What's on Your Mind?

4.5 billion years ago the Sun was formed in a swirling cloud of dust and gas called the Solar Nebula. In a paper published by Nature Astronomy journal on April 28th, a team of internationally collaborating scientists proved that another giant molecular cloud hangs only 300 light-years away—making it the closest cloud to Earth. The cloud, named Eos after the Greek goddess of dawn, is so massive that its width would measure about 40 moons side-by-side and its mass is 3,400 times that of the Sun. “This thing was pretty much in our cosmic backyard, and we’ve just missed it,” says astrophysicist and study coauthor Thomas Haworth in an interview with CNN. Why has it ta…

Starbucks held its quarterly earnings call Tuesday, during which CEO Brian Niccol highlighted a slew of design steps the company is taking as part of its overall turnaround strategy. While Niccols described the company’s drop in quarterly earnings as “disappointing,” behind the scenes, he claims the coffee chain is still making progress towards its back-to-basics comeback plan by upgrading its coffeehouses, standardizing the Starbucks experience store to store, and more efficient systems. All of this will begin to roll out over the next few months. Here’s a rundown of the design changes so far, and what’s heating up for next quarter. 1. Coffeeshop “uplif…

Are you ready to hand over your wallet to AI and let it do your shopping for you? Maybe not—but the technology to do it is hitting the market. On Wednesday, Visa announced Visa Intelligent Commerce, which effectively allows AI agents to find and buy goods or services on behalf of consumers. While Visa itself doesn’t create the AI agents, what it’s done is create the e-commerce backbone to allow it to happen. Consumers could use AI tools to track down potential purchases, but then those platforms would hand control back over to the human to complete the transaction. The big change with Visa’s technology is that, with the proper permissions enabled, AI agents can co…

Pretend you and 99 peers had to duke it out against a gorilla. Would your squad emerge victorious? That debate has been dividing the internet over the past few days. The conversation originally surfaced on Reddit back in 2020, when a user posed the question in the r/whowouldwin subreddit. It recently reignited after the question was put to X users last week. The viral post—now with over 288 million views—suggests that 100 men could defeat a single gorilla if everyone was “dedicated” to the task. Since then, arguments have raged across social media. MrBeast even joined the discussion: “Need 100 men to test this, any volunteers?” he wrote, alongside a fake thumbnail…

Duolingo launched 148 new language classes that were built by generative AI, the company announced Wednesday. The move, which more than doubles it current language offering, comes as the gamified learning platform is facing criticism for replacing contract workers with artificial intelligence. “Developing our first 100 courses took about 12 years, and now, in about a year, we’re able to create and launch nearly 150 new courses. This is a great example of how generative AI can directly benefit our learners,” Duolingo CEO and cofounder Luis von Ahn said in a press release. “This launch reflects the incredible impact of our AI and automation investments, which have…

GLP-1 weight loss treatment can be pricey. But employers who cover the treatments could end up saving on employee medical expenses overall. The finding is according to a new analysis of health insurance claims by global professional services firm, Aon, released Wednesday. The report looked at data for more than 50 million commercially insured people in the U.S., including 139,000 taking GLP-1 drugs, from 2022 to 2024. It found that after an initial spike in costs related to weight loss treatment with drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy, costs fell — drastically. Cost growth for the group receiving GLP-1 treatment trended at half the rate of the control group in…

No, it’s not April Fools’ Day, but despite some erroneous reports that Walmart will be closing at least 11 stores across multiple states in 2025, Walmart says it will not be closing any of its stores this year. “There are no current plans to close any stores in 2025,” a spokesperson for Walmart told Fast Company. “The erroneous claim originated from a late March US Mirror story, and that article was updated following our call to the editors for a correction. Unfortunately, other outlets have incorrectly reported the store closures without checking with our team, leading us to seek corrections from them as well.” Some of those news outlets included MSN and The Huds…

Have you ever used ChatGPT to draft a work email? Perhaps to summarise a report, research a topic or analyse data in a spreadsheet? If so, you certainly aren’t alone. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are rapidly transforming the world of work. Released today, our global study of more than 32,000 workers from 47 countries shows that 58% of employees intentionally use AI at work—with a third using it weekly or daily. Most employees who use it say they’ve gained some real productivity and performance benefits from adopting AI tools. However, a concerning number are using AI in highly risky ways—such as uploading sensitive information into public tools, relying …

Every friend group has one person who’s always running late. If you can’t think of one, chances are you’re that friend. Now, a newly launched app called Lately is here to help you stay on time for everything from meetings to dinner plans. Created by developer Erik MacInnis, Lately sends users timely nudges—30, 10, and five minutes before it’s time to leave. As the self-acknowledged “late one” in his friend group, MacInnis tells Fast Company that the idea for Lately struck during a fishing trip gone wrong. He had assumed it would take 20 minutes to get there, got sidetracked by replying to emails, left five minutes late, and the drive ended up taking 30. “When I ar…

In a first-of-its kind move, Hawaii lawmakers are ready to hike a tax imposed on travelers staying in hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations and earmark the new money for programs to cope with a warming planet. State leaders say they’ll use the funds for projects like replenishing sand on eroding beaches, helping homeowners install hurricane clips on their roofs and removing invasive grasses like those that fueled the deadly wildfire that destroyed Lahaina two years ago. A bill scheduled for House and Senate votes on Wednesday would add an additional 0.75% to the daily room rate tax starting Jan. 1. It’s all but certain to pass given Democrats hold…

Fraud remains a huge issue, with reports increasing 25% between 2023 and 2024, according to recently released data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). That amounted to consumers losing more than $12.5 billion to various frauds and scams. Those eye-popping figures are what spurred AT&T to beef up its fraud-prevention smartphone application, ActiveArmor, with a slate of new features, says Matt Bailey, AT&T’s AVP of product management and development. And interestingly enough, the app will also provide protection for your physical property—including your credit and debit cards and even your driver’s license. On Wednesday, AT&T announced the five…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking to investors earlier this month, D.R. Horton CEO Paul Romanowski said that the spring 2025 selling season for America’s-largest homebuilder is off to a slower-than-normal start. “This year’s spring selling season started slower than expected as potential homebuyers have been more cautious due to continued affordability constraints and declining consumer confidence,” Romanowski said on the company’s earnings call. It isn’t just D.R. Horton. “We do not see the seasonal pickup typically associated with the beginning of the spring sell…

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is expected to take the stand on Wednesday morning at a trial in Washington where antitrust enforcers seek an order forcing the company to sell its Chrome web browser and take other measures to boost competition among online search providers. Pichai will testify in the Alphabet unit’s defense against proposals by the U.S. Department of Justice that the company has said would cause unintended harm to browser developers, smartphone makers and internet users. The outcome of the case could fundamentally reshape the internet by potentially unseating Google as the go-to portal for information online. The DOJ and a broad coalition of state at…

Shares in coffee giant Starbucks Corporation (Nasdaq: SBUX) are down significantly in premarket trading this morning after the chain announced its Q2 2025 earnings results yesterday after the bell. Those results were described as “disappointing” by Starbucks’s own CEO, Brian Niccol, and demonstrate that the company’s turnaround efforts still have a long way to go. Here’s the latest on Starbucks and what has investors nervous: Starbucks Q2 2025 results below expectations In January of this year, Starbucks announced its Q1 2025 earnings, in which it beat Wall Street expectations—a small win for the company and for Niccol, who joined as CEO from Chipotle Mexican …

The NFT market crash has a long tail. In the late 2010s, crypto enthusiasts and web3 advocates celebrated the arrival of digital art. Non-Fungible Tokens, they argued, could offer the permanence and investment value of a traditional painting. Not anymore: even amid President The President’s memecoin surge, NFT valuations continue to hit new lows. The market has been in free fall for nearly two years, with no bottom in sight. While NFTs may be dead, NFT lawsuits are alive and well. Corporate suppliers are beginning to regret their blockchain experiments. The NFT lawsuit boom Most recently, buyers of Nike’s NFTs sued the retailer for $5 million. Nike had acqu…

Billionaire entrepreneur, NBA owner, and CEO of Wonder Marc Lore reveals that he plans all his meals with AI—and he loves it. It’s just one part of his vision for transforming people’s relationship to food and health. His startup, Wonder, has already acquired Blue Apron, Grubhub, and the media brand Tastemade. Lore shares how these acquisitions and embrace of personalized AI-driven dining are all laddering up to a “superapp for mealtime.” This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations wit…

The year is 2014, and I’m stuck in Ukraine. I have a particularly antsy mother who wasn’t keen on me visiting the country just weeks into Russia’s attempted invasion, and she is expecting me back home. In Odessa—hundreds of miles away from the Maidan and the nascent conflict—the worst example of war I’d seen was a heated snowball battle between those who wanted to remain Ukrainian and those who wanted to be Russian. The reason I’m stuck has nothing to do with Russia: It’s bad fog grounding flights at the tin hut airport I’m due to fly out of. But with no reliable phone communication back home, I know my family will put two and two together and make five. The probl…