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​​Recent breakthroughs in generative AI have centered largely on language and imagery—from chatbots that compose sonnets and analyze text to voice models that mimic human speech and tools that transform prompts into vivid artwork. But global chip giant Nvidia is now making a bolder claim: the next chapter of AI is about systems that take action in high-stakes, real-world scenarios. At the recent International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2025) in Singapore, Nvidia unveiled more than 70 research papers showcasing advances in AI systems designed to perform complex tasks beyond the digital realm. Driving this shift are agentic and foundational AI mode…

When the electric car startup Rivian was set to release its first vehicle in late 2021, the company made the unconventional choice. Instead of a more conventional neutral tone, it manufactured a significant amount of its initial production run in a custom color the company called Launch Green. It was a decision that ran counter to almost every color trend and automotive industry sales report, and one that’s come to shape the way the company builds out one of the most unique color palettes in the car business. “Everybody buys black, white, or gray. Pretty much every single brand, they’re going to have that. And it doesn’t matter if you’re in the U.S., you’re in China, …

Right now, America is facing a traffic safety crisis unlike anything we’ve seen in decades. And it’s only accelerating: 2023 was the deadliest year for pedestrians and cyclists in 45 years. Crashes are rising in nearly every state. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just warned that traffic deaths are staying at “persistently high levels,” despite fewer people commuting post-pandemic. Meanwhile, distracted driving deaths jumped nearly 12% last year alone, according to the latest federal data. Everywhere you look, it’s getting more dangerous to move through your own neighborhood, whether you’re walking your dog, riding your bike, or just driving home fr…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking to investors last week, Lennar co-CEO Jon Jaffe said that the spring 2025 selling season for America’s second-largest homebuilder is off to a slower-than-normal start. “We do not see the seasonal pickup typically associated with the beginning of the spring selling season,” Jaffe said. “So we continue to lean into our machine focusing on converting leads and appointments and adjusting incentives as needed to maintain sales pace. These adjustments came in the form of mortgage rate buydowns, price reductions, and closing cost assistance. La…

In Abbey Road’s Studio One, even a lick of paint could ruin everything. Famous for hosting Adele, Harry Styles, and U2, it’s where the scores of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Wicked were recorded, as well as the soundtracks of blockbuster games like Call of Duty, Halo, and Final Fantasy. It’s also where Ryan Gosling delivered his memorable “I’m Just Ken” for Barbie. Nearly a century after its opening, Studio One underwent a six-month, multimillion-pound refurbishment, with the main priority being the preservation of one very important thing: the sound. “What we don’t want to do is change the acoustics, so every minute detail in the room has been conserved and p…

Most companies operate like one-sided cubes—what the world sees is curated and polished, but the rest remains hidden, even to the people inside. Strategy becomes surface-level. Teams chase goals without grounding. Leaders lead without alignment. In a world growing more complex and emotionally disoriented, that’s not just unsustainable—it’s dangerous. It’s time for a Strategy Renaissance. We need to move beyond sterile planning cycles and rediscover the human heart of strategy. In this new era of work, meaning isn’t a bonus feature—it’s your sharpest edge. The Great Divide Between Strategy and Meaning We have long treated strategy as the realm of numbers a…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. We need to change the conversation about how we diagnose autism—and what we believe causes it. Lately, there’s been growing attention on environmental toxins and singular external triggers as explanations for autism. But the reality is far more nuanced. As a clinical geneticist and PhD genomic scientist with over a decade of experience working in medical affairs and clinical genomics, I’ve …

Across both white-collar and blue-collar settings, productivity depends on how well information is organized and communicated. DataSnipper uses AI to help auditors quickly surface relevant details in lengthy legal documents, while Sharebite streamlines employee meal programs for the hybrid workplace. Tines has developed a unified AI platform to manage a wide range of workplace software, and Weavix has reimagined the shop-floor radio for modern communication needs. DataSnipper For helping rapidly sift through lengthy financial documents Auditors often need to extract dates and financial details from dense documents such as leases, loan agreements, and meeting minutes—ta…

Shares in Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBA) are up a modest amount after the company announced yesterday that it has agreed to be purchased by private equity firm Sycamore Partners. As of the time of this writing, WBA shares are up under 7% to $11.33. Here’s what you need to know about the buyout and share movement. Walgreens is going private After years of financial struggles, publicly traded Walgreens announced yesterday that it has accepted a deal from private equity firm Sycamore Partners to be bought and taken private. Rumors of the deal were first reported earlier this week. Under the agreement, Sycamore will take the pharmacy chain privat…

Who shaped your career? Think about the people who guided, challenged, and helped you grow into the professional you are today. Do you think that artificial intelligence could have replaced their support? AI is revolutionizing mentorship by offering tailored learning, progress tracking, and administrative support. But AI has its limitations. AI cannot replace human intuition, empathy, and the ability to challenge mentees in a nuanced way. In today’s workplace, mentorship has never been more critical and complex. A new generation of employees is looking for new ways to learn and develop, and mentoring is at the top of their list. And they are not afraid to turn to …

For Paul, a finance administrator, things came to a head when his report mistakenly included £7,000,000 of costs rather than £700,000. Fearing accusations of fraud, Paul disclosed his recent dementia diagnosis to his boss. Six weeks of sick leave became six months, and then a stepping stone to early retirement. Several years later, Paul regrets his unwanted unemployment, but at the time there didn’t seem to be an alternative. Paul was participating in an unrelated study about public transport when he told us about his unemployment. As researchers, we had heard many similar accounts—so we decided to dig down into the research on work and dementia. We were curious a…

Pet owners know finding a good veterinarian is hard. But in much of the country, finding a vet at all is increasingly tough. A new report released by veterinary telemedicine company Dutch, found that around 38% or 129 million Americans may be living in a veterinary care desert, meaning they don’t have accessible, affordable, or available care for their pets. Dutch’s State of Online Veterinary Care report found that 22% counties nationwide have zero vets per 1,000 households, and pet care is particularly hard to come by in parts of California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas. It’s an issue founder and CEO Joe Spector says likely won’t improve quickly. …

Fast Company’s Creative Director Mike Schnaidt shares a first look at the magazine redesign. So if you are a typeface fanatic, you won’t want to miss this breakdown. View the full article

Billionaire entrepreneur, NBA owner, and CEO of Wonder Marc Lore reveals that he plans all his meals with AI—and he loves it. It’s just one part of his vision for transforming people’s relationship to food and health. His startup, Wonder, has already acquired Blue Apron, Grubhub, and the media brand Tastemade. Lore shares how these acquisitions and embrace of personalized AI-driven dining are all laddering up to a “superapp for mealtime.” This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations wit…

The chief-executive-to-be at money-losing Japanese automaker Nissan is determined to speed up decision-making to come up with models that say Nissan—and really sell. Ivan Espinosa, 46, chief planning officer and a Mexican with two decades of experience at Nissan Motor Corp., told reporters in embargoed comments for Wednesday that the company’s corporate culture is “lacking empathy” and has to change. “We need to work together as one single team,” he said at the Nissan Technical Center in Atsugi city on the outskirts of Tokyo. “We need to work together hand in hand.” Nissan recently appointed Espinosa to take its helm, effective April 1, replacing Makoto Uchida. Espino…

More than 10,000 cans of Original Coca-Cola distributed in two states have been voluntarily recalled. Manufacturer Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling initiated the recall on March 6 after reports of foreign plastic found inside cans. On March 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated the recall as Class II, per the FDA enforcement report. According to the FDA’s recall classification page, a Class II recall means “a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.” The report indicated that 864 12-count packs of the product distributed in Il…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. While national active housing inventory for sale at the end of March 2025 was still 20% below pre-pandemic March 2019 levels, on a year-over-year basis national active listings are up 29% between March 2024 and March 2025. This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. One of the biggest year-over-year increases is happening in California—where active inventory for sale is up 50% year-over-year. Despite the 50% year-over-year jump in active California housing inventory for sale—in…

The The President administration is loosening rules to help U.S. automakers like Elon Musk’s Tesla develop self-driving cars so they can take on Chinese rivals. U.S. companies developing self-driving cars will be allowed exemptions from certain federal safety rules for testing purposes, the Transportation Department said Thursday. The department also said it will streamline crash reporting requirements involving self-driving software that Musk has criticized as onerous and will move toward a single set of national rules for the technology to replace a patchwork of state regulations. “We’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” s…

Olivia Walch is an investigator in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan and CEO of a tech start-up called Arcascope. Her research has been featured on CNN, NPR, and in The Atlantic, among other outlets. Beyond sleep research, she coedited Political Geometry, a book on the mathematics of gerrymandering, and published comics with The Nib and Silver Sprocket. She is also the cartoonist of Imogen Quest, a webcomic that won her the “America’s Next Great Cartoonist” prize from the Washington Post. What’s the big idea? If you are dancing and can’t catch the beat, you are not dancing well. In this way, if your sleep doesn’t follow a regular pattern tha…

Influencers get a lot of stick these days. The latest thing they’re being blamed for: shark attacks. Scientists have noted a recent rise in shark attacks, and according to new research published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science, of the 74 recorded bites in the seas around French Polynesia, 5% were assessed as acts of self-defense. Professor Eric Clua of PSL University in France, who led the research, holds social media responsible. “I don’t encourage, as many influencers do on social networks, [people] to cling to a shark’s dorsal fin or stroke it, under the pretext of proving that they are harmless,” Clua told The Times. “The sharks here feel …