President Donald Trump announced he’s ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad opposing U.S. tariffs that he said misstated the facts and called “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions.The post on Trump’s social media site came Thursday night after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations could further inflame trade tensions that already have been building between the two neighboring countries for months.Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The prime minister was set to leave Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is set to do the same Friday evening.Trump, a Republican, was still at it on Friday morning, furiously posting on his social media site that “CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!” on the tariff ad.“THE UNITED STATES IS WEALTHY, POWERFUL, AND NATIONALLY SECURE AGAIN, ALL BECAUSE OF TARIFFS!” he wrote in a separate post on his Truth Social account. “THE MOST IMPORTANT CASE EVER IS IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!”Earlier Thursday night, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute posted on X that an ad created by the government of Ontario “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks.”The foundation said it is “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address.As for the Supreme Court, Trump is referring to a case scheduled for early November in which the justices will consider the legality of his sweeping tariffs. Two lower courts have determined that Trump cannot unilaterally impose wide-ranging tariffs under an emergency powers law. His administration argues otherwise, saying he can regulate importation and that includes tariff policy.Carney met with Trump earlier this month to try to ease trade tensions, as the two countries and Mexico prepare for a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal Trump negotiated in his first term but has since soured on.More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the U.S., and nearly $3.6 billion Canadian ($2.7 billion U.S.) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.
Trump said earlier this week that he had seen the ad on television and said that it showed that his tariffs were having an impact.“I saw an ad last night from Canada. If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” he said then.In his own post on X last week, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, posted a link to the ad and the message: “It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.”He continued, “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.”A spokesperson for Ford didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night. But Ford previously got Trump’s attention with an electricity surcharge to U.S. states. Trump responded by doubling steel and aluminum tariffs.The president has moved to impose steep U.S. tariffs on many goods from Canada. In April, Canada’s government imposed retaliatory levies on certain U.S. goods but it carved out exemptions for some automakers to bring specific numbers of vehicles into the country, known as remission quotas.Trump’s tariffs have especially hurt Canada’s auto sector, much of which is based in Ontario. This month, Stellantis said it would move a production line from Ontario to Illinois
Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Rob Gillies in Toronto, Ontario, contributed to this report.
Will Weissert, Associated Press
I will never forget the day I realized how rare it is to see businesses support parentsor what a huge impact even the tiniest efforts can make.
Were just going to run into the store for a few quick things! I called to my two kids with confidence as I unloaded them from the car, skipping the bulky stroller and putting my 1-year-old in the shopping cart seat.
But what should have been a simple trip took a turn when we unexpectedly needed to visit the restroom. As any mom knows, this is where things can start to unravel: You cant take the cart inside, so what are you supposed to do with your not-yet-walking child while you help the bigger one use the toilet? And how are you supposed to use the toilet yourself while also holding a squirmy baby?
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I opened the door and braced myself for the chaos that would certainly comeso when I stepped into a large stall and saw a strap-in baby holder attached to the wall, I could have wept with relief.
Then, the appreciation rolled in: These wall-mounted baby safety seats are a game changer for parents who are tasked with taking kids to the restroom.
But then I was hit with confusion: Why are simple considerations like this one so rare to see? Why am I so impressed with what should really be considered the bare minimum when it comes to supporting parents in public places?
Since thenduring countless visits to kid-friendly spaces like the zoo, the pediatricians office, department stores, and public parksIve always noticed and questioned how businesses support (or dont support) parents. (You know what would make life unbelievably easier for parents? A $15 step stool so kids can reach the sink to wash their hands. I think about this almost every day.)
https://www.threads.com/@motherspeak/post/DMaDCwwOV6G?xmt=AQF0ERX0a5kpyUnw-O98LoVt3rNq8jKzxZktM8aRA52h-A&slof=1
Appealing to parents isnt just a do-good strategy, eitherits good business.
Gen alphaborn between 2010 and 2025is on track to be the biggest generation ever in history, says Lauren Smith Brody, founder of The Fifth Trimester, a business strategy firm focused on moms. So anything retailers and public spaces can do to welcome that generation now will only build brand loyalty that will pay off later.
Kid-friendly policies and spaces signal a friendly, inclusive, thoughtful culture overall, she says. The step-stool in the bathroom and the animatronic ear of corn [at Stew Leonards, a grocery chain in the northeast] attracts and retains parents as customers, but they also signal to everyone: Humanity is valued here; joy and ease are a part of this experience. Numerous studies indicate that Gen Z and younger millennials are also values-driven in their shopping.
Recently, we asked our audience what considerations theyd like to see businesses make to better appeal to parentsand hundreds of moms weighed in.
What did we learn? One: Prioritizing parents isnt unheard of; some industries and places are already getting it right. And two: The most common requests from parents and caregivers are mostly minor, reasonable, and would go a long way for families and businesses. Heres a look at what categories are getting things rightand how businesses can improve their family-friendly policies.
Hotels have long catered to familiesand are doing even more today
Many hotels offer smart amenities to make life a little easier for parentsincluding complimentary kids gear, babysitting services, and much more.
The Four Seasons, in particular, has long been known to cater to families. The Philadelphia and Baltimore properties will provide you with a Baby Brezza bottle washer, bottle dryer, breastmilk & formula warmer, and more. The Four Seasons Hotel Boston features a kids toy closet located behind the check-in desk for little ones to explore while caregivers check in and out. This allowed us a few moments to get everything sorted, and the kids were in heaven, said Cassie Shortsleeve, a mom of three in Boston (and a cofounder of Two Truths). In Orlando, you dont need to worry about packing swim diapers (theyre provided), and you can request items to childproof a room.
Properties like Carmel Valley Ranch (see: the “Munchin Menu”) and Wequassett Resort & Golf Club also have partnerships with major childrens brands, such as Nuna and Maxi-Cosi, to borrow or rent gear like strollers, playards, baby carriers, and more.
Some shopping destinations have become more family-friendly
Ikea was a big winner among our responses. They have that Scandinavian family-friendliness, says Marissa Lanterman, a mom of one in Baltimore. Family parking, cart and stroller accessibility, high chairs in all eating areas, changing tables in bathrooms, step stools for kids at sinks, comfy baby care rooms, Smland . . . you really cant beat it.
For new moms in particular, Nordstrom was a standout shopping destination mentioned multiple timesmostly for its family restrooms and clean, comfortable lactation lounges with couches and sinks.
Another favorite: Wegmans. They have built-in stepping stools in the bathroom at the sinks, a baby holder in the stalls so you can use the toilet in peace, a wall of every size diaper available for free if needed, and little car carts to keep toddlers occupied while shopping, says Sara Creary, a mom of one in Pittsford, NY.
Many eateries keep kids in mind
One (potentially surprising) space that many moms praised? Breweries. Our loal brewery is like our own little Europea public space for play and relaxation for kids and adults alike, says Lily Dunlop, a mom of two in Seattle.
Kelsey Glynn, a mom of three, says her favorite brewery even brings out complimentary kid snacks: At BJs Restaurant & Brewhouse here in Arizona, they immediately serve a plate of fruit and Goldfish to help manage kids hunger before their food arrives at the table.
A coffee shop I went to had a kids corner with a play kitchen and espresso machine, says Christa Ursini, a mom of one in South Salem, NY. It was magicparents could enjoy their coffee while their kids played.
Public spaces can be kid-friendly
Its not just specific businesses that cater to kids and families, but public places more generally, as well.
Some popular family travel destinations are full of family-friendly spots, but also put families first when it comes to strategic planning and development: Newport, RI, for one, is dotted with parks and playgrounds throughout and in between more formal stops like an aquarium or an old-school arcade that may be on an itinerary.
To that point, moms we spoke to highlighted that public places that attract kids, such as playgrounds and parks, should have some key components: water fountains, bathrooms, shade, and fencingall critical aspects for parents that can make or break the decision of where to spend your time.
Pop-up lactation podssuch as Mamavaare another great feature for businesses of all sizes, but especially handy in spaces like airports, zoos, and amusement parks.
Theres more to be done: Heres what parents want
When we asked our audience how businesses could improve for parents, we were struck by the similarity between responseswith many requests, especially very basic ones, appearing again and again. Here are the main takeaways.
In bathrooms:
Baby changing tables in both the womens and mens rooms, ideally located within a stall for privacy. (Its really jarring to go to a restaurant that has high chairs and crayons at the table, but not a single baby changing table in any bathroom, one mom told us. Am I supposed to put my baby on the floor?)
Lower sinks or step stools that allow small kids to wash their hands
Paper towels as an alternative to loud hand dryers (which many kids are afraid of or sensitive to)
Bag hooks and/or shelves near sinks and changing stations
Within dining establishments:
Disposable table covers so kids can eat off a sanitary surface
High chairs and booster seats that areand this is important!kept clean
Food-safe wipes available for parents to clean tables and high chairs as needed
Stainless steel kid-sized cutlery
Kids cups with lids
Disposable bibs
Activities for kidsfrom basic (crayons and coloring sheets) to bonus (toy basket, Magna-Tiles, books, etc.)
Healthier, lighter kids’ menu options (fruit, cheese, crackers, nuts, veggies & dip, etc.)
Outdoor play areas (when space allows) are huge bonus that many parents will seek out
In stores:
Aisles that are wide enough to accommodate strollers
Increase curbside pick-up options
More parking spots reserved for families (either near the door or near the cart return)
Simple treats that make kids excited to visit (like stickers, la Trader Joes)
In a society that is woefully lacking systemic support for parents and often unconducive to kids, businesses have a powerful opportunity to step up and set new standards that show families they are seen, appreciated, and valued. Any business that goes the extra mile for parents really stands out, driving word of mouth and customer loyalty, says Brody. And any public space that makes parents feel good about the love and work theyre pouring into their kids is going to win that business in a big way.
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Yesterday, Target Corporation announced news that no one wants to hearespecially just before the holidays.
The Minneapolis-based retail giant informed employees that it is gearing up to eliminate 1,800 corporate roles at the company. Heres when the layoffs will happen and what it means for the company and its employees.
Target to cull its corporate workforce by 8%
On Thursday, Targets chief operating officer, Michael Fiddelke, who is set to become the companys new CEO in February, reportedly sent a memo to employees at the 440,000-strong company.
According to numerous media reports, Fiddelkes memo didnt beat around the bush: the company has decided to eliminate 1,800 positions.
Yet the layoffs will not hit the majority of the companys workforce. Much of its 440,000 employees work as retail members across its nearly 2,000 stores in the United States. The layoffs are not expected to impact these retail employees, who the company will rely heavily on during the upcoming holiday period.
Instead, the job cuts will hit Targets corporate workforce. And as CNBC notes, citing the memo, 1,800 positions will be eliminated. The eliminations include 1,000 direct employee layoffs and another 800 roles that will no longer be filled.
In his memo sent to Target staff, Fiddelke said the elimination of 1,800 corporate roles represents a reduction of about 8% of our global HQ team.
Fiddelkes memo included the usual platitudes that company leadership makes when laying off employees, noting the real impact that the layoffs will have on Targets team and that the company never makes such moves lightly.
However, he also argued the layoffs are a necessary step in building the future of Target and enabling the progress and growth we all want to see.
Of course, the future of Target will be of little consequence to those losing their jobs ahead of the holidays.
Fast Company has reached out to Target for comment and will update this story if we hear back. A spokesperson told CNBC that, in addition to severance packages, those laid off will receive benefits and pay until January 3.
Competitors Walmart and Amazon are thriving
The layoffs may not be much of a surprise to people who have been paying attention to Target’s recent struggles.
While the companys competitors, such as Walmart and Amazon, have seen their businessesand stock pricesthrive, its been the opposite story for Target.
As my colleague Elizabeth Segran explored in May, Target had a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.” In January, in the lead-up to Donald Trumps inauguration, Target announced it was reversing course on its celebrated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.
Many loyal Target customers saw that as capitulation, and the backlash, in the form of boycotts, was swift, with foot traffic to many of its stores falling by up to 7.7%.
And its not like President Trump has done Target many favors, as his tariffs have had a measurable impact on Target’s costs.
The company acquires most of its items from overseas, including China. It must now pay more for those products and thus take a hit on its bottom line, or pass the cost of those price increases onto customers, which could lead to them buying less.
And those customers are already under pressure from inflation, which has caused them to pull back on their discretionary spending. Thats a big problem for Target, as the majority of the goods it sells are discretionary items.
All of these issues are something that incoming CEO Fiddelke is going to have to fix, and, with yesterdays announcement, it appears that he thinks layoffs are part of that fix.
TGT investors dont seem to care about the layoffs
So far at least, Target’s investors don’t seem to think these layoffs will meaningfully impact the company in the short term.
Often when a corporate giant announces mass layoffs, the companys stock price spikes. Thats because layoffs are seen as the fastest way for a company to reduce its costs, which can help increase profits.
But looking at Target’s stock price (NYSE: TGT) this morning, it appears as if investors are shrugging off the news. As of this writing, TGT stock is up just half a percent to $94.75 in premarket trading. Yesterday, TGT shares closed up just a quarter of a percent to $94.25.
This suggests that investors are going to need to see a lot more change at the companyand with its financesto get them excited about the stock again.
And TGT stock has had a bad run as of late.
As of yesterdays close, TGT shares were down more than 30% since the year began. Over the past 12 months, TGT shares have fallen more than 36%. And over the past five years, TGT shares have dropped a staggering 41%.
During that same five-year timeframe, shares in competitor Walmart (NYSE: WMT) are up 122% and shares in Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) are up almost 38%.
One of my Bentley University students put it plainly the other day: AI taking entry-level jobs is a when, not an if. But in venture capital, 70% of the decision is reading the founder and teamand thats something AI cant do.
That simple breakdown , 70% people, 30% productflips the usual narrative about finance. For decades, finance was defined by numbers. Analysts lived and died by the spreadsheets. Today, AI can run discounted cash flows, parse a term sheet, and size a market faster than any junior associate. But if you talk to people in venture capital, theyll tell you the math has never been the most important part. The numbers matter, of course, but the difference between betting on a future unicorn and losing it all is whether you can read the humans across the table.
AIs takeover of the crunching jobs
Students see whats coming. The entry-level finance roles that once trained armies of analysts are increasingly exposed to automation. AI models can scan thousands of comparable companies in seconds, build slide decks, even flag anomalies that a first-year hire would have spent a weekend catching. In fact, McKinsey estimates that nearly half of finance tasks could already be automated by existing AI tools. What was once seen as a rite of passagethe long hours bent over Excelmay soon look as outdated as typewriters in an accounting office.
Thats why many students I teach dont just worry about if AI will change their jobs. They assume it already has. The conversation now is how to build careers in finance when machines are better, faster, and cheaper at the very tasks that used to get you in the door.
The venture capital exception
Venture capital, especially at the earliest stages, offers a counterintuitive lesson. The math can only take you so far. Market sizing, revenue projections, even technical due diligenceall of it is valuable, but none of it predicts success the way the founder does. Investors Ive spoken with put it bluntly: youre betting on people, not just products.
Thats the essence of the 70/30 rule my student repeated: 70% of the investment decision is about the team. Only 30% is about the idea. Surveys of venture investors back this up. First Round Capital, for example, has consistently found that founder quality outranks product or market sizing in early-stage decisions. You want founders with resilience, persuasion, and the grit to pivot when the idea inevitably changes. AI can tell you the addressable market. It cannot tell you if this particular founder has the charisma to convince skeptical investors, the judgment to hire the right people, or the sheer stubbornness to keep going after three failed prototypes.
As one early-stage investor told me recently, AI can show me a founders track record in five seconds, but it cant tell me whether they can read a room or take a punch. Thats still my job.
Why Gen Z gets it
What strikes me is how quickly students are internalizing this. Rather than seeing their careers in finance as doomed, they are recalibrating. They want to be the people who can build relationships, persuade others, and trust their instincts. Theyre preparing not to be number crunchers, but decision-makers.
In class discussions, they talk about internships where AI already plays a role in screening deals. Their takeaway isnt despairits clarity. They see that the irreplaceable part of the job is not working the models but reading the room. They know AI may one day suggest which startup should succeed, but it wont sit across the table from a founder at 11 p.m., hear the quiver in their voice, and know whether thats nerves or conviction.
Gen Z, often criticized for being too soft, may be better positioned than we think. Theyve grown up digital. They understand the strengths of machines, but they also see the limits. Theyre comfortable letting AI do the heavy lifting if it means their human skills rise in value.
Lessons for the future of work
This shift should force us to rethink not only finance, but the future of work itself. If venture capital is a case study, the lesson is that industries once defined by quantitative rigor may end up placing even greater value on qualitative judgment. Harvard Business Review has made a similar point, noting that as AI scales technical analysis, soft skills are fast becoming the hardest skills to replace.
The irony is rich: the most number-driven fields may be the ones where numbers matter least. And if thats true, Gen Z might just be the generation that restores humanity to the financial worldnot by rejecting technology, but by mastering what machines cant.
Back to the 70/30 rule
That brings me back to my student. Their comment wasnt just about venture capital. It was about what comes next in finance, and perhaps beyond. If AI eats the numbers, the real work will be reading people.
AI owns the math. But the gutthe judgment, empathy, and intuition that turn data into decisionsstill belongs to us.
In the end, the algorithms will get faster, but the best investors will always pause, look across the table, and trust what no machine can calculate: the human pulse of possibility.
Hello again, and thank you, as always, for spending time with Fast Companys Plugged In.
Apple is legendary for figuring out what people want before they realize they want it. But since 2021, its MacBook Pro hasn’t been like that at all. Instead, this venerable laptop’s recent design has reflected Apple’s willingness to trust its customers’ judgmenteven when it’s been at odds with the company’s own instincts.
In part, that’s because of a 2016 reimagining of the MacBook Pro that didn’t stick. Atypically, Apple then went on to reverse many of the changes it had made. The fancy function-key replacement known as the Touch Bar went bye-bye. And several mundane-but-useful features Apple had axed came back, including the MagSafe power connector, HDMI port, and SD Card slot.
The result was a computer that was noticeably chunkier than the MacBook Air. But it was also particularly well tailored to the needs of people who prize sheer usefulness above all else. It was a workhorseyou know, professional.
The newest 14-inch MacBook Pro, which I’ve been using for a little less than a week (the company provided a unit for review), retains that vision. Actually, it retains everything about its immediate predecessor except the chip. A classic example of a “speed bump” upgrade, the machine is now powered by Apple’s next-generation M5 processor. So are updated versions of the iPad Pro and Vision Proan unusual example of disparate Apple products shipping with the same new chip all at once.
In another break from recent years, Apple isn’t immediately rolling out the new MacBook Pro in multiple variants: fast, faster, and fastest. Only the entry-level 14-inch model is getting a new chip. Higher-end Pros (including the 16-inch version) are still equipped with last year’s M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, leaving the MacBook Pro lineup in transition.
For now, the M5 MacBook Pro, with a starting price of $1,599, occupies a middle ground among Apple laptops. Many people will be delighted with the cheaper, lighter, thinner MacBook Air, an exemplary laptop in its own right. Others whose jobs involve particularly computationally intensive work, such as heavy-duty video editing, might opt for the M4 Pro or M4 Max versions of the MacBook Pro, or wait for M5 Pro and M5 Max ones. Apple itself described the M5 chip as suitable for “college students, business users, and aspiring creators,” a pretty concise way of encompassing the M5 MacBook Pro’s sweet spot.
Still, even though I’m a happy owner of a 15-inch MacBook Air, spending time with the new MacBook Pro made clear to me why some people would gladly pay a premium for it.
For starters, there are several fundamental ways in which the MacBook Pro is enough better than the MacBook Air to matter. That starts with the screen, which has brighter Mini-LED lighting and, thanks to ProMotion technology, smoother scrolling. The $150 Nano-texture display option, which Apple included on my review unit, does the job when it comes to the promised glare reduction: I felt more like I was reading off paper than a shiny LCD.
The Pro’s six-speaker audio system, with a subwoofer, is a significant upgrade over the Air’s. Its claimed battery life is longerup to 24 hours of video streaming versus 18 for the Air. Yes, that’s an upgrade from impressively long to remarkably long, but anything that reduces a portable computer’s reliance on chargers and AC outlets is a blessing.
Buy a MacBook Pro, and you may also be able to avoid dealing with the dreaded, easy-to-misplace adapters known as dongles. It has three USB-C ports versus the Air’s two, and they’re divvied between the left and right sides, letting you plug in cables any which way without having to snake them around. As for the built-in HDMI and SD Card slot, their survival in 2025 is miraculous given that Apple tried to eliminate them almost a decade agobut I, for one, would use the SD slot all the time to transfer photos and videos from my Fujifilm camera.
Okay, how about that new M5 chip? Apple emphasizes its improved performance in AI-intensive tasks such as applying filters to video and running local LLMs. Jason Snell of Six Colors benchmarked the new MacBook Pro and found it substantially quicker than the MacBook Air. His charts also show MacBook Pro models with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips remaining faster still, because they have more CPU and GPU cores than the M5.
In my informal experiments with tasks such as editing images in Photoshop and outputting video projects from DaVinci Resolve, the M5 MacBook Pro was a rocket. But with the exception of epoch-shifting moments such as Apple’s 2020 transition from Intel chips to ones it designed itself, the launch of a new processor is rarely a reason to rush out and buy a new computer. Instead, most people should hold off on springing for a new machine until their current one is showing its agea buying strategy Apple tacitly acknowledges in its marketing for the M5 MacBook Pro by comparing its performance to its M1 ancestor, which dates to 2020.
The best reason to get a new computer is as an insurance plan against future obsolescence. The M5 MacBook Pro is just a faster version of a familiar laptop. But it’s well positioned to stay useful even as AI becomes a more pervasive element of MacOS and Mac apps.
Apple certainly won’t leave the MacBook Pro feeling so familiar forever. Last week, Bloombergs Mark Gurman reported that the company is currently working on a thinner, lighter version with an M6 chipand the Mac line’s first-ever touchscreen. Here’s hoping that no matter how much the MacBook Pro evolves, it retains the quiet emphasis on straightforward, well-appointed productivity that defines it.
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
Meta is working to make its apps better for boomers. This week the company announced new UX features designed to deter scammers and make Meta’s apps safer for older adults.
Scammers today use all kinds of tricks to part people from their money, like soliciting personal information under the guise of fake government benefits, brazenly pretending to be customer service support, and chatting up unwitting people in the comments section of a real businesss social media page to lure them to another page.
[Image: Meta]
New features for older users
Meta says its new in-app warnings are meant to combat that type of behavior, and will be triggered by suspicious activity.
On the chat app WhatsApp, users who attempt to share their screen with an unknown contact during a video call will get a warning that says “Only share your screen with people you trust.” The pop-up notes that sharing your screen lets those you share it with “see anything you display on your screen, including sensitive details like your banking info.”
On Messenger, Meta says it’s testing more advanced scam detection in chats. The company says that when scam detection is enabled, suspicious chats will trigger a warning that prompts users to request an AI review, which will explain why the message was flagged, plus provide tips for staying safe online. The feature can be toggled off or on by going to privacy and safety settings and tapping scam detection.
[Image: Meta]
An example AI review Meta shared of a flagged suspicious message notes common scam signs such as job offers promising fast cash or the ability to work from home for a job that cant be done remotely. The AI review goes on to suggest the recipient of the message ignore job offers that seem too good to be true and never agree to send gift cards, a wire transfer, or other forms of payment to a stranger. That includes strangers who are famous.
Scamming is on the rise
Scammers have faked the likenesses of public figures such as Taylor Swift to make it appear as if the pop star is promoting a cookware set giveaway, and actors like Helen Mirren and Jamie Lee Curtis have in recent months warned fans about scammers using their likeness on Instagram.
Meta, which was hit this month with a class-action lawsuit that alleges it profits off of impersonation scam ads, announced it’s investing in cracking down on celebrity scams in the EU, U.K., and South Korea by using facial ID technology and AI.
[Image: Meta]
Online scams are a real problem for Meta and other companies. Meta says since the start of year, it’s disrupted nearly 8 million Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with criminal scam centers, and these and other scams have proven costly for victims.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report, in 2024 people ages 60 and older lost a total of $4.8 billion to fraudmore than any other group. That’s up from more than $3 billion in 2023.
Best practice for designing digital products for an aging population often calls for features like bigger fonts and intuitive design, but it also means making it safe from scammers and fraudsters who target older individuals.
As Meta attempts to shore up online safety for young people by launching teen accounts with heightened parental controls, it’s clear the company also has work to do for its users at the other end of the age spectrum.
It used to be that artificial intelligence would leave behind helpful clues that an image it produced was not, in fact, real. Previous generations of the technology might give a person an extra finger or even an additional limb. Teeth could look odd and out of place, and skin could render overly blushed, like something out of Pixar. Multiple dimensions could befuddle our models, which struggled to represent the physical world in a sensical way: Ask for an image of salmon swimming in a river, and AI might show you a medium-rare salmon steak floating along a rapturous current.
Sure, we were in the uncanny valley. But at least we knew we were there.
Thats no longer the case. While there are still some analog ways to detect that the content we see was created with the help of AI, the implicit visual tip-offs are, increasingly, disappearing. The limited release of Sora 2, OpenAIs latest video-generation model, has only hastened this development, experts at multiple AI detection companies tell Fast Companymeaning we may soon come to be entirely dependent on digital and other technical tools to wade through AI slop. That has ramifications not only for everyday internet users but also for any institution with an interest in protecting its likeness or identity from theft and misappropriation.
Even [for] analysts like me who saw the evolution of this industry, it’s really hard, especially on images, Francesco Cavalli, cofounder of one of those firms, Sensity AI, tells Fast Company. The shapes, the colors, and the humans are perfect. So without the help of a tool now, it’s almost impossible for the average internet user to understand whether an image or a video or a piece of audio is AI-generated or not.
Visual clues are fading
The good news is that at least for now there are still some telltale visual signs that content was generated via artificial intelligence. Researchers are also hunting for more. While extra fingers appear less common, AI image generation models can still struggle to produce sensible text, explains Sofia Rubinson, a senior editor at Reality Check, a publication run by the information reliability company NewsGuard.
Remember that surveillance video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline that turned out to be AI-produced? You might just have to consider whether rabbits actually do that, Rubinson says. We really want to encourage people to think a little bit more critically about what they’re seeing online as these visuals are going away, she adds.
Rubinson says its possible to search for whether a portion of a video has been blurred out, which might suggest that a Sora 2 watermark used to be there. We can also check who shared it. Toggling to an accounts page sometimes reveals a trove of similar videosan almost-certain giveaway that youre being served AI slop.
On the flip side, usernames wont necessarily help us discern who really produced content: As Fast Company previously reported, its somewhat easy, though not always possible, to grab a Sora 2 username associated with a famous person, despite OpenAIs rules on using other peoples likenesses.
Ultimately, we may need to become fluent in a models individual style and tendencies, argues Siwei Lyu, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies deepfakes. For instance, Sora 2-generated speech can appear a little too fast. (Some have dubbed this an AI accent.) Still, Lyu warns that these indications are subtle and can often be missed when viewing casually.
And the technology will improve, which means its unlikely such hints will be around forever. Indeed, researchers say the visible residue that AI was involved in creating a piece of content already seems to be fading.
The tips that we used to give in terms of visual inconsistencies are disappearing, model after model, says Emmanuelle Saliba, a former journalist who now leads investigations at GetReal Labs, a cybersecurity firm working on detecting and studying AI-generated and manipulated content.
While incoherent physical movement used to indicate AIs use in the creation of an image, Sora 2 has improved significantly on mimicking the real world, she says.
At Reality Defender, also a deepfake detection firm, every one of the companys researchershalf of whom have doctorateshave now been fooled by content produced by newer generations of AI. Since the launch of Sora, every single one of them has mislabeled a deepfake as real or vice versa, Ben Colman, cofounder and CEO of Reality Defender, tells Fast Company. If people who’ve been working on this for 5 to 25 years cannot differentiate real from fake, how can average users or those using manual detection?
Labels wont save us, either. While companies have touted watermarking as a way to identify AI-generated content, simple workarounds appear to foil these tools.
For instance, videos from OpenAIs Sora come with a visual watermarkbut online tools can remove them. OpenAI, like other companies, has committed to the C2PA standard created by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. That specification is supposed to encode the provenance, or source, of a piece of content into its metadata. Yet the watermark can be removed by screenshotting an image created by OpenAI technology. Even dragging and dropping that image, in some cases, can remove the watermark, Fast Companys tests with the tool show.
OpenAI concedes this flaw, but a spokesperson said they werent able to reproduce the drag-and-drop issue. When Fast Company posed questions about this vulnerability to Adobe, which operates the C2PA verification tool, the company said the issue was on OpenAIs end.
Updating methodologies
Of course, the companies Fast Company spoke to are interested in selling various products designed to save us from the deepfake deluge. Some envision that AI content detection might go the way of virus scanning and become integrated into myriad online and workplace tools. Others suggest that their platforms will be necessary because the rise of tools like Sora 2 will make video call-based verification obsolete. Some executives believe their products will play a role in protecting brands from embarrassing AI-generated content.
In response to the release of the Sora app, a few of these firms do say theyre seeing growing interest. Still, like humans, even these companies need to update their methodologies when new models are released.
Even if the human cannot spot anything from the tech point of view, there’s always something to investigate, Sensitys Cavalli says. This often requires a mixed-methods approach, one that takes into account a range of factors, including studying a files metadata and discrepancies in background noise. Sensitys detection models are also retrained and refined when new models come online, Cavalli adds.
But even this isnt always perfect. Lyu from SUNYBuffalo says that while the detection systems his team has developed still work on videos produced with Sora 2, they have lower accuracy compared to their performance on generative AI models. And thats after some fine-tuning.
Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor who cofounded Reality Defender and serves as its chief science officer, says the companys forensic and data techniques have seen better but not perfect generalization in the latest models. In the case of Sora 2, some of the companys video techniques have remained effective, while others have required fine-tuning, he says, adding that the audio detection models still work robustly.
Thats a change from earlier eras of generative AI, when forensic techniques had to be continuously updated to apply to the latest models. For our digital-forensic techniques, this required understanding specific artifacts introduced by the AI models and then building techniques to detect these artifacts. For our more data-based techniques, this required generating content from the latest model and retraining our models.
Whether these deepfake detection methods will continue to hold up is unclear. In the meantime, it seems that were increasingly heading toward a world flooded by AI but still building its seawalls.
It used to be that artificial intelligence would leave behind helpful clues that an image it produced was not, in fact, real. Previous generations of the technology might give a person an extra finger or even an additional limb. Teeth could look odd and out of place, and skin could render overly blushed, like something out of Pixar. Multiple dimensions could befuddle our models, which struggled to represent the physical world in a sensical way: Ask for an image of salmon swimming in a river, and AI might show you a medium-rare salmon steak floating along a rapturous current.
Sure, we were in the uncanny valley. But at least we knew we were there.
Thats no longer the case. While there are still some analog ways to detect that the content we see was created with the help of AI, the implicit visual tip-offs are, increasingly, disappearing. The limited release of Sora 2, OpenAIs latest video-generation model, has only hastened this development, experts at multiple AI detection companies tell Fast Companymeaning we may soon come to be entirely dependent on digital and other technical tools to wade through AI slop. That has ramifications not only for everyday internet users but also for any institution with an interest in protecting its likeness or identity from theft and misappropriation.
Even [for] analysts like me who saw the evolution of this industry, it’s really hard, especially on images, Francesco Cavalli, cofounder of one of those firms, Sensity AI, tells Fast Company. The shapes, the colors, and the humans are perfect. So without the help of a tool now, it’s almost impossible for the average internet user to understand whether an image or a video or a piece of audio is AI-generated or not.
Visual clues are fading
The good news is that at least for now there are still some telltale visual signs that content was generated via artificial intelligence. Researchers are also hunting for more. While extra fingers appear less common, AI image generation models can still struggle to produce sensible text, explains Sofia Rubinson, a senior editor at Reality Check, a publication run by the information reliability company NewsGuard.
Remember that surveillance video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline that turned out to be AI-produced? You might just have to consider whether rabbits actually do that, Rubinson says. We really want to encourage people to think a little bit more critically about what they’re seeing online as these visuals are going away, she adds.
Rubinson says its possible to search for whether a portion of a video has been blurred out, which might suggest that a Sora 2 watermark used to be there. We can also check who shared it. Toggling to an accounts page sometimes reveals a trove of similar videosan almost-certain giveaway that youre being served AI slop.
On the flip side, usernames wont necessarily help us discern who really produced content: As Fast Company previously reported, its somewhat easy, though not always possible, to grab a Sora 2 username associated with a famous person, despite OpenAIs rules on using other peoples likenesses.
Ultimately, we may need to become fluent in a models individual style and tendencies, argues Siwei Lyu, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies deepfakes. For instance, Sora 2-generated speech can appear a little too fast. (Some have dubbed this an AI accent.) Still, Lyu warns that these indications are subtle and can often be missed when viewing casually.
And the technology will improve, which means its unlikely such hints will be around forever. Indeed, researchers say the visible residue that AI was involved in creating a piece of content already seems to be fading.
The tips that we used to give in terms of visual inconsistencies are disappearing, model after model, says Emmanuelle Saliba, a former journalist who now leads investigations at GetReal Security, a cybersecurity firm working on detecting and studying AI-generated and manipulated content.
While incoherent physical movement used to indicate AIs use in the creation of an image, Sora 2 has improved significantly on mimicking the real world, she says.
At Reality Defender, also a deepfake detection firm, every one of the companys researchershalf of whom have doctorateshave now been fooled by content produced by newer generations of AI. Since the launch of Sora, every single one of them has mislabeled a deepfake as real or vice versa, Ben Colman, cofounder and CEO of Reality Defender, tells Fast Company. If people who’ve been working on this for 5 to 25 years cannot differentiate real from fake, how can average users or those using manual detection?
Labels wont save us, either. While companies have touted watermarking as a way to identify AI-generated content, simple workarounds appear to foil these tools.
For instance, videos from OpenAIs Sora come with a visual watermarkbut online tools can remove them. OpenAI, like other companies, has committed to the C2PA standard created by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. That specification is supposed to encode the provenance, or source, of a piece of content into its metadata. Yet the watermark can be removed by screenshotting an image created by OpenAI technology. Even dragging and dropping that image, in some cases, can remove the watermark, Fast Companys tests with the tool show.
OpenAI concedes this flaw, but a spokesperson said they werent able to reproduce the drag-and-drop issue. When Fast Company posed questions about this vulnerability to Adobe, which operates the C2PA verification tool, the company said the issue was on OpenAIs end.
Updating methodologies
Of course, the companies Fast Company spoke to are interested in selling various products designed to save us from the deepfake deluge. Some envision that AI content detection might go the way of virus scanning and become integrated into myriad online and workplace tools. Others suggest that their platforms will be necessary because the rise of tools like Sora 2 will make video call-based verification obsolete. Some executives believe their products will play a role in protecting brands from embarrassing AI-generated content.
In response to the release of the Sora app, a few of these firms do say theyre seeing growing interest. Still, like humans, even these companies need to update their methodologies when new models are released.
Even if the human cannot spot anything from the tech point of view, there’s always something to investigate, Sensitys Cavalli says. This often requires a mixed-methods approach, one that takes into account a range of factors, including studying a files metadata and discrepancies in background noise. Sensitys detection models are also retrained and refined when new models come online, Cavalli adds.
ut even this isnt always perfect. Lyu from SUNY Buffalo says that while the detection systems his team has developed still work on videos produced with Sora 2, they have lower accuracy compared to their performance on generative AI models. And thats after some fine-tuning.
Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor who cofounded GetReal Security and serves as its chief science officer, says the companys forensic and data techniques have seen better but not perfect generalization in the latest models. In the case of Sora 2, some of the companys video techniques have remained effective, while others have required fine-tuning, he says, adding that the audio detection models still work robustly.
Thats a change from earlier eras of generative AI, when forensic techniques had to be continuously updated to apply to the latest models. For our digital-forensic techniques, this required understanding specific artifacts introduced by the AI models and then building techniques to detect these artifacts. For our more data-based techniques, this required generating content from the latest model and retraining our models.
Whether these deepfake detection methods will continue to hold up is unclear. In the meantime, it seems that were increasingly heading toward a world flooded by AI but still building its seawalls. The name of GetReal Security has been updated.
Those AI tools are being trained on our trade secrets. Well lose all of our customers if they find out our teams use AI. Our employees will no longer be able to think critically because of the brain rot caused by overreliance on AI. These are not irrational fears. As AI continues to dominate the headlines, questions about data privacy and security, intellectual property, and work quality are legitimate and important.
So, what do we do now? The temptation to just say No is strong. It feels straightforward and safe. However, this safe route is actually the riskiest of all. An outright ban on AI is a losing strategy that creates more problems than it solves. It fosters secrecy, increases security risks, and puts you at a massive competitive disadvantage.
Im the founder of two tech agencies and a big proponent of AI. As a business, we also deal with customer data, often from industries like government, healthcare, and education. However, I believe theres a much better way to address the threats posed by AI. In this article, Ill share the dangers of flat-out AI bans and what companies can do instead.
Curiosity crisis
You can ban tools, but you cant ban curiosity, especially among developers and product managers who are paid to be innovative. Theyre not living in a vacuum. Theyve heard they can do this and that in a fraction of the time, and they simply want to try it out.
Additionally, employees may feel that not using AI daily puts them at a disadvantage compared to their peers working at other companies where AI is allowed.
When you forbid the use of AI tools, you dont stop it. Multiple studies confirm that you simply drive it underground. A Cisco survey revealed that 60% of respondents (including security and privacy professionals from various countries) entered information about company internal processes into genAI tools; 46% entered employee names or information, and 31% entered customer names or information.
This creates Shadow ITthe unsanctioned use of technology within an organization. In recent years, a new term has also emerged: Bring Your Own AI, or BYOI.
Another study by Anagram paints even a more shocking picture: 58% of the surveyed employees across the U.S. admit to pasting sensitive data into large language models. Moreover, 40% were willing to knowingly violate company policy to complete a task faster. I guess the forbidden fruit is indeed the sweetest.
As a consequence, you have zero visibility. You dont know what tools are being used, what data is being input, or what risks are being taken. The irony is real: the problem you wanted to control is now completely out of your control.
Security paradox
The primary reason for a ban is to protect sensitive data. However, the ban makes a leak more likely, not less.
Employees may create personal accounts and use free or cheaper plans, which often default to using your data for model training. They lack robust security features, audit logs, and data processing agreements (DPAs).
On the contrary, enterprise plans, such as ChatGPT Business or Enterprise, often come with assurances that your data will not be used for training purposes. They may offer SSO, data encryption, access controls, and administrative oversight.
Your sensitive data, which you feared would be leaked through an official channel, gets leaked through dozens of untraceable personal accounts. You could have secured it with an enterprise plan, but instead, you pushed it into the wild.
Driving in the slow lane
While you’re debating, your competitors are executing. With only 19% of C-level executives reporting a more than 5% increase in revenue attributed to AI, it may be too early to talk about the ROI. Also, the reason for a relatively small ROI may not be in the AI itself, but in the way we use it. More and more businesses are now considering applying AI to central business operations rather than peripheral processes.
AI use cases in a business setting are manifold. I know firsthand that the productivity gains from AI are not marginal. At Redwerk, we do not shy away from AI-assisted development, and were teaching our clients how they can set up such workflows. We dont view AI as a threat stealing developers lunch; we view it as a tool, allowing us to do more in-depth work faster.
One practical use case for developers is generating boilerplate code or documenting APIs in seconds, rather than hours. With AI, our product managers can analyze user feedback at scale, brainstorm feature ideas, and conduct market research far more quickly.
At QAwerk, we use a range of AI testing tools to generate test cases, identify obscure edge cases, and even perform initial security vulnerability scans.
AI is here to stay
Its not a fad, and its not going anywhere. More and more apps are developing AI features, keeping pace with the competition. AI will continue changing the anatomy of work. Workplace productivity tools like Slack, Zoom, and Asana (which are all now enhanced with AI) have become ingrained in the daily operations of tech-forward businesses. Major cloud and database providers are now offering agentic AI for enterprises.
Investors are pouring billions into OpenAI, despite the company operating at a loss, because they recognize that AI is the future. All these facts clearly signal one thing: AI is here to stay.
How to adopt AI responsibly
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, Ive quickly learned that being proactive is a more effective strategy than being reactive. And that pertains to everything, including AI. When questions like Are you using AI? are asked to support employees rather than reprimand them, youre on the right track. You dont need to overcomplicate things; just start.
Step 1: Guide, dont forbid
Create a simple Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) with dos and donts. Please, no 40-page PDFs no one has ever touched (besides the person creating it). Clearly define what is and is not acceptable. For example, AI tools are approved for brainstorming, learning, and working with nonsensitive ode. Do not input any client data, PII, or company IP into public AI models.
Step 2: Equip your team
Invest in a secure, enterprise-level AI tool. The cost is minimal compared to the productivity gains and the risk of unmanaged use. Before you do that, survey the team for their preferences. They probably have a ton of prompts that maybe work better in Gemini rather than Claude or ChatGPT, or vice versa. You need to gather all major use cases and conduct research on the tool that can address them best. This provides your team with a secure, approved sandbox to work in.
Step 3: Educate and empower
Did you know that millennials are even bigger advocates for AI than Gen Zers? 62% of millennials self-reported high expertise with AI. In many organizations, millennials occupy managerial positions, and they can become true champions of change. So, their enthusiasm should be nurtured rather than stifled.
Run workshops. Share best practices for prompt engineering. Create a dedicated Slack/Teams channel for people to share cool use cases and discoveries. Turn it into a positive, collaborative exploration.
Step 4: Listen and iterate
Dont let the policy be a stone tablet. Let your team explore, get their feedback, and then formulate more detailed policies grounded in their practical, real-world experience. Youll learn what actually works and where the real risks lie.
Final thoughts
Things are moving extremely fast in the AI space. So fast, its challenging to keep up even without any bans. If you cant avoid the inevitable, embrace it. Yes, data privacy and security are no joke, but banning AI is not how you ensure its integrity. Let your team experiment and innovate within the guardrails you both find reasonable and agree on. Allow industry-compliant tools, provide training, and use them to your advantage.
What if the women leaders who were long overlooked are the ones we cant afford to ignore today. The proverbial career ladder has long been the dominant metaphor for success. For many, it works: a clear, linear climb, one predictable rung at a time. For others, it doesnt, because the ladder was never built to hold the weight of multiple roles and ambitions.
Women, in particular, have mastered a multi-hyphenate model of leadership out of necessity: mother and manager, founder and caregiver, mentor and innovator. What looked nonlinear was simply a different kind of training ground, one that creates resilience, adaptability, and perspective.
Todays multi-hyphenates are entrepreneurs-executives-authors, CEOs-board members-storytellers, and founders-volunteers-mentors. Theyve pivoted across industries, re-entered the workforce after pauses, and taken lateral moves to gain new skills or flexibility. Those shifts and gaps arent liabilities, theyre evidence of courage, perspective, and the kind of agility various lived experiences produce.
Lattice, not ladder
Instead of advancing only upward, these women have built careers in multiple directions. A lattice (or jungle gym) career is about growing wider, deeper, and smarter, not just higher. For generations, womens professional ambition has been constrained and conditional: dont pause, dont deviate, dont improvise. Today, women are rejecting those outdated rules and designing careers on their own terms.
A multi-hyphenate career isnt about abandoning ambition, its about redefining it. Success is measured not just by titles or tenure, but by influence, impact, and the ability to bring others along. In fact, when women come together, through mentorship, collaboration, and shared experience, they create a multiplier effect that accelerates learning, leadership, and impact across organizations.Thats not to say the traditional ladder is irrelevant. For many leaders, it remains a powerful and valid route to the top. It just cant be the only one.
What the modern workplace needs
Even in corporate roles, this era of constant disruption is testing every leaders ability to make high-stakes decisions and rally teams through uncertainty and upheaval. Employee expectations are shifting: new generations demand empathy, flexibility, and cultural fluency. These are existential challenges that require resilience and the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once. In that context, the women leaders who have crossed sectors, scaled startups, and taken a career pause are uniquely positioned for what the modern workplace needs right now.
No matter where they sit, multi-hyphenates carry the very skills once dismissed as soft but now recognized as indispensable: empathy, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and the ability to build trust across divides. Innovation thrives at intersections, and these women leaders know how to bridge industries, cultures, and generations.
Good for the bottom line
The business case is undeniable. Companies with women executives outperform competitors by 30% and women founders deliver higher ROI when funded. From our vantage pointsone leading chief, the worlds largest network for women executivesand one who is CEO and cofounder of a leading AI driven, and the fastest-growing executive search firm in the U.S.we both hear directly from thousands of women navigating this reality. Together, they represent not just a large share of todays workforce, but the very talent pipeline companies will depend on for the C-suite of tomorrow. The pattern is unmistakable: nonlinear careers are producing leaders uniquely equipped for todays complexity.
Yet, too many companies still cling to neatly sequenced résumés over pivots, pauses, or plurality. And they overlook a critical truth that leadership today is rarely developed in isolation. Women, in particular, are adept at building support networks that foster growth and create opportunities for many in their orbit. This collective strength can amplify influence far beyond what one individual could achieve alone. After all, leadership is a team sport.
Systemic change
Unlocking this potential requires change across the system. Boards should prize crisis navigation and cross-functionality. Recruiters must weigh adaptability and emotional intelligence alongside tenure. HR leaders should create returnships and project-based roles. And women themselves must stop apologizing for nonlinear journeys and claim their value.
Were not looking to replace the corporate ladder. For some, it still works, and thats fine. But clinging to it as the only credible path is a mistake. Nonlinear, multi-hyphenate careersonce dismissed as messy, flawed, or unfocusedare proving to be a highly effective model for leadership. Women have been beta-testing this blueprint for decades. It works. And its time for companies to embrace it.
