience? The new LinkedIn features an intuitive interface, streamlined navigation, and improved content sharing tools. Changes such as the redesigned Activity section and enhanced media options increase user engagement and make managing profiles and company pages more effective. What challenges do small businesses face with the new LinkedIn? Small businesses may encounter user adaptation issues, technical problems, and privacy concerns in the new LinkedIn landscape. These challenges can disrupt networking, hinder communication, and complicate compliance with privacy regulations, affecting engagement rates. Why is professional branding important on LinkedIn? Professional branding on LinkedIn is crucial as it enhances visibility and interactions with potential customers and partners. Utilizing features like enhanced profile options and storytelling through LinkedIn Stories helps small businesses create a strong brand presence that fosters customer engagement. How can small businesses expand their networks on LinkedIn? Small businesses can expand their networks on LinkedIn by utilizing the platform’s global reach of over 700 million users, engaging in targeted content sharing, and leveraging networking opportunities to form partnerships and collaborations that drive growth. Image Via Envato This article, "Unlocking Success with the New LinkedIn: Elevate Your Brand and Networking Opportunities" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

From his first moments on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV gave three important clues about what kind of leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church he will be. Leo, formerly U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected by the world’s cardinals on Thursday as the new pope on the second day of the conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis, who died last month. He is the first pope from the United States, but holds dual citizenship in Peru, where he was a missionary for decades before becoming a cardinal. Leo’s first clue was his choice of name. Popes often use this choice to send their first major signal about the priorities of their new papacy. Francis took his name from the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi, who rejected wealth and wanted to care for the poor. The last pope to take the name Leo, Leo XIII, focused much of his 1878-1903 papacy on advocating for the rights of workers, calling for fair pay, fair working conditions, and the right to join unions. “By picking the name Leo XIV, he shows he is committed to the social teaching of the church,” said Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit commentator who follows the papacy closely. Leo’s second clue was his choice of language and the words he spoke, which put a clear emphasis on the need for peace, something Francis also often focused on. None of his speech to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square was in English, but rather Italian, the language of the papacy, and a brief foray into Spanish to greet his former community in Peru. He did not mention the U.S. “La pace sia con tutti voi!” (Peace be with you!), Leo’s first words in public, echoed the ones Catholics use in their celebrations but also offered an immediate message of peace in a world riven with conflict. Before heading into the secret conclave on May 7, the world’s cardinals issued a statement lamenting the conflicts “in Ukraine, the Middle East, and many other parts of the world” and making a “heartfelt appeal” for peace. The new pope said he wanted to share God’s peace, calling it “a disarmed peace and a disarming peace” that is “humble and persevering.” Leo also mentioned Francis, who offered his last blessing to crowds in Rome on Easter Sunday, the day before he died of a stroke after battling double pneumonia for weeks. “We still have in our ears that weak, but always courageous voice of Pope Francis,” he said. Leo asked permission to offer the same blessing Francis used just a few weeks ago, saying: “God loves us, God loves everyone, and evil will not prevail. We are in the hands of God.” Leo’s third clue was in his choice of attire. Unlike Francis, who spurned all the trappings of the papacy including on the first day he was elected in 2013, Leo wore a traditional red papal garment over his white cassock. Although Leo follows in the tradition of Francis, he signalled he is a new, and different, pope. —Joshua McElwee, Reuters View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re looking to breathe new life into an older HD television—or even just want an affordable way to stream your favorite shows—the Amazon Fire TV Stick HD makes a strong case for itself. It's going for $19.99 on Amazon right now. Amazon Fire TV Stick HD $19.99 at Amazon $39.99 Save $20.00 Get Deal Get Deal $19.99 at Amazon $39.99 Save $20.00 For 20 bucks, you're getting access to nearly every major streaming service, Alexa voice control, and support for HDR10 and Dolby Atmos. It’s a budget option, sure, but it doesn’t feel like a stripped-down version of something better. PCMag gave it their Editor’s Choice award for being the best 1080p streaming hub—praise that doesn’t come lightly. The stick itself is a small black bar that plugs directly into your TV’s HDMI port and powers up through the included micro USB cable. And if your setup is a bit tight on space, Amazon includes a short HDMI extender to help with the fit. As for the remote, it handles everything you might need—volume controls, quick-access buttons for popular streaming apps including Netflix and Prime Video, and voice commands through Alexa. You’ll still need to press the microphone button to use voice search (no hands-free commands), but it works well enough, and it’s not always listening, which some folks might actually prefer. That said, this isn’t the fastest Fire TV Stick on the block. It handles the basics just fine, but you might notice some lag when jumping between menus or loading up bigger libraries. It also skips out on Apple AirPlay and Google Cast, so screen mirroring from an iPhone or iPad is not an option. Also, since it runs on Wi-Fi 5 instead of Wi-Fi 6, your streaming speeds could take a hit if your network’s already busy. And while it supports HDR10 and Dolby Atmos pass-through, you’ll need a compatible TV or soundbar to actually benefit from it, notes this PCMag review. If you’re using a 4K TV or want faster performance, the Fire TV Stick 4K—at about $10 more—might be a smarter pick. But for anyone just looking to stream in HD with a familiar interface and some solid features packed in, this is a cost-effective way to get there. View the full article

More homeowners are willing to take out a HELOC versus three years ago, but a knowledge gap remains around the use cases for the product, MeridianLink said. View the full article

When a big-box store files for bankruptcy and goes out of business, there's often an opportunity to buy its products at rock-bottom prices. But scammers are taking advantage of our love of a good deal: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning consumers about online clearance sales being advertised by fraudsters impersonating Joann Fabric and Crafts. Joann Fabric and Crafts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (twice) and in February 2025 announced plans to shutter its stores with going-out-of-business sales. On March 5, the business disabled purchases on its website, but scammers have been promoting online clearance sales using ads on social media sites and running away with customer payments. How the Joann sale scam worksAccording to the FTC notice, fraudsters are posting ads for an online Joann bankruptcy sale on Facebook, Pinterest, and Nextdoor. When you click the ad, you'll land on a fake sale site with deals listed and the ability to actually "purchase" inventory items. You'll even get a receipt. Unfortunately, that money is going directly into scammers' pockets—the charge on your credit card will be something other than Joann, and you won't receive what you ordered. How to avoid online sale scamsWhether it's Joann's going-out-of-business event or another sale with supposedly great deals, use caution before buying. Scams of all kinds prey on emotions based in urgency, so don't immediately pull out your credit card for limited-time deals or too-good-to-be-true prices. Don't click on ads for online sales—always go directly to the company's website by typing in the URL to verify that a sale is real. In Joann's case, there is a notice on the website about fraudulent online sales that states, "There are no other authorized Joann shopping sites." If you do shop clearance sales, pay with a credit card and keep receipts. Credit cards have more protections than debit cards in cases of fraud and non-delivery of items you paid for—you can dispute charges and receive a refund. View the full article

Stocks knocked as US position tougher than expectedView the full article

Head of Britain’s official data agency has been criticised for flaws in key economic indicatorsView the full article

The tech entrepreneur on the risks and opportunities of AI, his dispute with Elon Musk and why he has the ‘most important job maybe in history’View the full article

As recently as 2021, Figma was a one-product company. That product was Figma Design, the dominant tool for creating app and web interfaces. The company’s subsequent addition of offerings such as FigJam (whiteboarding) and Figma Slides (presentations) was hardly a frenzied land grab. But the announcements Figma made this week at its Config conference in San Francisco cover so much ground that my impulse was to interpret them as a massive, sprawling new attempt to take on . . . well, almost everybody. Figma Make turns prompts into AI-generated code? Shades of GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and numerous other AI programming tools. Figma Sites provides features for constructing, hosting, and updating websites? Well, that’s a content management system, like WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix. Figma Buzz helps companies create marketing assets that retain a degree of consistency, with AI help if desired? Sounds akin to Canva and Adobe’s Canva rival, Express. Figma Draw lets people create free-form vector illustrations? So does Adobe’s 38-year-old Illustrator. When I asked Figma cofounder and CEO Dylan Field whether the company was indeed trying to compete directly with so many well-established players in multiple categories, he discounted the notion. Instead, he told me, the new products all support its original focus on turning raw concepts into shippable software. “The Figma journey that we’re trying to support users on is going from idea to product,” he told me. “Everything’s truly through that lens.” Still, it would be a mistake to regard Figma’s news as NBD. Even if its original product was a design tool, two-thirds of its users aren’t designers. They’re all the other people inside companies who play roles in product creation, and even if all the company does is address their needs, it will brush up against new rivals. As Field likes to declare, “Creativity is the new productivity.” Figma might be in as good a position as anyone to spread that vision to additional classes of software. As a business, Figma also has every incentive to think big. It’s been almost a year and half since its $20 billion deal to be acquired by Adobe fell apart over antitrust concerns, leaving it as an independent entity pursuing a self-contained vision. Last month, it confidentially filed a draft S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, beginning the process that will eventually lead to it going public. The more optimistic investors are about the company’s ability to keep growing, the better its IPO will fare. (Figma Design’s ubiquity as a UX design tool is manifestly obvious—90% of designers who responded to a 2023 survey said they used it—but as a private company, Figma is secretive about hard numbers relating to its business. It does say that 85% of users are outside the U.S., proving that it’s a global phenomenon. But the last time it talked about financial return was in September 2022, as part of the Adobe deal announcement. Back then, it said that it expected to do $400 million in revenue that year, with a gross profit of 90%. More current information will come out as part of the IPO process.) As Figma has decided which new products it might build, it hasn’t had to look far. Like Excel and Photoshop, Figma Design is the kind of tool that people grow comfortable with and call into service for jobs well beyond its theoretical mandate. Rather than turn it into too much of a kitchen sink, the company has tended to spin out tasks into new purpose-built apps. All of them have a familial resemblance and work together as a suite. The centrality of Figma Design does serve to set the company’s latest products apart from others in the same general zip code. Maybe Figma Buzz will win some hearts based purely on its quality. But it seems even more likely that people will pick it over Canva or Adobe Express because it’s optimized to serve workflows that are already Figma-centric. “It’s very easy to be able to push a template from Figma Design to the Buzz surface,” Field says. “And then people know exactly what they can edit. They can go edit it, insert images, or go find a different template if they so choose, and know that they’re on brand. Or they can go off the rails if they want to.” Then there’s AI, which was already in the air at Config 2023. At last year’s conference, the company announced a design-generating feature called Make Designs, which—like AI rollouts all over the tech industry—got off to a bumpy start. After controversy ignited on Twitter over the eerie similarities between a weather app it designed and the one Apple ships on the iPhone, Figma pulled back the feature and reworked it. Even now, designers are still puzzling out how they feel about AI. In a new study commissioned by Figma, only 31% said they currently use the technology for their core work, 69% were satisfied with it, and 54% thought it improved quality. All those figures were notably lower than ones reported in the same study by developers. Uncertainty over AI might be a sign the killer apps haven’t arrived. “People value efficiency,” Field says. “And so where we can help there, that’s really important. But also, they really value raising the ceiling and making it so they’re able to do better work. And I think that’s where AI has not yet had the impact it should.” Customer feedback might help explain Figma’s careful positioning of its new AI features. The company says some organizations may ship products created by Make, which lets users start with something they’ve roughed out in Figma Design and then use prompts to generate code. Mostly, though, it’s emphasizing the potential to quickly turn flat designs into rich prototypes that help push progress along. Another application: adding a dash of custom interactivity to websites powered by Figma Sites. AI is also present in both Figma Design and Figma Buzz in the form of image generation features based on OpenAI’s latest GPT-Image-1 model. But when I spoke with Field, he seemed less excited by the prospect of turning over image creation to a machine than by Figma Draw, a classical sort of illustration tool for people who want to hand-create imagery that’s precise, reflects a distinctive style, and may even mimic work done with old-school art implements such as a paintbrush. If Draw has any AI at all, it didn’t matter enough to merit a mention in the blog post introducing the product. “We have a lot of opportunity to build tools for folks [to] be more divergent and have more craft and stand out,” Field told me. “And we think that’s the differentiator that’ll make people win over time.” As some organizations lean too heavily on AI, we’re going to see more and more bland, look-alike products. It’s nice to think that doubling down on unmistakably human creativity could be a competitive advantage. And that Figma won’t stray too far from its traditional emphasis on helping create such work, even as it figures out how to make AI make sense. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company My favorite tools for a focused, restful second half of the day From post-lunch planning to bedtime wind-down, these apps, devices, and routines help me stay present, productive, and unplugged. Read More → ‘The school has to be evacuated’: Connecticut students are setting their Chromebooks on fire for TikTok Students are filming themselves inserting items into the charging ports of their school Chromebooks in order to spark a fire. Read More → LinkedIn’s new AI tools help job seekers find smarter career fits Users can now describe the kind of job they want in plain language, and AI helps surface matches they might have otherwise missed. Read More → Your Netflix app is about to get a ‘For You’ page The streamer’s mobile UI is about to look a lot more like TikTok. Read More → Bigger fonts and no trucks: How Lyft designed its new app for older riders Lyft Silver is the ride-sharing company’s simplified service for older adults. Read More → AI scam calls are getting smarter. Here’s how telecoms are fighting back Scammers are using deepfake voices, caller ID spoofing, and machine learning to target victims with frightening precision. But telecom providers and regulators are deploying AI defenses of their own to stop the surge in fraud. Read More → View the full article

Uncertainty has become a defining feature of life today, a reality that challenges workplace leaders to adapt rapidly, make decisions with limited information, and foster stability amid constant and sometimes highly erratic change. At the same time, this uncertainty directly affects employees, making it incumbent upon leaders to provide the support and direction their teams need to successfully navigate an unpredictable world with both resilience and clarity. It goes without saying that the role of a leader has grown increasingly more complex, requiring us to instill stability, foster adaptability, and maintain focus without being overwhelmed by the relentless pace of change. In just the past month in America, we’ve witnessed the introduction, removal, and reintroduction of tariffs, massively disrupted supply chains, a whipsawing stock market (putting everyone’s retirement savings at risk), major companies mandating a return to office work, and the emergence of artificial intelligence technologies—innovations sparking equal parts excitement and fear as they reshape industries and raise questions about job security and the future of work. It’s a lot for all of us to deal with. Through my own leadership experience, I’ve learned that it’s absolutely pointless to try to control chaos—and far wiser to coach teams on how to thrive in spite of it. The following are five strategies I’ve used over the course of my career that workplace leaders can adopt to help their people negotiate complexity and perform at their best—regardless of what turbulence the universe throws our way: 1. Be a Rational Optimist In today’s world, it’s all too easy for pessimism to seep into our consciousness and negatively shape how we interact with those we lead. Being an abject pessimist, however, is entirely at odds with effective leadership, as it curtails productivity, stifles creativity, narrows perspective, and stands in the way of meaningful progress. Yet, while pessimism can directly undermine progress, leaning too far into optimism also carries its own risks. Effective leadership requires striking a balance—offering hope and inspiration while remaining realistic about the challenges ahead. In his book Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, New York Times bestselling author Morgan Housel makes this exact point by urging leaders to be “rational optimists.” He emphasizes that our role as leaders is to imbue a deep belief in people that difficult challenges can indeed be overcome, while also being very honest about the strong likelihood that they’ll face setbacks, surprises, and disappointments along the way. When people know to expect a rough road ahead, choosing hope over despair naturally opens the door to opportunities and more creative solutions. 2. Foster Team Connection and Belonging When teams face uncertain times, the belief that “everyone is in this together” is a powerful force for fostering unity, sustaining morale, and motivating employees to collaborate and support each other to overcome major challenges. This is why leaders who prioritize team connection create environments where individuals feel secure enough to navigate difficulties together. The goal is to cultivate a team culture where no one feels isolated and everyone is inspired to have each other’s back—truly embodying the spirit of “all for one and one for all.” Recent research shows that feelings of belonging are the glue that holds teams together, as well as being the cornerstone of employee well-being. For leaders, creating this sense of belonging requires nurturing deeper relationships with our employees and learning their concerns. It’s also about fostering an environment where differences are celebrated, inclusion is more than a buzzword, and every voice carries weight. Togetherness can be a great source of strength. 3. Proactively Build Team Resilience Long before crises or unexpected setbacks arise, leaders must not only remind employees that risk is an inherent aspect of every business. They must equip them to respond emotionally, to even the smallest hurdles, with confidence and resilience. As Nassim Taleb, the author of bestselling books on randomness and complexity, wisely advises, leaders should “prioritize preparation over prediction,” focusing on flexibility and readiness rather than relying on forecasts that are often uncertain or incomplete. One way to achieve this is by regularly engaging employees in “what if” discussions—posing questions like, “How would we respond if this situation happened?” Additionally, empowering teams to collaboratively brainstorm solutions to everyday challenges on their own will help build their adaptability and creativity muscles, so they are ready when needed. Finally, workplace leaders must cultivate their own self-mastery during challenging times. Learning how to maintain composure, reframe setbacks as opportunities, and display optimism in the worst of times is a collective skill set that demands diligent effort and commitment to develop. In the end, leaders must model the behavior they’ll expect from their team. 4. Influence Through Stories, Less Through Data In Same as Ever, Morgan Housel clarifies that humans are wired for stories, not spreadsheets. Highlighting how storytelling creates clarity and sparks action, he explains, “We don’t think in terms of odds and probabilities; we think in terms of narratives.” Unlike raw data or abstract concepts, stories resonate deeply because they are inherently relatable and emotionally engaging. Imagine a CEO who’s suddenly faced with a market downturn. Instead of bombarding employees with forecasts and financial metrics, telling stories about times in the past when their company was faced with great difficulties—and triumphed—is a transformative way of framing the current challenge as being equally surmountable. According to Housel, “We live in a world where people are bored, impatient, emotional and need complicated things distilled into easy-to-grasp scenes.” So, craft stories that make the unknown feel conquerable, and watch them resonate with your teams. 5. Set Reasonable Expectations When unforeseen disruptions occur, projects often veer off schedule, and teams fall behind on critical targets. These setbacks are pivotal moments for leadership, as the urge to quickly regain momentum can place employees in an untenable position, feeling as if they’re fighting against the universe. In these circumstances, wise leaders display patience and avoid placing undue pressure on their teams by setting unrealistic goals. Instead, they emphasize that while external factors may be uncontrollable, effort is always within their influence—even in the absence of guarantees. In the 1970s, Disney’s stock dropped 70%. Walt Disney responded by setting modest internal goals, assuring employees that he believed the company would recover through steady, determined action. His measured approach proved to foster resilience across the organization. Navigating rough seas In times of turbulence, the teams that will thrive are those who work cohesively, maintain an optimistic yet pragmatic outlook (acknowledging that big challenges may not have simple solutions, but can be conquered), and are trained to pivot rather than freeze when circumstances seem most dire. And, while we might wish for life to be easier and our objectives more readily attainable, we should also always remember that “a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” View the full article

Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. It’s the promotional event nobody asked for: You could call it Tariff Deal Days. From auto dealers to underwear brands, companies are cajoling consumers to buy now before tariffs jack up prices, cause shortages, or both. Despite constant uncertainty about how a U.S. versus everybody trade war might play out, the widespread consensus that prices will rise is translating into short-term marketing hook. Some brands have taken a blunt tone in messages to customers and on social media. Underwear maker MeUndies’ CEO criticized the tariffs with an expletive in an Instagram post—before announcing a tariff-inspired discount code. Lingerie and swimsuit brand Bare Necessities touted a “pre-tariff sale” in a text to customers that was picked up by CNBC and others: “We didn’t know how to spell tariff last week, but we do know this: Up to 30% off is a good idea!” Clothing brand Universal Standard emailed customers about a Mystery Box promotion offering deals on pieces already in its warehouses and thus un-tariffed. In an attention-getting message to shoppers, luggage brand BÉIS conceded price increases were likely on the way even though “we’ve considered everything from company-wide ramen diets to asking our CEO to start an OnlyFans.” The message: Buy now! While these Tariff Deal Days campaigns have been piling up lately, moves toward converting the looming tariff threat into a sales call to action were bubbling up even before the The President administration’s “Liberation Day” announcement of its sweeping tariff regime on April 2. At least one Subaru dealer began promoting “pre-tariff savings”—basically estimating a tariff’s potential future cost to shoppers and positioning it as discount—in late March. Sticker company Stickerjunkie admitted it was “as uncertain as everyone else” about price hikes in a March Instagram post promoting a “Pre-Tariff Sale” of its own. Other brand responses have ranged from limited-time markdowns to more general encouragement to shop before they’re forced to raise prices. Partly this is about signaling transparency and a we’re-all-in-this-together vibe to consumers in a muddled and ominous retail environment. But it’s also about getting sales on the books: Smaller brands and businesses may be particularly motivated to get more cash on hand as soon as possible to buy time to rethink supply chains and otherwise weather whatever that trade battles turn into in the months ahead, and beyond. And many consumers seem to be in a similarly uncertain state that’s left many open to deals. “There’s an expectation that certain products are going to be expensive, so having a promotion today is very valuable,” a KPMG analyst told NBC, citing a survey from the accounting firm finding roughly half of consumers are looking for pre-tariff deals. The flurry of pre-tariff branding moves comes on the heels of months of cautious watching and waiting by advertisers about what’s going to happen, and how to communicate with customers about it. A few, including Chipotle and Rivian, are currently saying they won’t raise prices. Others, such as Ford, are highlighting their best made-in-America stories. (About three-quarters of Ford vehicles are manufactured in the U.S., a fact that’s now marketing “gold,” according to Adweek; that said, Ford has also announced trade-war-related price bumps for three of its models.) Still others—from Adidas to Walmart to Mattel—are simply warning of likely price hikes; Black & Decker and Shein have started them. Many ad agencies expect ad budgets will be cut by up to 10% this year. Another notable strategy has come from discount online retailer Temu, which has begun breaking out and labeling the “export fee”—that is, tariff costs—that is driving up its prices. Amazon reportedly considered a similar move before the The President administration harshly criticized the idea. But consumers seem to want such information—nearly three-quarters of adults in one poll said they would be at least somewhat interested in seeing tariff impacts quantified. Maybe that thirst for clarity isn’t surprising, given the marketplace chaos that seems likely headed our way this year. In fact, while pre-tariff branding events will presumably be fleeting, the most important thing brands may achieve with their openly tariff-centric marketing is a sense of openness and communication with consumers. A protracted trade war will mean escalating rhetoric and frustrating uncertainties, and for better or worse brands will have to figure out the best way to be part of that conversation. View the full article

After a two-year battle with regulators, a federal judge ruled in late December to block the merger of grocery behemoths Kroger and Albertsons. The deal fell apart after facing significant pushback—and a lawsuit—from the Federal Trade Commission under the Biden administration, in part over concerns that unionized grocery workers would have less leverage to negotiate wage increases and respond to layoffs following a merger. Those concerns were not unfounded: The overwhelming majority of grocery workers (92%) are frontline staff in nonsupervisory positions, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics—and as industry leaders, Kroger and Albertsons employ 28% of grocery workers across the country. Hourly wages for all grocery workers have effectively stagnated for the past two decades, hovering just under $18 in 2024 when adjusted for inflation, and weekly earnings have actually dropped by 15%. A new report by the nonprofit organization Economic Roundtable—which draws heavily on surveys of Kroger and Albertsons workers in California, Colorado, and Washington conducted by the United Food and Commercial Workers union—suggests that understaffing at these grocery stores impacts many workers and exacerbates the industry-wide issue of depressed wages. For many grocery employees, chronic understaffing and being denied additional hours on the job without a meaningful increase in hourly pay makes it even more difficult to earn a living wage. The report’s authors argue that reduced staffing at grocery stores has affected the shopping experience for consumers, as workers struggle to keep shelves fully stocked and manage their workload. Three-quarters of workers surveyed by UFCW said they struggled to finish assigned tasks during shifts. Kroger itself reported 14.1% fewer labor hours per store in 2023 than in 2019. But the Economic Roundtable’s report estimates that Kroger decreased labor hours despite increased demand due to e-commerce sales, leading to a labor shortfall of 21% relative to 2019. At Albertsons, which the report found was already understaffed in 2019, the shortfall amounted to 13%. In a statement to Fast Company, a Kroger spokesperson said, “We are committed to improving associates’ wages and benefits while keeping prices affordable for customers. We intentionally staff our stores to keep them running smoothly and creating an outstanding customer experience. Our decisions are data-driven to balance workload, schedules and customer service. Unrealistic demands by UFCW that do not reflect today’s competitive retail landscape will jeopardize the long-term sustainability of unionized businesses and advance non-union competitors.” (Albertsons did not respond to a request for comment.) The rise of lower staffing levels alongside wage stagnation also measurably affects workers’ ability to manage their finances and cover basic expenses. In the UFCW surveys, many grocery workers report getting their hours cut or being denied additional hours by their employer—a trend that is also captured by BLS data, which indicates that average weekly hours logged by nonsupervisory workers have dropped 11% since 2003 to under 29 hours. Grocery workers are also more likely, on average, to be part-time employees relative to workers in other industries, with the share of workers being 58% greater. By and large, the workers surveyed believed their pay did not fairly compensate them for their workload and experience, and that they saw themselves as essential frontline workers but were not treated as such by their employers. Many of them reported struggling to afford monthly expenses like rent, with more than two-thirds of grocery workers claiming to not have secure housing. Only 16% of grocery workers said they made enough money to cover basic expenses. On average, annual pay for nonsupervisory grocery workers in the regions surveyed is just over $25,000—and many such workers are eligible for Medicaid and other federal programs that help support low-income families. Over the past few decades, wage stagnation—and the yawning gap between worker pay and executive compensation—has impacted rank-and-file employees across industries. Even so, many workers have actually seen a bump in pay: According to the Economic Roundtable report, weekly earnings have increased by 15% over the past 20 years for production and nonsupervisory workers in other industries. Grocery workers, however, have experienced the opposite, leading to a 50% gap in pay relative to workers in other industries—a shift that the report finds has also coincided with a notable decline in union membership across the grocery industry. View the full article

Andrew Bailey believes agreement is ‘good news’ but warns that uncertainty is clouding business decisions View the full article

If there’s one thing worse than having to assemble a PowerPoint presentation, it’s being forced to sit through an achingly dull one conducted by someone else. So what if there were a better option—a way anyone, regardless of skill, could create a sleek and actually engaging slideshow that looks like a professional designer had a hand in it? If you ask Grant Lee, we’ve already reached the point where that’s possible. And it doesn’t end with presentations. Lee is the founder of an AI-centric startup called Gamma. You may not have heard of it yet, but 50 million people have—and are already using the service. That’s led the scrappy, 30-person company to reach a milestone of $50 million in annual recurring revenue a mere two years into its existence. “I realized just how important it was for people to be able to communicate their ideas in a visual way that others can consume,” Lee says. “Many of us have these ideas in our heads, but then to be able to actually convey that in a way that gets in other people’s heads—it’s really hard.” Lee came to that realization while working in investment banking. He spent his days immersed in underwhelming, clunky-to-create slide decks. Now, he wants to make sure no one else is forced to dawdle their days away with those sorts of distractions. If you’ve wasted any amount of time wading through painfully bad presentations—or documents, websites, or social media posts—Gamma could be just the upgrade you never knew you needed. But, like most generative AI tools of the moment, it isn’t without its limitations. A broader approach to AI creation Let’s get one thing out of the way now: On the surface, Gamma seems an awful lot like another AI-centric startup I wrote about for Fast Company last year—a now-eight-year-old presentation-making service called Beautiful.ai. But while both services do aim to take the pain out of presentation creation, they differ not only in their philosophical foundations but also in the scope of what they offer. “All of these [other] tools actually have the same sort of approach, which is a design-first approach,” Lee says. “We’ve always taken a completely different approach, which is: What if we were design later, or even design last? What if we were content first?” To that end, Gamma encourages you to not even think about things from a visual perspective. Instead, you just focus on the message, and the tool transforms that into any medium and form you want. “You start with writing or an outline or existing notes, then we turn that into something that’s much more dynamic, with rich content that can be shareable,” Lee says. Specifically, when you launch a new project in Gamma, you’re presented with three choices. You can paste in text—be it a series of loose notes or a fully finished document; you can import an existing document, presentation, or slideshow from PowerPoint, Google Slides, or another similar program; or you can simply input a single-line prompt and have Gamma’s network of AI models take the reins from there. “We don’t expect you to go in and try to move pixels around,” Lee explains. “We expect you to go in with your thoughts. We’re going to help you shape them [and] visualize them.” So, yes: You can drag and drop elements and adjust specific parameters around colors, styling, and so on. But the idea is that you don’t have to do that. Instead, you can let Gamma handle that heavy lifting while you focus entirely on what you want to say—not how you want to convey it. “We’re not trying to be incrementally better slide-ware,” Lee says. “We’re introducing a new set of building blocks.” Lee’s ultimate goal is to allow us, as humans, to focus solely on the content itself by leaning on AI to handle practically everything else. Even if Gamma’s creations are more of a starting point than a final, polished product, working with the framework it gives you is intended to be akin to editing a document—with a handy virtual helper at your side every step of the way. Want to improve the writing, for instance? Tighten up your copy? Even just make some block of text more visually appealing—or replace some existing images with more eye-catching illustrations? You’ll find one-step commands for all of those things within Gamma’s slide-by-slide AI menus. All you’ve gotta do is click. “It’s as if you have your expert designer sitting right next to you,” Lee says. “At the end, you get a beautiful output, and regardless of your technical or design abilities, you feel like you have something you’re proud to present to others.” The million-dollar question, of course, is how well all of that actually works in practice. After all, nearly every AI tool sounds incredible on paper. But when you move beyond the carefully controlled demos and start actually trying to use this type of technology in the wild, it’s frequently far less impressive than it initially appears. The short answer with Gamma is that it depends—both on the type of input you’re providing and on your expectations for how, exactly, the service should operate. The ups and downs of the AI designer We’ll start with the not-so-good piece of the puzzle: When I’ve tried putting in already-created PDFs or presentations and asking Gamma to jazz them up for me, the results haven’t exactly been awe-inspiring. Here, for instance, is a peek at Gamma’s take on an existing media kit presentation I had for my independent newsletter-publishing business, The Intelligence: It’s an awkward and ineffective interpretation of the original that honestly feels like a step in the wrong direction. Where Gamma has worked better, for me, has been when I start fresh. I give it a simple prompt, let it build a completely new framework on its own, and then use that as a starting point to fill in the actual info I want and finish things off from there. With that in mind, I tried to re-create that very same media kit from scratch, and the results were actually pretty decent. The specific information here isn’t at all accurate or even remotely related to reality, but it creates an interesting and attractive structure to use for adding in the right data and molding it into something sensible. And even that part of the process can be pleasingly easy—with Gamma offering a helping hand, as needed, to refine and polish everything from text to the layout itself as individual assets move around. All that AI effort does come at a cost, as you’d imagine. Gamma leans on a variety of generative AI engines to power its product—everything from OpenAI to Anthropic and Google’s Gemini technology, though the underlying logic automatically selects what it believes to be the best option for any given purpose, and you’re rarely aware of which model is being used when. Because of the expenses involved, Gamma’s free tier limits you to 400 AI credits per account and only basic AI image generation. For the full experience, you’ll need to pony up $96 a year for unlimited AI creation and advanced image access—or bump up to $180 a year for even more powerful capabilities. Long term, Lee believes Gamma will be able to provide enough value in exchange that the tradeoff will be a no-brainer. The Gamma vision So far, Lee says Gamma’s customers have primarily been a category of users he calls “prosumers”—individuals or small teams that need to create a lot of visuals and wouldn’t typically have the resources to work with a full-fledged design team in their organizations. But he envisions a future in which everyone, from freelancers and small business owners to sales and marketing teams in larger companies, relies on Gamma to do what’d otherwise require a lot of time, effort, and aggravation—even when traditional resources are readily available. And you’d better believe that same principle applies to creating PDFs, websites, and social media assets as much as it does presentations (and Lee says the list of available formats will only expand from here). The humble, hated slide deck was just the easiest and most logical entry point to what Lee sees as an entire ecosystem of convenient content creation—all with AI at its core. “We chose slides as the sort of initial wedge because slides as a format is ubiquitous,” he says. “[But] knowledge workers don’t just need to create slides. They actually have a need to create all forms of content.” Lee sees it all as a sliding scale with lots of blurred lines. At the end of the day, what’s really the difference between a presentation and a PDF? Or a PDF and a website? Or a website and a promotional LinkedIn post? Once you start relying on Gamma to help you create anything and everything, you quickly realize the various formats all share the same basic building blocks. And it doesn’t take much to move from one to the next. “Our bet is that presentations can always just be the gateway,” he explains. “We don’t want our users to have to think about it in a traditional sense—like, ‘Oh, I’m creating a slide deck.’ It’s more, ‘I’m creating a piece of content, and that can be consumed in different ways.’” The challenge, then, is getting people—and organizations—to break their habits and inch away from the uninspiring but familiar tools they’ve relied on for ages. And by making Gamma so simple to use that it requires virtually no specific skills or training, Lee’s optimistic he can win over crowds and frame the service as the one-stop shop for anything creative. “A tool like Gamma is trying to lower the floor so any knowledge worker can pick up skills that they couldn’t have imagined being able to do in the past,” he says. “We really believe that’ll open up doors for them.” Be the first to find all sorts of interesting tech tools with my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll get a single new off-the-beaten-path discovery in your inbox every Wednesday! View the full article

Navigating professional transitions can be a whirlwind of emotions for employees, whether starting a new job or leaving a company. Onboarding is essential for creating a sense of belonging and shared purpose that extends throughout a new hire’s tenure. And this vital initiative should be about more than following a checklist. Onboarding provides an opportunity to make your newest colleagues feel genuinely connected to the team and confident in their contributions. This ensures they can thrive from day one until their final day with the company. The importance of onboarding The first 90 days are a crucial time for employees to establish themselves and for leadership to set the tone. It’s a great time to encourage new hires to envision their contributions to the business’s success. When leadership actively engages and guides new team members through this process, it fosters a sense of alignment with the organization’s goals. This transforms onboarding from a routine task into a long-term motivation, engagement, and loyalty initiative. Yet too often, companies miss the mark. A recent Gallup poll found that only 12% of workers strongly agreed that their firm excelled in onboarding them, and just 29% said they felt supported and fully prepared to start their role. These numbers reveal a huge opportunity gap. When companies approach onboarding as a mere formality, new employees can feel disconnected and disengaged, which leads to costly turnover and lost potential. Offboarding is another aspect of the employee experience that companies overlook. But it’s worth noting that how we support workers as they leave is just as important as onboarding them. A Gallup poll of 150 Fortune 500 CHROs found that just 10% considered their employer highly effective in managing departures. Leaders play a vital role in connecting employees to their colleagues and organization, especially during transitional seasons. Psychological safety invites belonging Thoughtfully designed onboarding and offboarding processes foster a supportive environment where the company makes new hires and seasoned veterans feel valued. Psychological safety is a critical element of this. It ensures employees can express themselves—ask questions, offer ideas, or admit mistakes—without fear of negative consequences. When managers promote this sense of security from day one, they lay the groundwork for their colleagues to make meaningful contributions to the business’s success throughout their tenure. Inclusion from the start The first three months are critical for new hires to understand their tasks and the company’s culture and values. Preboarding and starting onboarding before an employee’s first day can ease the transition. Simple initiatives like giving a tour, pairing new employees with peers to answer questions, or sharing background materials in advance have a significant impact. By pacing out key details, you allow new hires to adjust in comfortable increments. This ensures that you make them feel supported and included from the start. A community approach to onboarding Onboarding isn’t just about bringing our new colleagues up to speed. It’s about helping them see themselves as integral team members. When you do this right, onboarding goes beyond basic training and allows new employees to envision the unique impact they can have on the company’s success. This sense of ownership and alignment with the business’s values is critical, yet many companies still take a one-size-fits-all approach. Onboarding should be a strategic tool to drive long-term commitment and growth, benefiting both the employee and the company. Creating this connection requires a team effort—everyone has a role in making new team members feel welcomed and valued. Encourage early wins New hires often experience a mix of excitement and anxiety. While they may be eager to demonstrate what they can do, they might also be hesitant about when and how to engage. Empowering new recruits to take ownership of their work by notching early wins—whether that’s achievable projects or tasks—can build confidence quickly. Assigning a familiar project that aligns with their prior experience validates employees’ contributions from the start and is a great way to ease them into their new role. An early win is more than a confidence boost. It creates a connection with the broader team, allowing new employees to find their footing during those pivotal first three months and beyond. Shape meaningful departures How a business approaches an employee’s departure reveals more about the leadership culture than it does about the individual who is leaving. A respectful and supportive offboarding process should be an extension of the sense of belonging that an employee cultivates throughout their career with the company. However, offboarding processes often lack care. An inclusive offboarding process aims to gather feedback, enhance retention, and build trust among current and future employees. Effective exit interviews allow departing workers to express their thoughts, helping organizations understand the employees’ reasons for leaving. When former employees feel appreciated, they advocate for the company, promoting a positive reputation in the job market. A valuable exit experience reflects the organization’s values and leaves a lasting impression, strengthening a sense of belonging for the departing employee and current and future team members. Foster cohesion through belonging Taking a team-based approach to onboarding deepens everyone’s sense of belonging. It fosters collaboration and empathy while bolstering cohesion and satisfaction. By working together to integrate new hires, existing team members can refine their leadership skills. This approach helps dismantle the hypercompetitive tendencies that can become destructive within some workplaces. When new employees feel that they are part of a team that works together, they’re more likely to engage fully and contribute to the company’s long-term success; then, when they are ready to move on, their experiences and insights shape and inform the next generation of talent. View the full article

Humans have long been transfixed by the moon, awed and inspired by its reassuring presence in the night sky and its influence on the tides. In recent decades, though, our fascination with our nearest celestial neighbor has become somewhat more opportunistic: The moon contains valuable resources, and governments and companies are eager to get their hands on them. One such resource is helium-3 (He-3), a gas that some experts say could unlock clean and abundant energy on Earth as a fuel for fusion. It’s this gas that Interlune, a Seattle-based startup, has its sights on. The company wants to be the first to commercialize space resources, starting with He-3, which it plans to begin harvesting from the moon and selling on Earth by the end of the decade. Helium-3 is used mostly in medical diagnostics and national security, but it has great potential to unlock groundbreaking technological advancements, the most tantalizing of which is nuclear fusion. Fusion is what powers the stars, and as the climate crisis deepens, scientists are desperately trying to harness it in reactors to produce abundant energy without the use of fossil fuels. He-3 is a desirable fuel for fusion reactors because it would produce very little dangerous radioactive waste. “Helium-3 fusion reactors open up the opportunity to have power available for people on Earth in a way that’s never been available before,” says Aaron Olson, a research physicist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center who has studied helium-3 extraction. “And that’s not only for those of us who happen to live in areas where we have grids that function really well, but it could bring energy to people who live in areas like sub-Saharan Africa, where 90% of the population doesn’t have access to electricity.” The problem is that He-3 is extremely rare on Earth, and therefore very expensive. A kilogram of the stuff will set you back roughly $20 million. Most of the terrestrial supply comes from the decay of tritium, which is a byproduct of nuclear reactors and aging nuclear weapons. The United States has been rationing He-3 since 2010. By contrast, the moon holds an abundance of He-3. The isotope is emitted from the sun’s corona and carried through the solar wind, and because the moon isn’t protected by an atmosphere or magnetic field, these particles have been embedding themselves in the lunar soil—or regolith—for billions of years. Recent estimates suggest the moon has about 1.1 million metric tons of He-3, compared to Earth’s reserves of just 1.6 tons. “Helium-3 is the only resource worth going all the way to the moon and back for,” Interlune’s director of business development, Nina Hooper, explained. “Now it’s up to us to go develop the technology that’s going to help us extract it.” Interlune’s plan is to send its “harvesters” to an area that’s about a mile wide and located near the moon’s equator on its near side, or the side that’s always visible to Earth. These unmanned machines will dig into the top three meters of lunar regolith, crush the rocks, extract the He-3 gas, and then put the regolith back where it belongs. “When we’re done, it looks like a tilled field,” says Interlune CEO and cofounder Rob Meyerson, who previously served as president of Blue Origin. Interlune is aiming to start with two test missions, one in 2027 and another in 2029, to measure He-3 levels on the moon, harvest it on a small scale, and bring some back to Earth. It wants to go to market with 20 kilograms of He-3 in 2030, ramping up to 100 kilograms over five years. “That will do a great job to stabilize the supply chain,” Meyerson adds. Could it also unlock the future of clean energy? Despite promising advances in fusion science, commercial fusion is still a ways off. “There is still a lot of work to be done before a functional reactor goes online,” says NASA’s Olson. “There are still questions that persist as to how quickly that can happen.” An abundance of He-3 for fusion research could, however, help speed up that process. In the meantime, Interlune has another sector in mind for its first target market: quantum computing. This market is projected to balloon between now and 2030, with big tech players like IBM, Nvidia, and Apple pouring billions into quantum tech research and development with the hopes of creating breakthrough innovations and rapidly solving stubborn problems across science, medicine, and other fields. Helium-3 helps keep these supercomputers cool enough to function efficiently, and Meyerson says Interlune has already secured contracts with “more than one” company and letters of intent for “more than a billion dollars” worth of He-3 even before it has demonstrated its technology. “These customers are relatively price insensitive, so they’re willing to pay something near the current market price, and they’re really, really eager to secure supply,” he says. This week, Interlune announced Maybell Quantum, a quantum infrastructure company, as its first commercial customer. Maybell agreed to buy “thousands of liters” of He-3 to be delivered between 2029 and 2035. The U.S. Department of Energy has also agreed to buy He-3 from Interlune in its quest to top up its reserves. Not everyone is eager to see the moon become an industrial hub, though. Astronomers are particularly worried about mining because the moon is an important outpost for space science thanks to how quiet, still, and cold it is. For example, the far-side of the moon is “the most radio quiet part of the inner solar system,” explains Richard Green, an astronomer emeritus at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory and a vocal advocate for preserving lunar science. That makes it the best place to use radio astronomy to learn about the universe and look for signs of life beyond Earth. “If the mining equipment is next door and blasting rocks and digging things up, that would just be inconsistent with the stable platform that those really sensitive detections need,” Green adds. He and other researchers want to see the creation of an international system that evaluates claims to certain regions on the moon and allows scientists to “reserve” sites in advance so they can study the area before any mining takes place. “It’s not that there’s anything wrong with mining, it’s a legitimate activity,” he says. “But so is science. How do we set up a system of communication and coordination that doesn’t lead to conflict?” The existing rules around space mining are fairly new, and don’t offer much help. A 2015 U.S. law ruled that private American companies can own any space resources they mine. In 2020, NASA’s Artemis Accords sought to introduce some guidelines on the practice of harvesting space resources, stating that any extraction must be done in compliance with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. That means countries carrying out mining would have to do so for the benefit of all mankind. They’d have to avoid “harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies,” and would be liable for any damage they cause. All of that said, regulations might be hard to enforce. “There are no police that are going to land on the moon,” says Green. (Neither China nor Russia have signed onto the Artemis Accords, which aren’t legally binding anyway.) Meyerson is quick to underscore that what Interlune wants to do isn’t traditional mining. “There are no chemicals used to strip the helium-3 out of the material,” he says. “You’re not leaving contaminated tailings behind. So as far as comparing this to mining, it’s just 180 degrees apart.” He believes that by being the first to harvest moon resources, Interlune can set the standard as the lunar gold rush accelerates. Eventually, Interlune plans to expand its scope to harvest other lunar resources that could be used to build infrastructure and produce rocket fuel on the moon, all of which could serve as a stepping stone for future space exploration. “We’re in this for the long run of building an in-space economy,” says Meyerson. “We would be processing other resources on the moon, like water that we can turn into rocket fuel, metals like aluminum and titanium and silicon, and then construction material.” Some proponents of space mining also argue it’s an environmental Hail Mary. “There is the notion of the Earth becoming an oasis,” says Olson. “It’s an idea that harvesting resources, whether it be the moon or other places in space, could help us preserve the Earth for future generations in a way where maybe we’re not doing as much damaging extractive work on Earth, and some of that could be put in places that are, for lack of a better term, barren.” View the full article