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Picture a data center on the edge of a desert plateau. Inside, row after row of servers glow and buzz, moving air through vast cooling towers, consuming more electricity than the surrounding towns combined. This is not science fiction. It is the reality of the vast AI compute clusters, often described as “AI supercomputers” for their sheer scale, that train today’s most advanced models. Strictly speaking, these are not supercomputers in the classical sense. Traditional supercomputers are highly specialized machines designed for scientific simulations such as climate modeling, nuclear physics, or astrophysics, tuned for parallelized code across millions of cores. What …

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on Donald The President’s recent AI-generated videos, which he (or his staff) posts on Truth Social. I also look at world models, the successor to large language models, and at OpenAI’s new Sora 2 model, which is also the anchor for a new social app. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and fol…

Napheesa Collier is more than just a WNBA star who is critical of her league and its leadership. The Minnesota Lynx player is a vice president of the players union, which means she will be sitting across from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert at the negotiating table ahead of an Oct. 31 deadline to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. If that doesn’t cause enough tension, Collier is also a co-founder of Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s basketball league that plays in the winter and features WNBA stars. That could give her additional leverage to try to press the WNBA as talks unfold. Here’s a look at some of the implications of Collier’s headline-gra…

ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s value has soared to a sky-high $500 billion following a secondary sale of its shares held by current and former employees. Reuters reported Thursday that the group of employees unloaded around $6.6 billion in shares in the deal, pushing OpenAI’s valuation well north of its current valuation of $300 billion. During the secondary sale’s open window, OpenAI shareholders offloaded their stock to an investor group that included SoftBank, Thrive Capital, T. Rowe Price, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Emirati state-owned AI investment firm MGX, according to a source who described the deal’s details to Reuters. While $6.6 billion in shares cha…

Truly unlocking the value of AI is about more than new technology; it’s about leadership. Now that artificial intelligence is giving employees back hours of time every day, organizations must help their workers reimagine their roles beyond routine output and start contributing in ways that AI can’t. View the full article

AI assistants are incredibly efficient, but they can be a little predictable. Sometimes it takes an unexpected prompt to solicit a useful response. From disaster-movie logic to unusual cross-pollination, here are five techniques you can use to get better answers from your AI chatbot. View the full article

With the help of generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, creating content is easier and faster than ever. Here are a few quick and easy methods you can use to create content, summarize information, and even brainstorm new ideas. View the full article

Working with AI as a team isn’t about knowing the latest technology. It’s about changing your mindset to build skills AI can’t replace, focusing on outcomes, not optics, and leaving room for strategic tests. View the full article

Organizations are scrambling to keep up with employees using AI tools like ChatGPT, text generators, and automation platforms to help them at work. The phenomenon is known as Bring Your Own AI. And while workers are hitting performance goals faster, they’re also exposing companies to unprecedented legal and security risks. View the full article

U.S. stocks are drifting around their records on Thursday as technology stocks keep rising and as Wall Street keeps ignoring the shutdown of the U.S. government. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 68 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:58 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher and hovering above its own record. Thursdays on Wall Street typically mean investors are reacting to the latest weekly tally of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits. But D.C.’s shutdown means this week’s report on jobless claims has been delayed. An even more consequential report, Friday’s monthly tally o…

Six months after Elon Musk left the The President administration to the great relief of Tesla investors worried about boycotts, the world’s richest man has announced some good news: Sales of Tesla cars are back. Well, maybe. The electric vehicle maker run by Musk reported Thursday that car sales jumped 7% in the three months through September after plunging for most of the year, as people turned off by his embrace of President Donald The President and far-right politicians in Europe balked at buying his cars. But the jump comes with a significant caveat: Tesla benefited from consumers taking advantage of a $7,500 tax credit before it expired on September 30, a…

Investors are celebrating a major shake up in how FICO scores will be shared with mortgage lenders, as shares of parent company Fair Isaac have rallied more than 20% on Thursday. That stock rally follows FICO’s announcement on Wednesday of a new pricing model that will allow mortgage lenders to calculate and distribute credit scores directly to borrowers, thereby eliminating the need to rely on the three nationwide credit bureaus for this information. In addition to its legacy pricing model, lenders can now opt for a direct license option that will save them up to 50% on per-score FICO fees. The FICO score is one of a few different credit scoring models that help …

The The President administration is canceling $7.6 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election. The cuts were announced in a social media post late Wednesday by Russell Vought, the White House budget director: “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.” The move comes as President Donald The President threatens cuts and firings in his fight with congressional Democrats over the federal government shutdown. These cuts are likely to affect battery plants, hydrogen technology projects, upgr…

Berkshire Hathaway is buying Occidental Petroleum’s chemical division for $9.7 billion in what may be the last big acquisition involving the consummate dealmaker, Warren Buffett. Buffett wasn’t mentioned anywhere in materials released by Berkshire Hathaway discussing the deal Thursday, potentially signaling a passing of the torch to Vice Chair Greg Abel, to whom Buffet will hand the CEO title in January. Buffett will remain chairman at Berkshire and will still be involved in deciding how to spend the conglomerate’s colossal pile of more than $344 billion in cash. Berkshire’s cash reserves have been growing for years because Buffett has been unable to find any …

I should go to the dentist more often. I really ought to join a gym. I wish I had partied less in college and bought more Apple stock. Had I ditched the pint of Guinness and invested in Apple in the early 2000s, each pint worth of stock would now be valued at $3,500. Over those college years, I would have accumulated enough stock to buy a brownstone on New York’s pricey Upper West Side. All cash. Looking back, I probably still would have enjoyed that cold brew with my friends. A pint of Guinness felt just right in the moment. 2025 was far off. As the world gathered for the United Nations General Assembly to discuss climate change, among other global challenges, here’s…

A decade ago, fresh out of business school, I joined a tech company in my first business development role in Singapore. Within the first quarter, I had closed two quarters’ worth of sales targets. But the environment was abusive. The CEO yelled regularly. Personal and sexist remarks were common, on body, appearance, even what women ate or wore. It was triggering. Having lived through a previous abusive situation, I found myself in constant flight-or-freeze mode. Every time I saw an email from my manager, my heart raced. I struggled to breathe in meetings. Despite my outward success, internally I was unraveling. Finally, I quit. That experience changed the course …

If you handle hiring, generic AI-generated cover letters are probably a familiar foe by now. Nearly two-thirds of job seekers are using AI to help craft their applications. It’s understandable. In a world where some job seekers are having to send up to 50 applications to land a role, tools like ChatGPT enable them to cast their net wide and increase their chances. But this spray-and-pray approach to job hunting is a headache for hiring managers. It’s driving the volume of applications up and the quality down, making it harder to spot great candidates. The natural knee-jerk reaction from HR is to start playing a game of “I spy AI.” If we can just root out the …

Small talk can be awkward and boring. It’s also a requisite skill to learn to participate as a socially adept person in society—as well as the workplace. But mustering “So, where are you going for lunch?” to that one guy from sales in the elevator might be a no-go for the workforce’s youngest members. In a discussion sparked by a viral TikTok, many have dubbed the ritualistic nicety as “cringe”—Gen Z’s go-to dig for anything perceived as try-hard or uncool. In the TikTok skit (with nearly 3 million views), the user acts out a conversation in which every attempt at small talk is brusquely shut down, mixed with plenty of drawn-out “umms” and eye rolls. “POV: You’re…

Creating a standout résumé or cover letter is your first (and sometimes only) chance to make a strong impression with prospective employers—to really sell yourself. But there’s a caveat, HR experts say: don’t sound desperate. While we’re taught to tailor résumés for the job and really showcase accomplishments, experts argue there’s such a thing as going overboard. Employers could find it off-putting. Or worse, they could think you’re overrepresenting your credentials. According to job search platform FlexJobs’ 2025 Job Search Trends Report, one in three professionals admitted to lying on a résumé or cover letter—often to appear as the “perfect fit” or to meet pe…

How can you get ahead in your career and still enjoy the ride? One solution offered in business books, LinkedIn posts, and team-building manuals is to use humor. Sharing jokes, sarcastic quips, ironic memes, and witty anecdotes, the advice goes, will make you more likable, ease stress, strengthen teams, spark creativity, and even signal leadership potential. We are professors of marketing and management who study humor and workplace dynamics. Our own research—and a growing body of work by other scholars—shows that it’s harder to be funny than most people think. The downside of cracking a bad joke is often larger than what you might gain by landing a good one. …

From on-again-off-again tariffs, economic uncertainty, and layoffs, fresh graduates are in one of the toughest job markets in recent history. More than half do not have a job lined up by the time they graduate, and the unemployment rate for young degree holders is the highest it’s been in 12 years, not counting the pandemic. Fast Company writer María José Gutierrez Chavez breaks down the 5 ways recent grads can break through the entry-level job “glass floor.” View the full article

Taxpayers in the Empire State will soon receive a refund to help offset rising living costs. Part of the 2025-2026 New York State budget allocates funds for inflation refund checks. The onetime payments offer relief to New Yorkers who have incurred increased sales tax costs due to inflation. According to the state, 8.2 million households will receive payments. Governor Kathy Hochul announced that as of September 26, inflation refund checks have started to be mailed to taxpayers. Checks will continue to be issued throughout October and November. Here’s what to know about whether you’re eligible, how much you’ll receive, and more. Am I eligible for an inflat…

Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, is here. And this might be Swift’s biggest release yet, given that along with an album, she’s also premiering a film on the same day. Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl features a new music video for the album’s single “The Fate of Ophelia,” lyric videos, and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and commentary. It’s being hosted as a companion event by AMC, Cinemark Theaters, and Regal Cinemas. The catch? It’s showing in theaters for just three days: October 3 to 5. The brief theatrical window follows the same pattern Swift has used to release limited-edition versio…

Most brands still buy attention. The impactful ones earn devotion, the kind people will rally behind and fight to protect. Consumers want a role in movements, not just transactions. When brands focus solely on economics, spark and engagement disappear. Consequential brands ignite a shared spirit, tapping into values, not just wallets, and building communities of advocates. But how do you actually build cultural power? For my forthcoming book Branding as a Cultural Force: Purpose, Responsibility, and Resonance (Columbia University Press, 2025), I interviewed creative leaders worldwide to find out. Across those conversations, six clear strategies emerged—actionable …

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Short screech. Long screech. Static. More beeps. On September 30, one of the most memorable—if not infuriating—waiting experiences since the dawn of the internet went the way of the dodo. AOL finally discontinued its dial-up service. If you grew up in the ’90s, you knew that sound by heart. Some of you also knew to bring a newspaper while waiting for a single web page to load. AOL’s iconic 30-second symphony of screeches and static wasn’t just the sound of connection. It was the sound of anticipation, of mandatory patience in an increasingly impatient world. Today, that pause is all but extinct. Pages load more or less…