As we enter deeper into a dystopian hellscape, even pasta sauce companies are entering the mass surveillance, data harvest game. Prego partnered with StoryCorps to launch “The Connection Keeper,” a device equipped with two microphones that I intended to record dinnertime conversations among families. “The recordings are designed to help families preserve the authentic sounds of time spent together, creating a personal archive to revisit for years to come. Families will have the option to preserve their recordings private within the StoryCorps archive or share them publicly as part of a special Prego Collection. Public recordings will also be preserved…
Author: Staff Writer
The job search is exhausting: an application, several rounds of interviews, skills assessments, and, increasingly, even a work trial. Work trials are when an interviewee is asked to complete job-related tasks over a short period of time—often a few days or up to a week—so an employer can evaluate how they perform in a real working environment before making a hiring decision. As recruiters and hiring managers sift through a flood of applications that can sound increasingly similar—especially in the age of AI—these trials have emerged as a way to evaluate candidates in real time. This shift raises important questions:…
Just days after the record-breaking Artemis II crew aboard the Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is ready to talk about what comes next. An entrepreneur turned space chief, Isaacman gets frank about the agency’s ambitions to build a permanent lunar base, put boots on Mars, and push the search for extraterrestrial life further than ever before. Plus, he shares why he sees the accelerating space race with China as one of the most consequential competitions of our time. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company…
Iran’s top diplomat on Friday headed to Pakistan, where officials have been trying to get the United States and Iran to convene for a second round of ceasefire negotiations. The trip comes as much of the world is on edge over a war that has snarled crucial energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz, clouded the global economic picture, and left thousands dead across the Middle East. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that he was on his way to Pakistan, Oman, and Russia on a trip focused on “bilateral matters and regional developments.” The White House did not immediately…
Staples is ready to party, just in time for graduation season. The office supply retailer is adding Party City shop-in-shops to 700-plus of its stores in 34 states across the U.S. Customers will be able to buy party supplies and decor, including balloons, gift bags, and favors; have helium balloons inflated; and order other celebration must-haves like personalized invitations, banners, and posters using Staples’ same-day print and marketing services. The companies announced their partnership in a joint news release on April 21. As part of the collaboration, Party City will also sell its products at Staples.com. Shoppers can use this store…
There appears to be a recent epidemic of users hijacking companies’ AI-powered customer service bots to turn them into generic AI assistants. The goal is to get the branded bots to do their bidding, without having to subscribe to an AI service. Sometimes, people force the bots to do things that they are not supposed to do, like giving extraordinary product deals and even helping them to take legally problematic actions. Most recently, a wave of LinkedIn posts and social media videos went viral for claiming that users had coaxed McDonald’s customer-service virtual assistant to abandon its burger-centric purpose and…
The time-honored tradition of scouring a new cereal box in search of a prize is coming back to the breakfast table. WK Kellogg Co. is partnering with Disney ahead of the release of Toy Story 5 this summer, rolling out cereal boxes with either classic in-box playable toys or collectible items inspired by the animated movie franchise. When and where to find them Beginning April 26, customers nationwide will be able to get their hands on the Toy Story 5-inspired cereals across Kellogg’s many brands including Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, Apple Jacks, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes,…
ASIA: The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today: • NIKKEI 225 increased 575.95 points or 0.97% to 59,716.18 • Shanghai decreased 13.35 points or -0.33% to 4,079.90 • Hang Seng increased 62.87 points or 0.24% to 25,978.07 • ASX 200 decreased 6.90 points or -0.08% to 8,786.50 • SENSEX decreased 982.71 points or -1.27% to 76,681.29 • Nifty50 decreased 275.10 points or -1.14% to 23,897.95 The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today: • AUDUSD increased 0.00228 or 0.32% to 0.71513 • NZDUSD increased 0.0028 or 0.48% to 0.58820 • USDJPY decreased 0.294 or -0.18%…
Thousands of AI startups are fighting for the VC funding needed to win a slice of the enterprise market. But, according to Spellbook founder and CEO Scott Stevenson, and many are inflating their real revenues to get it. In an viral tweet earlier this week, Stevenson called out these fledgling companies for perpetuating a “huge scam” in their metric reporting. It’s time to expose a huge scam in AI startups: Contracted ARRThe reason many AI startups are crushing revenue records is because they are using a dishonest metricThe biggest funds in the world are supporting this and misleading journalists for…
The Trump administration is putting America on the fast track to a good trip. On Friday, April 24, the FDA granted an expedited review process to three experimental psychedelic drugs. It issued priority vouchers to three currently unnamed companies, two of which are expected to research psilocybin as a treatment for depression, and one which will study a drug called methylone, a stimulant similar to MDMA, for treating PTSD. Those vouchers shorten the FDA’s review process from its standard 10 to 12 months to just one to two months, meaning FDA-approved psychedelics could arrive as soon as this summer. Research in…