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One of the best things about the Christmas period is all the yummy desserts found in people’s kitchens. But now one of the largest food companies in America is issuing a warning about one of those sweet treats. Here’s what you need to know about a new recall from Danone U.S., which impacts one of its dairy-free frozen desserts. What’s happened? On December 15, North American food producer Danone U.S. announced a voluntary recall of one of its dessert products, per a notice posted on the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company is recalling its So Delicious Dairy Free brand of Salted Caramel Cluster Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert. The recall …

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. The cost of AI will surely rise, along with our dependence on it Developing AI models and serving AI apps is a notoriously expensive undertaking. AI labs use massive amounts of computing power, training data, and high-priced talent to create and serve AI models, and the costs are not nearly covered by the chatbot subscription and API fees they bring in. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic, for example, are profitable, and won’t be for some time. The difference, for now, is made up by inve…

Most American cities have street networks that are engineered for us to comfortably drive much too fast for our surroundings. Even our old, pre-automobile cities have been “upgraded” to make dangerous driving habits easy. Transportation professionals are allowed to use good judgment when deciding how to design city streets, but they often need to be reminded, especially in cities where the state department of transportation has authority. It’s not enough for you as a good urbanist to tell an engineer to make better choices. After all, they’re not a malicious bunch trying to wreck society. They’re conforming to the long-established rules of the industry. The AA…

The first sign that something had changed was the Topo Chico. It arrived on our porch one afternoon—a case of it—along with Graza olive oil and La Roche-Posay face wash. When our 4-year-old announced she would eat nothing but Uncrustables for the foreseeable future, a box arrived within the hour. The prices were lower than on Amazon, and we got them faster, with no delivery fee. It turns out that my husband had gotten hooked on Walmart—all without ever setting foot in a store. Earlier this year, he discovered that our American Express card included a Walmart+ membership. He activated it on a whim. Since then, he’s been placing orders on the app almost daily, from go-t…

Unsuspecting Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) investors might be startled this morning if they glance at a stock price chart for shares in the TV streamer. As of the time of this writing, popular stock tracking sites like Yahoo Finance and apps like Apple Stocks are showing that Netflix’s shares dropped more than 90% on Friday, when they began the day trading at more than $1,100. Those same charts now show that NFLX shares are trading at “just” around $111 each. But don’t panic. Netflix’s shares haven’t actually lost 90% of their value. NFLX stock just split. Here’s what you need to know. Why are Netflix shares trading so ‘low’? Netflix shares are currently trading …

Spammers and malicious actors inundate us with a steady stream of text messages—often purporting to be from legitimate institutions or companies. Stanching this flow isn’t easy. Just as the unwanted emails we receive often tell us that we can simply unsubscribe via the “unsubscribe” link, these text messages explain that we can opt out of future communication simply by replying “STOP.” But that’s not always a safe way to deal with these unsolicited texts. Here’s why—and what you should do instead. The problem with replying “STOP” to unsolicited text messages We’ve all had it happen. We get a text message pitching us a product or asking for a political donation. At …

Amid the mass layoffs in tech and retail in the past month, YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan sent out a recent internal memo that he’s also looking to lay off employees—who volunteer. Mohan details how YouTube is undergoing a major AI-focused reorganization and introduces a “Voluntary Exit Program” with a severance package to eligible YouTube employees. This voluntary exit deal has been couched as an opportunity for employees, but it’s really just a buyout. Companies have long used this strategy as a way to reduce headcount, usually to avert traditional layoffs. For employees approaching retirement, voluntary severance may be a great opportunity, a wonderful deus ex machina l…

I’ve always been vocal about the need to fight inequality in our own backyards. As a resident of New York’s Capital Region, I built my marketing business here. And in 2020, I founded Business for Good Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy organization focused on closing the growing wealth gap and providing a hand up to underserved entrepreneurs. The inequality is blatantly real. The 23.3% poverty rate is more than twice as high in Albany versus the 11.1% national average. In fact, New York is one of the most economically unequal states in the country. While local and state government have made promises to help clean up the city, reduce crime rates, and create more affo…

Donatella Versace has been replaced as creative director of the fashion house founded by her late brother Gianni Versace, assuming the new role of chief brand ambassador, Versace’s U.S. owner Capri Holdings announced on Thursday. Versace will be replaced by Dario Vitale, who most recently was design director at the Miu Miu brand owned by the Prada Group. His appointment is effective on April 1. The creative shift comes amid speculation that the Prada Group is in talks to buy Versace from Capri Holdings, which paid 2 billion euros (currently $2.2 billion) for the fashion house in 2018. The U.S. group also owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. Miuccia Prada acknowledged inte…

DoorDash, the ubiquitous U.S. food delivery app, has agreed to acquire British rival Deliveroo for 2.9 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in cash, expanding its business in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. San Francisco-based DoorDash will pay 180 pence ($2.40) for each Deliveroo share, 29% more than the closing price on April 24, the day before the offer was announced, the companies said in a joint statement before the London Stock Exchange opened for trading on Tuesday. The deal is DoorDash’s second major international acquisition in three years as the company expands from its traditional base in the U.S., Canada and Australia. After the purchase of Deliveroo, and …

DoorDash has a new delivery partner: Coco the robot. Starting this week, some customers in Los Angeles and Chicago have the option to select robot delivery from hundreds of participating merchants in the DoorDash app. The bots, which resemble small coolers on wheels, deliver goods from specific stores inside a tight radius. DoorDash piloted the tech for months ahead of this rollout, completing more than 100,000 deliveries. DoorDash isn’t the only delivery company taking advantage of this new, mostly autonomous tech. Others, including rival service Uber Eats, have partnered with multiple robotics companies, including for deliveries in certain locations. It’s not Do…

The ubiquitous food delivery app DoorDash will pay almost $17 million to settle claims that it unfairly used customer tips to subsidize the wages of its delivery workers in New York City, rather than letting drivers keep the tips on top of their guaranteed pay, Attorney General Letitia James said Monday. James said DoorDash used the wage model between May 2017 and September 2019. The company would guarantee workers a base payment for each delivery but was factoring tips into that equation, only paying workers for whatever the tips didn’t cover, according to the attorney general. DoorDash also did not make it clear to customers that their tips were being used to of…

Just in time for the Super Bowl, PepsiCo is cutting the price of Doritos, Cheetos, Lay’s, Tostitos, and other snacks by up to 15%. The move comes after consumers complained the chips were too pricey. “Our customers . . . have been honest with us about how rising everyday costs are making their daily decisions harder. Message received,” PepsiCo said in a statement. “Lowering the suggested retail price reflects our commitment to help reduce the pressure where we can,” PepsiCo Foods U.S. CEO Rachel Ferdinando added. The new discounted prices roll out this week, ahead of this Sunday’s big game, one of the biggest days for snack purchases. PepsiCo said supermarket…

The Most Interesting Man is set to make a return to television. In a marketing push that kicks off with a new 60-second spot airing on ESPN during the College Football Championship Game, Heineken’s Dos Equis has rehired Jonathan Goldsmith to play the Most Interesting Man, closing the ad with a familiar, iconic line. “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I still prefer Dos Equis.” That copy, the return of Goldsmith, and even the original campaign’s Western-themed instrumental music were all elements of what felt like “some magic that we need to bring back,” says Alison Payne, chief marketing officer of Heineken USA in an interview with Fast Company. Payne, who…

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has created a new $1 billion grant program to make U.S. airports more family- and health-friendly. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched the “Make Travel Family Friendly Again” campaign alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, December 8, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. “I am talking about ushering in the golden age of transportation,” Duffy said, adding they are hiring more air traffic controllers, and asking retiring air traffic controllers to stay on the job. However, the Transportation Secretary said the funding is dedicated to “making the experience better in airports and its…

Reducing the visibility of polarizing content in social media feeds can measurably lower partisan animosity. To come up with this finding, my colleagues and I developed a method that let us alter the ranking of people’s feeds, previously something only the social media companies could do. Re-ranking social media feeds to reduce exposure to posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity affected people’s emotions and their views of people with opposing political views. I’m a computer scientist who studies social computing, artificial intelligence, and the web. Because only social media platforms can modify their algorithms, we developed and relea…

For the first time in Dr Pepper’s 140-year history, the brand is the second-most-popular soda in America. Now it has a shiny new jingle to match. In late December, TikTok creator Romeo Bingham, 25, posted a jingle she had made up for Dr Pepper. “Dr Pepper baby. It’s good and nice. Doo. Doo. Doo,” the tune went. In her caption she tagged the company and noted, “please get back to me with a proposition we can make thousands together.” The original post has garnered almost 54 million views, 6.4 million likes and almost 500,000 bookmarks, at the time of writing. One month later, Bingham’s dreams were realised. Dr. Pepper licensed the song and folded it into an NCAA f…