What's on Your Mind?

The software company Palantir has waded into online fashion discourse after its head of strategic engagement, Eliano A. Younes, posted pictures of a “lightweight Palantir chore coat” to X. the lightweight Palantir chore coat [04.30.2026 • 0930 AM EST] pic.twitter.com/9K5fmu3bSs — Eliano A Younes (@eliano) April 21, 2026 In his post, Younes detailed the make of the coat (100% cotton, designed and made in America, “relaxed fit”), adding that it goes on sale April 30. The perplexing framing has caught people’s attention: Is this internal merch for a controversial tech company, or a drop from a streetwear brand? Increasingly, those worlds are getting uncomforta…

Beast Industries, the $5 billion media conglomerate founded by YouTube star MrBeast, is being sued by a former employee who says she was sexually harassed, discriminated against as a woman, and fired shortly after returning from maternity leave. The company refutes her claims, saying it has evidence, including Slack and WhatsApp messages, company documents, and witness testimony, that contradict the lawsuit’s allegations. The federal lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the Eastern District Court of North Carolina, paints a picture of Beast Industries as a boy’s club in which women were excluded from male-dominated meetings, demeaned in front of colleagues, and told to “…

Meta announced to employees on Thursday that the company is laying off around 10% of the company on May 20—about 8,000 employees out of its workforce of more than 78,000 will be impacted, Bloomberg first reported. The company will also close 6,000 open roles it planned to fill, according to a memo that was sent to staffers today from Meta’s chief people officer, Janella Gale. In the memo, obtained by Business Insider, Gale attributed the cuts to Meta’s “continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.” The memo did not specify what those “other investments” are, but it’s public knowledge that …

Modern brides need something old, new, borrowed, and blue. But if they’re influencers, add a sponsor to the list, too. Paid sponsored content is commonplace for anyone who scrolls through an influencer’s social media, where you might encounter anything from a lavish vacation to new products to try. But a recent viral discussion on social media has users questioning if the practice has gone too far. “Just saw someone posting their wedding on IG,” a user posted to X, alongside a screenshot of an Instagram quote from content creator Jaz Smith. “The 1st slide was them and the second slide was a photo of CAPITAL ONE CAFE. “I can’t make this shit up. WHEW, is no…

From software engineers to non-technical staff, Google has urged its employees to fully embrace AI. And it seems like the push to use the tech has resulted in a major productivity leap. In a Wednesday blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that three-quarters of the company’s new code is AI-generated. “We’ve been using AI to generate code internally at Google for a while,” Pichai said. “Today, 75% of all new code at Google is now AI-generated and approved by engineers, up from 50% last fall.” “We’re now shifting to truly agentic workflows,” the tech giant CEO continued in the blog post. “Our engineers are orchestrating fully autonomous digital task forces, f…

After-work drinks are a nice way to bond with colleagues in your 20s and 30s. But, as people get older, different circumstances can necessitate more planning, and new avenues for making friends at work. Take Olga Valadon, 54, whose last corporate role was as chief of staff at Deloitte. “Both I and the people I became friends with faced different pressures, whether from work or family commitments,” says Valadon. “We were running around all day chasing our tail to fulfill these needs, often leaving too little time or energy for anything that was just for us.” It’s no surprise that, as people age, family obligations become a significant barrier to making friends. Bi…

JetBlue replies to customers on social media every day, from assuaging their customer service woes to thanking them for choosing their flights. But one seemingly innocuous JetBlue response may have set a class action lawsuit in motion, after customers became convinced that the airline implicated itself in using surveillance pricing. A social media frenzy JetBlue first drew suspicions of surveillance pricing with an April 18 reply on X to a user complaining about the airline’s prices. “A $230 increase on a ticket after one day is crazy,” they wrote. “I’m just trying to make it to a funeral.” JetBlue replied, recommending that the user “try clearing your cache an…

Lowe’s Home Improvement is facing pressure to cut ties with Flock Safety, the surveillance company that makes cameras, drones, and automated license plate readers (ALPRs). The pressure comes amid reports that Flock data has been used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and even aided in an investigation of a woman who had an abortion, driving fears about a mass surveillance state. In August, 404 Media reported that Flock cameras stationed outside of Lowe’s and The Home Depot “are being fed into a massive surveillance system that law enforcement can access.” The story cited records obtained by EFF. In an April 1 letter addressed to CEO Marvin Ellison…

Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to select employees, it announced in a memo on Thursday, CNBC reported. The move is a first for the company, as the tech industry at large faces shifts in the era of artificial intelligence. The program will be available to U.S. workers at the senior director level and below whose employment years and age add up to at least 70. Employees with sales incentive plans are ineligible. Those who qualify and their managers will receive more information on May 7, according to the memo. The plan is expected to take effect in the fourth quarter of Microsoft’s fiscal year 2026, which ends June 30. About 7% of the U.S. workforce is expe…

OpenAI on Thursday released its most capable AI system, GPT-5.5, which the company says will enable a more powerful Codex coding agent. OpenAI is quick to say, however, that GPT-5.5 will power the widening set of general digital work tasks that Codex is capable of. The system is significantly better than previous releases at helping with scientific work, including creative aspects of generating new hypotheses and testing them. The system represents an improvement in autonomous or agentic capability. GPT-5.56 “represents a step toward AI systems that can complete complex, multi-step tasks on a computer without human guidance,” OpenAI says in a blog post. GPT-5.5, …

Thanks to social media, a new legion of fans are discovering something new to love at Buc-ee’s: The OverBite. Though it’s been on the shelves at Buc-ee’s for several years, the hockey puck-shaped, chocolate covered candy bar has become a bit of a viral sensation more recently. Available in five different flavors, these quarter-pound treats feature a thick layer of either milk or dark chocolate and fillings like peanut butter, caramel, and cookies and cream. It seems Rich O’Toole, a Texas-based singer and songwriter, may get credit for kicking into overdrive the latest frenzy over the OverBite. In a post on X that’s amassed more than 8 million views since Monday,…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. AI flattery drives engagement—and distorts judgment Social networks like Facebook and TikTok use a range of techniques to keep us engaged and scrolling (and ultimately viewing ads). One of the most effective is tailoring content to our tastes and preferences, a strategy that has proved highly addictive. Last month, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta’s and Google’s use of infinite scrolling and algorithmic recommendations caused a young user to become addicted, and ordered the compa…

The United States’ advanced manufacturing future may have an unexpected limiting factor: a dire shortage of welders. While venture capital has placed big bets on a cutting-edge future of data centers, defense tech, and robotics, actually making the physical devices remains a challenge without finding the right talent to melt, fuse and repair metal. The American Welding Society projects that the country will need more than 320,000 new welding professionals by 2030, which means hiring about 80,000 new welders every year. Path Robotics believes the future of America’s manufacturing workforce will be augmented with torch-wielding robots. The Columbus, Ohio-based company,…

For digital nomads, logging on to work from a cafe, co-working space, hotel lobby or airport lounge is a way of life. Remote working has been made possible by reliable high speed internet and turbocharged by the pandemic. For some remote workers, that includes working from somewhere other than their home, perhaps because their company doesn’t have a physical location in their area, or because they don’t have an ideal home office setup. Working in public, however, doesn’t come without privacy and security risks. Here’s a quick reminder of precautions to take: Read the rulebook Hybrid or fully remote working is the norm for many jobs, so it’s a good idea to check f…

You want to be happier. You want to feel more fulfilled. You want to live a longer, healthier life. Hold that thought. Lewis Terman, a Stanford University psychologist, was a pioneer in I.Q. testing. His revisions of the Stanford-Binet test helped it become a widespread tool for measuring general intelligence. In 1921, he identified 1,500 children who had scored 135 or higher on the test and began one of the longest longitudinal studies ever conducted. (The New York Times calls Terman and his study of “Termites,” as the kids called themselves, the “grandfather of all lifespan research.”) Terman’s study was guaranteed to outlive him, but that was the point…

Many consumers may be pausing their travel plans until whenever the U.S.-Iranian fuel crisis ends. But if you were hoping that airline ticket prices and other ancillary costs will come down afterward, the CEO of United Airlines has some bad news for you: Airlines may not lower prices to their pre-war levels even after fuel prices fall. Instead, they’ll pocket the profits. Here’s what you need to know. Ticket prices rise as Iran war drags on This week, United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAL) reported its Q1 2026 earnings. For all intents and purposes, it wasn’t a bad quarter. Total operating revenue was up 10.6% year over year to $14.6 billion, capacity rose 3.4…

Three congressional candidates wagered on the outcome of their own elections on Kalshi, according to the prediction market, which said Wednesday that it fined and suspended the men from their platform for five years. It is the latest high-profile case of alleged insider trading on prediction markets including Kalshi and Polymarket, which have brought bipartisan scrutiny from Congress and calls for stricter regulations of the websites where people can put money on just about anything. Kalshi’s disciplinary documents named Mark Moran, who is running as an independent in Virginia’s U.S. Senate race; Ezekiel Enriquez, who ran in a Texas Republican primary for a U.S. House s…

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders are set to vote Thursday on the company’s proposed $81 billion sale to Skydance-owned Paramount, in a mega merger that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape. Paramount wants to buy all of Warner. That means HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like “Harry Potter” and CNN could soon find themselves under the same roof as Paramount’s CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service. And a greenlight from shareholders would bring the acquisition closer to the finish line. Shareholders are expected to meet at 10 a.m. ET to vote on the deal, which is valued at nearly $111 billion, including debt, based on Warner’s current…

American Airlines is leaning further into the idea that airport lounges should feel less like generic waiting rooms and more like extensions of the cities they serve. Its latest project in Nashville makes that strategy pretty clear. At Nashville International Airport (BNA), the airline is planning a new Admirals Club that will significantly expand its footprint and redefine what a lounge can be. A much bigger lounge The new space in Concourse A will span about 17,400 square feet, nearly triple the size of AA’s current lounge at the airport. When it opens, it’s expected to be the largest airline lounge at BNA, giving travelers far more room to spread out, …

Employees at Meta Platforms may soon feel like they’re spilling TMI to their employer’s MCI. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp is installing new software—reportedly dubbed Model Capability Initiative (MCI)—on its employees’ computers and workstations that will, among other things, track and capture mouse movements and keystrokes in an effort to train AI models, Reuters first reported on Tuesday. It’s all part of a broader effort to develop autonomous AI agents that can perform specific work tasks. A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the company was, indeed, pushing forward with the measure. “If we’re building agents to help people com…

Celebrities are continuing to learn the hard way that publicly pontificating about their views on AI, like politics, might come with far more risk than reward. The latest incident involves beloved Academy Award winner and Walk the Line star Reese Witherspoon, who is facing ongoing backlash for an Instagram video she posted last week—and then again defended this week—encouraging women to learn more about AI. In a recent video posted from what appears to be her kitchen, Witherspoon told her followers that she’s worried not enough women are using AI. Her evidence: An informal poll she took at a recent meeting of her book club, where most of the members told her they wer…

As visitors head into downtown Vancouver through the city’s False Creek Flats neighborhood, the first thing they’ll see is the Hive: a 10-story office building built out of wood and shaped like a giant honeycomb. Beneath its webbed exterior, the building is hiding a clever design system that keeps it safe from earthquakes by allowing it to wiggle, shake, and settle. The Hive, designed by the Toronto-based architecture studio Dialog, is the tallest seismic-force-resisting building made from mass timber in North America. By substituting mass timber for typical steel-and-concrete construction, the building is sequestering a total of 4,403 metric tons of CO2; equivalent …

The point of mopping floors is to clean them, but it’s actually pretty messy, as you’re sloshing increasingly grimy water from your bucket to the floor. Are you actually cleaning, or just redistributing the filth? Joseph Joseph, a U.K. houseware design studio and manufacturer, has a new solution: a two-chamber mop bucket called the UltraClean that separates the fresh soapy water from the dirty water, and squeezes out the mophead as you go. This just might be the biggest advancement in mop bucket technology—yes, it’s a thing—since the mop wringer. The secret to the UltraClean system is its slot, which is designed to do two things at once: clean and rinse. Here’s ho…