Chem-X fuses fentanyl testing with a Gen Z sensibility and brand identity, an ethos its creator describes as ‘friends helping friends.’

When Alec Manko was a freshman at Stanford, an older student died of an overdose resulting from drugs laced with fentanyl. Manko began thinking about ways to protect his community from the substance, which is the cause of one in every five deaths among young people in California.

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Travel trends continue to change since COVID, and some startups are recognizing an underserved market of women who prefer solo adventures.

At 35, I was fresh off a divorce and a couple of subsequent heart-wrenching breakups. To say that I’d had an emotionally taxing few years would be an understatement. But on top of the end of a marriage and the failed romantic relationships that followed, I had also grown distant from a number of friends. It’s something that often happens after a divorce and a few dark years of doing the emotional heavy lifting of sorting out your life. It’s also something that happens when you’re the first one to settle down and have kids and, likewise, the first one to get divorced.

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What to expect next from the never-cresting pink wave.

“Hot Barbie Summer” trendsploded in 2022 after production stills hit the internet from Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie, featuring Margot Robbie in the title role and a bleached Ryan Gosling as her long-suffering boyfriend, Ken. Since then, searches for “Barbiecore” fashion have soared, celebrities are serving their boldest hot-pink lewks on Instagram and red carpets, and seemingly everything from a shot of courtroom Gwyneth Paltrow to a random baked good has been memed onto the film’s poster, which created a viral phenomenon of its own earlier this spring.

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It’s easier than ever to create nonconsensual explicit images and videos using deepfakes. It’s almost impossible to get them taken down.

On January 30, Brandon Ewing made a mistake he’ll never forget. While broadcasting himself playing Hitman 3 to some of his 316,000 Twitch followers, Ewing, who streams as Atrioc, briefly switched windows to check the time, revealing a browser tab open to a pornographic website. Not only did the OnlyFans-esque website host porn, but the page shown belonged to a user who exclusively made AI-generated deepfake porn, including videos that featured other Twitch streamers—many of whom Ewing knows personally.

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With the launch of the new European Sleeper night train connecting Brussels to Berlin, Europe’s climate-friendly rail renaissance is picking up steam.

Millions of Americans will find themselves in Memorial Day traffic this weekend, inching toward an elusive beach or barbecue. Others will spend hours at the airport, navigating long lines and flight delays. In much of the country, the only ways to manage a weekend getaway is by car or by plane.

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Pursuing AI ethics on the ground is less about mapping ethical principles onto corporate actions than it is about implementing management structures and processes that enable an organization to spot and mitigate threats.

The rush to deploy powerful new generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, has raised alarms about potential harm and misuse. The law’s glacial response to such threats has prompted demands that the companies developing these technologies implement AI “ethically.”

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As robots get more sophisticated and behave ever-more humanlike, how will we treat them? This CMU professor has a proposal.

Over the past months, generative AI tools like ChatGPT have jolted the public into a state of techno-fiction on steroids, while career professionals who endured years of schooling to become doctors, lawyers, and computer programmers have sweated over the prospect of job cannibalization.

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After collapsing under the weight of an unsustainable business model a few years ago, the subscription-based movie service is back for its next act.

Moviegoers rejoice: MoviePass is back for yet another showing. The company just announced its new points-based system, which will allow users to earn points for every film they see, along with a tiered approach, letting them choose from several plans.

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Leaders in these industries agree that it is essential to foster rather than stifle innovation

In the technology world, the word regulation may scare developers and companies looking to launch new tools. Most want to keep consumers safe, but some fear innovation will be stifled by regulation—or the lack thereof, especially in emerging spaces like fintech and digital assets. The newness and complexity of these sectors means policy development can take a long time and much longer than the speed with which the technology is evolving.

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Director Wes Anderson won’t watch the AI remakes of his movies that are taking over TikTok and YouTube. Why? To protect his creative sanity.

Like Bill Murray hiding from the world behind his answering machine, Wes Anderson is actively avoiding TikTok to protect his mental sanity from the waggish microcosm of Andersonian social media videos that were born from the depths of his very own creative womb.

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Here’s why it’s challenging to calculate the ongoing costs of the writer’s strike—for studios and for the writers participating. But not striking has a cost, too.

Since the writers’ strike started on May 2, writers have written countless clever protest signs, TV shows like Abbott Elementary, Stranger Things, and Saturday Night Live have been stalled, and studios may have lost billions. Overall, measuring the exact cost of the writers’ strike can be difficult.

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In a new survey of small-business owners, one-quarter said they are already testing tools such as ChatGPT, but some weren’t clear on how AI will help their business.

The rapid rise of generative AI has mainly been examined through the lens of how major companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple will use it, along with how the technology will affect industries such as entertainment and healthcare. But a new report from FreshBooks sheds some light on how generative AI is expected to impact small-business owners in the near future.

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In a LinkedIn livestream, the former president said studios wouldn’t exist without writers. Netflix, where his new series airs, has been a main target of picket lines.

Former president Barack Obama is rooting for the Hollywood writers who have been on strike for more than three weeks in a standoff with television, film, and streaming studios over pay and the threat of artificial intelligence.

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This AI-assistance technology can increase employee engagement by automating routine tasks and helping employees learn new skills.

In today’s fast-paced world, organizations are continuously looking for ways to grow while maintaining employee satisfaction. Enter ChatGPT. This powerful tool has the potential to transform the way we operate not just by streamlining operations, but also fostering personal and professional development. How can ChatGPT be used to boost workplace efficiency and increase employee engagement? I’ll share more here.

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Collaboration tools can improve the process and encourage participation.

Effective collaboration is essential for successful teamwork, but it can be challenging, particularly in remote or hybrid work environments. I’ve talked with leaders of many organizations that are experiencing these challenges, particularly with alignment issues. We’ve seen how miscommunication and information gaps can lead to a slower speed to market, missed objectives, and frustrated team members.

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Education technology has often failed to live up to its promise. GPT-4 and other AI breakthroughs should be different.

Over the last decade, educators and administrators have often encountered lofty promises of technology revolutionizing learning, only to experience disappointment when reality failed to meet expectations. It’s understandable, then, that educators might view the current excitement around artificial intelligence with a measure of caution: Is this another overhyped fad, or are we on the cusp of a genuine breakthrough?

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The media brand brought its Head in the Clouds music festival to New York City this past weekend. Fast Company caught up with CEO Sean Miyashiro.

Not too long ago, it seemed unlikely that Japanese alt-pop group Atarashii Gakko! or Indonesian-born rapper Rich Brian would’ve been able to establish die-hard fan bases stateside. But over the years, the music industry in the U.S. has seen a massive expansion in representation with artists charting hits across K-pop, Reggaeton, Afrobeats, and beyond—or artists simply existing in genres that hadn’t reflected them before.

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Swifties and Deadheads have a lot in common—including ticket-scalping headaches.

My daughter desperately wanted one present for her Sweet 16: to see the Taylor Swift concert with a good friend. Unfortunately, tickets to the recent Eras Tour were sold out on Ticketmaster, and resale prices were in the thousands for even nosebleeds. In a last ditch, but calculated, effort, my wife took her and her friend to the stadium in Philadelphia, hoping to snag tickets right before the show when the scalpers cave, and prices typically dive on the secondary market.

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Opinions are already colliding on the internet, but what do the experts think?

About a month ago, the media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery dropped a bombshell: Only three years after launching HBO Max, the streaming service would undergo a total overhaul. HBO Max would become Max, the platform would gain a new tagline, and its signature purple logo would be replaced by a deeply unoriginal blue.

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As shareholder meetings become cultural battlegrounds, companies are forced to consider what their brands stand for.

Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture.

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