Somewhere between endless meetings and half-finished projects, we all went looking for better ways to get things done this year. These are the 2025 titles that helped people stay organized, focused, and finally finish what they started.
Learn something new every day with Book Bites, 15-minute audio summaries of the latest and greatest nonfiction. Get started by downloading the Next Big Idea app today!
Move. Think. Rest.: Redefining Productivity & Our Relationship With Time
By Natalie Nixon
A creativity whisperer to the C-Suite keynote speaker teaches how to harness the power of everyday activities to stress less and be more productive. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Natalie Nixon, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Mastery: Why Deeper Learning Is Essential in an Age of Distraction
By Tony Wagner and Ulrik Juul Christensen
In a world where AI can deliver information faster and more accurately than any human, what matters most are the uniquely human skills of critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration, and character. This is why we need to replace our outdated, time-based education model with a mastery-based approach. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by coauthors Tony Wagner and Ulrik Juul Christensen, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Your Hidden Genius: The Science-Backed Strategy to Uncovering and Harnessing Your Innate Talents
By Betsy Wills and Alex Ellison
Traditional career advice places too much emphasis on skills and intereststwo things that change over time. Aptitudes are the permanent, reliable guide to how every person can uniquely flourish, thrive, and achieve their potential. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by coauthor Alex Ellison, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
By Maggie Smith
We are all creative beings because making your life is the ultimate creative act. For those who choose to tune their senses as artists, there are ten key principles to improving your craft. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Maggie Smith, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career
By Lorraine K. Lee
You can be an incredibly hard worker who delivers quality results time and again, but still get overlooked for that big promotion. The true accelerator of ambitious goals is an unforgettable presence. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Lorraine K. Lee, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Who Better Than You?: The Art of Healthy Arrogance & Dreaming Big
By Will Packer
Trailblazing filmmaker and powerhouse CEO Will Packer presents powerful and illuminating stories from the front lines of Hollywood to offer a clear vision on how to manifest your own successby believing there is no one more deserving of it than you. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Will Packer, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
How to Break Up With Your Phone
By Catherine Price
Smartphones have stolen an alarming amount of our attentionand therefore our lives. To nurture habits that fill our precious time with fun, excitement, and connection, start by breaking up with your phone. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Catherine Price, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Four Days a Week: The Life-Changing Solution for Reducing Employee Stress, Improving Well-Being, and Working Smarter
By Juliet Schor
Research increasingly shows that switching from five to four is a win for employees and their entire company. The benefits are so impressive that governments are getting involved in legislating fewer working hours. Times are changing, and modern life and modern business are better off on a four-day work schedule. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Juliet Schor, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Theres Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work
By Nelson Repenning and Donald Kieffer
A lot of companies struggle with workflow design challenges that stand in the way of getting real work done. Fortunately, for these similar obstacles there exist solutions that apply across industries. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Nelson Repenning and Donald Kieffer, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
The Brain at Rest: How the Art and Science of Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life
By Joseph Jebelli
Your brains default network is the most important part of your brain that you have probably never heard about. It is critical for maintaining intelligence, creativity, memory, and so much more. The key to a healthy default network? Rest. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Joseph Jebelli, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Finding Focus: Own Your Attention in an Age of Distraction
By Zelana Montminy
We live in a world that is quietly, relentlessly unraveling our attention and, with it, our capacity to think clearly, feel deeply, and live purposefully. Finding Focus is about how to come home to yourself and what matters most. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Zelana Montminy, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
Digital Exhaustion: Simple Rules for Reclaiming Your Life
By Paul Leonardi
A revelatory examination of why youre feeling so worn outand practical daily strategies to change your relationship with your devices. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Paul Leonardi, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.
The Key Ideas in 15 Minutes
If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books, Roald Dahl once famously said. The only trouble is, reading even one book from cover to cover takes hoursand you may not have many hours to spare.
But imagine for a moment: What if you could read a groundbreaking new book every day? Or even better, what if you could invite a world-renowned thinker into your earbuds, where they personally describe the five key takeaways from their work in just 15 minutes?
With the Next Big Idea app, weve turned this fantasy into a reality. We partnered with hundreds of acclaimed authors to create Book Bites, short audio summaries of the latest nonfiction that are prepared and read aloud by the authors themselves. Discover cutting-edge leadership skills, productivity hacks, the science of happiness and well-being, and much moreall in the time it takes to drive to work or walk the dog.
I love this app! The Book Bites are brilliant, perfect to have in airports, waiting rooms, anywhere I need to not doomscroll You guys are the best! Missy G.
Go Deeper With a Next Big Idea Club Membership
The Next Big Idea app is free for anyone to tryand if you love it, we invite you to become an official member of the Next Big Idea Club. Membership grants you unlimited access to Book Bites and unlocks early-release, ad-free episodes of our LinkedIn-partnered podcast. You also gain entry to our private online discussion group, where you can talk big ideas with fellow club members and join exclusive live Q&A sessions with featured authors.
For a more focused learning experience, we recommend a Hardcover or eBook Membership. Every few months, legendary authors and club curators Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink select two new nonfiction books as the must-reads of the season. We then send hardcover copies straight to your doorstep, or eBook versions to your favorite digital device. We also collaborate with the authors of selected books to produce original reading guides and premium e-courses, 50-minute master classes that take you step by step through their most life-changing ideas. And yes, its all available through the Next Big Idea app.
My biggest Thank You is for the quality of book selections so far. I look on my shelf and see these great titles, and I find myself taking down one or two each month to reread an underlined passage. Full marks to all involved! Tim K.
Learn Faster, From the Worlds Leading Thinkers
Whether you prefer to read, listen, or watch, the Next Big Idea is here to help you work smarter and live better. Wake up with an always-fresh Idea of the Day, the perfect shot of inspiration to go with your morning coffee. Then dive into one of our Challenges, hand-picked collections of Book Bites that form crash courses in subjects like communication, motivation, and career acceleration. Later, watch the playback of an interview with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, or philosopher John Kaag. And be sure to check the Events tab in the app, so that you can join an upcoming live Q&A and personally chat with the next featured thought leader.
If youre hoping to grow as a person or as a professional, we hope youll join us and tens of thousands of others who enjoy the Next Big Idea. Get started by downloading the app today!
Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea app.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.
I like pushing AI to be less predictable. When AI assistants are less bland and more bold, they challenge my blind spots and nudge me to rethink.
So I asked one of the boldest AI experimenters I know, Alexandra Samuel, to share unconventional tips and tactics when she visited New York recently from Vancouver.
Alex, who writes about AI for The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, surprised me with the scale of her AI efforts. She described creating 200-plus automation scripts and building a personal idea database that helps with drafting pitch emails. Her quirkiest tactic? Using Suno to generate songs to explain complex concepts.
Her lively new podcast, Me + Viv, explores her unusual relationship with an AI assistant she trained to serve as her coach and collaborator. She interviews AI skeptics like Oliver Burkeman and Karen Hao to challenge her own embrace of AI. The Suno songs Alex generated serve as a recurring musical thread throughout the series.
In a recent episode, Im So Sycophantic, Alex confronts Vivs most irritating flaw: her pathological tendency to flatter Alex and agree with everything she says.
The shows intriguing premise reminded me of another podcast I love, Evan Ratliffs Shell Game, whose second season debuted recently. Both are excellent explorations of what its like to engage deeply with AI assistants, resourceful and flawed as they are.
Five tips from Alex
1. Use Suno to turn words into catch music.What Suno is: An AI music generation platform for creating custom songs
Alex uses Suno extensively to create songs for her podcast about AI, treating it as a storytelling tool rather than just music creation.
Im like a monkey with a slot machine. Its pretty typical for me to generate the same song 50 or 100 times, maybe even 200 times, she says.
The iterative process helps her find the perfect version. She says Suno struggles with switching between male and female voices, musical styles, or languages mid-song. Alex suggests bringing your own lyrics to Suno for better results than relying on its built-in lyric generation. Heres documentation she wrote up about how she uses Suno.
An alternative she recommends: Work iteratively with an AI assistant like Claude to develop lyrics that you then import into Suno.
Try it for: Turning articles or announcements into short promo songs; creating engaging musical explainers; or generating a newsletter signup song
Alternatives: Udio, ElevenLabs Music
2. Coda: Create your own productivity hubWhat Coda is: A software tool for creating customized documents and databases. Ive written about how underrated Coda is as an alternative to other useful tools like Notion and Airtable.
Alex calls Coda an everything hub where you can build your own tools. New AI features make it easier to use and more flexible. Alex used Coda to design her own pitch machine, a sophisticated story tracking system.
She has one table in the pitch machine with all of her story ideas. Another table in Coda has all the publications she writes for, with editors names and contact info.
With the press of a button in Coda, she can combine multiple story pitches into a single Gmail draft while automatically updating tracking fields and follow-up dates. It took a while to set up, but now it saves her time.
Who is Coda for? Alex recommends Coda for power users who like messing around with tech. She offers this test: If you use XLOOKUP in Excel, then you should use Coda. If you dont know XLOOKUP, you should use Notion. Its like a nerd-o-meter.
Try it for: Project and campaign idea tracking, managing a client database, or automated email or Slack message generation
Alternatives: Notion, Airtable, Google Workspace, Obsidian3. CapCut: Create social videos with AI helpWhat it is: A video editing platform with AI features
Alex uses CapCut, along with custom Python scripts, to create music videos for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. She says she has mixed feelings about CapCut because of its TikTok/ByteDance ownership, but relies on it for now. Shes been working on a system for syncing the appearance of captions on-screen to the moment when song lyrics are heard.
Try it for: Creating stylish, captioned social media videos or turning podcasts into videos
Alternatives: Captions, Descript, or Kapwing
4. Claude + MCP: Connect AI to your docsWhat it is: An AI assistant connected to external databases and tools via Model Context Protocol (MCP)
MP servers let you connect sites and apps to AI platforms. Thats how Alex connected her Coda account to Claude.
Now that theyre linked, Alex can pose casual questions to Claude, which can then look for things in her Coda docs.
I can actually just have a conversation with Claude and say, Hey Claude, I just talked to an editor. Theyre looking for articles about data privacy. Can you look at my Coda doc and see what story ideas I have that might be relevant?
She emphasizes security considerations: Journalists covering sensitive subjects should avoid this type of experimental workflow if theyre protecting anonymous source information.
Try it for: Querying complex databases, finding relevant past work for new projects, analyzing patterns across your own documents, combining multiple data sources for insights
Alternatives: The Google Drive connector in Claude or ChatGPT; or a custom setup of NotebookLM
5. Claude Code: Reduce repetitive workWhat it is: An AI-powered coding assistant that runs locally on your computer. It helps developers code faster. It also helps nonprogrammers accomplish technical tasks using natural language prompts. You can use it to organize files on your laptop, create Python scripts, or make little interactive applications or games.
Despite limited formal programming training, Alex has written approximately 200 Python scripts using Claude Code.
She says, Whenever you hear yourself with the deep sigh of, like, This is gonna be a drag, just go to the AI and say, Hey, heres this thing I have to do. Is there a way that could be made into a script?
Alexs scripts have helped her combine PDFs and generate time-coded captions for video. She also used Claude Code to build her own Firefox extension for a financial tracking app.
Try it for: Batch file processing, converting data, or whipping up browser extensions to solve specific-to-you problems
Alternatives: Replit, Cursor, Claude Artifacts, Windsurf
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.
My working days often unfold in either Zoom minimalist workplaces or glass-walled conference rooms with sleek windows, filled with entrepreneurs pitching ideas. As a marketing executive and startup mentor, I lead strategies for companies of various sizes, guide founders at startup accelerators TechStars and Founder Institute, and serve as an awards jury member. My calendar overflows with executive consultations, brand campaign planning, and deadline sprints.
But between Christmas and New Year’s, I trade those sterile spaces for museum halls alive with color and history.
It wasnt easy getting out the door the first time I did this in 2021. I was filled with fears. What if a startup stalled? What if a client bailed?
Eventually, though, I did it. I carved out full days for museums. No notifications mid-visit, no news feeds. Just artand a notebook.
This wasn’t a lazy holiday stroll. I didn’t set out to make this a blueprint. I just craved difference. What I didn’t expect was how profoundly it refueled me. I feared it would derail momentum; instead, it unlocked clarity.
If you’re a leader convinced you can’t afford the pause, that’s precisely why you must. Here’s how to begin.
What the museum ritual looked like
I timed it consciously: Christmas week plus New Year’s Eve, overlapping holidays when clients slow down anyway, so I missed zero critical days.
While I was out, my colleagues handled brand campaigns; an assistant triaged the rest. If a force majeure broke out, they’d route it.
Christmas Eve morning last year, I headed out. Here’s a day in the ritual:
Slow walk to an art gallery, followed by unhurried coffee, sketching initial impressions. Then, hours absorbing art. No music in headphones, no quick email scans. Full presence.
Leaving the gallery, I wandered to the local Christmas market near the town hall. I savored warm coffee and bagels, relishing the heat of the cup in my hands.
By the end of the day, the inspiration hit. I filled my notebooknot pitches, but reflections: yearly goals reframed, market blind spots, forgotten creative hunches, leadership values dusty from neglect.
Insights flowed because I carved the space. They stuck.
Three insights that reshaped me
Here are three insights I stumbled upon while I took a moment for a pause:
1. Different lenses multiply breakthroughs.
A single perspective limits you. As I moved from the Cubism hall to the Impressionism hall in one museum, I recalled a direct-to-consumer brand struggling in Asia. They were obsessed with premium customers but missing the mass market. My walking and thinking led to a simple pivot: Tailor messaging to local culture. Sales took off.
Now my mornings begin with one question: “What lens am I using today?” Calm. Global. Daring. I lead from vision now, not reaction. The world meets me there.
2. Stillness trumps speed.
Startups move fast. Metrics can triple in a month. But speed under pressure clouds your judgment. In one case, a data management company struggled with positioning. Their new product features were failing despite endless debates. After the Christmas pause, fresh ideas clicked. We repositioned the product and landed a major client in days. Now I always ask myself: “Is this vision or just velocity?” The pause comes first.
3. Dare to break the rules.
Art thrives by breaking conventions. Picasso’s Cubism shattered traditional views, just like the best startups do. During one gallery visit in December, I thought about a tech team stuck in safe, predictable marketing. We shifted to bold, unexpected ideas, like blending AI visuals with Renaissance art vibes in January. It felt risky, but the client loved it. Sales jumped. Now I ask every team: “What’s the rule we can break?” Daring moves win in tech.
Why more leaders should try a museum ritual
Your mind craves depth, not distraction. We grant muscles recovery; why starve our creativity? Step into galleries, and ideas resurfacevision sharpens, you reconnect to the leader unswayed by noise.
Perhaps museums arent your catalyst: Lakeside solitude, hiking trails, or a quiet café moment might move you more. The central pointthat leaders need deliberate downtime to recharge and generate catalytic ideasremains.
Taking a break didn’t slow me down; it realigned me to essentials. We mistake time off for indulgence. Wrong. It’s leadership disciplineslowing down to think about what’s vital.
In 2025, AI became officially unavoidable: It had been lurking in the background before, as early adapters experimented with it. But this year, companies invested more than $202 billion in AI, a 75% increase from $114 billion invested in 2024. Major tech companies fought bitterly over AI talent, offering astronomical pay packages.
There was a groundswell of demand for talent, and unsurprisingly this spread to the demand for AI, data science, and engineering jobs, which increased 28% compared to 2024, according to data provided to Fast Company by IT staffing company Mondo. The firm also provided data on the top five jobs that took off in 2025, which weve listed by volume of demand.
Some of the jobs are new to Mondos dataset. Others saw explosive growth in demand compared to 2024. But theyre all related to AI. Theres a spike in certain jobs growth every year, but as we wrap up 2025, its clear: This was the year of artificial intelligence.
And the technology isnt going anywhere. Neither are these jobs:
1. Data Engineer (18% growth)
An AI is only as strong as the data thats powering it. Accurate and reliable data is a must, and as the demand for AI increases, so does the demand for data engineers who can ensure models are fed the highest-quality data.
2. Analytics Engineer (25% growth)
Analytics engineers ensure that companies can make sense of the data they have and use it to provide actionable insights. They organize data so its easier to analyze, apply software engineering best practices to analytics code, and design and maintain data models. They also collaborate with other teams inside the organization to help turn these insights into better decisions.
3. AI Full-Stack Engineer (new)
AI full-stack engineers can create complete AI applications: They can build the front-end user experience, the back-end infrastructure that powers the application, and embed AI as needed. In a world where everyone wants to be on the AI bandwagon, AI full-stack engineers are the next generation of full- stack engineers.
4. AI Solutions Consultant (new)
One of the largest challenges companies deploying AI are facing is understanding where the tech can make a difference. AI solutions consultants serve as a bridge between business leaders and technical teams. They identify use cases for AI, evaluate which tools to employ, and weigh in on how AI should be implemented.
5. AI Business Insights Analyst: (new)
An AI business insights analyst pairs data analysis and insights from AI with the surrounding business context to help leaders understand how to shape their strategy in an ever-changing world.
The fastest-growing roles sit at the intersection of AI, data infrastructure, and business translation, reflecting employer demand for talent that can deploy, govern, and operationalize AI at scale, Mondo Stephanie Wernick Barker wrote in an email. Compared to 2024, employers are hiring fewer generalists and more hybrid specialists who combine technical depth with measurable business impact.
The biggest brands pour creativity into being instantly recognizable. A logo you can spot at 20 paces. A color palette that becomes cultural shorthand (think Oreo blue or Coca-Cola red).
That visual obsession runs through every corner of marketing. TV, social, out-of-home, retail, and packaging. Millions go into crafting imagery, with every frame revised until it perfectly reinforces the brand.
So, of course visuals matterthey always will matter.
But the best performing brands arent blinded by them. They understand that a cohesive sonic identity that spans campaigns and touchpoints ensures your brand is remembered long after someone closes their phone or walks away from the TV.
YOU CANT AFFORD TO TUNE OUT AUDIO
Too often, sound is an afterthought. Tracks are chosen on personal taste, or even whatever can still be licensed at the end of a strained budget.
But audio isnt decoration. Its not the garnish. It deserves the same rigor as visuals. Treating it as a last-minute flourish isnt a creative misstep, its a missed business opportunity.
Thats because sound is one of the fastest, most powerful emotional triggers we have. Attention research shows that audio advertising generates at least 50% higher active attention and brand lift than visual formats. A drum roll can build tension. A chord can pull you into nostalgia. A single synth line can do what a thousand highly polished frames cannot.
Leaving that kind of influence to chance limits effectiveness across channels. It also leads to global inconsistency, with local teams relying on instinct rather than strategy.
The fix is simple. Stop treating audio as a backing track. Bring it into the creative process from minute one.
HERES HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT FIT
Choosing music is more than scanning the charts. A trending track isnt automatically the right choice. To score effectiveness, you need to look past taste and into the science, assessing four dimensions:
1. Engagement: Will it capture and hold attention?
2. Fit: Does it complement the narrative and the visuals?
3. Surprise: Does it offer the unexpected?
4. Recall: Will it be remembered?
Take a well-known commercial track. Immediate recognition is a win. But over-familiarity can also blunt surprise, reducing impact. A better route might be a reimagined version: a cover that keeps the sentiment but feels new, distinctive, and more ownable. Often, its also more cost-effective.
Look at music through both a creative and an objective lens and you give your brand cultural relevance without compromising quality.
And the data backs this up. IPA research, created with MassiveMusic, shows that:
Highly memorable music makes your brand four times more effective at driving brand recall
Unexpected music makes ads five times more likely to drive brand fame
Highly fitting music makes consumers nearly seven times more willing to pay higher prices
Highly engaging music boosts ROI by around 32% on average, and the very best performers on engagement can double your return on marketing investment.
SOUND ISNT OPTIONAL ANYMORE
For years, music sat in the category of well know it when we hear it. That era is over. We can now quantify musical effectiveness with the same precision we apply to visuals, linking specific sonic choices to measurable gains in attention, salience, and commercial return. Its no longer guesswork.
In the attention economy, where differentiation is under threat, music can be the lever that cuts through the noise. From recall to emotion to willingness to pay, its impact is too broad to ignore.
Brands that embrace a scientific, strategic methodology for sound build sonic identities that are consistent, creative, and emotionally resonant.
And brands that dont? If your campaign budget is in the millions, youre effectively gambling six-figure returns by not testing your music. The uplift from a well-chosen track dwarfs the cost of getting it right.
Paul Langworthy is chief revenue officer at Songtradr.
Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping countless industries; education is no exception. As AI tools rapidly enter classrooms, there are concerns about fair access, effective implementation, and the risk of widening the still persistent digital divide. Who are the players best positioned to guide this transition in a way that truly benefits every student?
I recently spoke with Alix Guerrier, CEO of DonorsChoose, an education nonprofit where teachers submit funding requests based on classroom needs. Ninety percent of public schools in America have teachers using DonorsChoose, which tackles funding gaps by focusing on the most granular level: individual teacher requests. Alix, a former math and science teacher, edtech founder, and nonprofit leader, shares why he believes listening to the front linesthe teachersis the most important strategic bet we can make to ensure AI fulfills its promise for all students.
Q: Your background as a public school teacher and startup founder is unique. How has that journey shaped your vision for DonorsChoose and its mission to resource every classroom?
Alix Guerrier: Im a proud product of the New Haven, Connecticut, public school system. I had a front-row seat to the resourcing challenges schools face, which inspired me to become a public school teacher. Despite funding constraints, teachers went above and beyond for their students, and I saw the potential of a grassroots approach that serves individual teachers, which I later brought to my startup.
DonorsChoose is unique because we maintain a laser-like focus on the needs of individual teachers and their students, while partnering with school, district, and state leaders. Together, we can learn from the grassroots innovation, then use those insights to shape broader policy and funding decisions, which we have been leaning into as an organization.
Q: DonorsChoose has an unrivaled view of teacher needs. What is your data currently telling you about changing trends in classroom requests?
Alix: We have access to a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data, because our model requires teachers to submit descriptions of the resources they need and how they plan to use them. Some requests remain the same year over year. For example, books were a primary request at our founding in 2000 and remain an important need today.
Instructional technology, however, has been a major category of change. Over the past 25 years, weve tracked the shift from older tech to smartboards and Chromebooks. And starting in 2020, we saw a dramatic, sustained change in the amount of instructional technology requested. While AI-specific requests are still a small category, they are rapidly growing. Last school year, we saw around 600 requests for AI learning tools and resources; that number is already 1,000+ this school year.
What has been most surprising is the primary AI use case emerging from our data. We expected to see requests centered on student productivity or teacher planning, and those exist. But the majority are focused on addressing diverse student needs. Teachers are using AI to generate real-time translation tools for multilingual language learners, or to rapidly adapt a lesson plan for students with disabilities. We are seeing teachers leverage AI to hyper-personalize learning.
Q: How can we ensure that AI funding doesnt exacerbate existing challenges, like the digital divide?
Alix: Resource equity is explicitly woven into DonorsChoose DNA. Its our goal that every student in every community has access to a great education regardless of a schools resources. This year, over 80% of funding directed through DonorsChoose went to projects in historically under-resourced schools. Moreover, our work to close the digital resource gap felt by these schools must include AI learning tools.
Access to the hardware is only part of the equation. We know that the vast majority of teachers97%, according to a survey we conducteddont feel they have the necessary training to successfully implement AI in the classroom. Educators have a hunger and readiness to incorporate AI learning tools, but theres a clear gap in preparedness. This points to our biggest strategic bet: The sector-wide conversation about the future of AI in K-12 education must be driven by what teachers know about the actual needs of their kids.
Q: If you had a single message for those designing the next wave of AI tools and the policymakers making education funding decisions, what would it be?
Alix: Stay forcefully focused on the needs and experiences of students.
In education, as in other fields, new technologies are often first adopted by individuals on the groundthe teachers running micro-experiments every day in their classrooms. Their collective wisdom about what works and enables a better learning outcome is an invaluable dataset. If we, as a sector, choose to be guided by those use casesthe ways teachers are actually succeeding, like using AI to personalize learning for a non-native English speakerwe can effectively scale.
The technologies that truly support student learning and growth are those that are human-centered, supporting a learners exploration and creativity. By staying anchored to the individual learner, we ensure the immense power of AI is directed toward the highest and best usemaking a meaningful difference in the life of every child.
Q: Looking ahead 10 years, what is the most important role you hope DonorsChoose played in ensuring this AI revolution was accessible, effective, and human-centered?
Alix: I hope we will have been the critical platform that elevated the teacher’s voice to the forefront of the AI conversation. We want to be the connective tissue that translates the thousands of successful, human-centered AI experiments happening in classrooms across the country into actionable insights for the entire system.
We have an opportunity now to steer the ship. We know more than ever before about how students learn and what they need to thrive, and we have the technology to make dramatic improvements. Our role at DonorsChoose is to use our unique access to the grassroots to keep the entire sectorthe companies, the foundations, the policy leadersfocused on the human impact, not just the technical promise. We are equipped to do amazing things, but we just have to decide to do so. And Im optimistic that we will.
Celia Jones is global chief marketing officer of FINN Partners.
The U.S. auto safety regulator said on Wednesday it has opened a defect investigation into Tesla Model 3 compact sedans over concerns that emergency door release controls may not be easily accessible or clearly identifiable in an emergency.
The Office of Defects Investigation said the probe covers an estimated 179,071 model year 2022 vehicles.
The investigation was opened on December 23 after the agency received a defect petition alleging that the vehicles’ mechanical door release is hidden, unlabeled, and not intuitive to locate during emergencies.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company’s vehicles rely primarily on electronic door latches, which open via buttons rather than traditional mechanical handles.
While Tesla includes a manual door release for use in emergencies or power failures, experts have long argued that the mechanical releases are not consistently visible, labeled, or intuitive, particularly for rear-seat passengers.
Last month, Tesla was sued over a fiery Wisconsin crash that killed all five occupants of a Model S, who were allegedly trapped inside because of a design flaw that prevented them from opening the luxury sedan’s doors.
The automaker has also been sued by families of two college students killed in a Cybertruck crash last year in November in a San Francisco suburb, after allegedly being locked in the burning vehicle because of its door handle design.
The opening of a defect petition does not mean a recall will be issued, but it marks the first step in a regulatory review process that could lead to further action if safety-related defects are confirmed.
The auto regulator, NHTSA, said in September it had opened a preliminary evaluation into about 174,290 Model Y cars over reports of electronic door handles becoming inoperative.
By Akash Sriram, Reuters
It may be a very Merry Christmas for one lucky Powerball winner. The Christmas Eve Powerball jackpot is accumulating like a snowball tumbling down an epic sledding hill. The total is now so large, it’s a number rarely attainable even for high-stakes gamblers.
The prize has continued to grow after five drawings worth at least $1 billion went unclaimed with no ticket matching all six numbers. According to the Powerball website, that makes the current prize of around $1.7 billion the fourth-largest in Powerball history. It’s also the longest the game has ever gone without a winner.
Much like the holidays, Powerball is a game that brings people together to dream big and hope for a brighter future, said Matt Strawn, Powerball product group chair and Iowa Lottery CEO. We hope this growing jackpot inspires excitement and joy and, most importantly, good will to all. A portion of every ticket helps support programs and services that benefit local communities.
The next drawing takes place on Christmas Eve at 10:59 p.m. EST. And while it’s rare, a winner could claim the grand prize this very night. It happened once before, on December 24, 2011. Historically, Christmas Day has been a bit merrier for Powerball players, with four winners over the years having claimed the jackpot on December 25in 1996, 2002, 2010, and 2013.
Not quite a billionaire
Still, even if a lucky Powerball player’s Christmas wish came true (and what a wish!), that doesn’t mean they’ll have $1.7 billion in the bank when its all said and done. According to Powerball, after federal taxes the lump-sum prize will have an estimated cash value of $781.3 million.
But that’s before state taxeswhich vary widely across the countrycome into play. Some states take a hefty portion of lottery winnings: In Maryland, the tax rate is 9.5%; in New York, its 8.82%; while New Jersey takes 8%. Washington, D.C., imposes the highest tax on lottery prizes: a whopping 10.75%.
On the other end of the spectrum, a winner in Arizona would have to turn over just 2.5% of the prize to the state. Indiana and Louisiana take 3% and North Dakota takes 3.9%. A handful of locations won’t take a dime of the winnings. If you live in California, South Dakota, Washington, New Hampshire, Texas, Wyoming, Tennessee, or Puerto Rico, the jackpot is yours to keep after federal taxes are imposed.
Therefore, after all the taxes are sliced off the top, the final takeaway could range from $492,261,980 for locations with no state tax down to $408,272,230 for Washington, D.C.
While no one has walked away with the grand prize just yet, nine tickets in the most recent drawing matched five numbers, earning $1 million prizes: one each in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, and two in New York. That drawing produced 28 tickets eligible for $100,000 in winnings, and more than 100 tickets worth $50,000. Hardly a Dollar Store stocking stuffer!
The S&P 500 hit a record high on Wednesday, with broad gains across sectors supporting the main indexes during a shortened Christmas Eve session.
The benchmark S&P 500 touched an intraday record high of 6,921.42 points, surpassing its previous peak in October, as investors continued to bet on more interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve next year following mixed economic data.
The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in two years in the third quarter, government data showed on Tuesday, after the release was delayed by a 43-day federal shutdown. Worsening consumer confidence in December and a flat reading on November factory production, however, tempered the outlook.
Data on December 24 showed new applications for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week.
“Despite ongoing seasonal volatility, initial jobless claims remain in ranges consistent with relatively steady labor market conditions and don’t change our outlook for the labor market or Fed policy,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics.
Trading volumes were thin, with U.S. stock markets set to close at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Wednesday. The markets will remain shut on Thursday for Christmas.
Micron Technology jumped 4% to scale a record high, extending its rally after issuing a strong forecast last week. Bank stocks were also among the top boosts to the S&P 500, with financials rising 0.4% to a new peak.
Recent gains in U.S. stocks have spurred hopes of a “Santa Claus rally,” a seasonal phenomenon where the S&P 500 posts gains in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January, according to Stock Trader’s Almanac.
That period began on December 24 and would run through January 5.
At 10:36 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 167.50 points, or 0.35%, to 48,610.95. The S&P 500 gained 10.24 points, or 0.15%, to 6,920.24, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.48 points, or 0.01%, to 23,558.35.
U.S. equities have swung sharply this year as tariff-related headlines, concerns about high valuations in technology and AI companies, and rapidly shifting interest-rate expectations boosted volatility.
Wall Street’s “fear gauge” was hovering near its lowest since December 2024.
Still, the bull market, which began in October 2022, stayed intact as optimism around AI, rate cuts, and a resilient economy supported sentiment, with all three main indexes set for their third straight yearly gain.
In the year ahead, global markets will be closely watch potential successors to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, after President Donald Trump said on Tuesday anyone who disagrees with him would “never be the Fed chairman.”
Nike climbed 4.7% after Apple CEO Tim Cook, the sportswear giant’s lead independent director, bought about $3 million worth of shares.
Intel fell 1.6% following a report that said Nvidia has halted tests to manufacture on Intel’s 18A chipmaking node after initial tests.
Dynavax Technologies surged 38.5% after French drugmaker Sanofi said it would buy the U.S. vaccines company for around $2.2 billion.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.69-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 43 new highs and 117 new lows.
By Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan, Reuters
The European Union, France, and Germany condemned U.S. visa bans on five Europeans combating online hate and disinformation on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump‘s administration took its latest swipe at long-standing allies across the Atlantic.
Washington imposed visa bans on Tuesday on five European citizens, including French former EU commissioner Thierry Breton. It accuses them of working to censor freedom of speech or unfairly target U.S. tech giants with burdensome regulation.
The bans mark a fresh escalation against Europe, a region Washington argues is fast becoming irrelevant due to its weak defences, inability to tackle immigration, needless red tape, and “censorship” of far-right and nationalist voices to keep them from power.
Europeans forces to rethink Transatlantic ties
They come just weeks after a U.S. National Security Strategy document warned Europe faced “civilizational erasure” and must course-correct if it is to remain a reliable U.S. ally.
That documentand other comments by senior Trump officials, including a bombshell February speech by Vice President JD Vance in Munichhave upended postwar assumptions about Europe’s close relationship with its strongest ally, and concentrated minds across European capitals on the urgent need to diversify away from reliance on U.S. technology and defence.
In Brussels, Paris, and Berlin, senior officials condemned the U.S. bans and defended Europe’s right to legislate on how foreign companies operate locally.
A European Commission spokesperson said it “strongly condemns the U.S. decision”, adding: “Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Europe and a shared core value with the United States across the democratic world.”
The spokesperson said the EU would seek answers from Washington, but said it could “respond swiftly and decisively” against the “unjustified measures”.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been travelling across France to warn about the dangers that disinformation poses to democracy, said he had spoken with Breton and thanked him for his work.
“We will not give up, and we will protect Europe’s independence and the freedom of Europeans,” Macron said on X.
DSA angers DC
Breton, a former French finance minister and the European commissioner for the internal market from 2019 to 2024, was one of the architects of the EU’s Digital Services Act.
A landmark piece of legislation, the DSA aims to make the internet safer by compelling tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material.
But the DSA has riled the Trump administration, which accuses the EU of placing “undue” restrictions on freedom of expression in its efforts to combat hateful speech, misinformation, and disinformation. It also argues that the DSA unfairly targets U.S. tech giants and U.S. citizens.
Trump officials were particularly upset earlier this month when Brussels sanctioned Elon Musk’s X platform, fining it 120 million euros for breaching online content rules. Musk and Breton have often sparred online over EU tech regulation, with Musk referring to him as the “tyrant of Europe”.
Breton, the most high-profile individual targeted, wrote on X: “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?”
Germany says bans on activists ‘unacceptable’
The bans also targeted Imran Ahmed, the British CEO of the U.S.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index, according to U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers.
Germany’s justice ministry said the two German activists had the government’s “support and solidarity” and the visa bans on them were unacceptable, adding that HateAid supported people affected by unlawful digital hate speech.
“Anyone who describes this as censorship is misrepresenting our constitutional system,” it said in a statement. “The rules by which we want to live in the digital space in Germany and in Europe are not decided in Washington.”
Britain said it was committed to upholding the right to free speech.
“While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content,” a British government spokesperson said in a statement.
A Global Disinformation Index spokesperson called the visa bans “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship.”
“The Trump Administration is, once again, using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor, and silence voices they disagree with,” they said. “Their actions today are immoral, unlawful, and un-American.”
Breton is not the first French person to be sanctioned by the Trump administration.
In August, Washington sanctioned French judge Nicolas Yann Guillou, who sits on the International Criminal Court, for the tribunal’s targeting of Israeli leaders and a past decision to investigate U.S. officials.
Sudip Kar-Gupta, Gabriel Stargardter, Sarah Marsh, and Sam Tabahriti, Reuters
