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The headache of planning a ski trip stands in sharp contrast to the freedom of effortlessly slicing down the slopes once you actually get up the mountain. If you’re tired of worrying about squeezing all of that gear into your car or wrestling with chains in the cold, Uber’s latest option for getting you to the slopes is one way to go. The company continues to broaden the services you can book through its app, and now Uber wants you to not only hail one of its rides up the mountain, but also book your ski pass on the way. Through a partnership with Vail Resorts, Uber is offering an option to buy an Epic Pass through the app. The Epic Pass, sold by Colorado ski gia…

Verizon is planning to cut about 15,000 jobs in the telecommunications company’s largest-ever layoffs as part of a restructuring under its new CEO, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The layoffs, affecting about 15% of its workforce, are set to take place as soon as next week, the person said. Verizon’s shares rose about 1.4% on the news. They have largely stagnated over the last three years, with a gain of 8% compared with the S&P 500’s near-70% rise. A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment. The cuts, following the appointment of former PayPal boss Dan Schulman as CEO in early October, are aimed at its non-union management …

For decades, Adobe’s software tools, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, have been the universal language of visual communication, shaping how marketers, artists, and brands build the modern creative world. As artificial intelligence transforms the nature of work and how we define productivity, the 42-year-old creative tech company is reinventing itself once again, transforming the world’s creative supply chains through its AI ecosystem. Designers and marketers globally are using Adobe Firefly for generative image creation, Substance 3D for photorealistic modeling and digital twins, Express for rapid on-brand content production, and Experience Manager for…

AI can do a lot of things. It can write your emails. It can make your grocery list. It can even interview you for a job. But now, more and more people are depending on AI for things that require real human qualities: life coaching, therapy, even companionship. Scott Galloway, best-selling author and professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, says the real problem with synthetic relationships is what they lack: any kind of struggle or challenge that comes with maintaining real relationships. Leaning on AI In a recent social media post, Galloway calls AI “a rabbit hole” that is “sequestering us from each other”—and while it may…

Disney reported $22.46 billion in revenue for the quarter, which just missed analyst expectations and resulted in a 5% drop in premarket trading on Thursday. The entertainment division—which includes the company’s streaming, linear networks, and theatrical business—saw a 6% drop in revenue. Streaming did see some gains: Disney+ and Hulu ended the quarter with 196 million subscriptions, an increase of 12.4 million subscribers from the previous quarter. However, Disney’s linear networks dropped 16% to $107 million, compared to this time last year, while operating income fell 21%. The company’s theatrical releases also saw declines with both the drop in linear …

After years of living on the street and crashing on friends’ couches, Quantavia Smith was given the keys to a studio apartment in Los Angeles that came with an important perk—easy access to public transit. The 38-year-old feels like she went from a life where “no one cares” to one where she has a safe place to begin rebuilding her life. And the metro station the apartment complex was literally built upon is a lifeline as she searches for work without a car. “It is more a sense of relief, a sense of independence,” said Smith, who moved in July. She receives some government assistance and pays 30% of her income for rent — just $19 a month for an efficiency with a fu…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on what AI pioneer Yann LeCun’s new company will likely build after he departs from Meta. I also look at Marc Andreessen’s jab at the Pope on X, and at “Fei-Fei Li’s” view of the AI world since 2012. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X @thesullivan. Yann LeCun’s departur…

Last June, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky took on a second job. Microsoft, the social network for business professionals’ owner since 2016, expanded his responsibilities to include Microsoft 365—the suite still better known by its former name, Microsoft Office—and its Copilot AI assistant. The role charges him with making AI useful in a productivity context, a goal that’s still very much a work in progress. But Roslansky also remains in charge of LinkedIn, a place whose entire reason for being springs from the network effect of its billion-plus members. Their unique connections, learnings, and willingness to help other people can’t be fed into an LLM and reprocessed into the…

Online betting is more accessible than ever, with 14% of U.S. adults saying they bet on professional or college sports online either frequently or occasionally, according to a February poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It’s also in the news, with a growing list of sports betting scandals making headlines. Public health advocates and personal finance advisers say it’s important to know the risks if you’re going to gamble online. “Gambling and ‘responsibly’ seem to be oxymoronic, because if you’re gambling it’s all about risk,” said Caleb Silver, editor in chief of personal finance site Investopedia. “But people still do it. Online gamb…

Some of my best ideas come to me when I’m exercising. At least I think they’re some of my best ideas; by the time I actually get a chance to write them down, I’ve often forgotten them. While you could argue that something I was unable to remember for an hour or so can’t be that great, still: we’ve all had things we wanted to remember, but couldn’t. So what can you do if you need to remember something important? Most memory-improvement techniques—like mnemonics, chunking, and building memory palaces—involve a fair amount of effort. But these simple strategies to improve your short-term memory and recall require almost no effort—and very little time. 1. Say…

As 2026 takes shape, the most successful leaders will adopt new tools with responsibility and vision while keeping the human side of shopping alive. These 10 tech trends in retail tech and AI are evolving, transforming how brands design, distribute, and deliver experiences. These are not distant forecasts, but happening in real time across retailers, marketplaces, and consumer ecosystems. 1. Predictive intent engines Reactive personalization is being replaced by predictive intent engines. Instead of waiting for a customer to browse, AI anticipates the customer’s next wants based on contextual data like weather, life events, and even local cultural moments. For …

Flight reductions at 40 major U.S. airports will remain at 6% instead of rising to 10% by the end of the week because more air traffic controllers are coming to work, officials said Wednesday. The announcement was made as Congress took steps to end the longest government shutdown in history. Not long after, President Donald The President signed a government funding bill to end the closure. The flight cuts were implemented last week as more air traffic controllers were calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs — leaving more control towers and facilities short-staffed. Air traffic controllers missed two paychecks during the impasse. The Depa…

Forty-three days later, the U.S. government shutdown has come to an end. While it wreaked havoc on government services, flights, and paychecks for federal workers, stock market appears to have come through it unscathed. In fact, by some measures, it improved. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached 46,441.10 on the first day of the shutdown. Since October 1, it has grown over 4%, reaching over 48,000 for the first time on Wednesday, November 12. While the record number came as the shutdown’s end became a sure thing, the Dow had continued to rise throughout the period. The S&P 500 also followed a mostly upward trajectory throughout the shutdown. It …

Visitors to dozens of Starbucks stores across more than 40 cities may be greeted with picket lines today as Starbucks baristas go on strike. And it’s a strike that couldn’t come at a worse time for Starbucks, as today is the company’s annual Red Cup Day, which kicks off the Seattle coffee giant’s holiday sales season. Here’s what to know: What’s happened? Today, unionized Starbucks baristas went on strike at more than 65 Starbucks locations across 42 cities. The baristas are members of the Starbucks Workers Union (SBWU), a collective that says it includes over 12,000 Starbucks workers across 550 unionized stores. The union says it has been in stalled negoti…

President Donald The President signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks. The shutdown magnified partisan divisions in Washington as The President took unprecedented unilateral actions — including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers — to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands. The Republican president blamed the situation on Democrats and suggested voters shouldn’t reward the party during next year’s midterm elections. “So I just want to tel…

Your pennies are now collector’s items. The last penny was minted Wednesday at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, spelling the end of America’s longest-running coin design. More than Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe or Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, it’s sculptor and medalist Victor David Brenner’s profile of Abraham Lincoln on the humble penny that’s actually believed to be the most-reproduced piece of art in the history of the world: the U.S. Mint estimates some 300 billion pennies remain in circulation. And even though no new pennies will be minted, the coin will remain legal tender—good news for those inclined to give a penny, take a penny at their local gas station. …

How do you explain the laws of physics to a toddler? A new children’s book, titled Simple Machines Made Simple, wants to demystify mechanical engineering for kids as young as a year old. It recently beat its Kickstarter goal by 700%—raising more than seven times its target. It will be available to ship early next year. But Simple Machines Made Simple isn’t your typical picture book. Instead of drawings, the book features working models that kids can interact with, like spinning a wheel, sliding a knob up an inclined plane, and pushing a wedge into a block that splits into two. The kids may not graduate with a physics degree, but they might come away with a curiosi…

Data is an omnipresent facet of modern existence, yet the current discourse around it is often too technical, academic, and inaccessible to the average person. Speak Data, the book I’ve just published with my coauthor Phillip Cox, emerges from more than 15 years of living and working with data, both as designers and as human beings. Instead of a textbook or how-to manual for designers, we imagined a more accessible exploration of the human side of data, enlivened by the perspectives of experts and practitioners from many disciplines—from medicine and science to art, culture, and advocacy. In an era when we are all talking about AI, the climate crisis, surveillance and pr…

College across the country may soon start seeing a much older demographic roaming their campuses. According to a report from the higher education publication Best Colleges, at least 84 public or nonprofit colleges have announced they would merge or close over the past five years. Almost half of those are outright closures, as small colleges struggle to keep up with rising costs amid falling enrollment. In many instances, the shuttering of a college means the mothballing of its campus. But while some campuses are being left idle with no future plans, a growing number are finding new life in the form of senior living facilities. That doesn’t mean just moving senior…

Motivation comes and go, but consistency is what will get you the results. That’s a principle I’ve tried to live by for as long as I can remember. For the most part, it has served me pretty well. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that being consistent while being unmotivated can be energy draining. And when mental and physical energy is lacking, it can be difficult to be consistent. Earlier this year, I found myself in a bit of a motivation rut. I’d had a very busy six months of work. As a freelancer, this is something that I’m definitely grateful for and don’t take for granted. When things started to slow down for a little bit, I figured that I would finally ha…

Delegation is supposed to get easier the higher you rise. In reality, it becomes challenging in a different way, Common delegation advice is helpful for first-time managers, who typically have trouble letting go. But for senior leaders, effective delegation looks different. It’s not about handing off tasks. It’s about leading through a paradox. They need to stay close enough to align and coach, but they also need to step back enough to empower and grow others. At this level, for many, the risk isn’t micromanagement, but over-detachment. When you’re too removed, you miss chances to align strategy, spot risks, or coach your leaders. Delegation is about managing …