A creepy account thats almost certainly using AI to generate videos of imaginary New Yorkers criticizing mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani raises a frightening prospect: that deepfakes could be used not just to impersonate politicians, but also constituents.
Accounts on several social media platformswhich are using similar profile pictures and appear to be linkedare calling themselves the Citizens Against Mamdani. In recent days, these accounts have posted confessionals and rants from New Yorkers slamming Mamdani for hisallegedanti-Americanism, plans to hike taxes, and false promises on rent and transportation. They appear to be trying to imitate the diversity of New York, and many of the videos feature some of the citys classic accents.
While none of the videos have gone viral, they have shown up on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram, with some racking up tens of thousands of views. The TikTok account itself has about 30,000 likes. Fast Company reached out to the Instagram and TikTok pages but had not heard back at the time of publication.In the last election cycle, hiring human influencers to spread a particular message was all the rage. Now, teams don’t even need those personalities, explains Emmanuelle Saliba, the chief investigative officer at GetReal Security, a cybersecurity firm that analyzes deepfakes. GenAI has made such significant progress that campaigns and activists can use text-to-video to create hyperrealistic videos of supporters or detractors, and online consumers will be none the wiser, she adds.
The online campaign shows how generative AI has, in essence, democratized astroturfing. Astroturfing has been automated, and it’s pretty much undetectable without technology, Saliba saysa notable evolution from the last election cycle, when it was more common for political operatives to hire influencers, she adds.
Using online tools to create a false impression of support or opposition to a movement or candidate isnt new. In 2017, for example, bots were deployed to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission, which was, at the time, considering new rules on net neutrality. But those types of campaigns have typically required at least some significant human effort, like operating a network of social media accounts or hiring influencers.
The rise of generative AI makes it far easier to create the mirage of political popularity online: Now, with just a few prompts and access to the right platform, you can simply generate videos of a bevy of real-ish seeming people.
A mirage
Of course, one of the challenges of deepfake detection is that theres no absolutely surefire way to confirm that theyre generated by AI. With the anti-Mamdani videos, however, the evidence is overwhelming.
Beyond the visible Sora watermarka label created by OpenAI to denote content created with the companys technologyon some of the videos, the accounts have published numerous, similar videos at around the same time.
Another major hint is the objects in the background of the images, noted Siwei Lyu, a computer science professor who studies deepfakes at University of Buffalo.
Reality Defender, another firm that investigates AI-generated content, analyzed several of the videos using a platform it offers called RealScan and found that the odds they were manipulated were extremely high. The firm assessed that one video featuring a man in a blue hat, screaming You all got fooled by Mamdani had a 99 percent likelihood of being a deepfake. (It is impossible to score 100 percent: Theres no way to truly verify the ground truth of the contents creation).
While it’s unclear the extent to which people have been actually convinced by the videos, the comments on them suggest at least some online users seem to be taking them seriously. They show the illusion of broad support for or against an issue, and the people depicted in the videos are ordinary citizens. So its harder to verify their existence, says Lyu. This is yet another dangerous form of an AI-driven disinformation campaign.
Astroturfing at scale
The accounts are a reminder that the cost of producing disinformation is lower than ever. It used to be that social engineering support for a particular cause would require real effort for instance investing in creating believable and realistic content, explains Alex Lisle, the chief technology officer of Reality Defender.
Now I can define an LLM with a sentiment and a message I’m trying to give it, and then ask it to come up with what to say, Lisle says. And I can do that at a scale which before would require hours and hours of work,manufacturing hundreds of different quotes, thousands of different quotes, very, very quickly, he adds.
Combining deepfakes with large language models allows political operatives to not only generate myriad scripts for what a deepfake can say, but also videos of people with convincing voices to actually spread those narratives. You are now having a force multiplier, Lisle continued. In order to do this required multiple people and hours of effort. Now it just costs me computing.
The problem expands beyond politics, emphasized Saliba, from GetReal. While Mamdani might be one example of a target, the low cost of creating this kind of content means that a business or a loved one could be the future subject of these kinds of disinformation campaigns.
Yankee Candle is going luxury with a new line of candles that’s designed to be upsold.
The Massachusetts-based candle company launched the Yankee Candle YC Collection this week, a line of seven fragrances designed by Beardwood&Co., the New York City branding agency behind the July redesign of the company’s packaging.
[Photo: Yankee Candle]
With a curved glass jar, white wax, and metallic lids that show a new “YC” monogram adapted from the original Yankee Candle logo, the candles are minimally designed. Each box comes with watercolor artwork by illustrator Carly Martin that’s inspired by the look of an artist’s fragrance sketchbook, according to the company. The new premium line sells for $45 for a 12 oz. candle and $32 for a 7 oz. Compare that to $20.99 the brand charges now charges for candles between 20 oz. and 22 oz.
[Photo: Yankee Candle]
“Launching a new premium collection allows Yankee Candle to answer a desire for how a new generation of fragrance lovers combines scent and home decor to express themselves,” Beardwood&Co. co-CEO Sarah Williams tells Fast Company. “Ensuring this new line felt luxurious and display-worthy was the real benchmark for launch.”
The YC Collection include the peach-scented Nectar and Amber, which mixes tobacco leaf with honeyed cacao and amber woods. Online, each candle also names the perfumer who crafted the scent, giving the line some artisan attribution that helps elevate its perceived craftsmanship.
“We worked with expert perfumers trained in the tradition of fine fragrance to craft a collection that feels as intentional and curated as the poems it lives in,” Aaron Swart, the general manager of home fragrance for Yankee Candle’s parent company Newell Brands, said in a statement.
[Photo: Yankee Candle]
Together, that means Yankee Candle can charge more. The new line comes as Newell Brands, which also owns brands like Sharpie and Expo, looks to improve Yankee Candle sales as lower-income and younger consumers pull back and the company’s overall net sales fell 7.2% year over year. Already, it’s tweaked the look of its candles.
It’s new candle packaging rolled out this summer uses bigger images, plus the claim “room-filling fragrances” and “Est. 1969” above the logo. Beardwood&Co. says the new design has increased intent to purchase compared to the old design, and now the new candles were designed to reach new consumers. The luxury candle market is growing and the top 10% of earners make up a growing share of consumer spending, so they’re going after consumers willing to pay a bit more.
[Photo: Yankee Candle]
While this premium line is offered at a higher price point for Yankee Candle, it’s still more candle for your buck than Diptyque Paris, which sells 2.5 oz. candles for $48, and cheaper still than Le Labo candles, which can cost as much as $90.
That gives Yankee Candle a more moderately priced premium product at a time when inflation remains persistent, so higher-income consumers can trade down for a candle that still looks high-end while other consumers can splurge on a budget.
As Yankee Candle looks to grow its sales, the YC Collection could boost its higher-margin sales and help the brand endear itself to younger consumers and luxury candle fans.
A haunting 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold Thursday for $54.7 million and became the top-selling work by any female artist at an auction.
The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed titled El sueo (La cama) or in English, The Dream (The Bed) surpassed the record held by Georgia OKeeffes Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” which sold for $44.4 million in 2014.
The sale at Sotheby’s in New York also topped Kahlo’s own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist. The 1949 painting Diego and I, depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, went for $34.9 million in 2021. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more.
The self-portrait is among the few Kahlo pieces that have remained in private hands outside Mexico, where her body of work has been declared an artistic monument. Her works in both public and private collections within the country cannot be sold abroad or destroyed.
The painting comes from a private collection, whose owner has not been disclosed, and is legally eligible for international sale. Some art historians have scrutinized the sale for cultural reasons, while others have raised concern that the painting last exhibited publicly in the late 1990s could again disappear from public view after the auction. It has already been requested for upcoming exhibitions in cities including New York, London and Brussels.
The buyer’s identity was not disclosed.
The piece depicts Kahlo asleep in a wooden, colonial-style bed that floats in the clouds. She is draped in a golden blanket and entangled in crawling vines and leaves. Above the bed lies a skeleton figure wrapped in dynamite.
Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was upended by a bus accident at 18. She started to paint while bedridden, underwent a series of painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis, then wore casts until her death in 1954 at age 47.
During the years Kahlo was confined to her bed, she came to view it as a bridge between worlds as she explored her mortality.
Before the auction, her great-niece, Mara Romeo Kahlo, celebrated the significance of the upcoming sale during a recent interview with The Associated Press in Mexico City.
I’m very proud that she’s one of the most valued women, because really, what woman doesn’t identify with Frida, or what person doesn’t?” she said. “I think everyone carries a little piece of my aunt in their heart.
The painting was the star of a sale of more than 100 surrealist works by artists including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.
Kahlo resisted being labeled a surrealist, a style of art that’s dreamlike and centers on a fascination with the unconscious mind.
I never painted dreams, she once said. I painted my own reality.
In its catalog note, Sothebys said the painting offers a spectral meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death.
The suspended skeleton is often interpreted as a visualization of her anxiety about dying in her sleep, a fear all too plausible for an artist whose daily existence was shaped by chronic pain and past trauma, the catalog notes.
Earlier this week, a Gustav Klimt painting that helped save the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust sold at Sotheby’s for $236.4 million. Klimts Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer became one of the most expensive pieces of artwork ever sold at auction, second only to Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi at $450 million the record-holder over all and among male artists.
Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press
Associated Press video journalists Martín Silva Rey in Mexico City and Cassandra Allwood in London contributed to this report.
Google Maps is one of the most valuable digital marketing tools available to your business, particularly if you’re using the Google Local Pack.
The Google Local Pack displays top-ranked business listings in a users local area. So, when searching for hairstylists near me or Italian food in my area, a user sees their local best-ranked and reviewed listings for salons or Italian restaurants at the very top of the search results page, along with a map.
These listings occupy a valuable space on the search results page, as the first items many users see and appear higher than traditional results. In fact, many users will click on one of those listings without scrolling down to view other results.
Additionally, these listings provide a wealth of useful information, including contact details, business hours, address, website link, photos, and customer reviews. It even shows the business’s busiest time of day.
Appearing in the Google Local Pack for your area’s relevant keywords makes it easier for potential customers to find your website and physical location. Its an extremely effective way to get ahead of your local competition.
So, how do you rank high in the Google Local Pack?
Local SEO strategies influence rankings. Youre likely already doing some things right, but to boost your ranking, ensure youve checked every box and adjust your strategy as needed. Here are the four steps to improve your Google Local Pack ranking.
1. Optimize your Google Business Profile
Much of the data Google uses to populate your listing in the Local Pack comes from your Google Business Profile. If you havent already set one up, nows the time to do so as fully as possiblethen keep it up to date.
The information provided should match information you have elsewhere on the internet, especially on your website. Double-check to ensure accuracy and consistency of critical details, such as your business name, address, phone number, and website.
Think about your listing like a customers first impression. A good impression provides everything they might want to know, so your Google Local Pack listing will include all of the following:
Name
Website link
Phone number
Address
Photos
Hours and dates open/closed, along with popular times to visit
Description
Service options, such as a menu for restaurants
Pricing information
Tag, which indicates the type of business
Reviews from users, along with a star rating
The more information a listing has, the easier it is for a customer to get their questions answeredand you want to make things easy for your customers.
So, if you have this completed, youre already doing better than many businesses. However, you can take your Google Local Pack ranking further with a few additional steps.
2. Become a review master
Reviews significantly influence a potential customer’s initial impression of your business when they view your listing. Your star ratingbased on your reviewswill be one of the first things a customer sees. Your rating directly affects your SEO and search result ranking, and its what many users base their business decisions on.
Many businesses believe they cant control reviews. However, you can encourage people to give you reviews and respond to the reviews you receive, both positive and negative.
3. Create a strong local online association
To rank well in local search results, Google requires a strong association between your business and your local area.
Start by embedding your Google Maps location on your website. This simple step goes a long way. Local data for your social media accounts helps reinforce that association.
Next, optimize your web pages for local keywords. If you have multiple business locations, create individual pages for each location that are entirely unique and optimized for local keywords.
4. Reach out to your local community
After completing the first three steps, continue building your local SEO to improve your Google Local Pack ranking, by interacting with your local community:
Write for local publications or publish information about local topics and events.
Get involved in community events.
Engage in discussions on social media.
Attend or even host events.
Building relationships with other local businesses and individuals increases your chances of earning backlinks, which takes a significant amount of effort but can create great SEO results.
The big picture
Google Local Pack enables you to connect with your community and differentiate yourself in a crowded digital landscape. Take advantage of optimizing your Google Business Profile, master your client reviews, strengthen your local online presence, and engage authentically with your community.
These steps build trust and visibility that drive real results. Maximize the opportunity to make your business the first choice for local customers.
Jason Hennessey is the CEO and founder of Hennessey Digital.
Thursday, November 20, ended up being a bit of a whirlwind for tech investors.
The day started off on a positive note, with Nvidias shares (Nasdaq: NVDA) rising almost 5% thanks to a strong earnings report shared after the bell on Wednesday.
The companys third-quarter revenue reached $57.01 billion with an adjusted earnings per share of $1.30both exceeded Wall Streets estimates. Nvidia also shared that it expects $65 billion in quarter-four revenue, higher than the $62 billion analysts predicted.
The other Magnificent Seven tech stocksAlphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Teslarose in turn.
But Nvidias success wasnt enough to repel investors fears of an AI bubble or what had appeared to be an increasing unlikelihood of the Federal Reserve issuing a rate cut next month.
As the day went on, each of the seven companies, including Nvidia, saw their stocks whipsawas did the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.
In yet another twist, hopes for that rate cut rose again on Friday, with CME Group now reporting a 70.9% likelihood of a cut.
The Nasdaq Composite had looked set to open at a 10-week low after closing at $22,078.05, though it appeared to be turning positive again as the opening bell approached on Friday.
Meanwhile, while each of the Magnificent Seven had lost any early-morning gains on Thursday, some appeared to be turning positive again on Friday morning. Here are the latest number as of the writing:
Alphabet (GOOG)
Thursday high: $306.89
Thursday low: $289.17
Premarket low as of publishing: $287.30
Early Friday trading: Up 3.36%
Amazon (AMZN)
Thursday high: $227.14
Thursday low: $216.74
Premarket low as of publishing: $216.01
Early Friday trading: Flat
Apple
Thursday high: $275.43
Thursday low: $265.92
Premarket low as of publishing: $264.26
Early Friday trading Up: 0.8%
Meta (META)
Thursday high: $606.72
Thursday low: $583.35
Premarket low: $580.33
Early Friday trading: Up 0.88%
Microsoft (MSFT)
Thursday high: $493.57
Thursday low: $475.50
Premarket low as of publishing: $474.32
Early Friday trading: Flat
Nvidia (NVDA)
Thursday high: $196
Thursday low: $179.85
Premarket low as of publishing: $174.42
Early Friday trading: Down 1.62%
Tesla (TSLA)
Thursday high: $428.94
Thursday low: $394.74
Premarket low as of publishing: $392.90
Early Friday trading: Up 1.79%
Tech stocks have suffered in recent weeks amidst growing concerns that AI companies have overinflated values. Then, yesterday also saw the release of the September jobs report, after the government shutdown delayed it.
There were 119,000 new positions added, a significant increase from the 50,000 jobs predicted, according to consensus estimates cited by The Wall Street Journal. Yet unemployment rose to 4.4% in an unpredicted shift.
This story is developing…
Now you can sing along with America’s Founding Fathers as you crush your opponents under oppressive rents and market domination.
The Op Games, a publisher of board games and puzzles, is releasing a new version of Monopoly based on the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, marking the latest iteration of the classic economics game that has been a staple of family game nights for many decades.
The Op Games plans to announce the new version today, a spokesperson told Fast Company.
The game commemorates the 10th anniversary of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap-infused retelling of America’s origin story, which made its Broadway debut in the summer of 2015 and went on to win 11 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In Monopoly: Hamilton, hotels become Federalist Papers, houses become Letters, and the familiar Chance and Community Chest cards are named after the musical’s dueling protagonists: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
Instead of boot or thimble, players can choose between an assortment of Hamilton-themed pieces, including a microphone, crown, or tricornered hat.
[Photo: 1935, 2025 Hasbro. Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda.]
Can you say no to this?
California-based The Op Games has carved out quite a niche for itself with cobranded versions of popular board games, such as a Jaws-inspired riff on Operation or a Trivial Pursuit edition that lets you test your knowledge of HBO’s Game of Thrones franchise.
It licenses Monopoly from toy giant Hasbro, which has touted a “franchise-first approach” to IP as a cornerstone of its success. For instance, the Monopoly Go! mobile game, published by developer Scopely, has been an enormous success, contributing $126 million in revenue to Hasbro so far this year as of the third quarter.
You could argue that all these variations cheapen the Monpoly brand (we’ll leave it up to you to decide if the world needs a Guy Fieri edition), but a Hamilton version of the capitalist-forward game makes more sense than most.
[Photo: 1935, 2025 Hasbro. Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda.]
The title character, after all, played a key role in creating America’s financial system, and at least four of the musical’s characters are still pictured on our money today.
While the cultural legacy of Hamilton has been rigorously debated and reassessed over the yearscritics have accused it of perpetuating a “founders chic” view of American history, or of being an overly earnest relic of the Obama erathe show remains a money-making juggernaut.
Ten years on, it’s still playing at full capacity at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where just last week it earned $3.9 million at the box office, more than any other show on Broadway.
Monopoly: Hamilton will be available for purchase at the theater, on the Hamilton website, and at Barnes & Noble bookstores, retailing for $45.
Just remember to collect 20 Hamiltons every time you pass Go.
The X of Y frameworkWere the Uber of healthcare or the Airbnb of financehas become a kind of startup reflex. Its useful, even comforting, to anchor a new idea to something people already understand. But what feels like clarity can become constraint.
When you define your business through another companys success, you risk adopting their playbook instead of rewriting the rules. The best disruptors learn to move past comparison. They articulate what makes their idea not just different, but inevitable. Thats how you build conviction from your team, your investors, and your customers.
Why comparison shrinks your story
From a branding perspective, letting investors, consumers, or even your own team see your business through the lens of another company is risky. It narrows imagination and compresses potential before the company ever takes off.
In Teddy Roosevelts words, comparison is the thief of joy. In the entrepreneurial world, comparison is the thief of innovation. The moment you define yourself through someone elses success, youre not building a new world; youre borrowing a corner of an old one.
True disruptors dont emulate, they innovate. And not just in the product, but in how they communicate that product to the world. The biggest tech companies by market capFacebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Nvidiaarent the X of Y. They just are. They didnt build by reference; they built by invention.
Yesterdays playbook wont win tomorrows game
From a business model standpoint, the X of Y approach doesnt simplify, it hamstrings. What worked in one context often fails in another because conditions change faster than most disruptors realize.
YouTubes monetization strategy, for example, only succeeded after the platform reached massive scale. Trying to apply that same model to a niche content business at launch would likely fail. OpenAI trained on freely available web data thats now largely cut off. Imitators entering the space today cant replicate those conditions, nor their success.
Timing and first-mover advantage matter. Once a model exists, the data access, regulation, even consumer behavior conditions that allowed it to thrive are already evolving. The world moves on. What worked before doesnt necessarily work now.
For disruptors, the takeaway is simple: Learn from others, but dont lean on them. The best leaders translate insight into original structure, a model built for todays conditions, not yesterdays advantages.
Create a category: Lessons from Figures IPO
I saw this dynamic play out firsthand during Figures IPO. With no natural comparison, we didnt fit into a familiar box. Yet, investors tried; they labeled us a blockchain company, a fintech lender, a financial marketplace. And each comparison carried its own limitations: valuation ceilings, volatility, market constraints.
Bringing something truly new to market requires more than a great product. It demands changing perception. You have to teach the market how to think differently and convince them theyre ready for it.
At Figure, we had to educate investors that what we were buildingblockchain-based capital marketswasnt a futuristic concept; it was a present-tense opportunity. We emphasized not just what we built, but why it mattered: faster, more transparent capital flows that could unlock a massive market. Once that clicked, investors stopped searching for a comparison and started seeing the scale of the opportunity. That shift made all the difference in a successful offering.
Comparisons fall flat faster in todays world
Were in an evolutionary moment. Like mobile did before, AI and blockchain are changing the rules of the game. Business models built around past infrastructure will quickly feel dated.
Anchoring yourself to yesterdays success stories is like hitching your wagon to Craiglists star in 2008. It looked brilliant, until mobile changed everything.
The X of Y mindset is its own kind of entrepreneurial Waiting for Godot. Leaders get stuck in a comparison loop, waiting for validation, for precedent, for permission to move. But the future never arrives for those who wait on it.
Pioneering beyond precedent, especially when precedent itself is shifting, is hard. But thats where the opportunity lies. Leaders who thrive in this environment wont ask, Who are we like? Theyll ask, What are we building that no one else has imagined yet?
Because real disruptors dont wait for Godot. They build the world everyone else is still waiting for.
Michael Tannenbaum is the CEO of Figure.
Bitcoin is having a horrible week.
Until yesterday, the cryptocurrency had declined by roughly 2.5% over the preceding five days. But in the last 24 hours alone, the coin has taken a major hitdown more than 10%.
Worse, fear and greed indices, which measure the emotional state of investors who buy and sell Bitcoin, are near historic lows. Heres what you need to know.
Why is Bitcoin sinking?
Bitcoin has dropped precipitously over the past 24 hours. As of the time of this writing, it’s down more than 10% to $82,185 per token. Thats a low the coin has not seen since April.
But why has Bitcoin been falling so much over the past 24 hours? There are two major factors at play.
The first has to do with what happened in the stock market yesterday. When markets opened, AI-related stocks were flying high due to the previous days news that Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) had exceeded expectations for its Q3 2026 earnings.
This good news, momentarily, gave investors a confidence boost. Nvidias results were a sign, many argued, that the AI bubble people have been talking about for months was perhaps overstated.
But as the day continued, those bubble fears resurfaced, and investors sold Nvidia heavily, along with other AI stocks and other tech stocks. This selloff contributed to a steep decline in the markets, which ended down for the day.
Unfortunately for cryptocurrencies, many people who invest in volatile AI stocks also invest in crypto. And when one of those assets declines, they tend to sell off the other asset to lock in any accumulated profits and buffer against losses elsewhere in their portfolio.
However, you cant blame Nvidia and the tech stock slide yesterday for all of Bitcoins woes.
A second factor likely influencing Bitcoins massive 24-hour drop is that, as CNBC notes, America’s job numbers for September were released, and they showed stronger-than-expected job growth data (119,000 new jobs versus the roughly 50,000 analysts expected).
Why would good job numbers send Bitcoins price down?
Because those better-than-expected jobs numbers sent the probability of a December rate cut by the Federal Reserve down from 50% to about 40%. Rate cuts are generally seen as good news for the prices of assets like Bitcoin because the cuts boost liquidity in the markets.
At the beginning of November, many analysts expected there was a 90% chance of Fed rate cuts in December. By mid-November, that chance had been slashed to 50%. Now its down to 40%. This increasing likelihood that the Fed will not cut rates is likely weighing heavily on Bitcoins price today.
Crypto fear and greed indices near historic lows
A fear and greed index measures the emotional state of investors in a particular asset. Several crypto-focused platforms maintain their own Fear and Greed Indexes, including CoinMarketCap and Binance.
As CoinMarketCap notes, its fear and greed index measures the prevailing sentiment in the cryptocurrency market on a scale of 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed).
This index helps investors understand the emotional state of the market, which can influence buying and selling behaviors.
Currently, CoinMarketCaps Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at an 11. Thats the lowest level it’s recorded since June 2023, the farthest back the index goes.
At 11, the index is currently lower than the 15 it was at on March 11, 2025, when crypto markets were also tumbling. This suggests that the emotional state of cryptocurrency investors right now is extremely fearful.
Similarly, Binance’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index is also at an 11 (it ranges from 0 to 100). Thats four points lower than where it was yesterday, and 50% lower than where it was last week.
While seeing the historic lows of the fear range of the index might further alarm Bitcoin investors, it should be noted that these indices can help track periods of over-selling (fear side of the spectrum) or when the token may be over-bought (greed side of the spectrum).
However, these indices cant predict whether any token will continue to be sold off or if its price will rebound.
Other cryptocurrencies are seeing a large selloff, too
As the crypto Fear and Greed indices suggest, its not just Bitcoin that is seeing major selloffs as of late. Other cryptocurrencies are also down significantly across the board.
This includes Ethereum (down 12% to $2,650), XRP (down 12.25% to $1.85), BNB (down 11.4% to $797), Solana (down 13.45% to $122.73), and Dogecoin (down 14.7% to $0.134).
Hi again, and welcome back to Fast Companys Plugged In.
On November 18, Google announced a new product. More precisely, it declared that it was ushering in a new erawhich is what tech companies do when they really want you to pay attention.
The product in question is Gemini 3 Pro, the latest version of Googles LLM. Its not just the foundation of Googles ChatGPT-like chatbot, also called Gemini. It underlies vast quantities of features in flagship offerings such as Google Search, Gmail, and Android. It powers Antigravity, a new Google AI coding platform that debuted on the same day. And thanks to Google Cloud, the model is also available to third-party developers as an ingredient for their apps.
In short, Gemini 3 Pro could hardly be more essential to Googles aspiration to be AIs most important player. As Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said in the announcement, the company sees it as a big step on the path toward AGIAI thats at least as capable as humans are at most cognitive tasks. Already, the announcement stated, Gemini 3 Pro demonstrates PhD-level reasoning.
Google supported its claims with a table listing 20 AI benchmarks in which Gemini 3 Pro beatand often just plain trouncedGemini 2 Pro, OpenAIs GPT-5.1, and Anthropics Claude Sonnet 4.5. Humanitys Last Exam, for example, is a 2,500-question test covering mathematics, physics, the humanities, and other topics. Its designed to be remarkably difficult (hence the name) and there has been debate over whether its so nebulous that some of the theoretically correct answers are nuanced or wrong. According to Googles table, GPT-5.1 achieved a score of 26.5%, while Claude Sonnet 4.5 managed only 13.7%. By contrast, Gemini 3 Pro scored 37.5%, and did even better when allowed to do searches and run code, with a score of 45.8%.
Outside the lab, Gemini 3 Pro has been received as enthusiastically as any new AI model I can remember. Ethan Mollick, one of my favorite providers of AI analysis based on hands-on usage, pronounced it very good. Others said it delivered on the great expectations that OpenAIs GPT-5 stoked but failed to satisfy.
As I write, Ive been playing with the Gemini chatbot for just a few days. Much of that experience has been positive. Two writing assignments I gave it came out exceptionally well: an article on the future of the penny, and a detailed report on pricing for Digital Equipment Corp.s 1960s minicomputers. Its first pass at a simple vibe coding projectbuilding a search engine for Fast Companys Next Big Things in Techwas a bit of a mess, but when I explicitly put it into Build mode, it nailed the assignment in a few minutes. It also excelled at figuring out what was going on in an assortment of photos I uploaded.
Yet for all thats gone right so far, I also encountered significant glitches with Gemini 3 Pro from almost the moment I tried it. They left me particularly wary of Googles blanket claims about the LLM being ready to help users learn anything and delivering responses that are smart, concise and direct, trading cliché and flattery for genuine insight.
My interactions gone wrong were mostly about animation and comics, topics I turn to when fooling around with new AI because I know them well enough to spot mistakes. Asked about these subjects, Gemini repeatedly spewed hallucinations.
For instance, when I asked if Walt Disney himself had ever worked on the Mickey Mouse comic strip, the LLM gave a correct answer (yes, though only briefly) but then volunteered a bunch of facts I hadnt asked for that werent actually factual. For example, it said that when the strips longtime artist retired, his final panel showed Mickey and Minnie gazing into a sunset, a subtle way of marking his departure. (No such strip appeared.) In a different chat, it manufactured an elaborate, entirely fictional backstory involving a different cartoonist also being a noted animation historian, which it told me was well-documented and recognized.
It wasnt just that Gemini hallucinated. ChatGPT and Claude still do that, too. But more than other models, Gemini tended to compound its failures by gaslighting me. Helpfully pointing out its gaffes led to some of the strangest exchanges Ive had with AI since February 2023, when Microsofts Bing said it didnt want to talk to me anymore.
(Full disclosure: I understand that AI is just stringing together a sequence of words it doesnt understand. All of its human-seeming qualities, be they impressive or annoying, are simulated. But its hard to write about them without slipping into a certain degree of anthropomorphizing!)
Repeatedly, Gemini acknowledged its inaccuracies but insisted they were lore, common misconceptions, or examples of my own confusion. In one case, it eventually confessed: I have failed you in this conversation by fabricating details to cover up previous errors. In another instance, it continued to insist that it was right, providing citations that didnt even mention the topic at hand.
Im not arguing that the fate of AI hangs on how much the technology knows about old cartoons. However, if any company is burdened with the responsibility of ensuring that its LLM is a trustworthy source of general information, its Google. That I tumbled into an abyss of AI-generated misinformation so quickly isnt an encouraging sign.
Part of the problem lies in the fact that Gemini 3 Pro offers two modes, Fast and Thinking. The first is the default and was responsible for the prevarications I encountered, at least one of which involved it conflating two separate topics Id brought up. So far, Thinking mode has worked better in my experiments. But even the speediest of AI models should meet a baseline of accuracy and good behavior, at leastif theyre being presented as a way to learn anything. (Like many AI tools, the Gemini chatbot does carry a mistakes-are-possible disclaimer.)
To repeat myself, Gemini 3 Pro is impressive in many ways. Still, its launch is yet another example of the AI industry presenting an overly rosy portrait of what it has achieved. It also underlines that benchmarks tell us only so much about a models real-world performance.
When OpenAI introduced ChatGPT three years ago this month, it did so in a brief blog post that took pains to detail the bots limitations and avoid grand pronouncements about its future. Letting its breakthrough new product speak for itself turned out to be a pretty effective marketing strategy. Even as AIs giants jostle for bragging rights in what may be the most hypercompetitive tech category of all time, they should remember that lesson.
Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on fastcompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
More top tech stories from Fast Company
A battle against the AI oligarchy is brewing in this wealthy New York districtTwo congressional candidates have made AI a major issue in the campaign. Read More Crypto’s path to legitimacy depends on the industry itself, not just politiciansOnly an internal cultural shift and rigorous self-policing can deliver mainstream approval. Read More AI chatbots won’t save the media. But what powers them mightPublisher-built agents grounded in trusted archives may turn years of reporting into real products instead of just another chat widget. Read More This massive new data center is powered by used EV batteriesA new project from battery recycling startup Redwood Materials and data center builder Crusoe shows that it’s possible to build data centers cheaper and faster while also slashing emissions.Read More Why Trump’s AI diplomacy is doomed to failThis week, chips were on the menu in the White House Read More Even (especially) in the age of AI, here’s why I hire for character over skillBecause that’s what reveals true talent. Read More
Before Wicked opened on Broadway in October 2003, the musicals production team took the show to the Curran Theatre in San Francisco for whats called an out of town tryout. The five-week run allowed the producers, writers, and director to work out the kinks ahead of the shows Broadway debut.
During the San Francisco run, University of Southern California film student Jon M. Chu happened to be home for the weekend visiting his parents, who owned a Chinese restaurant called Chef Chus in Los Altos, California, just outside Silicon Valley. Chu was the youngest of five children growing up in a family that spent their free time playing instruments or going to the ballet, the opera, musicals, and the movies. It was the time of Michael Jordan on TV, and Steven Spielberg movies, Chu recalls. Michael Jackson videos were like mini musicals.
Chu was raised on what he calls this beautiful idea of story, and went to film school with an inner theater geek driving his desire to learn the craft. So it wasnt a surprise when his mom, Ruth, suggested they catch the show at the Curran.
Also at the show was Marc Platt, Wickeds producer, who spent those five weeks in San Francisco putting the finishing touches on what would eventually become one of Broadways biggest hits.
Little did either of these men know that nearly 20 years later theyd pair up to bring Wicked to the big screen. I waited 20 some years to make the movie after I produced the stage show, Platt says. There were many reasons I waited; destiny was calling me to wait until Jon was available.
Director Jon M. Chu on the set of Wicked: For Good with Ariana Grande as Glinda [Photo: Universal Studios]
Their partnership is now one of Hollywoods great success stories. Together, Chu and Platt delivered a giant blockbuster that grossed $114 million in box-office sales on its opening weekend in November 2024 (it went on to gross nearly $750 million). Now theyre poised to do it again with the release of part two, Wicked: For Good.
The Wicked films represent a big gamble for Universal Picturestwo lavish movie musicals released back-to-back with an estimated combined budget of roughly $300 million. All this in an era when studios are cutting costs and audiences are distracted by content that requires them to do nothing more than scroll their phones or stream TV from the living room couch.
Still, Chu says he’s more optimistic about filmmaking than ever. Now is the moment, he says, to fight for big stories that can break through in a business thats increasingly driven by algorithms and a focus on the bottom line.
I think if you want to fight that fight, youve got to play by the rules of this game, he says. You have to entertain the hell out of people.
Jeff Goldblum (the Wizard of Oz) and Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) in Wicked: For Good [Photo: Universal Studios]
The Silicon Valley Showman meets the Hollywood Machine
Chu grew up inside two great American experimentsthe immigrant dream and Silicon Valley innovation. His parents have run Chef Chus for decades. In fact, thats where he was gifted his first camera and editing software from some thoughtful customers who worked in the movie industry.
In high school Chu convinced his teachers to allow him to turn in short edited videos rather than written papers, which provided him the opportunity to develop a fluency with the software hed inherited at the restaurant. He also landed gigs shooting weddings and bar mitzvahs in his hometown. He was an early adopter from adolescence, learning how to master After Effects and Pro Tools.
In 2002, while at USC, Chu gained some notoriety for a short film called When the Kids Are Away, which he made with a grant from the Princess Grace Foundation. It was a full-blown movie musical with singing and dancing, all about how stay-at-home-mothers spend their time when children are in school and spouses are at work. To work on it with him, he pulled in film school classmate and budding cinematographer Alice Brooks. They would later reunite on the Wicked films.
Chu had an early run of films that cemented his approach to musical storytelling. In his first studio film, 2008s Step Up 2 the Streets, Chu learned how to turn ideas into an actual production by marrying choreography and character. Then, as director of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Chu gained an understanding of how powerful internet culture can be as a storytelling mechanism. It wasnt until he directed Crazy Rich Asians, though, that Chu truly turned a corner in his career. The film allowed him to blend cultural nuance, authentic storytelling, and mass appeal. All of this leveled up into Wicked, which is Chus most ambitious film by far.
The movie required him to stretch beyond his creative instincts. Donna Langley, chairperson of Universal Pictures, says Chu is as much a whip-smart executive as he is a creative: He thrives at the intersection of commerce and art. He is deeply empathetic, pragmatic, and innovative. He sees challenges as opportunities, is extremely methodical in his planning, and yet remains flexible in his execution.
[Photo: Universal Studios]
Storytelling as empathy
Chu sees storytelling as a kind of transcendent currency in the current age of filmmaking. It is one of the most powerful empathy engines we have other than travel, he says. It helps, of course, that with Wicked Chu happens to be telling a uniquely magical story, in a land that feels so fantastical and vibrant you cannot help but be transported.
But Chus singular power in bringing Wicked to life is his ability to think like a storyteller and work like an engineer. Chus creative system is deliberate and disciplined. He recalls how in his early years of editing, he devised a system for nonlinear storytelling logic that helped him organize his ideas. He would assemble thousands of screenshots, textures, and notes and organize them into folders. These folders became a creative pantry of sorts that he began drawing from when developing a new film.
[Photo: Universal Studios]
When Chu and cinematographer Brooks were classmates at USC they bonded over their love of musicals. I think both of us are really emotional storytellers, says Brooks, who worked with Chu on both In the Heights and Wicked (among others). It’s about breaking a story from the inside out. She describes Chus process as incredibly intentional.
[Photo: Universal Studios]
She and Chu move at their own pace during the early stages of production and planning, trusting one anothers instincts as they go. When we first get a script, we break down each scene with one word, emotional intention, and every single camera choice and lighting choice comes from those intentions, Brooks says. It’s a long marinating process of letting ideas grow first, and then the technical ideas come very much as a secondary.
On the set of Wicked: For Good, Chu implemented a process that required the actors to speak their lines while rolling before official filming began. While rehearsing the song For Good, actors Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo began to ad lib, singing to one another through a closet door. It was totally unplanned, but also part of Chus usual process ahead of a scene, so he let it go and the captured moment ended up one of the most memorable in the film.
Process is how genius happens, he says.
[Photo: Universal Studios]
During the development of a movie, Chu doesnt think about box-office sales. Instead, hes locked in on making sure the film is as entertaining as possible. He views movies as a portal into another world, where the audience can experience things from someone elses perspective. To me, that is what we need to protect most in our culture, Chu says. I feel great responsibility that I have a microphone to be in that space.
Chu began shooting both Wicked films in 2022 before AI really became a thing. He and the movies team of more than 700 visual effects experts were deeply focused on building a tactile but imperfect world. He wanted tables that wobbled and doors with cracks in them. For Wicked to work, nothing could feel overly manufactured or make believe.
[Photo: Universal Studios]
He insisted the world be touchable, that we could feel the scratches and dirt, says Platt. That quality is what allows the audience to feel the high stakes in Glinda and Elphabas relationship, Chu says, noting that everything on set within 40 feet was physically built. The imperfections enabled a kind of intimacy with the audience that AI could never replicate. This couldnt feel like a dream, because we were talking about real things and were digging at real truth, he says.
Platt says this unwavering commitment to emotional resonance is what makes Chu unique at this moment in time. Even when it was challenging to make changes, or we had disagreements with the writers, there was always joy in the process, Platt says. When your director feels that way, it permeates all those working on a production. But also it made me confident in our collaboration, and in the outcome.
In many ways, Chu represents a blueprint for what the movie business will need as technology continues to infuse cinma. Chu believes that as AI becomes a bigger part of how creatives make their work, it will only put more value on human curiosity. In the end, he says, its about building something people can feeleven in a world made of pixels.
