What's on Your Mind?

As the threat of drone attacks grows, the federal government is turning this summer into a proving ground for U.S. efforts to shore up aerial defenses at events like the World Cup. It may also serve as a launchpad for defense tech firms hoping to sell systems designed to intercept unmanned aerial vehicles. “Out of the World Cup, you’ll see the baseline for what law enforcement and critical infrastructure sites will then buy at scale,” says Jon Gruen, CEO of Fortem Technologies, which signed a multimillion-dollar deal to provide artificial intelligence systems, radar, and drone interdiction technology to U.S. cities hosting the tournament. “You’re going to see how it w…

With the moon looming ever larger, the Artemis II astronauts raced to set a new distance record Monday from Earth on a lunar fly-around promising magnificent views of the far side never seen before by eye. The six-hour flyby is the highlight of NASA’s first return to the moon since the Apollo era with three Americans and one Canadian — a step toward landing boot prints near the moon’s south pole in just two years. A prize — and bragging rights — awaits Artemis II. Less than an hour before kicking off the fly-around and intense lunar observations, the four astronauts were set to become the most distant humans in history, surpassing the distance record of 248,655 miles (…

Women suffering through the hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes and sleep problems that can come with menopause — all while looking in the mirror and noticing signs of aging — are being bombarded with products. More open conversations about menopause and the period leading up to it — called perimenopause — are happening at the same time that marketing has been supercharged by social media. Women are being confronted by lotions and serums and light masks that promise to rejuvenate their faces and necks, dietary supplements claiming to do everything from boost moods to ease hot flashes and gadgets promising to help with symptoms. “The marketing has gotten very, very a…

AI has become a race, but we’re mistaking velocity for progress. Companies are competing to deploy the latest model. Product teams are racing to ship new features. Nations are racing to claim technological dominance. Speed is the metric of the moment: Who can scale fastest? Who can automate more? Who can move first? In the short term, that logic makes sense. Yet speed is a fragile advantage. Eighty-four percent of enterprises plan to increase investment in AI agents this year. AI is moving from an assistive tool to autonomous systems. That shift changes everything. Model size and deployment velocity will not define the next era of AI. It will be defined by…

Lean In, the feminist organization founded by Sheryl Sandberg, has a new focus: fighting the gender gap in AI adoption. The nonprofit has put out new research that digs into how women use AI in the workplace relative to their male counterparts, which captures an adoption gap that has surfaced in previous surveys. In a survey of over 1,000 adults, Lean In found that 78% of men had used AI in the workplace, when compared to 73% of women. Men also reported using AI more regularly: About a third of men used AI daily, while only 27% of women did the same. This might not seem like a major difference at the moment. But Sandberg argues that this gap is likely to grow ov…

JPMorgan Chase released its 2025 annual report today, including letters to shareholders from senior executives. In his letter, chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI) and the company’s plans to embrace it. Dimon argued that the pace of the adoption of AI is unlike that of other technologies that came before, like electricity and the internet. While the technology is “transformational,” he cautioned that no one can predict how exactly AI will unfold. “People will live longer and safer” His overall outlook is optimistic. Dimon says he believes that AI will improve many areas of daily life and business. “AI will affe…

Over the weekend, Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and the rest of Nintendo’s iconic crew traipsed around the solar system and smashed their way to the top of the box office in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. It’s the latest sign that Hollywood and moviegoers have changed their tune on video game adaptations. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (a sequel to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie) opened on April 8, just in time for the lead-up to Easter weekend. According to studio estimates cited by CNBC, the Illumination and Nintendo co-production earned $130.9 million over the weekend and $190.1 million in its first five days in North American theaters. Tack on an estimated $18…

If you read the headlines, you’d think the music business is a technology business. We talk about demand-side platform (DSP) market share, algorithmic discovery, and the looming threat of AI-generated songs. We treat artists like software founders and songs like lines of code—versioned, optimized, and endlessly iterated. That conversation isn’t wrong. But it’s incomplete. Yes, IP protection in an AI-driven world is critically important. Creators and IP owners deserve safeguards, attribution, and fair economics as machines learn from human work. We need clear rules of the road. But even if we get copyright exactly right, it won’t solve the deeper shift underway. …

For decades, NBCUniversal’s “The More You Know” campaign has promoted the idea that knowledge is always a public good. And there’s certainly truth in that. But we’ve all watched as a movie character who starts to know too much soon meets their demise. As we navigate a reality inundated with an ever-growing amount of information, data, and artificial intelligence, I look to the recent unveiling of Banksy’s identity to see that we must reconsider the ‘more you know’ mentality. Reuters published an investigation revealing Banksy’s identity, arguing the piece was a matter of public interest. I was surprised by the backlash that followed. While plenty of people flocked to …

AI is transforming companies everywhere. While some research has shown that women are falling behind in terms of AI adoption, at the leadership level women are highly involved in guiding AI strategy. According to new research from Chief, a network for senior women leaders, in partnership with The Harris Poll, women leaders are playing a key role in carefully building AI frameworks. The research, which polled 1,768 male, female, and nonbinary leaders, found that, overwhelmingly, women are driving AI strategy with 80% playing active roles in how it’s being implemented into workflows. Nearly a third (31%) said they were involved in AI governance, ethics, and responsi…

Yesterday, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen became the first humans in over 50 years to see the far side of the moon. Artemis II launched at 6:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 1. The 10-day mission is a slingshot around the moon, paving the way for a moon landing with Artemis IV in 2027. (Artemis III, scheduled for 2026, will test out systems to land humans on the surface of the moon in orbit next year.) While there are satellites around the moon, and rovers and landers on the lunar surface, unaided human eyes have not seen the moon’s surface details since Apollo 17 in 1972. That changed on Monday, April 6. The …

White-collar workers have been at the center of much of the public handwringing over AI. Entry-level jobs in finance and software engineering seem to be on the chopping block. More college graduates are struggling to find work in a challenging job market, and unemployment ticked up to 5.6% by the end of 2025. Tech companies and other major employers have repeatedly cited AI adoption to justify layoffs. There are, of course, plenty of factors driving these changes beyond AI, including a hiring slowdown. But there’s no denying AI will reshape the labor market over time—and not just for college-educated workers. A new report from the Brookings Institution in partnership…

When Kitty got her fourth layoff call, she took it via Bluetooth in her car. She knew the script by then: the sudden 15-minute meeting invite, the HR rep that pops into the call, the platitudes that precede the devastation of being unemployed — again. “My boss says, ‘Hi Kitty,’ and I said, ‘You’re laying me off. Just go.’” Something happens after the second, or third, or even fourth layoff. Shock gets replaced by trauma-informed familiarity. Grief turns into exhaustion, shame calcifies. The way a person understands work changes, imbuing the next job with cynicism that’s hard to shake. A layoff victim’s relationship with work changes. Sometimes forever. But in…

It feels like a “hit-the-brakes” economy, with warning lights flashing everywhere: inflation pressures, AI disruptions, upside-down business models, and a persistent sense that some new market surprise or geopolitical tempest is waiting around the corner. Given these congested, conflicting signals, the instinct for many business leaders is to slow investment, tighten spending, and wait for more clarity. But how companies slow down can make the difference between paying a performance penalty and gaining a performance premium. Our research shows that organizations that keep transformation moving during peak uncertainty significantly outperform their wait-and-see pee…

You know the expression, “If you want to get something done, ask a working mother?” Surprising as it may seem, the same holds true for cancer patients. Conventional wisdom holds that cancer patients are too sick and fragile to work, at least not to their full ability. That can certainly be true in some cases, sometimes tragically. And I’m not suggesting that anyone should ever feel pressured to work if they don’t feel well enough to do so. But in many instances, the stereotype that cancer patients are too compromised to work is a myth. I know because I’ve been living—and working—with an incurable type of blood cancer for more than twenty-two years. And I’m by no mea…

The National Capital Planning Commission has voted to approve President Donald The President’s controversial White House ballroom plans, greenlighting the demolition of the historic East Wing to make way for a new neoclassical structure. But the ballroom is just one piece of a much bigger picture. Last year, the president signed an executive order mandating that new federal buildings return to a “traditional and classical” style, sparking a fierce debate among architects about who gets to decide what American democracy looks like. On this episode of FC Explains, staff writer Nate Berg breaks down the design agenda behind MAGA architecture, who is driving it, and what…

The airport is chaos. Lines snake beyond the designated barriers and out the doors as frazzled travelers tug their luggage and scowl at their phones, their grimaced faces even more dramatic in the harsh lighting. I stand in the security queue, sensing the stress emanating from everyone around me like swarms of buzzing flies. A man behind me huffs with dramatic indignation, a couple ahead bickers in hissed whispers “we should have left earlier!”, and someone’s roller bag keeps thwacking my heels. My fists clench as irritation winds me tighter. The security checkpoint seems miles away and my flight is in an hour. I feel myself being sucked into the collective vortex…

Over the past few days, new billboards have slowly been popping up along a 130-mile stretch of desert into Indio, California. One features a giant image of a crying face emoji; another is a picture of an unexplained blob; a third shows an edit of the Mona Lisa sipping out of a delicate tea cup. Each of these eye-catching visuals is an advertisement for a performance at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Coachella 2026 takes place over two weekends: April 10 through 12 and April 17 through 19. And while billboard advertising has been a hallmark of the lead-up to the festival almost since its inception, it’s become increasingly intense in recent years…

Samsung is saying goodbye to its namesake texting app, at least for United States customers. According to an end of service announcement published on the tech giant’s U.S. support website, Samsung Messages will be discontinued in July. Impacted owners of Samsung smartphones and other gadgets are being asked to switch to Google Messages in the meantime, “to maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android.” All Samsung Galaxy phones run on Google’s Android operating system. To switch to Google Messages, Samsung’s website gives users instructions to download the app from the Play Store, if not already on their phone, and set it as the default. Some people may a…

In 1990, my mother discovered a four-year-old startup called American Girl, and she liked what she saw: Books about different eras in American history, told through the eyes of a girl roughly her daughter’s age, with an 18-inch doll based on each character. It was more educational and wholesome than Barbie, so she was happy to buy them for me. My favorite character was Molly McIntire, a 9-year-old living through World War II in Illinois, whose father had been sent to the front lines and hadn’t written home in months. What I loved about the books was that they trusted children to process difficult things—slavery, mortality, war—that adults typically shielded us from. …

While we are a tech company focused on financial services, we’ve realized a hard truth: in the high-stakes world of regulated AI, your model is only as good as the person who built it. While the rest of the industry is obsessed with “GPU-first” strategies, we are betting on a “human-first” approach to technology. In our newly released white paper, The Making of the Brillianeers, we outline a strategy, inspired by Toyota’s “just-in-time” manufacturing philosophy, that treats engineering talent not as an operating expense, but as a strategic, investor-level asset. THE TOYOTA PARALLEL Toyota revolutionized the automotive industry by moving away from massive, ineff…

One of the biggest barriers people face to their productivity is an inability to focus. Most people are highly distracted and distractable, which makes it hard to sustain the level of attention required to complete complex tasks and to think through difficult problems. Chances are at least part of your problem is self-inflicted. We have created environments with lots of attention-grabbing information. You have learned to seek out that information regularly. Indeed, your brain has timing mechanisms in it, and the desire to check your phone or your web browser may interrupt you at regular intervals, even when you’re trying your best to get something else done. Here …

Below, Nir Eyal shares five key insights from his new book, Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results. Eyal is a best-selling author, former Stanford lecturer, and one of the world’s foremost experts on behavioral design. His previous books, Hooked and Indistractable, have sold more than a million copies and been translated into 30-plus languages. Next Big Idea Club readers can get an exclusive free download of Eyal’s 5-Minute Belief Change Guide at: NirAndFar.com/beyond-belief-live/. What’s the big idea? The best beliefs are both practical and provisional. They offer just enough certainty to act, yet e…

GoPro’s announcement that it plans to cut 23% of its workforce this week didn’t come as a complete shock to anyone who’s been following the wearable camera maker over the past few years. Once a leader in the action camera market, the company has seen its stock fall from highs of more than $93 in 2014 to just 80 cents today. The $10 billion valuation it once boasted is a distant memory. (GoPro’s current market cap is just under $122 million.) Now it’s betting on an ongoing turnaround plan to stabilize the business. Part of that plan involves becoming an even leaner operation. GoPro will lay off 145 of its 631 employees starting in the second fiscal quarter. That wi…

Over four decades, I have had the opportunity to consult with almost all of the major companies in the PC, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries. In 1991, when the PC industry was barely a decade old, Acer’s founder Stan Shih invited me to tour the company’s new PC factory in Taiwan. What I saw wasn’t just a factory–it was the foundation of a new world order in technology manufacturing. Over the years, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of Taiwan’s crucial role in the global technology ecosystem. Semiconductor leaders like TSMC, along with manufacturing powerhouses such as Compal, Foxconn, Quanta, Pegatron, and Wistron, have built an ecosystem unmat…