menu_open Columnists

Fast Company

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Microsoft naming conventions are getting an AI makeover—and they sound very sci-fi

Microsoft’s ‘Agents and Infra’ segment is meant to reflect the company’s changes in the era of artificial intelligence.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Jude Cramer

The ‘Great Flattening’ rolls on as Uber lays off middle managers

More companies continue to flatten and trim their org charts. Whether or not the trend is good for business is still up in the air.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Peter Saalfield

Forget vacations. These 3 everyday expenses are blowing up Americans’ summer budgets

Groceries, utilities, and transportation are creating more financial pressure than travel or back-to-school shopping, new data shows.

yesterday 1

Fast Company

Sarah Bregel

OpenAI unleashes Astra, its most capable and controversial model yet

OpenAI says GPT-6 Astra marks the arrival of AGI, even as its cybersecurity abilities and harder-to-monitor reasoning raise new safety concerns.

yesterday 1

Fast Company

Mark Sullivan

Your 401(k) may be at a record high. Think twice before making this money move

More workers are borrowing from their 401(k)s or taking hardship withdrawals, moves that can come at a significant long-term cost.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Taylor Hatmaker

Barilla is buying one of America’s fastest-growing mac and cheese brands

The Italian pasta giant has agreed to acquire GOODLES, the buzzy boxed mac and cheese brand that hit store shelves just over four years ago.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Anna-Louise Jackson

Why are AI companies buying books?

AI companies are buying used books to help train their large language models. As part of a copyright settlement earlier this year, courts ruled that...

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Kat-Caulderwood

The security workers who guard OpenAI and Anthropic could go on strike

Security workers in San Francisco represented by SEIU-United Service Workers West voted this week to authorize a strike.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Pavithra Mohan

Men are skipping showers in a bizarre new dating trend. Here’s why

‘Pheromone-maxxing’ is gaining attention on TikTok, where some men claim smelling more natural makes them more attractive to women.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

María José Gutiérrez Chávez

What is public interest technology and how does it help people in need? A policy expert explains

Public interest technology can fill the gaps between abstract policy and real world solutions.

yesterday 1

Fast Company

The Conversation

Halloween candy scare: FDA warns people to ‘destroy’ chocolate sold at 4 major retail chains in 13 states over life-threatening risk

Crystal Temptations has recalled its Chocolatey Eyeballs sold at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and other retailers, according to an FDA safety alert.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Jennifer Mattson

Billionaire Leon Black sues House Oversight Committee over Epstein investigation

The committee’s top members said they planned to discuss whether they would hold Black in contempt of Congress.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Associated Press

Gen Z doesn’t want to go to college. This startup school wants to fix that—by ditching clubs, sports, and dining halls

The Greenway Institute is cutting tuition costs by putting hands-on education above nonacademic amenities. Is it worth it for students?

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Jude Cramer

Apple has a hardware guy as CEO. Here’s what people want him to do

Apple’s new CEO is experienced in product design, and he’s already getting plenty of unsolicited suggestions.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Hunter Schwarz

This EPA proposal on data centers could leave the public in the dark about air pollution

The proposal seeks to eliminate a federal requirement on public commentary.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Associated Press

Worried your writing sounds like AI? These tools can help

The LLM cliché highlighter and Slop Tells can help you find the AI jargon in your own writing.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Grace Snelling

New report: El Niño 2026 is now the strongest in 1,000 years. Here’s what that means for your winter forecast

The projected super El Niño could bring more extreme weather to the U.S. during the hurricane season.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Jennifer Mattson

This Labor Day: forecast, backcast, rest, and dream

These three prompts will set you up for success for the rest of the year and beyond.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Natalie Nixon

Maybe we were wrong about Perplexity

The AI startup pivoted toward agents and has tripled revenue to $750 million, with Nvidia now looking seriously at buying in.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Mark Sullivan

‘Sex before marriage and a job after’: 9 Gloria Steinem quotes about work, empathy, liberation, and more

The groundbreaking feminist writer and activist, who passed away on Wednesday at 92, believed in the power of words. Here are some of her best.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Sarah Fielding

The AI doctor will see you soon. We don’t have a plan for that

A road map for increasingly autonomous healthcare.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Anmol Madan

GoPro stock surges again on merger and AI pivot news: What the heck is happening with GPRO?

Following a major stake from a famous YouTube star, the action camera company will now join with another company and focus on AI solutions.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Michael Grothaus

The largest school system in the U.S. just banned AI for students through 8th grade

Mayor Mamdani announced a one-year moratorium on AI tools for elementary and middle school students.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Associated Press

Trump loves data centers, voters don’t. Of course he’s doubling down right before the midterms.

As polling shows GOP voters opposing data centers, Trump is pushing them hard and some GOP officials are suggesting the opposition is a psyop.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Joe Berkowitz

Cannabis consumers are no longer stoner stereotypes. Not all brands are marketing accordingly

CEOs and marketing experts weigh in on how cannabis companies are winning over a more casual customer through branding.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Joe Berkowitz

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang vows to keep Hugging Face ‘an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem’

After weeks of rumors, the AI chip giant officially announced on Thursday that it will buy the open-source repository for nearly $13 billion.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Sam Becker

Global warming beyond Paris Agreement targets is now a given, UN says. Experts say it should be a call to action, not apathy.

A UN report reveals that our planet will likely surpass 1.5°C within a few years. Some climate experts worry it does a poor job of showing us the way...

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Kristin Toussaint

5 proven ways to turn disinterest into a job offer

Bring this approach into your own job search to up your chances of an offer.

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Robert Hellmann

Notion’s new San Francisco HQ is an ode to classic design

With mood lighting, iconic furniture, and lots of wood, the software company wants its Market Street space to look like anything but the office of a...

yesterday 0

Fast Company

Diana Budds

More schools are banning cell phones. The academic benefits haven’t materialized

Despite growing support for phone-free classrooms, recent research finds virtually no effect on test scores and little change in other measures.

yesterday 8

Fast Company

Chris Morris

How much energy does agentic AI actually use? One scientist tracked every prompt he sent

Tech companies say typical AI prompts use little energy. Zeke Hausfather’s experiment suggests AI agents are a different story.

yesterday 7

Fast Company

Adele Peters

Steve Jobs said great leaders make 1 difficult choice most managers avoid

Making people better requires high standards, honest feedback, and a workplace where people are not afraid of the boss.

yesterday 8

Fast Company

Inc

How to spot romance scams online and protect yourself

Scammers worm their way into a victim’s heart to gain access to their money through false pretenses.

yesterday 8

Fast Company

The Conversation

I attempted to institute a ‘no-shame’ rule in my work, and it was a lot harder than I expected

A writer says she can practice self-compassion in many areas of her life. So why is it such a struggle professionally?

yesterday 10

Fast Company

Anisa Purbasari Horton

5 things Freud got right about your brain

Here are ideas that we often forget were once novel Freudian ideas.

yesterday 10

Fast Company

Next Big Idea Club

How AI could kill ‘corporate ick’

Conversational AI could encourage workers to think out loud, self-edit less, and leave some buttoned-up business norms behind.

previous day 0

Fast Company

Lindsay Dodgson

How to navigate a values conflict at work as a leader

Leaders face unique challenges when their company’s values clash with their own. Here are four steps to take when this happens.

previous day 0

Fast Company

Art Markman

Pizza Hut closed hundreds of stores last year: See where restaurants shuttered as new ownership takes effect

The struggling pizza chain was sold to private equity by fast food giant Yum Brands in a deal completed this week. Here’s what might happen next.

previous day 0

Fast Company

Natasha Etzel

Workers who feel ostracized at work are less productive, study shows

And promoting employee engagement may not help.

previous day 0

Fast Company

Peter Saalfield

1 in 4 homeowners are making this extra mortgage payment. Should you?

Small extra payments can shorten your loan and cut interest costs, but your mortgage may be the cheapest debt you have.

previous day 0

Fast Company

Anna-Louise Jackson

A viral 1990s-style sitcom is putting an AI slop spin on ‘Friends.’ And people can’t look away

“Bad Cat,” from creator Daria Zabnieva, is reeling in millions of viewers with a smoking feline who seems to not have been told about slop fatigue.

previous day 0

Fast Company

María José Gutiérrez Chávez

Jason Isbell’s Suno lawsuit takes aim beyond AI copyright

The lawsuit takes an unusual approach, arguing that the AI music company exploited musicians’ identities rather than simply infringing their...

previous day 3

Fast Company

Chris Morris

At G20, Treasury Secretary Bessent said all members align on cheap exports, except for one

19 of the G20 members agreed to tackle cheap exports, but China was not one of them.

previous day 1

Fast Company

Associated Press

Taco Bell’s newest menu item is a $3.99 twist on a discontinued favorite

The Churro Ice Cream Taco taps into Choco Taco nostalgia with a waffle shell, chocolate coating, and an entirely new churro ice cream filling.

previous day 0

Fast Company

María José Gutiérrez Chávez

Uber cuts 10% of jobs today, stock up: Why these layoffs are different from others

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi cited the need for the company to be ‘simpler’ and ‘faster,’ but did not mention AI.

previous day 1

Fast Company

Jennifer Mattson

The fastest-growing skincare brand at Sephora just named a new CEO

Founder Olamide Olowe will step down as CEO to welcome new leadership from a Fenty Beauty alum.

previous day 1

Fast Company

Sage Swaby

How friction can spark creativity at work

Think getting ahead is all about people-pleasing? Think again. Disagreements may actually help you create better on the job.

previous day 1

Fast Company

Lauren Barack

Chevron confirms it will invest billions to expand operations in oil-rich Venezuela

Venezuela’s reserves hold more than 303 billion barrels of crude oil.

previous day 10

Fast Company

Associated Press

Southwest is opening airport lounges for the first time. Here’s where

The airline is launching its first-ever lounge network with four locations already under construction and at least seven more planned.

previous day 1

Fast Company

Emily Price

Panera Bread’s fall menu goes heavy on the sweets and soups, including 3 items you’ve never seen before

The fast casual chain is getting ready for the cooler weather with new surprises and old returning favorites. See the full list.

previous day 1

Fast Company

Sarah Fielding