What's on Your Mind?

Sometimes, authenticity can be a film’s most special effect. It took months for Best Actress front-runner Mikey Madison to learn how to pole dance like the titular exotic dancer in Anora and for her fellow nominee Timothée Chalamet to passably play guitar as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. The naturalism of both performances helped keep audiences under the spell cast by their surrounding films. So, it should probably come as no surprise that a backlash has emerged in response to several of this year’s Oscar-nominated films using AI, paradoxically, to achieve “authenticity.” The reaction began on January 11, when editor Dávid Jancsó revealed in an interview that h…

Former employees of OpenAI are asking the top law enforcement officers in California and Delaware to stop the company from shifting control of its artificial intelligence technology from a nonprofit charity to a for-profit business. They’re concerned about what happens if the ChatGPT maker fulfills its ambition to build AI that outperforms humans, but is no longer accountable to its public mission to safeguard that technology from causing grievous harms. “Ultimately, I’m worried about who owns and controls this technology once it’s created,” said Page Hedley, a former policy and ethics adviser at OpenAI, in an interview with the Associated Press. Backed by three Nobel …

Last week, Starbucks announced the closure of 1% of its North American stores by the end of 2025, resulting in sudden job losses for hundreds of baristas. The closures are one part of a $1 billion restructuring strategy dubbed “Back to Starbucks”; the coffee chain will also be laying off 900 corporate employees. Processing the news in real time, Starbucks baristas have made their feelings about the closures clear, filming their reactions and going viral in the process. A Starbucks employee at a Washington state location posted a heartfelt video to TikTok last week. “Starbucks permanently closing my store and leaving us jobless was not on my 2025 bingo c…

Bobby sat at his desk, rewriting the same email to his manager over and over. His boss had just announced a major reorganization without acknowledging how it would impact several critical projects Bobby led. Bobby knew he needed to address the issue, but he didn’t want to seem difficult or negative. But staying silent didn’t feel right either. Bobby found himself in a situation many professionals face—unsure about how to bring up frustrations and disappointments to those in charge. It’s tempting to avoid these tough conversations. You don’t want to damage the relationship, but it’s hard not to be upset by sudden changes or what you see as poor choices. While it m…

Earlier this year, things looked dire for Google. AI search was rapidly eroding the company’s market share, as people turned to ChatGPT and dedicated generative apps like Perplexity to search for information. In January, reports showed that the company’s search market share had dropped below 90% for the first time in almost a decade. And as the year continued, it seemed like it would keep plummeting. Now new data from search analytics company BrightEdge shows that the bleeding appears to be over. Google’s market share has stabilized, and has even begun to tick up. Why? Google is fighting back against the onslaught of AI search. And it’s winning. S…

Twenty years ago, not too long after Youtube itself launched, Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla started uploading videos to the platform. What started as two teenagers trying to make each other laugh turned into the biggest channel on YouTube. It was the first ever to reach 10 million subscribers. Eventually Smosh was acquired by a company called Defy Media. The company would expand rapidly–more videos, more cast members, even a movie–but then came turmoil and uncertainty for Smosh. Padilla left the company in 2017, largely due to creative differences with Smosh’s parent company. He returned to the business in 2023, when he and Hecox purchased Smosh from YouTuber-led med…

A new kind of warehouse has just popped up, nestled in seven acres of forest in northern Indiana. It’s the latest delivery station for Amazon, one of hundreds of logistics centers around the world that handle the package sorting and van loading for last-mile delivery. But while this delivery center will be doing all that standard work, it’s also acting as a living laboratory to test out what the future of Amazon’s delivery stations—and maybe the future of warehouses writ large—will look like. The delivery center, known as DII5 and located in the town of Elkhart, has been designed to test and evaluate more than 40 sustainability initiatives that Amazon hopes to apply t…

Fifty minutes into a training session at a gym in lower Manhattan, I’m doing burpees and clean-and-jerks while Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown—all 6 feet, 5 inches of him—is bear-crawling into pushups, then slamming a medicine ball to the ground from overhead. I was lured to this TMPL gym off Astor Place because Brown is a lifelong fitness nut, and he’d shoehorned this workout in on Monday morning between arriving from L.A. the night before and departing again that afternoon. But Brown also wanted me to experience Beyond’s radical new launch, its first product that is not a savory meal option, the way a target customer would: post-workout, desperate for a functional r…

Ten major philanthropic organizations are banding together to ensure that regular Americans, not just a small group of tech billionaires, have a say in how AI will shape society and who will benefit. The organizations announced Tuesday the formation of Humanity AI, a $500-million five-year initiative aimed at ensuring artificial intelligence serves people and communities rather than replacing or diminishing them. The coalition includes the Doris Duke Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, the Omidyar Network and other philanthropies. The core group, which is expected to expand …

When it comes to the battle of the prediction markets, which player are you betting on? Fanatics, the global sports platform, is out to prove that sportsbooks will be the emerging industry’s biggest winners. Today, Fanatics is launching a stand-alone predictions market app designed to appeal to the fans who already buy its apparel and collectibles. It’s the first of the major sportsbooks to move into prediction markets—and almost certainly won’t be the last. “Prediction markets are one of the top things that fans want to do these days,” says Matt King, who leads betting and gaming for Fanatics. “People want to be able to express their opinions on not just s…

The Customs and Border Protection agency aims to establish a framework for the “strategic use of artificial intelligence” and outline rules for ensuring safe and secure use of the tech, according to an internal document viewed by Fast Company. The directive, obtained through a public records request, spells out CBP’s internal procedures for sensitive deployments of the technology. Agency officials are banned from using AI for unlawful surveillance, according to the document, which also says that AI cannot be used as a “sole basis” for a law enforcement action, or to target or discriminate against individuals. The document includes myriad procedures for introducin…

Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of dating app Hinge, is consciously uncoupling from his app. Hinge’s president and chief marketing officer Jackie Jantos—recently named one of Fast Company’s CMOs of the year—will succeed him in the role of CEO, effective immediately. McLeod will stay on as an adviser through March to support the transition. McLeod, who founded Hinge in 2011, is leaving to launch Overtone, an AI-driven venture focused on facilitating connections between people; it will be backed by Match Group. In a blog post, he calls his departure “a wildly bittersweet moment.” “This past year, I got higher conviction on two different things. One is that Jackie i…

There’s no clearer sign of anime’s cultural ascendance than the box office haul of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle. The film, which hit U.S. theaters two weeks ago, has pulled in more than $555 million globally, including more than $104 million in North America, making it a bonafide hit for Sony Pictures, which distributed it outside of Japan through its anime streaming arm, Crunchyroll. The movie’s success reflects audiences’ growing interest in anime. A survey from market research firm Dentsu found that, 31% of people worldwide said they consumed anime at least weekly, with a full 50% of Gen Z reporting they watch it. That’s translated into a boom i…

There’s no clearer sign of anime’s cultural ascendance than the box office haul of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle. The film, which hit U.S. theaters two weeks ago, has pulled in more than $555 million globally, including more than $104 million in North America, making it a bonafide hit for Sony Pictures, which distributed it outside of Japan through its anime streaming arm, Crunchyroll. The movie’s success reflects audiences’ growing interest in anime. A survey from market research firm Dentsu found that, 31% of people worldwide said they consumed anime at least weekly, with a full 50% of Gen Z reporting they watch it. That’s translated into a boom i…

Duolingo has been through a lot of changes over the past few years. What was once solely a language-learning app has grown into a social media marketing machine, a destination for math and music lessons, and now an online chess tutor. In June, Duolingo launched a Duolingo Chess course to teach beginners the basic rules and moves by allowing them to play against an AI tutor named Oscar. This month, the company is taking the course further, launching a multiplayer version of the game where users can compete against one another. Duolingo, which is on track to surpass $1 billion in revenue this year, has 48 million daily active users and 11 million paying subscribers…

It’s a common experience: you search for white bean soup recipes one time on Instagram, and you are bombarded with white bean soup content on the app for seemingly all eternity. Instagram wants to fix that. Starting today, the company’s three billion users can have more control over their algorithm via a “Your Algorithm” feature. It’s not quite Bluesky, or the Instagram of yore that only displayed content from accounts users followed, but it does let users select or unsubscribe from different topics. The new feature, which leverages AI, lets users pick topics they want to see more or less of on their explore page. Users will first be able to see a list of suggest…

It’s a common experience: you search for white bean soup recipes one time on Instagram, and you are bombarded with white bean soup content on the app for seemingly all eternity. Instagram wants to fix that. Starting today, the company’s three billion users can have more control over their algorithm via a “Tune Your Algorithm” feature. It’s not quite Bluesky, or the Instagram of yore that only displayed content from accounts users followed, but it does let users select or unsubscribe from different topics. The new feature, which leverages AI, lets users pick topics they want to see more or less of on their explore page. Users will first be able to see a list of su…

Hellmann’s. Axe. Ben & Jerry’s. Dove. Nutrafol. Pepsodent. Vaseline. When a brand exists within a CPG behemoth like Unilever, it can struggle to get dedicated design attention. So often, it doesn’t—and as a result, its brand can get a bit dusty on the shelf. That’s what happened to Lipton with an identity from 2014 that hewed closer to the 1999 Burger King logo than a modern leader of the tea industry. But now, with a new owner, Lipton is launching a fresh look as it celebrates 135 years in business and expands its product line. The big business of teaLipton is the titan of tea. Its products (which include Tazo, Pukka, PG Tips, and more) are sold in more than 100 coun…

The United States has about 640 million acres of public land, covering national parks to conservation areas and wild rivers to lake shores. These lands contain resources like oil and gas reserves, or minerals like lithium and copper that could be mined. But they’re also home to hiking trails, camping sites, fishing spots, and all sorts of outdoor recreational activities—activities that contribute billions of dollars to our economy. Outdoor recreation specifically on federal public lands and waters generates $128 billion in economic activity every year, according to a new report by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), a coalition of trade associations and out…

In order to keep US aviation operational through the government shutdown, air traffic controllers have been working without pay. But for the people involved in inspecting our planes to ensure they follow Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety standards, the situation is more complicated. While principal aviation inspectors were told to keep working, assistant-level inspectors and other support staff were sent home and then had to be recalled, several sources tell Fast Company. In some cases, the government is still cycling them in and out of service, adding to the overall disruption. The approach puts even more pressure on the airline industry, which is already …

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. When Mary Beth Laughton became president and CEO of Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) earlier this year, she inherited an organization with a rich heritage: REI was founded in 1938 by Lloyd and Mary Anderson, who joined some fellow outdoor enthusiast friends to buy ice axes that were only availabl…

Darin Fisher is a little older than the fresh-faced, newly minted PhD types you see roaming the well-appointed floors at OpenAI’s second location in San Francisco’s Mission Bay district. Before arriving at the AI super-startup, he spent 25 years working on some of the most important web browsers in the history of the web: He worked on Netscape Navigator, which helped define the early consumer internet. He worked on the popular Firefox browser at Mozilla, then went to Google, where he was a member of the Chrome team. After Google, he wanted to explore alternative browsers; he did so first at Neeva (which offered an ad-free experience), then at the Browser Company, whi…

While a deal to make Grok available across the federal government is now in place, the agency facilitating the partnership with Elon Musk’s controversial chatbot has yet to incorporate it into its own flagship AI platform due to ongoing internal safety testing. Both lawmakers and advocacy groups have criticized the The President administration’s interest in Grok, over concerns about Musk’s deepening relationship with the US government and the chatbot’s antisemitic and otherwise offensive rants, from back in July. After the company said it fixed the apparent glitch causing the bot to call itself “MechaHitler,” the General Services Administration in September unveiled that…

Uniqlo, the Japanese retailer known for its monochromatic casual wear and accessories, is gearing up to significantly expand its U.S. physical footprint next year. The brand will open 11 new stores across seven cities in spring and summer 2026, Uniqlo told Fast Company. The expanded fleet will include four new stores in New York City: three in Manhattan and an additional location in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The new locations come two decades after Uniqlo opened its first U.S. store in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood in 2006. For fans of Uniqlo’s ultra-stretch jackets, Pufftech vests, and functional backpacks, it gets even better: The company is al…