What's on Your Mind?

Once upon a time, back in 1995, BYD was a little-known battery maker. Today, it is the world’s largest electric vehicle producer after surpassing Tesla in global sales in 2024. This rise reflects a relentless focus on automation and vertical integration. It controls every part of its supply chain. It makes its own batteries, with features unmatched in the industry, even mining raw materials like lithium. Its factories are robotic wonders that run about 97% on their own, building a never-ending stream of cars better than Western equivalents at lower price points. And it also transports its own cars across the world with its own fleet of ships specially designed to carry au…

The launch of a digital art department at upscale auction house Christie’s was precisely as well-publicized as its eventual shuttering was devoid of fanfare. On March 11, 2021, Christie’s made history as the first major auction house to sell art in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). Digital artist Beeple managed to offload his massive mosaic, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, for a whopping $69 million, generating hundreds of astonished headlines and getting those three letters, NFT, in front of untold scads of early-adopter eyeballs. It was the sale heard ’round the world, a starter pistol kicking off the NFT gold rush. Cut to last month, when Christie’s quiet…

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Over the past decade, the rising cost of insulin epitomized the broader systemic issue of higher healthcare out-of-pocket costs that prevented many Americans from accessing essential care. People with diabetes, who rely on insulin to maintain their health, were routinely priced out of accessing their medications—forced to choose between filling their prescriptions or paying othe…

When OpenAI pulled back its latest ChatGPT release—one that apparently turned the helpful chatbot into a total suck-up—the company took the welcome step of explaining exactly what happened in a pair of blog posts. The response was a notable move and really pulled back the curtain on how much of what these systems do is shaped by language choices most people never see. A tweak in phrasing, a shift in tone, and suddenly the model behaves differently. For journalists, this shouldn’t be surprising. Many editorial meetings are spent agonizing over framing, tone, and headline language. But what is surprising—and maybe even a little disorienting—is that the same editorial se…

Google has made it much easier to find the answers we seek without navigating to various websites, but that has made it much harder to do business for media companies and other creators. And this new era of artificial intelligence-powered search will reshape the future of the internet, according to Matthew Prince, cofounder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare has a unique vantage point because it counts content creators and artificial intelligence companies among the more than 20% of the internet that sits behind its network. Driven by a mission to build a better internet, the San Francisco-based company is invested in finding a solution that works for all players invol…

Unlimited PTO policies were all the rage for a while, but now they’re starting to lose their allure. Here, experts weigh in on why companies are shifting away from this once-popular benefit, what alternative solutions look like, and why other options can be more effective. Failing to Deliver Unlimited paid time off policies are losing popularity because, in practice, they often fail to deliver the flexibility and wellness benefits they promise. While they sound progressive, the reality is that many employees end up taking less time off under these policies. Without a clear benchmark for what’s considered “normal” or acceptable, employees often hesitate to use thei…

Dating in 2025 has been rough. According to articles, data, and personal narratives on social media, it seems that it’s never been more challenging to find a partner. But, according to a new report, when it comes to one qualification, daters may actually be lowering the bar. Tawkify, a matchmaking service, surveyed 1,010 U.S. adults to find out how work-related trends are shaping modern dating. Turns out having a job is no longer a must-have for a growing number of romance seekers. These days, only 29% of daters say that unemployment is a red flag that would make them inclined to turn down a potential partner. Likewise, while living with one’s parents would’ve once b…

When Moath al-Alwi left Guantánamo Bay for resettlement in Oman, accompanying him on his journey was a cache of artwork he created during more than two decades of detention. Al-Alwi was detainee number “028”—an indication that he was one of the first to arrive at the U.S. military prison off Cuba after it opened in January 2002. His departure from the detention center on January 6, 2025, along with 10 fellow inmates, was part of an effort to reduce the prison’s population before the end of President Joe Biden’s term. For al-Alwi, it meant freedom not only for himself, but also for his artwork. While not all detainees shared his passion, creating art was not an unc…

Many brands take advantage of Mother’s Day to sell more products, like flowers and cupcakes. But 50 companies, including workwear label M.M. LaFleur, framing startup Framebridge, and stroller brand Bugaboo, are joining forces to draw attention to America’s lack of federal paid leave. Across the country on Saturday, May 10, the nonprofit MomsRising, the Paid Leave for All campaign, and 50 brands are hosting pop-ups in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Nashville; Hoboken, New Jersey; and Cleveland, offering more than $100,000 in donated goods and services. The idea is to help new moms by giving them things like formula, breast pumps, clothing, and strollers…

This week, news reports revealed that Meta would be cutting hundreds of jobs in its AI division. The layoffs will impact employees who work on AI products, research, and infrastructure. They come after Meta went on a hiring spree to shore up its AI efforts. But despite the job cuts, Meta’s chief AI officer told the Wall Street Journal that the company would, however, continue hiring “AI native” talent—a term that seems to have quietly slipped into the corporate lexicon amid the AI arms race. For the last decade, the term “digital native” has been circulating to describe Gen Z, as many of them don’t know life without the internet. The cohort following them, Generat…

Fast food giant Yum Brands has worked for years to distance itself from third-party tech partners. Last week, it made the ultimate power move: a development deal with Nvidia, a tech giant consistently ranked among the most valuable companies in the world. “We want to own the intellectual property. We want to own the technology,” Yum Brands chief digital and technology officer Joe Park told the Wall Street Journal. “That’s a shift in our strategy as we think about AI.” In other words: Yum knows its strength and wants full control over its own data. The company will build more services for its 61,000 restaurants with Nvidia’s tech with the goal of quickly processin…

Last week, Netflix announced it was buying Warner Bros. in a massive $82.7 billion deal. The streaming giant’s acquisition will set Netflix, which already leads the streaming wars, even further apart from competitors, as it will also add HBO, a Warner subsidiary. But while the deal will further cement Netflix’s domination, questions are swirling around how it will impact viewers, as well as the talent platforms rely on. Streaming platforms have recently undergone consolidation, creating three mega-platforms. According to a Forbes survey, Netflix is the most popular streaming service in America with 55% of Americans saying they use it, followed by Amazon Prime (51%), and…

By the end of October, David, who works at a roughly 2,000-person finance firm in New York, already knew he’d be working during the holiday season this year. Usually at the office, he learned he’d at least get to work remotely between December 26 and January 1—with the way the financial calendar fell, it was inevitable that he couldn’t just disappear for clients (like institutional investors and family offices) during that time. He says the schedule doesn’t really bother him. “I’m not in a trench in the middle of a battlefield here. I’m not laying bricks,” he says. “It’s not terribly unrealistic work that they’re asking us to do.” Mainly, he’s expected to respond…

The fintech industry has spent the last decade obsessing over seamless experiences and bringing financial products inside the tools that consumers were already hooked on. Instant approvals, one-click funding, and frictionless onboarding became the benchmarks of success. And for good reason; they removed friction that had frustrated their customers for generations. But here’s what we’re learning as embedded finance matures: The consumers and businesses that use embedded financial products repeatedly and stay loyal to their platforms are not just staying for the technology and platform. They’re staying because when they need it, they’re able to get help from people who …

2025 was defined by reports of a “low-hire, low-fire” environment: the unemployment rate remained fairly low, at just over 4% in December; yet headlines of constant layoffs seemed to dominate the news cycle, and those who are unemployed are taking longer to find work. It’s all been very confusing. And the most recent U.S. jobs report, released today, presents more mixed signals. This week’s report indicated American employers added 130,000 jobs in January, and the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate fell to 4.3%. Everything in the report isn’t good — it also indicated just 181,000 jobs were created last year, which is the lowest number since 2020 — but…

The idea of the “Queen Bee” has been buzzing around corporate life for decades. You’ve heard the story: A woman finally breaks into senior leadership, only to turn around and block other women from rising behind her. She is territorial, icy, maybe even hostile. She has clawed her way to the top, the logic goes, and she intends to stay there alone. It is a vivid image, and that is precisely why it has survived. It gives managers a neat explanation for gender inequity: maybe women just don’t support each other. Maybe the problem isn’t the system; maybe it’s . . . women. But that explanation falls apart the moment you look closely. A zero-sum world The term “Queen…

The world’s leading minds in AI are gathering in Paris for the AI Action Summit, which kicked off on Monday. French president Emmanuel Macron is hosting the summit, which includes Vice President JD Vance among its attendees. But the summit—which is focused on discussion and debate about the future of the technology—comes at a time when things are moving quickly in the AI space. While France’s minister for AI and digital affairs, Clara Chappaz, may want to keep the debate focused on three key objectives for the summit, covering societal and cultural, economic, and diplomatic needs, there’s much more going on at the minute. Between Project Stargate, the U.S.’s $500 …

I don’t know if urbanism is science or art, but I do know its outcomes are best with a dose of creativity. There’s plenty to learn from the giant leaps in art and science to improve your urbanism advocacy. Happy, healthy communities aren’t made from being stuck in a bygone era. The value of fog Impressionist painters didn’t discover fog. It was always there, but it wasn’t something people were discussing much in the early 19th century leading up to the impressionists and tonalists. Each of those artistic movements created illusions of reality with familiar scenes. James McNeill Whistler was an influential figure and one of the original tonalists. Here’s what he…

Back in October, Google ended software support for the original and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats. On the surface, that doesn’t seem totally unreasonable, considering those original devices are roughly 14 years old at this point. If you have one, you can still use it as a thermostat, but it will no longer connect to the internet. As a result, you can’t connect to it using the Nest or Google Home apps. That may not seem like a big deal, except that the single greatest thing about using a Nest Thermostat wasn’t the fact that it would learn your habits and create routines, or that it would detect when you’re not home and adjust accordingly. No, the best thi…

In 2021, Netflix’s executive vice president of game development Mike Verdu made a big announcement: “Let the Games Begin.” Four years later, Verdu is out—and Netflix’s grand experiment in gaming still feels like a work in progress. Netflix bet big on gaming. They brought in Verdu from Facebook and EA, and then went on a buying spree, acquiring a handful of mobile gaming studios like Boss Fight and Night School. But, by the end of 2022, only about 1% of the Netflix subscribers were actually playing its games. At the time, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that gaming had “a bunch of positives” even if growth was slow: “These are small numbers, we’re good with that.” (Netflix de…