Someone can convert an idea into reality faster than ever before with the help of generative AI, and that makes the role of humans in the process even more important. “More is not always better. Faster is not always better,” said Emily Galloway, Spotify’s senior director of product design, at the New Rules of Great Design panel during the 2026 Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City. “Human judgment is becoming so important.” The cost of inventing something new has never been lower, which means the name of the game is discerning what is actually worth building, agreed Brooke…
Author: Staff Writer
I recently typed a simple question into Google search: How much screen time is too much for teenagers? Instead of presenting links, as Google had been doing for many years, it gave me an AI-generated answer. The artificial intelligence agent cited a number, then complicated that reply, noting that quality and balance of time could matter more than the number of hours, and that “too much” time could depend on a teenager’s sleep, exercise, school demands, and mood. I tried another search: Should I take a daily aspirin? This time the AI answer presented me with medical information, warned about…
Despite being the third-largest fast-food hamburger chain in the world and the second-largest in the U.S. after McDonald’s, Wendy’s has struggled lately with declining sales and a shrinking store footprint. This week, another worrying sign suggests that the brand’s troubles are far from over. One of Wendy’s largest franchisees, Meritage Hospitality Group Inc., which runs 314 Wendy’s locations, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Here’s what you need to know about the bankruptcy and whether it means even more Wendy’s stores will close. What’s happened? On Thursday, Meritage Hospitality Group Inc., a major Wendy’s franchisee, announced it has filed for…
This year, I’ve been building an AI social media production pipeline to promote the 25+ shows on the Autistic Culture Podcast Network. It took me a week of effort, but I managed to program Claude Code to talk to NotebookLM, which now feeds our YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok pipeline, and a task that used to take me a full day now runs in the background. The first time I ran a real batch through it, I felt the guilt of always being behind fade away. I could physically feel my nervous system recalibrating. Maybe for the first time since I…
As concern rises over the risks of artificial intelligence, hopes for any kind of global approach depend on cooperation between the U.S. and China — superpowers that seem only to be more skeptical of each other’s AI strategy.AI governance is expected to be on the agenda in a meeting planned for next week in Washington between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The topic has gained urgency in both countries, with American tech leaders saying that averting worst-case scenarios for rogue AI depends on a degree of cooperation with China.But both countries are vying for a decisive advantage…
Vaccines were once the life-saving breakthrough. Today, with this new fangled way to create vaccines with computers, it is coming down to the same concerns rising from AI – who do you really trust? Governments are no longer the protector of society. They are available for the highest bid. This is all breaking down society at the very foundation. It is not just a single incident. This is becoming a widespread crisis in confidence from vaccines to how decides to create war. Bill Gates was a central founder of GAVI. His foundation provided the initial seed funding that made…
Barclays workers in the United Kingdom are protesting the bank’s move from two office days a week to three (with senior staff expected four days) and demanding that the firm cover costs associated with the policy. Thousands of employees signed an open letter criticizing the return-to-office (RTO) mandate, set to go into effect in October, and requesting money to cover additional commuting costs. They also called on the bank to provide exemptions for people with commutes over 40 minutes, the Financial Times reported. The workers are members of the trade union Unite, which represents almost 80% of Barclays’ 45,000 workers…
The key to Adidas’s recent revival? Getting rid of all the “no-sayers,” CEO Bjørn Gulden told an audience at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York. He credits this strategy for turning the brand around after a tumultuous period. When Gulden took the reins at Adidas in January 2023, the sporting goods and apparel giant was dealing with the fallout from its Yeezy partnership with Kanye West. The once-lucrative alliance had recently crashed and burned after the rapper made a series of offensive and antisemitic remarks, leaving the footwear company with $1.2 billion in unsold inventory. Sales in China…
As more women join the workforce and gradually gain representation in leadership roles, the lack of resources like affordable childcare and paid maternity leave has become increasingly consequential. In the first half of last year, the U.S. saw the steepest decline of working mothers with children under 5 years old in 40 years, according to a University of Kansas study, and that decline has continued. During this week’s Fast Company Innovation Festival, staff editor Shalene Gupta asked several mothers in senior leadership positions how we got here, what mothers need, and how we can improve workplaces and support systems accordingly.…
An advertising company is challenging consumers to pick its AI-generated ad out of a lineup, and so far participants aren’t up to the task. The COOL Company is an advertising platform that offers customers fully AI-powered ad campaigns, from creation to activation and insights. To prove that its work holds up against ads made by humans, the company launched an online challenge pitting its own AI-generated ads against real ad photography, testing whether participants could discern the difference. In its study of more than 500 consumers, only 17% of participants correctly identified the AI-generated imagery, meaning 83% were fooled by…