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Most chatbots want to appear human. But their efforts to sound just like us only widen their uncanny valley feeling. Many are Elon Musk-level awkward. And most are annoyingly verbose. There’s only one AI persona that offers a completely different user experience: Tolan. This AI-powered being—which you can teleport into your iPhone—doesn’t pretend to be like us. Quite the opposite. Tolan embraces being very much unlike us. But in doing so, it feels more human and relatable than any other AIs I’ve come across. Tolan is an alien. The whimsical, colorful creature is made of friendly curved shapes that are designed to reflect, converse, and grow with its user. These AI-drive…

When David Mesfin was producing his documentary on Black surfing culture, Wade in the Water, back in 2023, he had a problem. Like millions of other people since ChatGPT and other GenAI tools emerged in late 2022, Mesfin was experimenting and using these tools to generate imagery for the film. “But the results were always the same: white surfers with darkened skin,” says Mesfin, a creative director at ad agency Innocean. “It was a clear sign that these systems weren’t built with us in mind. That moment made it impossible to ignore how deeply bias is embedded in the technology.” This week, sparked by that moment, Mesfin and his colleagues have launched “Breaking B…

If you tune into the Puppy Bowl on Sunday, you’ll likely see a key person’s influence — even if you don’t actually see her. Victoria Schade is a dog trainer and novelist who’s the show’s lead puppy trainer and wrangler. She’s the one making sure the shelter pups have a conflict-free contest and that they’re captured at their most adorable—all from off-camera. It is Schade who gets the puppies to look up during the “The Star-Spangled Banner” or run through a tunnel to get to the field for the starting lineups. She’s on the lookout for possible conflicts or nervous dogs. “My responsibilities include ensuring puppy happiness and safety during gameplay,” she says.…

Let’s face it: The fact that AI is amazing is no longer all that … amazing. The technology is under ever-increasing pressure to prove its real-world value for consumers, businesses, and researchers in specific contexts. These honorees in the applied AI category are proving AI’s worth for fashion advice, pharmaceutical advice, coding, and much more. Alta For bringing AI to personal styling For people who lack style expertise or time for outfit planning, the task of choosing what to wear can be a daily frustration. Alta built a personal AI stylist app that generates outfits based on users’ actual wardrobes, lifestyle, budget, weather, and upcoming events—whether they’r…

Parents, rejoice: For the first time ever, there’s a Lego brick so tiny that you can’t see it, let alone step on it. The brick in question is a microscopic sculpture created by U.K.-based artist David A Lindon. It’s made from a standard red square Lego, and it looks like one, too, aside from the fact that it measures just 0.02517 millimeter by 0.02184 millimeter (about the size of a white blood cell). As of this month, the brick has snagged the Guinness World Record for the smallest-ever handmade sculpture, measuring four times smaller than the previous record holder. We’ve seen lunar Legos, renewable Legos, and giant Legos, but this brick might just be the most i…

This week, skincare brand Kiehl’s debuted a hairy new font, Starbucks continued to roll out its feel-good nostalgia marketing, and an iconic ’80s soda was revived for the year 2025. Here’s all the branding news we’re keeping up with. [Image: Kiehl’s] Kiehl’s gets in on the custom type craze The news: The skincare brand Kiehl’s just unveiled a new custom font made from an unexpected material: pubic hair. Big picture: The font comes as a response to the backlash that Kiehl’s received in August for an ad campaign for a new product line targeting ingrown pubic hairs. Those initial ads featured fully covered models with just a glimpse of hair peeking out from th…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. When Wendy Cai-Lee launched Piermont Bank in 2019, she says she didn’t set out to build a board of directors led—and dominated—by women. “I was so focused on finding the best board to help me,” she says. Initially, her board consisted of seven directors, five of whom are women, includi…

The White House’s recent decision to grant press credentials to independent journalists, podcasters, and social media influencers marks a defining moment in the evolution of modern media. It acknowledges a reality that has been unfolding for years: How people consume information has fundamentally changed. For years, traditional media outlets have been the primary gatekeepers of news and information. Today, the landscape is fragmented, dynamic, and decentralized. Millions of people now turn to independent content creators, newsletters, and podcasts—often in place of mainstream news sources. This shift raises essential opportunities and challenges for companies and exec…

Susan Kare, designer of the original Apple icons, is back with a new 32-icon collection, one that you can buy in the form of silver or gold vermeil mechanical keys and pendants. Called Esc Keys, the new icons perfectly capture the everlasting magic of her 1-bit legendary past work, always mesmerizing in their extreme minimalism and at the same time as satisfying as triple-chocolate cake. Kare obviously had lots of fun creating them. Her new designs—from an alien head to a light bulb to love birds to puppies, plus a ‘Panic!’ key that we all really need right now—inspire the same joy she was gleaming with when I spoke to her from New York—where she was visiting for the …

The intense red color of classic lipstick traditionally comes from an unlikely source: crushed bugs that live on cactus plants in South America. It takes tens of thousands of the ground-up insects to make just a pound of the vivid red dye. The red coloring, called carmine, also shows up in food—from red velvet cupcakes to sausages, gummy candies, and some versions of strawberry yogurt. In the cosmetics industry, major brands started moving away from carmine in the 2010s because of ethical concerns. A growing number of consumers wanted vegan makeup. (Crushing bugs also creates an allergen because of other bug parts that end up in the dye.) But because synthetic dyes do…

Despite a strong start to the year, traffic at U.S. quick service restaurants (QSR), which has been steadily declining month by month, was down 1.7% year-over-year compared to last April, signaling growing consumer caution or shifts in dining behaviors, according to Revenue Management Solutions (RMS), a company that analyzes data and provides insights about the restaurant industry. At the same time, RMS found on average, fast food prices increased in April by +2.0% year-over-year, steady with inflation trends. In case you’re not familiar with restaurant industry lingo, a quick service restaurant (QSR) describes establishments that prioritize speed and convenience,…

Watch any Olympic event, and you’ll notice this universal ritual: The moment an athlete completes their performance, they turn to their coach for feedback. There’s no defensiveness—just a hunger to know how to improve. They understand that even the smallest adjustment could be the difference between standing on the podium or watching from the sidelines. For athletes, feedback is not criticism. It’s a tool for enhancement. This mindset isn’t confined to sports. High performers in every field—whether that’s business, academia, or the arts—share an insatiable appetite for actionable feedback. It’s their secret weapon for continual improvement. Why feedback fuel…

I once hired an executive—we’ll call her Alice—who elevated our company overnight. She helped shape our strategy, built a great team, and brought instant credibility to our brand. Our growth accelerated. The board respected her. The team loved her. I felt lucky to have her. But five years later, things had changed. Alice looked exhausted. She was short-tempered in meetings. One of her best people left. The team’s performance stalled. She wasn’t making obvious mistakes, but she was slowing the business down. Looking back, the signs were there, but I looked past them—like many CEOs do. When an executive has been a major contributor to success, it’s easy to let loyalty, …

Yope is the latest photo-sharing app vying to take on Instagram and TikTok. The pitch? A hybrid of a private Instagram and a group chat. While WhatsApp and Snapchat allow for group messaging and Instagram offers private accounts, Yope blends the best of both—creating a space where users can share photos exclusively with their chosen circles. Launched in September 2024, Yope has grown exponentially over the past six months, now boasting 2.2 million monthly active users and 800,000 daily active users, many of whom are in the investor-coveted Gen Z demographic. The company also claims that 40% of users are still active on the app seven days after installing it. Accor…

Retro gaming is experiencing a revival thanks in large part to people born after the Game Boy era. According to a new survey from Pringles, a popular gaming snack, 66% of Britons have bought retro tech of some kind in the past two years, with 24% of Gen Z now owning a retro games console. Popular retro consoles include Game Boy, first released in 1989 and discontinued in 2003; Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1990 and also discontinued in 2003; and the Xbox original, first released in Europe in 2002 and discontinued in 2009. For 89% of gamers, retro games offer a welcome break from the internet, with 74% agreeing that “nostalgic games” are more …

I recently helped my mom sort through boxes she inherited when my grandparents passed away. One box was labeled – either ironically or genuinely – “toothpick holders and other treasures.” Inside were many keepsakes from moments now lost to history – although we found no toothpick holders. My favorite of the items we sorted through was a solitary puzzle piece, an artifact reflecting my late grandmother’s penchant for hiding the final piece to a jigsaw puzzle just to swoop in at the last moment and finish it. After several hours of reminiscing, my mom and I threw away 90% of what we had sorted. “Why did I keep this?” is a question I hear frequently, both from my…

Steven Heine is a professor of social and cultural psychology at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Cultural Psychology, the top-selling book in the field. His research has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Newsweek, and New Scientist, among other publications. What’s the big idea? A lot of people right now feel lost, anxious, and despaired. During these dark times, preserving a sense of meaning in our lives is vital. Fortunately, meaning can be cultivated and ground us when life feels turbulent. The emerging field of existential psychology is refining practices for tuning in to the worth, purpose, and importance o…

Across the city of Chengdu, China, the quiet but remarkable buildings of Liu Jiakun has slowly pierced through the dominant stereotype of bombastic Chinese architecture. Liu, who has just been named the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, has spent the past three decades carefully injecting pieces of socially conscious and transformative architecture into his hometown. Liu’s work includes subtle museums, historically informed preservation projects, and progressive urban projects that blur the edges of private space and public good. “In a world that tends to create endless dull peripheries, he has found a way to build places that are a building, infrastructure, …

Unilever surprised investors on Tuesday by ousting chief executive Hein Schumacher and replacing him with finance chief Fernando Fernandez, who will focus on speeding up the execution of the consumer group’s turnaround strategy. Unilever’s board, which includes billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz, was unified in its decision to oust CEO Schumacher, a source familiar with the board’s thinking told Reuters. Schumacher was surprised by the move, but the decision involved “nothing untoward”, the person said. In an email to associates, Schumacher defended his approach and record as CEO and said he regretted leaving the company earlier than anticipated. “…

Early in their leadership journey, many leaders believe they need to have all the answers and be experts in every aspect of their team’s work. They assume that credibility comes from knowing every detail, every strategy, and every technical nuance. However, the most effective leaders soon realize that leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about knowing enough to ask the right questions, spot key trends, and guide their teams toward success. Rather than micromanaging or dictating processes, strong leaders focus on creating clarity through shared goals and measurable outcomes. By setting clear performance metrics, they establish a common language with their…

The fate of Google’s vast empire is now in the hands of a federal judge in Washington, D.C., as hearings begin to determine whether the tech giant should be broken up for maintaining an illegal monopoly in search. If the court rules against Google, the outcome could send shockwaves through the tech industry. The company might be forced to divest major assets—potentially including its Chrome browser or even the Android operating system. While the government has taken similar antitrust actions in the past, it’s been more than 25 years since a household name faced a breakup of this scale. So, what happened to the companies that were split up—or nearly split up—under …

Consumers are urged to check their kitchens and pantries after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted a notice that warned about health risks associated with select chowder soups. A recall has been issued for the select chowder soup products due to fears they have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. The bacterium can cause a potentially deadly form of food poisoning known as Botulism. Here’s what you need to know about the recall. What’s happened? The FDA has posted a notice of a voluntary recall being conducted by the SeaBear Company of Anacortes, Washington. SeaBear initiated the recall after the company became concerned t…

As a subject for delightful conversation, personal insurance ranks somewhere between polyp removal and credit default swaps. Which means most of us don’t know what we don’t know. No one likes to dwell on what might go wrong in the future—which is part of the reason why we all tend to regard insurance professionals with a healthy level of skepticism. But protecting yourself and your money from the unexpected has to be part of getting your financial house in order. Otherwise, a single bad event could erase all your hard work. To figure out what kinds of insurance you might need, start with the following basic rules of the insurance industry. Social benefit and …

As demand for EVs declines, electric automaker Rivian is taking this time to adapt its business and expand its brand. Rivian’s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe joins Rapid Response to explore the company’s recent $5.8 billion partnership with Volkswagen, the ongoing risk assessment for self-driving features, and how Rivian’s AI-enabled ‘technological plumbing’ can accelerate the brand beyond incumbent manufacturers. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leader…

Private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Sycamore Partners are among the bidders who are competing to acquire Family Dollar, a discount retail chain operated by Dollar Tree, according to people familiar with the matter. Investment firm Brigade Capital Management has also expressed interest in buying Family Dollar, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the discussions are confidential. A deal for Family Dollar, which could value the retailer at several billion dollars, is not imminent, the sources said, cautioning that Dollar Tree could choose not to sell the business. It is also possible that a different suitor for Family Dollar could emerge, the sour…