What's on Your Mind?

We’ve spent the better part of the past few years glued to our screens—clicking, swiping, streaming. Endless tabs, endless scrolls. And yet, despite all the infinite access, we’re still craving the one thing the web cannot render: real presence. That collective craving has rewritten the rules of marketing. Five years after COVID, brands are finding the antidote to Zoom fatigue by showing up in person again. Canva, the Australian graphic design platform, is moving quickly to meet this demand with the launch of the Canva World Tour, a global initiative spanning 40 cities across 30 countries and five continents, with the goal of training one million people in jus…

The Big Apple is taking on the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, accusing them of “public nuisance” and spurring a youth mental health crisis in the city. In a 327-page lawsuit filed last week in the Southern District of New York, the city of New York—along with its school districts and health department—alleges that “gross negligence” on the part of Meta, Alphabet, Snap, and ByteDance has hooked kids on social media through “algorithms that wield user data as a weapon against children and fuel the addiction machine.” Over one-third of 13- to 17-year-olds report using one of these social media platforms “almost constantly” and …

OpenAI and Broadcom have formed a multibillion-dollar partnership to develop OpenAI-designed chips. Under the deal, OpenAI will design the chips to its own specifications and Broadcom will manage the development and fabrication of the chips, as well as help with their deployment. The companies plan to deploy enough chips to require 10 gigawatts of electrical power beginning in mid-2026, and running through 2029. Broadcom stock jumped almost 10% on the announcement Monday. The deal marks the second major move by OpenAI to reduce its dependence on Nvidia, which now dominates the AI chip market—the company announced a partnership with chipmaker AMD last week. …

America’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer is partnering with the country’s most prominent AI firm in the clearest signal yet that companies are hoping to boost their sales with artificial intelligence-assisted shopping tools. Today, Walmart and OpenAI announced a new partnership that will allow ChatGPT users to buy Walmart products directly from within the chatbot itself. Here’s what you need to know about the news, and how Walmart’s stock price is reacting. The Walmart-OpenAI deal explained Today, retail giant Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced a major new deal with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The deal will see the artificial intelligence firm’s chatbot gain t…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday vetoed landmark legislation that would have restricted children’s access to AI chatbots. The bill would have banned companies from making AI chatbots available to anyone under 18 years old unless the businesses could ensure the technology couldn’t engage in sexual conversations or encourage self-harm. “While I strongly support the author’s goal of establishing necessary safeguards for the safe use of AI by minors, (the bill) imposes such broad restrictions on the use of conversational AI tools that it may unintentionally lead to a total ban on the use of these products by minors,” Newsom said. The veto came hours after he signed a…

General Motors said on Tuesday it would take a $1.6 billion charge in the third quarter as it reshapes its electric vehicle strategy following the scrapping of a key federal incentive, a move likely to dampen demand. U.S. carmakers have delayed or canceled new EV models and battery plants and pared other investments, citing weaker-than-expected demand. The market faces further strain after the The President administration removed a $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs, a key support for the industry. EV adoption rate to slow “Following recent U.S. Government policy changes, including the termination of certain consumer tax incentives for EV purchases and the r…

When athletes arrive in Milan for the 2026 Winter Olympics, they’ll find themselves living on top of what was once a bustling 19th-century rail yard. The newly revealed athletes village is located in the city’s historic Scalo di Porta Romana district—and when the Games are over, it’ll be converted into Italy’s largest-ever affordable student housing development. The Olympic Village design was led by the global architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). It includes six mass-timber residential buildings, two former train repair sheds that have been renovated into communal spaces, and 40,000 square meters of green space. After the Winter Olympics take place,…

Households that have bought Ben’s Original rice products will want to check their pantries right away. The brand, owned by food giant Mars, has issued a voluntary recall for select rice products. At issue is the possibility of small stones mixed in the rice, which could cause intestinal and other damage if consumed. Here’s what you need to know about the Ben’s Original rice recall. What’s happened? On October 10, Ben’s Original announced a voluntary recall of some of its rice products. That recall notice was later published on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website on October 14. The voluntary recall was initiated after Ben’s Original di…

U.S. quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum has struck a deal with a company called Swiss Quantum Technology (SQT) to bring D-Wave’s Advantage2 quantum computer to Europe. The deal, which amounts to €10 million ($11.63 million), will see D-Wave’s quantum computer deployed in Italy, where it will play a role in supporting the Italians’ efforts toward large-scale digital transformation, D-Wave announced on Wednesday. It will be part of a joint effort—collectively called the “Q-Alliance”—between D-Wave and IonQ, another American quantum computing company. In its announcement Wednesday, D-Wave said little about what SQT does, and scant information about the compan…

This week, fintech company Karta announced a new premium credit card designed with a very specific user in mind: American nonresidents with U.S. bank accounts—and high net worths. It’s designed to compete with other premium credit cards on the market, and thus, is available to customers who have a bank or brokerage account with a minimum balance of $150,000 in assets all without a Social Security number. It also offers similar perks and benefits to other premium travel cards, such as the Citi Strata Elite, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, or the American Express Platinum Card. Those include access to exclusive events, a Priority Pass Select membership that provides ac…

As we scroll through our feeds, it’s not unusual to stumble upon AI-generated slop—the kind of empty, nonsensical content that’s unmistakably artificial. You click on one, and before you know it, your feed’s flooded with more of the same. It’s left users craving the authenticity they once savored—a pervasive frustration spreading across social media Pinterest has not been immune to the phenomenon. Described by Futurism as “strangled by AI slop,” the platform has been “engulfed in a torrent of uncanny AI-generated content, drowning out the human-made inspiration that once thrived there.” Amid a surge of complaints, the platform has rolled out new generative AI cont…

On Thursday October 16, New Yorkers and people across the country who have been watching the city’s mayoral race will tune in as Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa face off in the first of two mayoral debates, ahead of New York City’s upcoming election on November 4. The debate is set to take place in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center starting at 7:00 p.m. ET this evening. NBC 4 New York/WNBC, Telemundo 47/WNJU, and POLITICO New York are partnering to host the debate. The hotly contested three-way race is between Mamdani, a state assemblyman; Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losin…

Logan Ivey has tried everything to cut down on his screen time. He bought a modern “dumbphone” that’s designed to be used as little as possible, tried a device called a Brick that removes distracting apps and notifications from a smartphone, and even resorted to a classic flip phone when all else failed. Still, nothing was working. So he turned his iPhone into a 6-pound weight. The 6 Pound Phone Case is a bulky, stainless steel contraption designed to make your smartphone extremely annoying to use. Inspired by the aesthetics of an ’80s brick phone, the case transforms a typical, ultra-portable iPhone into a cumbersome eyesore—and that’s the whole point. Ivey, who has …

The fortunes of major quantum computing firms turned negative this week as share prices sank—in some cases by double digits. The so-called Quantum Four publicly traded companies—Rigetti Computing, IonQ, Quantum Computing Inc, and D-Wave Quantum—saw their stock prices tumble on Thursday. And as of this writing, all four companies are down even lower in premarket trading on Friday. Berkeley, California-based Rigetti (NASDAQ: RGTI) has seen the biggest drop, with its stock price falling almost 15% on Thursday, October 16. As of this writing, the stock was down another 7.65% during the premarket session. Shares of IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) were down by a similar amount on…

Last night, New Yorkers and viewers across the country tuned in to watch the first general election debate for mayor of New York City. And as far as debates go, this one was charged, full of spats, and came with a direct and thoroughline of questioning that didn’t leave anything off the table. Within minutes, Democrats Andrew Cuomo (who is running as an independent) and Zohran Mamdani, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, made clear that they came not just prepared to share their positions, but also to follow up, push back on criticisms or mistruths, and repeatedly fire well-rehearsed jabs at one another. The trio let viewers know just how different they are—not…

The week is not off to a great start for much of the internet. In the early hours of the morning Pacific time, internet users around the world began experiencing issues with accessing various apps, websites, and platforms. Shortly after, a culprit emerged: Amazon Web Services (AWS)—or, more specifically, an outage at Amazon’s cloud computing platform. Here’s what you need to know about the AWS outage and what websites are affected. What’s happened? At around midnight Pacific time, internet users around the globe began experiencing issues accessing high-trafficked parts of the internet. Websites like Reddit, services like Lyft, and even apps from resta…

My friend turned to me the other day with a sly smirk and whispered, “Are you also part of Group 7?” I shook my head, unsure of what she meant—feeling left out of whatever secret club she was referring to. It didn’t take long for the algorithm to catch up with me. Within a few hours, my For You Page on TikTok was flooded, and before I knew it, I, too, was officially part of the internet’s newest inside joke. “Group 7” began as a simple experiment by musician Sophia James, who wanted to promote her new song So Unfair—and experiment with the quirky nature of TikTok’s algorithm. TikTok’s For You Page, or FYP, described by the Guardian as “uncannily good at predi…

This year has not been a great one for grocery stores, with chains like Kroger and Safeway closing locations in recent months. Now, the Southeastern grocery chain Winn-Dixie appears to be following in their footsteps, with its parent company planning to sell or possibly shutter 32 Winn-Dixie stores by the end of 2025 as its focus shifts to its home state of Florida. It will also transition or close eight Harveys Supermarket locations. The 40 stores impacted span Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Southeastern Grocers (SEG), the Jacksonville, Florida-based company that owns both chains, posted a list of stores that it will transition, with some id…

In what is somehow a real-life event and not an overwrought metaphor for the state of American democracy, earlier this week, work crews began tearing down the East Wing of the White House in order to make room for President Donald The President’s planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition. Previously, The President had said that the project would not “interfere” with the existing building, which now appears to be accurate only in the sense that by sometime this weekend, the East Wing will no longer exist. The ballroom, which has an estimated cost of $250 million and a conspicuously uncertain completion date, will allow a president who feels most comfortable holding …

On Wednesday, October 22, Tesla released its third-quarter earnings with a side of begging from CEO Elon Musk. The report and subsequent investors’ call was pretty standard. Tesla announced $28.1 billion in revenue, a 12% increase year-over-year (YOY) from $25.2 billion. A majority of Tesla’s revenue came, unsurprisingly, from automotive sales, which grew 6% YOY to $21.2 billion. Quarter three was the last push for U.S. customers to buy Tesla vehicles before the federal EV tax credit expired. However, it wasn’t enough. Tesla failed to meet Wall Street’s predicted $26.4 billion in total revenue, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Its reported ear…

As weather disasters become more and more frequent, the home insurance system feels broken for Americans across the country. Now, the advocacy nonprofit Consumer Reports is trying to implement a “homeowners insurance bill of rights” to codify baseline protections across all 50 states. According to a survey from the group, homeowners have seen their insurance rates climb—like Sierra in North Carolina, whose insurance spiked 43% last year, with her provider citing the “increased regional weather risks” as well as Hurricane Helene’s impact specifically. They’ve been denied payouts, like Charmian in Illinois, who says their provider refused to pay for hail damage on t…

Electric-truck maker Rivian is laying off another 600 people, or about 4% of its workforce as the global demand for electric vehicles decreases, the Wall Street Journal reported. This follows a previous round of layoffs in 2024. Rivian is one of a number of technology and media companies that have seen layoffs in October, including: Meta, Paycom, Charter, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, October 2025 is no outlier. From technology companies to media conglomerates, the layoffs are part of a trend in both the U.S. and Europe as companies start to slash staff and downsize. Some are blaming artificial intelligence (AI), though critics say it’s …

Bethenny Frankel is a marketing maven. She’s best known for starring in the Real Housewives of New York City, and for launching the Skinnygirl lifestyle brand, starting with the now-famous “skinny girl” margarita. She then found a partner to help her manufacture the cocktail, which launched in 2009. In 2011, Frankel sold Skinnygirl for an estimated $100 million, but kept the rights to use the name. Since then, she’s launched Skinnygirl salad dressing, shapewear, and popcorn, among other items. Frankel has 4 million-plus followers on Instagram and 3.3 million on TikTok, where she sounds off on everything from coffee to handbags. Frankel is also the queen of affiliate a…

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that he is about make good on a threat to revoke millions in federal funds for California because he says the state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens. In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Duffy said Gov. Gavin Newsom has refused to comply with Department of Transportation rules that require the state to stop issuing such licenses and review those already issued. “So, one, I’m about to pull $160 million from California,” Duffy said. “And, as we pull more money, we also have the option of pulling California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses.” Ev…

It’s official: Twitter.com is about to bite the dust forever. According to a series of tweets from X’s @Safety account, posted between October 24 and October 25, the social media platform plans to finally retire the Twitter domain on November 10. Currently, searching for Twitter.com still leads directly to X, but soon, that will no longer be an option. The domain’s phase-out comes more than two years after Twitter owner Elon Musk renamed the platform X in July 2023, much to the dismay of many loyal users. At the time, critics argued that the rebrand was destined to fail, with some going so far as to call it “brand suicide.” And while many former users …