ResidentialBusiness

The number of prospective buyers touring properties in the city last week fell 8.5% from a year earlier, according to data from Bright MLS, a regional multiple listing service. It's the eighth straight weekly decline. View the full article

I will never forget the day I realized how rare it is to see businesses support parents—or what a huge impact even the tiniest efforts can make. “We’re just going to run into the store for a few quick things!” I called to my two kids with confidence as I unloaded them from the car, skipping the bulky stroller and putting my 1-year-old in the shopping cart seat. But what should have been a simple trip took a turn when we unexpectedly needed to visit the restroom. As any mom knows, this is where things can start to unravel: You can’t take the cart inside, so what are you supposed to do with your not-yet-walking child while you help the bigger one use the toilet? And how are you supposed to use the toilet yourself while also holding a squirmy baby? I opened the door and braced myself for the chaos that would certainly come—so when I stepped into a large stall and saw a strap-in “baby holder” attached to the wall, I could have wept with relief. Then, the appreciation rolled in: These wall-mounted baby safety seats are a game changer for parents who are tasked with taking kids to the restroom. But then I was hit with confusion: Why are simple considerations like this one so rare to see? Why am I so impressed with what should really be considered the bare minimum when it comes to supporting parents in public places? Since then—during countless visits to kid-friendly spaces like the zoo, the pediatrician’s office, department stores, and public parks—I’ve always noticed and questioned how businesses support (or don’t support) parents. (You know what would make life unbelievably easier for parents? A $15 step stool so kids can reach the sink to wash their hands. I think about this almost every day.) https://www.threads.com/@motherspeak/post/DMaDCwwOV6G?xmt=AQF0ERX0a5kpyUnw-O98LoVt3rNq8jKzxZktM8aRA52h-A&slof=1 Appealing to parents isn’t just a do-good strategy, either—it’s good business. “Gen alpha—born between 2010 and 2025—is on track to be the biggest generation ever in history,” says Lauren Smith Brody, founder of The Fifth Trimester, a business strategy firm focused on moms. “So anything retailers and public spaces can do to welcome that generation now will only build brand loyalty that will pay off later.” Kid-friendly policies and spaces signal a friendly, inclusive, thoughtful culture overall, she says. “The step-stool in the bathroom and the animatronic ear of corn [at Stew Leonard’s, a grocery chain in the northeast] attracts and retains parents as customers, but they also signal to everyone: Humanity is valued here; joy and ease are a part of this experience.” Numerous studies indicate that Gen Z and younger millennials are also values-driven in their shopping. Recently, we asked our audience what considerations they’d like to see businesses make to better appeal to parents—and hundreds of moms weighed in. What did we learn? One: Prioritizing parents isn’t unheard of; some industries and places are already getting it right. And two: The most common requests from parents and caregivers are mostly minor, reasonable, and would go a long way for families and businesses. Here’s a look at what categories are getting things right—and how businesses can improve their family-friendly policies. Hotels have long catered to families—and are doing even more today Many hotels offer smart amenities to make life a little easier for parents—including complimentary kids’ gear, babysitting services, and much more. The Four Seasons, in particular, has long been known to cater to families. The Philadelphia and Baltimore properties will provide you with a Baby Brezza bottle washer, bottle dryer, breastmilk & formula warmer, and more. The Four Seasons Hotel Boston features a kids’ toy closet located behind the check-in desk for little ones to explore while caregivers check in and out. “This allowed us a few moments to get everything sorted, and the kids were in heaven,” said Cassie Shortsleeve, a mom of three in Boston (and a cofounder of Two Truths). In Orlando, you don’t need to worry about packing swim diapers (they’re provided), and you can request items to childproof a room. Properties like Carmel Valley Ranch (see: the “Munchin Menu”) and Wequassett Resort & Golf Club also have partnerships with major children’s brands, such as Nuna and Maxi-Cosi, to borrow or rent gear like strollers, playards, baby carriers, and more. Some shopping destinations have become more family-friendly Ikea was a big winner among our responses. “They have that Scandinavian family-friendliness,” says Marissa Lanterman, a mom of one in Baltimore. “Family parking, cart and stroller accessibility, high chairs in all eating areas, changing tables in bathrooms, step stools for kids at sinks, comfy baby care rooms, Småland . . . you really can’t beat it.” For new moms in particular, Nordstrom was a standout shopping destination mentioned multiple times—mostly for its family restrooms and clean, comfortable lactation lounges with couches and sinks. Another favorite: Wegman’s. “They have built-in stepping stools in the bathroom at the sinks, a baby holder in the stalls so you can use the toilet in peace, a wall of every size diaper available for free if needed, and little car carts to keep toddlers occupied while shopping,” says Sara Creary, a mom of one in Pittsford, NY. Many eateries keep kids in mind One (potentially surprising) space that many moms praised? Breweries. “Our local brewery is like our own little Europe—a public space for play and relaxation for kids and adults alike,” says Lily Dunlop, a mom of two in Seattle. Kelsey Glynn, a mom of three, says her favorite brewery even brings out complimentary kid snacks: “At BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse here in Arizona, they immediately serve a plate of fruit and Goldfish to help manage kids’ hunger before their food arrives at the table.” “A coffee shop I went to had a kids’ corner with a play kitchen and espresso machine,” says Christa Ursini, a mom of one in South Salem, NY. “It was magic—parents could enjoy their coffee while their kids played.” Public spaces can be kid-friendly It’s not just specific businesses that cater to kids and families, but public places more generally, as well. Some popular family travel destinations are full of family-friendly spots, but also put families first when it comes to strategic planning and development: Newport, RI, for one, is dotted with parks and playgrounds throughout and in between more formal “stops” like an aquarium or an old-school arcade that may be on an itinerary. To that point, moms we spoke to highlighted that public places that attract kids, such as playgrounds and parks, should have some key components: water fountains, bathrooms, shade, and fencing—all critical aspects for parents that can make or break the decision of where to spend your time. Pop-up lactation pods—such as Mamava—are another great feature for businesses of all sizes, but especially handy in spaces like airports, zoos, and amusement parks. There’s more to be done: Here’s what parents want When we asked our audience how businesses could improve for parents, we were struck by the similarity between responses—with many requests, especially very basic ones, appearing again and again. Here are the main takeaways. In bathrooms: Baby changing tables in both the women’s and men’s rooms, ideally located within a stall for privacy. (“It’s really jarring to go to a restaurant that has high chairs and crayons at the table, but not a single baby changing table in any bathroom,” one mom told us. “Am I supposed to put my baby on the floor?”) Lower sinks or step stools that allow small kids to wash their hands Paper towels as an alternative to loud hand dryers (which many kids are afraid of or sensitive to) Bag hooks and/or shelves near sinks and changing stations Within dining establishments: Disposable table covers so kids can eat off a sanitary surface High chairs and booster seats that are—and this is important!—kept clean Food-safe wipes available for parents to clean tables and high chairs as needed Stainless steel kid-sized cutlery Kids’ cups with lids Disposable bibs Activities for kids—from basic (crayons and coloring sheets) to bonus (toy basket, Magnatiles, books, etc.) Healthier, lighter kids’ menu options (fruit, cheese, crackers, nuts, veggies & dip, etc.) Outdoor play areas (when space allows) are huge bonus that many parents will seek out In stores: Aisles that are wide enough to accommodate strollers Increase curbside pick-up options More parking spots reserved for families (either near the door or near the cart return) Simple treats that make kids excited to visit (like stickers, a la Trader Joe’s) In a society that is woefully lacking systemic support for parents and often unconducive to kids, businesses have a powerful opportunity to step up and set new standards that show families they are seen, appreciated, and valued. “Any business that goes the extra mile for parents really stands out, driving word of mouth and customer loyalty,” says Brody. “And any public space that makes parents feel good about the love and work they’re pouring into their kids is going to win that business in a big way.” View the full article

Figure paves way for expected Fed rate cut next weekView the full article

You may or may not have heard of "eating the frog." It's one of those things that triggers the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon once you learn about it: Suddenly, everyone seems to be saying it, which is jarring, since it's a little graphic and evocative. Luckily, it doesn't mean you have to eat any frogs for real; it's just a way to refer to the productivity philosophy that says you should tackle your biggest, toughest task first thing in the morning. What it means to "eat the frog"“Eat the frog” means “do the day’s worst task as soon as you wake up.” It comes from a quote attributed to Mark Twain, though there are a few different versions floating around. (Lifehacker Editor-in-Chief Jordan Calhoun, for example, calls it “swallowing the frog,” which sounds more awful for reasons I can’t quite pinpoint.) Basically, what Twain is alleged to have said (though there isn’t much proof he really did) is that if you have to eat a frog, you should do it straight away in the morning so the worst part of your day is immediately behind you. Regardless of the dubious origin of this colorful suggestion, it’s led to the creation of a popular self-help series by Brian Tracy and has evolved into shorthand for getting the hard stuff out of the way so you can focus on your other tasks. What’s in it for you?As Tracy explains on his blog, your “frog” is whatever your biggest, most important task is at any given moment: “It is the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.” You don’t even have to eat the frog as soon as you wake up; you can simply make a conscious effort to get your hardest responsibilities handled before moving on to lesser ones. But you should try to get them out of the way early in the day. When I have to have an uncomfortable phone call, I schedule it for the earliest possible time in the day. When I have a project due, I try to wake up early to take care of it instead of staying up late. I can attest to the fact that I feel great throughout the day knowing that the worst thing I had to do is already done. This always makes it seem like whatever other tasks I need to handle are a breeze. They pale in comparison to the behemoth I knocked out in the early hours. If no particular task is filling you with dread, you can replace something unpleasant with something important or resource-heavy. To determine which of your to-dos is most pressing—and, thus, is the frog you should eat—you can use a prioritization system like the Eisenhower matrix or the 1-3-5 method. In fact, the 1-3-5 technique helps you structure your day around the completion of one major task, three medium ones, and five little ones, making it ideal for frog-eating. If you struggle with procrastination—whether cleaning your house or doing work for school or your job—or you find that you get all the little stuff done but don’t make sufficient progress on the big stuff, try eating the frog. Schedule the most despised tasks for the morning. Try going to the gym before work instead of after, blocking out your first half hour of work to respond to neglected emails, or scrubbing down the kitchen before making your morning coffee. Study for the test in your most difficult class before studying for your easier ones. Call your parents before calling your friends. You get the idea. It's similar to the two-minute rule, which says you should jump on any and every task that takes fewer than two minutes the moment it occurs to you. Your frogs may take longer than two minutes, but the idea that you should simply tackle them instantly without deliberating or procrastinating is crucial. Get into the habit of just doing things. Ideally, make your ranked to-do list the night before so you have nothing to think about when you wake up and you can get right to business. As you build this habit and mindset, at some point, moving on to the smaller activities—even if they’re important—will feel like a reward. View the full article

Yesterday, Target Corporation announced news that no one wants to hear—especially just before the holidays. The Minneapolis-based retail giant informed employees that it is gearing up to eliminate 1,800 corporate roles at the company. Here’s when the layoffs will happen and what it means for the company and its employees. Target to cull its corporate workforce by 8% On Thursday, Target’s chief operating officer, Michael Fiddelke, who is set to become the company’s new CEO in February, reportedly sent a memo to employees at the 440,000-strong company. According to numerous media reports, Fiddelke’s memo didn’t beat around the bush: the company has decided to eliminate 1,800 positions. Yet the layoffs will not hit the majority of the company’s workforce. Much of its 440,000 employees work as retail members across its nearly 2,000 stores in the United States. The layoffs are not expected to impact these retail employees, who the company will rely heavily on during the upcoming holiday period. Instead, the job cuts will hit Target’s corporate workforce. And as CNBC notes, citing the memo, 1,800 positions will be eliminated. The eliminations include 1,000 direct employee layoffs and another 800 roles that will no longer be filled. In his memo sent to Target staff, Fiddelke said the elimination of 1,800 corporate roles represents a reduction of “about 8% of our global HQ team.” Fiddelke’s memo included the usual platitudes that company leadership makes when laying off employees, noting the “real impact” that the layoffs will have on Target’s team and that the company never makes such moves “lightly.” However, he also argued the layoffs are “a necessary step in building the future of Target and enabling the progress and growth we all want to see.” Of course, the future of Target will be of little consequence to those losing their jobs ahead of the holidays. Fast Company has reached out to Target for comment and will update this story if we hear back. A spokesperson told CNBC that, in addition to severance packages, those laid off will receive benefits and pay until January 3. Competitors Walmart and Amazon are thriving The layoffs may not be much of a surprise to people who have been paying attention to Target’s recent struggles. While the company’s competitors, such as Walmart and Amazon, have seen their businesses—and stock prices—thrive, it’s been an opposite story for Target. As my colleague Elizabeth Segran explored in May, Target had a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.” In January, in the lead-up to Donald The President’s inauguration, Target announced it was reversing course on its celebrated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments. Many loyal Target customers saw that as capitulation, and the backlash, in the form of boycotts, was swift, with foot traffic to many of its stores falling by up to 7.7%. And it’s not like President The President has done Target many favors, as his tariffs have had a measurable impact on Target’s costs. The company acquires most of its items from overseas, including China. It must now pay more for those products and thus take a hit on its bottom line, or pass the cost of those price increases onto customers, which could lead to them buying less. And those customers are already under pressure from inflation, which has caused them to pull back on their discretionary spending. That’s a big problem for Target, as the majority of the goods it sells are discretionary items. All of these issues are something that incoming CEO Fiddelke is going to have to fix, and, with yesterday’s announcement, it appears that he thinks layoffs are part of that fix. TGT investors don’t seem to care about the layoffs So far at least, Target’s investors don’t seem to think these layoffs will meaningfully impact the company in the short term. Often when a corporate giant announces mass layoffs, the company’s stock price spikes. That’s because layoffs are seen as the fastest way for a company to reduce its costs, which can help increase profits. But looking at Target’s stock price (NYSE: TGT) this morning, it appears as if investors are shrugging off the news. As of this writing, TGT stock is up just half a percent to $94.75 in premarket trading. Yesterday, TGT shares closed up just a quarter of a percent to $94.25. This suggests that investors are going to need to see a lot more change at the company—and with its finances—to get them excited about the stock again. And TGT stock has had a bad run as of late. As of yesterday’s close, TGT shares were down more than 30% since the year began. Over the past 12 months, TGT shares have fallen more than 36%. And over the past five years, TGT shares have dropped a staggering 41%. During that same five-year timeframe, shares in competitor Walmart (NYSE: WMT) are up 122% and shares in Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) are up almost 38%. View the full article

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, small businesses are being presented with an array of opportunities and challenges brought on by artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies. Visa Inc. recently announced the launch of its Trusted Agent Protocol, a framework aimed at enhancing security and trust in AI-driven commerce—an initiative that could significantly benefit small business owners navigating this new terrain. As AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites has skyrocketed by 4,700% over the past year, shoppers increasingly engage AI agents to search for products and make purchases on their behalf. While 85% of users affirm that AI has improved their shopping experience, the rise of these agents brings unique hurdles for merchants—particularly small businesses that may lack robust IT resources. One key challenge lies in managing bot detection systems that often misidentify legitimate transactions as fraudulent. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, as they might not have the resources to fine-tune these systems effectively. The Trusted Agent Protocol aims to alleviate this issue by providing a framework for merchants to verify the identities of AI agents, distinguishing them from malicious bots. Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product & Strategy Officer, emphasizes the need for trust: “We believe the entire payments ecosystem has a responsibility to ensure sellers can trust AI agents as much as they trust their best customers and networks.” This newly developed protocol is designed to be user-friendly, aiming for no-code functionality. This means small business owners can incorporate it without needing extensive technical expertise, streamlining their payment processes and improving customer experiences. The Trusted Agent Protocol features advanced specifications that allow approved AI agents to relay essential information to merchants. Key components include: Agent Intent: This confirms that the agent is a trusted entity looking to purchase or gather information. Consumer Recognition: Information showing if a consumer has an existing relationship or account with the merchant. Payment Information: Agents can facilitate a smoother checkout process by carrying payment data linked to the merchant’s preferred payment methods. This structure not only simplifies the process for small businesses but also strengthens customer relationships. By enabling safer and more efficient transactions, the Trusted Agent Protocol can enhance customer loyalty and trust—critical components for small business success. While the benefits are evident, small business owners should also consider potential challenges. One concern is the dependency on digital infrastructure. As merchants integrate this new protocol, they may need to reevaluate their current systems to ensure compatibility. Additionally, as AI agents become ubiquitous, small businesses might face increased pressure to adopt new technologies to stay competitive, which can stress limited budgets and resources. Another consideration is the need for ongoing education about the technology. Business owners will need to train staff to understand the workings of the Trusted Agent Protocol and ensure robust customer support for any AI-related transactions to maintain trust in their brand. Collaboration is also a focal point for Visa’s initiative. The protocol was developed alongside industry leaders such as Cloudflare, Microsoft, and Shopify, signifying a broader shift towards a more interconnected payments ecosystem. This ecosystem-wide approach seeks to facilitate safer transactions regardless of the platform, ensuring that small businesses are not left behind in the advancements of digital commerce. Ultimately, the Trusted Agent Protocol positions itself as a vital tool for small businesses looking to navigate the AI-driven world of e-commerce. By simplifying verification processes and enhancing security for transactions, it supports merchants in building trust with both customers and AI agents. As Forestell put it, creating a seamless experience for agent-initiated transactions can significantly contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of small businesses in the digital age. For small business owners eager to harness the opportunities presented by AI while minimizing risks, the Trusted Agent Protocol represents a promising stride forward. More details can be accessed directly from Visa’s release here. Image via Envato This article, "Visa Launches Trusted Agent Protocol to Secure AI-Driven Commerce" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, small businesses are being presented with an array of opportunities and challenges brought on by artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies. Visa Inc. recently announced the launch of its Trusted Agent Protocol, a framework aimed at enhancing security and trust in AI-driven commerce—an initiative that could significantly benefit small business owners navigating this new terrain. As AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites has skyrocketed by 4,700% over the past year, shoppers increasingly engage AI agents to search for products and make purchases on their behalf. While 85% of users affirm that AI has improved their shopping experience, the rise of these agents brings unique hurdles for merchants—particularly small businesses that may lack robust IT resources. One key challenge lies in managing bot detection systems that often misidentify legitimate transactions as fraudulent. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, as they might not have the resources to fine-tune these systems effectively. The Trusted Agent Protocol aims to alleviate this issue by providing a framework for merchants to verify the identities of AI agents, distinguishing them from malicious bots. Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product & Strategy Officer, emphasizes the need for trust: “We believe the entire payments ecosystem has a responsibility to ensure sellers can trust AI agents as much as they trust their best customers and networks.” This newly developed protocol is designed to be user-friendly, aiming for no-code functionality. This means small business owners can incorporate it without needing extensive technical expertise, streamlining their payment processes and improving customer experiences. The Trusted Agent Protocol features advanced specifications that allow approved AI agents to relay essential information to merchants. Key components include: Agent Intent: This confirms that the agent is a trusted entity looking to purchase or gather information. Consumer Recognition: Information showing if a consumer has an existing relationship or account with the merchant. Payment Information: Agents can facilitate a smoother checkout process by carrying payment data linked to the merchant’s preferred payment methods. This structure not only simplifies the process for small businesses but also strengthens customer relationships. By enabling safer and more efficient transactions, the Trusted Agent Protocol can enhance customer loyalty and trust—critical components for small business success. While the benefits are evident, small business owners should also consider potential challenges. One concern is the dependency on digital infrastructure. As merchants integrate this new protocol, they may need to reevaluate their current systems to ensure compatibility. Additionally, as AI agents become ubiquitous, small businesses might face increased pressure to adopt new technologies to stay competitive, which can stress limited budgets and resources. Another consideration is the need for ongoing education about the technology. Business owners will need to train staff to understand the workings of the Trusted Agent Protocol and ensure robust customer support for any AI-related transactions to maintain trust in their brand. Collaboration is also a focal point for Visa’s initiative. The protocol was developed alongside industry leaders such as Cloudflare, Microsoft, and Shopify, signifying a broader shift towards a more interconnected payments ecosystem. This ecosystem-wide approach seeks to facilitate safer transactions regardless of the platform, ensuring that small businesses are not left behind in the advancements of digital commerce. Ultimately, the Trusted Agent Protocol positions itself as a vital tool for small businesses looking to navigate the AI-driven world of e-commerce. By simplifying verification processes and enhancing security for transactions, it supports merchants in building trust with both customers and AI agents. As Forestell put it, creating a seamless experience for agent-initiated transactions can significantly contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of small businesses in the digital age. For small business owners eager to harness the opportunities presented by AI while minimizing risks, the Trusted Agent Protocol represents a promising stride forward. More details can be accessed directly from Visa’s release here. Image via Envato This article, "Visa Launches Trusted Agent Protocol to Secure AI-Driven Commerce" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Party promised six months ago that a specialist team would tackle wasteful spending in local governmentView the full article

This week, surprise - surprise, we covered more Google Search ranking volatility. OpenAI launched its web browser, ChatGPT Atlas - it uses Google. Google Search Console performance reports are stuck...View the full article

Q4 is here – and for ecommerce brands, that means the biggest sales opportunities of the year are just ahead. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas – the biggest sales events are just around the corner. To hit your targets, preparation is key. It’s not too late to act, and the opportunities ahead are huge. Use this checklist to get up to speed quickly and set your account up for success. Website and UX Review site speed Start with a website audit to identify any red flags. Tools like PageSpeed Insights can help diagnose technical issues. Encourage clients to review key pages and the checkout process on multiple devices to ensure there are no bottlenecks. If resources allow, use heatmap or session analysis tools such as Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar to better understand user behavior and improve the on-site experience. Confirm tracking setup Double-check that all tracking is configured correctly across platforms. Don’t just verify that tags are firing – make sure all events are set up to their fullest potential. For example, confirm high match rates in Meta and ensure Enhanced Conversions is fully configured. Add VIP sign-ups/pop-ups Before the sales period begins, encourage users to join a VIP list for Black Friday or holiday promotions. This can give them early access or exclusive deals. Set up a separate automated email flow to follow up with these subscribers. Launch sale page early Publish your sale page as soon as possible so Google can crawl and index it for SEO. The page doesn’t need to be accessible from your site navigation or populated with products right away – the key is to get it live early. If possible, reuse the same URL from previous years to build on existing SEO equity. You can also add a data capture form to collect VIP sign-ups until the page goes live with products. Display cutoffs clearly If shipping cutoff dates aren’t clear, many users won’t risk placing an order close to the deadline. Clearly display both standard and express delivery cutoff dates on your website. Highlight sales sitewide with banners Don’t rely solely on a homepage carousel to promote your sale. Add a banner or header across all pages so users know a sale is happening, no matter where they land. Dig deeper: Holiday ecommerce to hit record $253 billion – here’s what’s driving it Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Creative and messaging Run pre-sale lead gen ads As mentioned with pop-ups, supplementing that strategy with lead generation ads can help grow your email list and build early buzz around your upcoming sale. Launch simple, clear primary sale ads These will be your Black Friday or holiday sale ads running for most of the campaign. Keep the messaging and promotion straightforward. Any confusion in a crowded feed will make users scroll past. Use strong branding, put the offer front and center, and include a clear CTA. On Meta, this often works best as a simple image ad. Create Cyber Monday-specific ads Many brands simply extend their Black Friday sale rather than creating Cyber Monday-specific ads and web banners. Take advantage of the opportunity to give your campaign a fresh angle – both in messaging and offer. Since it’s often the final day of your sale, you can go bigger on discounts for one day or add a free gift with purchases over a certain amount. It’s also a great way to move slower-selling inventory left over from Black Friday. Refresh primary ads with ‘last days’ urgency Add urgency to your messaging as the sale nears its end by including countdowns or end dates. This tactic works especially well for longer campaigns where ad fatigue can set in. Finalize all creative assets early November and December are busy months for ad builds and platform reviews. Make sure all sale assets are ready several weeks before launch to avoid rushed builds and delays from longer approval times. Advertising and data Audit product feeds Make sure item disapprovals and limited products are kept to a minimum. Double-check that your setup is current. For example, if your return window has changed, update that information in Google Merchant Center. Refresh first-party data and remarketing lists Update any lists you plan to use this season. If you don’t have direct integrations, upload new or revised lists manually. Review your integrations and confirm that data is flowing correctly. Build lookalike and custom audiences early Start building audiences as soon as your first-party and remarketing lists are refreshed. Create Meta Lookalike Audiences, Performance Max audience signals, and Custom Audiences. If you run into volume issues, you’ll have time to adjust or explore alternatives. Finalize budget by week, not just month Agree on budgets early so you know your spending limits. Don’t plan just by month. Map out weekly spend, too. You’ll likely want to invest more heavily in the final week of November than in the first. Use title and description extensions or ad customizers Updating search ad copy can be tedious and time-consuming. These tools let you control and update copy dynamically without editing every RSA manually – saving hours in campaign builds. Use ad assets, promo sitelinks, and GMC promotions Enable sale-related sitelinks, callouts, and promotion extensions across search campaigns so your offers appear everywhere. In Shopping, set up Google Merchant Center promotions to highlight deals and incentives in your Shopping ad annotations. Apply countdown features Add a dynamic countdown timer to search ads to show exactly when your sale ends. This feature helps your ads stand out and adds urgency as the sale nears its close. Launch search remarketing activity Bid on generic keywords you wouldn’t normally target, but limit them to remarketing or first-party data audiences. For example, people searching for “Black Friday deals” who have purchased from your site in the past 30 days already know your brand and are primed to buy again. Apply seasonality adjustments If you use Google Ads or Microsoft Ads with a target ROAS strategy, apply seasonality adjustments to prepare the algorithm for higher conversion rates during the sale period. Remember to apply a negative adjustment once the sale ends to prevent unnecessary spend spikes. Dig deeper: Seasonal PPC: Your guide to boosting holiday ad performance Focus on what matters most for Q4 success Not every tactic will fit your business or resources – and that’s OK. The key is to focus on what will have the biggest impact on your store. By addressing most of the points in this checklist, you’ll build a solid foundation for a strong Q4 and set yourself up to capture more sales during the busiest shopping season of the year. Preparation is everything. The earlier you audit, test, and launch, the smoother your campaigns will run when traffic – and competition – start to surge. View the full article

While logic might suggest that getting more done means operating in a constant state of productivity, the opposite can actually be true: When you hit that afternoon slump and can’t seem to push through the simplest of tasks, it's probably because you needed a break earlier in the day—certainly science backs up that idea. Put simply, your brain needs regular periods of downtime to maintain peak operation. After periods of intense work, taking a brief break doesn’t just improve your mood—it can actually boost your concentration and performance. So if you want to be truly productive, you should schedule those rest periods into your busy day. The case for scheduling your "brain breaks"It’s one thing to know you need downtime, but another to actually find time for it in your day. Through the course of a busy schedule—working, cleaning, studying, taking care of kids, driving, and doing all the other things on your to-do list—you might have the best of intentions when it comes to taking breaks, but not actually do it in the moment. That’s why you should schedule them. In one episode of HBO's Succession, the character Shiv Roy actually set aside a block of time on her calendar for crying. You might not need to cry, but Shiv’s got the right idea: Open the calendar on your phone and add in blocks of personal time throughout your day, however you might spend it. Maybe you like to scroll TikTok, look at recipes, work on your creative projects, close your eyes for a moment, or call a friend. Whatever you’d like to do, prioritize it seriously by building the space for it into your schedule. If you use a shared calendar at work or home, block it out so everyone can see. You don’t need to publicly state what it’s for; you’ll know. And you won’t be letting your colleagues or family down since you’ll be even more productive when it’s over. Most importantly, stick to it. Even 15 minutes per day can be beneficial, but not if you don’t adhere to your plan. Being serious about taking time for yourself will help you build the habit and give you something to look forward to when working gets hard, so treat it like an important step in your workday. How to time your breaks for maximum productivityThere are a few approaches you can take to ensure your downtime proves to be effective. First, you should be time blocking and time boxing. These similar but distinct techniques involve not only determining exactly how much time you'll need for a given task, but using a calendar or planner to mark it all down. Using something like Google Calendar or even a physical planner, you'll account for every second of your day, so the entire column is filled up with back-to-back entries—but not all of those entries will be for work. Here is your chance to slot in something enjoyable, like a 2 p.m. matcha run or an episode of SVU at 8 p.m. You'll feel better about scheduling downtime if you're doing it alongside the designation of work tasks, and if you can see it all concretely represented in one place. Second, use the Pomodoro method. This famous productivity hack calls on you to work for 25 minutes, take a five-minute break, work another 25, break again, and repeat the cycle four times before taking a longer break. Building in smaller breaks this way might make the exercise more palatable if you are struggling to justify off-time. Plus, Pomodoro is more flexible than it seems at first, and a lot of variations exist. Take animedoro, for instance: you work for 40 to 60 minutes with a 20-minute break, about the length of an episode of anime. You don't need to watch anime, of course, nor be so rigid with your timing: The important part is being conscientious about interspersing your work sessions with small breaks. View the full article

One of my Bentley University students put it plainly the other day: “AI taking entry-level jobs is a ‘when,’ not an ‘if.’ But in venture capital, 70% of the decision is reading the founder and team—and that’s something AI can’t do.” That simple breakdown , 70% people, 30% product—flips the usual narrative about finance. For decades, finance was defined by numbers. Analysts lived and died by the spreadsheets. Today, AI can run discounted cash flows, parse a term sheet, and size a market faster than any junior associate. But if you talk to people in venture capital, they’ll tell you the math has never been the most important part. The numbers matter, of course, but the difference between betting on a future unicorn and losing it all is whether you can read the humans across the table. AI’s takeover of the “crunching” jobs Students see what’s coming. The entry-level finance roles that once trained armies of analysts are increasingly exposed to automation. AI models can scan thousands of comparable companies in seconds, build slide decks, even flag anomalies that a first-year hire would have spent a weekend catching. In fact, McKinsey estimates that nearly half of finance tasks could already be automated by existing AI tools. What was once seen as a rite of passage—the long hours bent over Excel—may soon look as outdated as typewriters in an accounting office. That’s why many students I teach don’t just worry about if AI will change their jobs. They assume it already has. The conversation now is how to build careers in finance when machines are better, faster, and cheaper at the very tasks that used to get you in the door. The venture capital exception Venture capital, especially at the earliest stages, offers a counterintuitive lesson. The math can only take you so far. Market sizing, revenue projections, even technical due diligence—all of it is valuable, but none of it predicts success the way the founder does. Investors I’ve spoken with put it bluntly: you’re betting on people, not just products. That’s the essence of the 70/30 rule my student repeated: 70% of the investment decision is about the team. Only 30% is about the idea. Surveys of venture investors back this up. First Round Capital, for example, has consistently found that founder quality outranks product or market sizing in early-stage decisions. You want founders with resilience, persuasion, and the grit to pivot when the idea inevitably changes. AI can tell you the addressable market. It cannot tell you if this particular founder has the charisma to convince skeptical investors, the judgment to hire the right people, or the sheer stubbornness to keep going after three failed prototypes. As one early-stage investor told me recently, “AI can show me a founder’s track record in five seconds, but it can’t tell me whether they can read a room or take a punch. That’s still my job.” Why Gen Z gets it What strikes me is how quickly students are internalizing this. Rather than seeing their careers in finance as doomed, they are recalibrating. They want to be the people who can build relationships, persuade others, and trust their instincts. They’re preparing not to be number crunchers, but decision-makers. In class discussions, they talk about internships where AI already plays a role in screening deals. Their takeaway isn’t despair—it’s clarity. They see that the irreplaceable part of the job is not working the models but reading the room. They know AI may one day suggest which startup should succeed, but it won’t sit across the table from a founder at 11 p.m., hear the quiver in their voice, and know whether that’s nerves or conviction. Gen Z, often criticized for being “too soft,” may be better positioned than we think. They’ve grown up digital. They understand the strengths of machines, but they also see the limits. They’re comfortable letting AI do the heavy lifting if it means their human skills rise in value. Lessons for the future of work This shift should force us to rethink not only finance, but the future of work itself. If venture capital is a case study, the lesson is that industries once defined by quantitative rigor may end up placing even greater value on qualitative judgment. Harvard Business Review has made a similar point, noting that as AI scales technical analysis, “soft skills” are fast becoming the hardest skills to replace. The irony is rich: the most number-driven fields may be the ones where numbers matter least. And if that’s true, Gen Z might just be the generation that restores humanity to the financial world—not by rejecting technology, but by mastering what machines can’t. Back to the 70/30 rule That brings me back to my student. Their comment wasn’t just about venture capital. It was about what comes next in finance, and perhaps beyond. If AI eats the numbers, the real work will be reading people. AI owns the math. But the gut—the judgment, empathy, and intuition that turn data into decisions—still belongs to us. In the end, the algorithms will get faster, but the best investors will always pause, look across the table, and trust what no machine can calculate: the human pulse of possibility. View the full article

We covered Google testing using AI to generate snippet summaries and snippet descriptions, but all of those had a Gemini logo next to them, as to label them AI-generated. Now, Google was caught not showing the AI-label on these AI-generated descriptions in the search results.View the full article

I believe generally when you search Bing and get a Copilot answer at the top, Bing will just immediately show you the answer. Now, Microsoft is testing an animated response where Bing writes out the answer like a chatbot.View the full article

Google is testing showing a "Get Google QR" code button when you search for your business in Google Search. This button is with the Edit Profile, reviews, photos, posts, performance, and other buttons you see to manage your Google Business Profile. View the full article

Hello again, and thank you, as always, for spending time with Fast Company’s Plugged In. Apple is legendary for figuring out what people want before they realize they want it. But since 2021, its MacBook Pro hasn’t been like that at all. Instead, this venerable laptop’s recent design has reflected Apple’s willingness to trust its customers’ judgment—even when it’s been at odds with the company’s own instincts. In part, that’s because of a 2016 reimagining of the MacBook Pro that didn’t stick. Atypically, Apple then went on to reverse many of the changes it had made. The fancy function-key replacement known as the Touch Bar went bye-bye. And several mundane-but-useful features Apple had axed came back, including the MagSafe power connector, HDMI port, and SD Card slot. The result was a computer that was noticeably chunkier than the MacBook Air. But it was also particularly well tailored to the needs of people who prize sheer usefulness above all else. It was a workhorse—you know, professional. The newest 14-inch MacBook Pro, which I’ve been using for a little less than a week (the company provided a unit for review), retains that vision. Actually, it retains everything about its immediate predecessor except the chip. A classic example of a “speed bump” upgrade, the machine is now powered by Apple’s next-generation M5 processor. So are updated versions of the iPad Pro and Vision Pro—an unusual example of disparate Apple products shipping with the same new chip all at once. In another break from recent years, Apple isn’t immediately rolling out the new MacBook Pro in multiple variants: fast, faster, and fastest. Only the entry-level 14-inch model is getting a new chip. Higher-end Pros (including the 16-inch version) are still equipped with last year’s M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, leaving the MacBook Pro lineup in transition. For now, the M5 MacBook Pro, with a starting price of $1,599, occupies a middle ground among Apple laptops. Many people will be delighted with the cheaper, lighter, thinner MacBook Air, an exemplary laptop in its own right. Others whose jobs involve particularly computationally intensive work, such as heavy-duty video editing, might opt for the M4 Pro or M4 Max versions of the MacBook Pro, or wait for M5 Pro and M5 Max ones. Apple itself described the M5 chip as suitable for “college students, business users, and aspiring creators,” a pretty concise way of encompassing the M5 MacBook Pro’s sweet spot. Still, even though I’m a happy owner of a 15-inch MacBook Air, spending time with the new MacBook Pro made clear to me why some people would gladly pay a premium for it. For starters, there are several fundamental ways in which the MacBook Pro is enough better than the MacBook Air to matter. That starts with the screen, which has brighter Mini-LED lighting and, thanks to ProMotion technology, smoother scrolling. The $150 Nano-texture display option, which Apple included on my review unit, does the job when it comes to the promised glare reduction: I felt more like I was reading off paper than a shiny LCD. The Pro’s six-speaker audio system, with a subwoofer, is a significant upgrade over the Air’s. Its claimed battery life is longer—up to 24 hours of video streaming versus 18 for the Air. Yes, that’s an upgrade from impressively long to remarkably long, but anything that reduces a portable computer’s reliance on chargers and AC outlets is a blessing. Buy a MacBook Pro, and you may also be able to avoid dealing with the dreaded, easy-to-misplace adapters known as dongles. It has three USB-C ports versus the Air’s two, and they’re divvied between the left and right sides, letting you plug in cables any which way without having to snake them around. As for the built-in HDMI and SD Card slot, their survival in 2025 is miraculous given that Apple tried to eliminate them almost a decade ago—but I, for one, would use the SD slot all the time to transfer photos and videos from my Fujifilm camera. Okay, how about that new M5 chip? Apple emphasizes its improved performance in AI-intensive tasks such as applying filters to video and running local LLMs. Jason Snell of Six Colors benchmarked the new MacBook Pro and found it substantially quicker than the MacBook Air. His charts also show MacBook Pro models with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips remaining faster still, because they have more CPU and GPU cores than the M5. In my informal experiments with tasks such as editing images in Photoshop and outputting video projects from DaVinci Resolve, the M5 MacBook Pro was a rocket. But with the exception of epoch-shifting moments such as Apple’s 2020 transition from Intel chips to ones it designed itself, the launch of a new processor is rarely a reason to rush out and buy a new computer. Instead, most people should hold off on springing for a new machine until their current one is showing its age—a buying strategy Apple tacitly acknowledges in its marketing for the M5 MacBook Pro by comparing its performance to its M1 ancestor, which dates to 2020. The best reason to get a new computer is as an insurance plan against future obsolescence. The M5 MacBook Pro is just a faster version of a familiar laptop. But it’s well positioned to stay useful even as AI becomes a more pervasive element of MacOS and Mac apps. Apple certainly won’t leave the MacBook Pro feeling so familiar forever. Last week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the company is currently working on a thinner, lighter version with an M6 chip—and the Mac line’s first-ever touchscreen. Here’s hoping that no matter how much the MacBook Pro evolves, it retains the quiet emphasis on straightforward, well-appointed productivity that defines it. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company Google’s Pixel Watch 4 is the least-annoying smartwatch I’ve ever used Little things make the company’s latest wearable less intrusive. Read More → AI is about to upend Google’s AdWords cash cow The revolutionary advertising product launched 25 years ago, propelling the company into the stratosphere. Could the party be over? Read More → This is the world’s first vertical take-off AI-piloted fighter jet Airpower without runways is the holy grail of deterrence,’ says Shield AI’s Brandon Tseng. Read More → The new Leica M EV1 trades its mechanical soul for a digital viewfinder After 7 decades of using an optical rangefinder, Leica is releasing its most famous camera with a digital display. Read More → X’s UX update wants to save your links from social media’s black hole In a bid to woo writers and creators back to its platform, X is redesigning its UX to make it faster and easier to engage with links. Read More → New AI browsers could usher in a web where agents do our bidding—eventually OpenAI, Google—and probably others—will engage in a battle that could fundamentally change the way we use the web. Read More → View the full article

We've seen at least two variations of Google local and Business Profiles showing related to your search boxes, but this new one looks a bit more tidy than the Q&A carousel and Google Posts carousel version.View the full article

Olivier Faure gives prime minister ultimatum to increase taxes on country’s wealthiest or face no-confidence voteView the full article

Google is testing showing the option ot track price changes for hotel results by email. We saw Google announce a similar feature back in March but now it is showing in the local hotel pack results in core search.View the full article

Fix ChatGPT 404 referrals fast. Learn how to find phantom URLs in GA4, prioritize with Semrush, and recover lost traffic. View the full article

Google Search Console’s performance report is stuck and has not shown an update in the main report since Sunday, October 19th. Google confirmed the issue and said it will catch up. What it looks like. As I said on the Search Engine Roundtable, before Google confirmed the issue, the performance reports for all Search Console profiles are stuck on Sunday. Here is a sample chart: More details. The weird thing is that when you dive in to 24 hour data, you do get recent data. So it does seem like the data is being collected and stored but it just isn’t being rendered in most of the reporting. In addition, when you click on the by date breakdown under the chart, Google is only showing data as recent as this past Sunday. Again, I really think the data is not lost and will soon show up in the main reporting charts soon. What Google said. Daniel Waisberg from the Google Search Central team who works with Search Console said on X, “We’re catching up.” Here is that post: We're catching up! — Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) October 24, 2025 Why we care. If you’ve been looking to run reports for clients or stakeholders, you may have to wait a few more days for this report to catch up. It is not a bug just for your site, but for all sites in Google Search Console and it should be fixed soon. View the full article

Learn about the best large language models in 2025 and find out how to choose the best one for your needs. View the full article

It used to be that artificial intelligence would leave behind helpful clues that an image it produced was not, in fact, real. Previous generations of the technology might give a person an extra finger or even an additional limb. Teeth could look odd and out of place, and skin could render overly blushed, like something out of Pixar. Multiple dimensions could befuddle our models, which struggled to represent the physical world in a sensical way: Ask for an image of salmon swimming in a river, and AI might show you a medium-rare salmon steak floating along a rapturous current. Sure, we were in the uncanny valley. But at least we knew we were there. That’s no longer the case. While there are still some analog ways to detect that the content we see was created with the help of AI, the implicit visual tip-offs are, increasingly, disappearing. The limited release of Sora 2, OpenAI’s latest video-generation model, has only hastened this development, experts at multiple AI detection companies tell Fast Company—meaning we may soon come to be entirely dependent on digital and other technical tools to wade through AI slop. That has ramifications not only for everyday internet users but also for any institution with an interest in protecting its likeness or identity from theft and misappropriation. “Even [for] analysts like me who saw the evolution of this industry, it’s really hard, especially on images,” Francesco Cavalli, cofounder of one of those firms, Sensity AI, tells Fast Company. “The shapes, the colors, and the humans are perfect. So without the help of a tool now, it’s almost impossible for the average internet user to understand whether an image or a video or a piece of audio is AI-generated or not.” Visual clues are fading The good news is that at least for now there are still some telltale visual signs that content was generated via artificial intelligence. Researchers are also hunting for more. While extra fingers appear less common, AI image generation models can still struggle to produce sensible text, explains Sofia Rubinson, a senior editor at Reality Check, a publication run by the information reliability company NewsGuard. Remember that surveillance video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline that turned out to be AI-produced? You might just have to consider whether rabbits actually do that, Rubinson says. “We really want to encourage people to think a little bit more critically about what they’re seeing online as these visuals are going away,” she adds. Rubinson says it’s possible to search for whether a portion of a video has been blurred out, which might suggest that a Sora 2 watermark used to be there. We can also check who shared it. Toggling to an account’s page sometimes reveals a trove of similar videos—an almost-certain giveaway that you’re being served AI slop. On the flip side, usernames won’t necessarily help us discern who really produced content: As Fast Company previously reported, it’s somewhat easy, though not always possible, to grab a Sora 2 username associated with a famous person, despite OpenAI’s rules on using other peoples’ likenesses. Ultimately, we may need to become fluent in a model’s individual style and tendencies, argues Siwei Lyu, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies deepfakes. For instance, Sora 2-generated speech can appear a little too fast. (Some have dubbed this an “AI accent.”) Still, Lyu warns that these indications “are subtle and can often be missed when viewing casually.” And the technology will improve, which means it’s unlikely such hints will be around forever. Indeed, researchers say the visible residue that AI was involved in creating a piece of content already seems to be fading. “The tips that we used to give in terms of visual inconsistencies are disappearing, model after model,” says Emmanuelle Saliba, a former journalist who now leads investigations at GetReal Labs, a cybersecurity firm working on detecting and studying AI-generated and manipulated content. While incoherent physical movement used to indicate AI’s use in the creation of an image, Sora 2 has improved significantly on mimicking the real world, she says. At Reality Defender, also a deepfake detection firm, every one of the company’s researchers—half of whom have doctorates—have now been fooled by content produced by newer generations of AI. “Since the launch of Sora, every single one of them has mislabeled a deepfake as real or vice versa,” Ben Colman, cofounder and CEO of Reality Defender, tells Fast Company. “If people who’ve been working on this for 5 to 25 years cannot differentiate real from fake, how can average users or those using manual detection?” Labels won’t save us, either. While companies have touted watermarking as a way to identify AI-generated content, simple workarounds appear to foil these tools. For instance, videos from OpenAI’s Sora come with a visual watermark—but online tools can remove them. OpenAI, like other companies, has committed to the C2PA standard created by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. That specification is supposed to encode the provenance, or source, of a piece of content into its metadata. Yet the watermark can be removed by screenshotting an image created by OpenAI technology. Even dragging and dropping that image, in some cases, can remove the watermark, Fast Company’s tests with the tool show. OpenAI concedes this flaw, but a spokesperson said they weren’t able to reproduce the drag-and-drop issue. When Fast Company posed questions about this vulnerability to Adobe, which operates the C2PA verification tool, the company said the issue was on OpenAI’s end. Updating methodologies Of course, the companies Fast Company spoke to are interested in selling various products designed to save us from the deepfake deluge. Some envision that AI content detection might go the way of virus scanning and become integrated into myriad online and workplace tools. Others suggest that their platforms will be necessary because the rise of tools like Sora 2 will make video call-based verification obsolete. Some executives believe their products will play a role in protecting brands from embarrassing AI-generated content. In response to the release of the Sora app, a few of these firms do say they’re seeing growing interest. Still, like humans, even these companies need to update their methodologies when new models are released. “Even if the human cannot spot anything from the tech point of view, there’s always something to investigate,” Sensity’s Cavalli says. This often requires a mixed-methods approach, one that takes into account a range of factors, including studying a file’s metadata and discrepancies in background noise. Sensity’s detection models are also retrained and refined when new models come online, Cavalli adds. But even this isn’t always perfect. Lyu from SUNY Buffalo says that while the detection systems his team has developed still work on videos produced with Sora 2, they have lower accuracy compared to their performance on generative AI models. And that’s after some fine-tuning. Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor who cofounded Reality Defender and serves as its chief science officer, says the company’s forensic and data techniques have seen “better” but “not perfect” generalization in the latest models. In the case of Sora 2, some of the company’s video techniques have remained effective, “while others have required fine-tuning,” he says, adding that the audio detection models still work robustly. That’s a change from earlier eras of generative AI, when forensic techniques had to be continuously updated to apply to the latest models. “For our digital-forensic techniques, this required understanding specific artifacts introduced by the AI models and then building techniques to detect these artifacts. For our more data-based techniques, this required generating content from the latest model and retraining our models.” Whether these deepfake detection methods will continue to hold up is unclear. In the meantime, it seems that we’re increasingly heading toward a world flooded by AI but still building its seawalls. View the full article

Meta is working to make its apps better for boomers. This week the company announced new UX features designed to deter scammers and make Meta’s apps safer for older adults. Scammers today use all kinds of tricks to part people from their money, like soliciting personal information under the guise of fake government benefits, brazenly pretending to be customer service support, and chatting up unwitting people in the comments section of a real business’s social media page to lure them to another page. New features for older users Meta says its new in-app warnings are meant to combat that type of behavior, and will be triggered by suspicious activity. On the chat app WhatsApp, users who attempt to share their screen with an unknown contact during a video call will get a warning that says “Only share your screen with people you trust.” The pop-up notes that sharing your screen lets those you share it with “see anything you display on your screen, including sensitive details like your banking info.” On Messenger, Meta says it’s testing more advanced scam detection in chats. The company says that when scam detection is enabled, suspicious chats will trigger a warning that prompts users to request an AI review, which will explain why the message was flagged, plus provide tips for staying safe online. The feature can be toggled off or on by going to privacy and safety settings and tapping scam detection. An example AI review Meta shared of a flagged suspicious message notes “common scam signs” such as job offers promising fast cash or the ability to work from home for a job that can’t be done remotely. The AI review goes on to suggest the recipient of the message ignore job offers that seem too good to be true and never agree to send gift cards, a wire transfer, or other forms of payment to a stranger. That includes strangers who are famous. Scamming is on the rise Scammers have faked the likenesses of public figures such as Taylor Swift to make it appear as if the pop star is promoting a cookware set giveaway, and actors like Helen Mirren and Jamie Lee Curtis have in recent months warned fans about scammers using their likeness on Instagram. Meta, which was hit this month with a class-action lawsuit that alleges it profits off of impersonation scam ads, announced it’s investing in cracking down on celebrity scams in the EU, U.K., and South Korea by using facial ID technology and AI. Online scams are a real problem for Meta and other companies. Meta says since the start of year, it’s disrupted nearly 8 million Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with criminal scam centers, and these and other scams have proven costly for victims. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report, in 2024 people ages 60 and older lost a total of $4.8 billion to fraud—more than any other group. That’s up from more than $3 billion in 2023. Best practice for designing digital products for an aging population often calls for features like bigger fonts and intuitive design, but it also means making it safe from scammers and fraudsters who target older individuals. As Meta attempts to shore up online safety for young people by launching teen accounts with heightened parental controls, it’s clear the company also has work to do for its users at the other end of the age spectrum. View the full article

It used to be that artificial intelligence would leave behind helpful clues that an image it produced was not, in fact, real. Previous generations of the technology might give a person an extra finger or even an additional limb. Teeth could look odd and out of place, and skin could render overly blushed, like something out of Pixar. Multiple dimensions could befuddle our models, which struggled to represent the physical world in a sensical way: Ask for an image of salmon swimming in a river, and AI might show you a medium-rare salmon steak floating along a rapturous current. Sure, we were in the uncanny valley. But at least we knew we were there. That’s no longer the case. While there are still some analog ways to detect that the content we see was created with the help of AI, the implicit visual tip-offs are, increasingly, disappearing. The limited release of Sora 2, OpenAI’s latest video-generation model, has only hastened this development, experts at multiple AI detection companies tell Fast Company—meaning we may soon come to be entirely dependent on digital and other technical tools to wade through AI slop. That has ramifications not only for everyday internet users but also for any institution with an interest in protecting its likeness or identity from theft and misappropriation. “Even [for] analysts like me who saw the evolution of this industry, it’s really hard, especially on images,” Francesco Cavalli, cofounder of one of those firms, Sensity AI, tells Fast Company. “The shapes, the colors, and the humans are perfect. So without the help of a tool now, it’s almost impossible for the average internet user to understand whether an image or a video or a piece of audio is AI-generated or not.” Visual clues are fading The good news is that at least for now there are still some telltale visual signs that content was generated via artificial intelligence. Researchers are also hunting for more. While extra fingers appear less common, AI image generation models can still struggle to produce sensible text, explains Sofia Rubinson, a senior editor at Reality Check, a publication run by the information reliability company NewsGuard. Remember that surveillance video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline that turned out to be AI-produced? You might just have to consider whether rabbits actually do that, Rubinson says. “We really want to encourage people to think a little bit more critically about what they’re seeing online as these visuals are going away,” she adds. Rubinson says it’s possible to search for whether a portion of a video has been blurred out, which might suggest that a Sora 2 watermark used to be there. We can also check who shared it. Toggling to an account’s page sometimes reveals a trove of similar videos—an almost-certain giveaway that you’re being served AI slop. On the flip side, usernames won’t necessarily help us discern who really produced content: As Fast Company previously reported, it’s somewhat easy, though not always possible, to grab a Sora 2 username associated with a famous person, despite OpenAI’s rules on using other peoples’ likenesses. Ultimately, we may need to become fluent in a model’s individual style and tendencies, argues Siwei Lyu, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies deepfakes. For instance, Sora 2-generated speech can appear a little too fast. (Some have dubbed this an “AI accent.”) Still, Lyu warns that these indications “are subtle and can often be missed when viewing casually.” And the technology will improve, which means it’s unlikely such hints will be around forever. Indeed, researchers say the visible residue that AI was involved in creating a piece of content already seems to be fading. “The tips that we used to give in terms of visual inconsistencies are disappearing, model after model,” says Emmanuelle Saliba, a former journalist who now leads investigations at GetReal Security, a cybersecurity firm working on detecting and studying AI-generated and manipulated content. While incoherent physical movement used to indicate AI’s use in the creation of an image, Sora 2 has improved significantly on mimicking the real world, she says. At Reality Defender, also a deepfake detection firm, every one of the company’s researchers—half of whom have doctorates—have now been fooled by content produced by newer generations of AI. “Since the launch of Sora, every single one of them has mislabeled a deepfake as real or vice versa,” Ben Colman, cofounder and CEO of Reality Defender, tells Fast Company. “If people who’ve been working on this for 5 to 25 years cannot differentiate real from fake, how can average users or those using manual detection?” Labels won’t save us, either. While companies have touted watermarking as a way to identify AI-generated content, simple workarounds appear to foil these tools. For instance, videos from OpenAI’s Sora come with a visual watermark—but online tools can remove them. OpenAI, like other companies, has committed to the C2PA standard created by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. That specification is supposed to encode the provenance, or source, of a piece of content into its metadata. Yet the watermark can be removed by screenshotting an image created by OpenAI technology. Even dragging and dropping that image, in some cases, can remove the watermark, Fast Company’s tests with the tool show. OpenAI concedes this flaw, but a spokesperson said they weren’t able to reproduce the drag-and-drop issue. When Fast Company posed questions about this vulnerability to Adobe, which operates the C2PA verification tool, the company said the issue was on OpenAI’s end. Updating methodologies Of course, the companies Fast Company spoke to are interested in selling various products designed to save us from the deepfake deluge. Some envision that AI content detection might go the way of virus scanning and become integrated into myriad online and workplace tools. Others suggest that their platforms will be necessary because the rise of tools like Sora 2 will make video call-based verification obsolete. Some executives believe their products will play a role in protecting brands from embarrassing AI-generated content. In response to the release of the Sora app, a few of these firms do say they’re seeing growing interest. Still, like humans, even these companies need to update their methodologies when new models are released. “Even if the human cannot spot anything from the tech point of view, there’s always something to investigate,” Sensity’s Cavalli says. This often requires a mixed-methods approach, one that takes into account a range of factors, including studying a file’s metadata and discrepancies in background noise. Sensity’s detection models are also retrained and refined when new models come online, Cavalli adds. But even this isn’t always perfect. Lyu from SUNY Buffalo says that while the detection systems his team has developed still work on videos produced with Sora 2, they have lower accuracy compared to their performance on generative AI models. And that’s after some fine-tuning. Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor who cofounded GetReal Security and serves as its chief science officer, says the company’s forensic and data techniques have seen “better” but “not perfect” generalization in the latest models. In the case of Sora 2, some of the company’s video techniques have remained effective, “while others have required fine-tuning,” he says, adding that the audio detection models still work robustly. That’s a change from earlier eras of generative AI, when forensic techniques had to be continuously updated to apply to the latest models. “For our digital-forensic techniques, this required understanding specific artifacts introduced by the AI models and then building techniques to detect these artifacts. For our more data-based techniques, this required generating content from the latest model and retraining our models.” Whether these deepfake detection methods will continue to hold up is unclear. In the meantime, it seems that we’re increasingly heading toward a world flooded by AI but still building its seawalls. The name of GetReal Security has been updated. View the full article