Fewer Americans are signing up for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans this year, new federal data shows, as expiring subsidies and other factors push health expenses too high for many to manage.
Nationally, around 800,000 fewer people have selected plans compared to a similar time last year, marking a 3.5% drop in total enrollment so far. That includes a decrease in both new consumers signing up for ACA plans and existing enrollees re-upping them.
The new data released Monday evening by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is only a snapshot of a continuously changing pool of enrollees. It includes sign-ups through Jan. 3 in states that use Healthcare.gov for ACA plans and through Dec. 27 for states that have their own ACA marketplaces. In most states, the period for shopping for plans continues through Jan. 15 for plans that start in February.
But even though its early, the data builds on fears that expiring enhanced tax credits could cause a dip in enrollment and force many Americans to make tough decisions to delay buying health insurance, look for alternatives, or forgo it entirely.
Experts warn that the number of people who have signed up for plans may still drop even further, as enrollees get their first bill in January and some choose to cancel.
Health care costs at the center of a fight in Congress
The declining enrollment comes as Congress has been locked in a partisan battle over what to do about the subsidies that expired at the start of the new year. For months, Democrats have fought for a straight extension of the tax credits, while Republicans have insisted larger reforms are a better way to root out fraud and abuse and keep costs down overall. Last week, in a remarkable rebuke of Republican leadership, the House passed legislation to extend the subsidies for three years. The bill now sits in the Senate, where pressure is building for a bipartisan compromise.
Up until this year, President Barack Obama‘s landmark health insurance program had been an increasingly popular option for Americans who don’t get health coverage through their jobs, including small business owners, gig workers, farmers, ranchers, and others.
For the 2021 plan year, about 12 million people selected an Affordable Care Act plan. Enhanced tax credits were introduced the following year, and four years later, enrollment had doubled to over 24 million.
This years sinking sign-ups sitting at about 22.8 million so far mark the first time in the past four years that enrollment has been down from the previous year at this point in the shopping window.
The loss of enhanced subsidies means annual premium costs will more than double for the average ACA enrollee who had them, according to the health care research nonprofit KFF. But extending the subsidies would also be expensive for the country. Ahead of last week’s House vote, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that extending the subsidies for three years would increase the nation’s deficit by about $80.6 billion over the decade.
Americans begin looking for other options
Robert Kaestner, a health economist at the University of Chicago, said some of those who abandon ACA plans may have other options, such as going on a partner’s employer health plan or changing their income to qualify for Medicaid. Others will go without insurance at least temporarily while they look for alternatives.
My prediction is 2 million more people will lack health insurance for a while,” Kaestner said. “That’s a serious issue, but Republicans would argue we’re using government money more efficiently, we’re targeting people who really need it and we’re saving $35 billion a year.
Several Americans interviewed by The Associated Press have said they’re dropping coverage altogether for 2026 and will pay out of pocket for needed appointments. Many said they are crossing their fingers that they aren’t affected by a costly injury or diagnosis.
I’m pretty much going to be going without health insurance unless they do something, said 52-year-old Felicia Persaud, a Florida entrepreneur who dropped coverage when she saw her monthly ACA costs were set to increase by about $200 per month. It’s sort of like playing poker and hoping the chips fall and try the best that you can.”
Ali Swenson and Nicky Forster, Associated Press
As concerns grow over Grok’s ability to generate sexually explicit content without the subject’s consent, a number of countries are blocking access to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot. At the center of the controversy is a feature called Grok Imagine, which lets users create AI-generated images and videos. That tool also features a “spicy mode,” which lets users generate adult content.
Both Indonesia and Malaysia ordered that restrictions be put in place over the weekend. Malaysian officials blocked access to Grok on Sunday, citing repeated misuse to generate obscene, sexually explicit, indecent, grossly offensive, and non-consensual manipulated images. Officials also cited “repeated failures by X Corp.” to prevent such content.
Indonesia had blocked the chatbot the previous day for similar reasons. In a statement accompanying Groks suspension, Meutya Hafid, Indonesias Minister of Communication and Digital, said. “The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space.”
The responses could be just the beginning of Grok’s problems, though. Several other countries, including the U.K., India, and France, are thinking of following suit.
The U.K. has launched an investigation into the chatbot’s explicit content, which could result in it being blocked in that country as well. “Reports of Grok being used to create and share illegal, non-consensual, intimate images and child sexual abuse material on X have been deeply concerning,” Ofcom, the countrys regulator for the communications services, said in a statement.
Musk, in a social media post following word of the Ofcom investigation, wrote that the U.K. government “just want[s] to suppress free speech.”
Fast Company attempted to contact xAI for comment about the actions in Indonesia and Malaysia as well as similar possible blocks in other countries. An automatic reply from the company read Legacy Media Lies.
Beyond the U.K., officials in the European Union, Brazil, and India have called for probes into Grok’s deepfakes, which could ultimately result in bans as well. (The U.S. government, which has contracts with xAI, has been fairly silent on the matter so far.)
In a press conference last week, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the commission was “very seriously looking into this matter,” adding This is not spicy.’ This is illegal. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This is how we see it, and this has no place in Europe.
Musk and X are still feeling the effects of a $130 million fine the EU slapped on the company last month for violating the Digital Services Act, specifically over deceptive paid verification and a lack of transparency in the company’s advertising repository.
Beyond sexualized images of adults, a report from the nonprofit group AI Forensics that analyzed 20,000 Grok-generated images created between Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 found that 2% depicted a person who appeared to be 18 or younger. These included 30 images of young or very young women or girls in bikinis or transparent clothes.
The analysis also found Nazi and ISIS propaganda material generated by Grok.
While the company has not addressed the countries blocking access to its services, it did comment on the use of its tool to create sexual content featuring minors.
“We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary,” X Safety wrote in a post. “Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
The company has also announced it will limit image generation and editing features to paying subscribers. That, however, likely won’t be enough to satisfy government officials who want to block access to Grok while these images can still be generated.
Advancements in artificial intelligence are shaping nearly every facet of society, including education. Over the past few years, especially with the availability of large language models like ChatGPT, theres been an explosion of AI-powered edtech. Some of these tools are truly helping students, while many are not. For educational leaders seeking to leverage the best of AI while mitigating its harms, its a lot to navigate.
Thats why the organization I lead, the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund, collaborated with the Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI) and Education First to write Proof Before Hype: Using R&D for Coherent AI in K-12 Education. I sat down with my coauthors, Melissa Moritz, an ALI senior advisor, and Ila Deshmukh Towery, an Education First partner, to discuss how schools can adopt innovative, responsible, and effective AI tools.
Q: Melissa, what concerns you about the current wave of AI edtech tools, and what would you change to ensure these tools benefit students?
Melissa: Too often, AI-powered edtech is developed without grounding in research or educators input. This leads to tools that may seem innovative, but solve the wrong problems, lack evidence of effectiveness, ignore workflow realities, or exacerbate inequities.
What we need is a fundamental shift in education research and development so that educators are included in defining problems and developing classroom solutions from the start. Deep collaboration across educators, researchers, and product developers is critical. Lets create infrastructure and incentives that make it easier for them to work together toward shared goals.
AI tool development must also prioritize learning science and evidence. Practitioners, researchers, and developers must continuously learn and iterate to give students the most effective tools for their needs and contexts.
Q: Ila, what is the AI x Coherence Academy and what did Education First learn about AI adoption from the K-12 leaders who participated in it?
Ila: The AI x Coherence Academy helps cross-functional school district teams do the work that makes AI useful: Define the problem, align with instructional goals, and then choose (or adapt) tools that fit system priorities. It’s a multi-district initiative that helps school systems integrate AI in ways that strengthen, rather than disrupt, core instructional priorities so that adoption isnt a series of disconnected pilots.
We’re learning three things through this work. First, coherence beats novelty. Districts prefer customizable AI solutions that integrate with their existing tech infrastructure rather than one-off products. Second, use cases come before tools. A clear use case that articulates a problem and names and tracks outcomes quickly filters out the noise. Third, trust is a prerequisite. In a world increasingly skeptical of tech in schools, buy-in is more likely when educators, students, and community members help define the problem and shape how the technology helps solve it.
Leaders are telling us they want tools that reinforce the teaching and learning goals already underway, have clear use cases, and offer feedback loops for continuous improvement.
Q: Melissa and Ila, what types of guardrails need to be in place for the responsible and effective integration of AI in classrooms?
Ila: For AI to be a force for good in education, we need several guardrails. Lets start with coherence and equity. For coherence, AI adoption must explicitly align with systemwide teaching and learning goals, data systems, and workflows. To minimize bias and accessibility issues, product developers should publish bias and accessibility checks, and school systems should track relevant data, such as whether tools support (versus disrupt) learning and development, and the tools efficacy and impact on academic achievement. These guardrails need to be co-designed with educators and families, not imposed by technologists or policymakers.
The districts making real progress through our AI x Coherence Academy are not AI-maximalists. They are disciplined about how new tools connect to educational goals in partnership with the people they hope will use them. In a low-trust environment, co-designed guardrails and definitions are the ones that will actually hold.
Melissa: We also need guardrails around safety, privacy, and evidence. School systems should promote safety and protect student data by giving families information about the AI tools being used and giving them clear opt-out paths. As for product developers, building on Ilas points, they need to be transparent about how their products leverage AI. Developers also have a responsibility to provide clear guidance around how their product should and shouldnt be used, as well as to disclose evidence of the tools efficacy. And of course, state and district leaders and regulators should hold edtech providers accountable.
Q: Melissa and Ila, what gives you hope as we enter this rapidly changing AI age?
Melissa: Increasingly, we are starting to have the right conversations about AI and education. More leaders and funders are calling for evidence, and for a paradigm shift in how we think about teaching and learning in the AI age. Through my work at ALI, Im hearing from federal policymakers, as well as state and district leaders, that there is a genuine desire for evidence-based AI tools that meet students and teachers needs. Im hopeful that together, well navigate this new landscape with a focus on AI innovations that are both responsible and effective.
Ila: What gives me hope is that district leaders are getting smarter about AI adoption. They’re recognizing that adding more tools isn’t the answercoherence is. The districts making real progress aren’t the ones with the most AI pilots; they’re the ones who are disciplined about how new tools connect to their existing goals, systems, and relationships. They’re asking: Does this reinforce what we’re already trying to do well, or does it pull us in a new direction? And theyre bringing a range of voices into defining use cases and testing solutions to center, rather than erode, trust. That kind of strategic clarity is what we need right now. When AI adoption is coherent rather than chaotic, it can strengthen teaching and learning rather than fragment it.
Auditi Chakravarty is CEO of the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund.
When I looked ahead to 2026, one issue jumped out in every conversation I had with business leaders: Resilience is buckling under pressure. The pace of change is no longer just fastit is accelerating beyond the reach of traditional playbooks. We are entering an era of complexity risk, where the greatest threats stem not only from malicious actors, but from the sheer entanglement of our own systems.
Below are the four shifts business leaders must prepare for to navigate 2026.
1. Recovery will become the most important metric
For years, companies have focused their investments on prevention. But AI changed the economics of cyber risk. Offensive AI makes it fast and inexpensive for attackers to generate malware, exploit known vulnerabilities, and pivot across a digital environment. Even strong defenses will miss things.
Rubriks latest research highlights thatonly 28% of organizationsbelieve they can fully recover from a cyberattack within 12 hoursa steep decline from 43% in 2024. The gap in confidence underscores the growing friction between rapid tech adoption and operational resilience.
The organizations that thrive in 2026 will prioritize validating data integrity before restoring systems, and establishing isolated cyber vaults for safe testing and rebuilding. Recovery strategies should guarantee that the restored environment is free of malicious code, making robust recovery engines a necessity, not a convenience.
2. Identity security will become the top budget priority
Identity is one of the biggest, and least understood, business risks.
Most companies today drastically underestimate their identity footprint. In the AI era, non-human identitiesthe service accounts and machine credentials that fuel our automationnow outnumber humans. Instead of breaking in, attackers are logging in by exploiting this labyrinth of unprotected non-human credentials. By 2026, these silent entry points won’t just provide a foothold; they will be the primary lever for achieving full-system compromise.
Rubrik found that nearly 9 in 10 organizations plan to hire identity security professionals in the next year. As a result, executives should prepare for a significant rebalancing of budgets, with identity security moving to the top of the priority list. The reality is that identity sprawl will only accelerate as AI increases automation and service connectivity. In 2026, the ability to govern and secure identities will matter more than the data infrastructure those identities protect.
3. AI agent sprawl will trigger a governance renaissance
Many organizations are deploying AI agents, sometimes hundreds of them, to handle everything from customer support to code generation to workflow automation. But behind the scenes, most teams lack clear oversight into what those agents are doing, what data they touch, and whether their output is correct. This great AI sprawl is setting up a governance crisis.
In 2026, companies will realize that deploying AI agents at scale requires the same level of rigor as onboarding employees or granting system access. A new class of business-critical questions will emerge:
Which systems can autonomous agents interact with?
How do we validate the accuracy of their actions?
What remediation steps are required when agents make mistakes?
Success in agent-driven environments requires new frameworks for monitoring, workforce, and security, which includes heavy investment in robust governance and remediation systems. Done correctly, it enables transformation; done poorly, it creates uncontrollable risk.
4. Multi-cloud complexity will force a unified control plane
Most enterprises today use a mix of cloud platforms, each with its own backup, security, and identity tools. What began as flexibility has evolved into operational drag. In 2026, the myth that native cloud tools are good enough will collapse.
Fragmented environments slow recovery efforts, make migrations painful, and increase the time it takes to diagnose issues across platforms. Companies running multiple cloud-native backup systems are already experiencing longer recovery times, prompting emergency migrations and avoidable downtime.
The business case for unifying control across clouds, once seen as an IT optimization, will become a survival requirement. Future-proof organizations are consolidating multi-cloud management into a single pane. Success here depends on one thing: seamlessly merging identity security with data defense to create a unified hub for all corporate data. Leaders will then shift focus toward achieving centralized visibility across clouds, enabling unified orchestration for recovery.
2026 DEMANDS SHARPER RESILIENCE
In 2026, business resilience will depend on how effectively organizations recover, how intelligently they govern identity and AI agents, and how well they manage the complexity of multi-cloud environments.
Executives who embrace these shifts early will reduce risk, accelerate innovation, and create more durable, adaptable enterprises. Those who delay may find that complexity (especially in managing non-human identities), not attackers, is the biggest threat to their future.
Arvind Nithrakashyap is CTO of Rubrik.
In a recent interview with Wired, billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates made clear she is no friend of hustle culture and nonstop busyness.
My parents were countercultural. They actually taught us that you needed breaks, she says. We took Sundays off as a family, and guess what else? My parents actually taught me the importance of rest, of taking a short nap every day.
Building quiet, restful moments into your day doesnt just help you think more clearly and feel better physically, she continues. It also helps you check in with yourself and your values. It is important to know who you are as a person and to live in that direction and in that lane, even when the world calls you to move in different ways, she says.
Naps are clearly one (research-backed) way to do that. But in interviews and social media posts throughout the years, French Gates also recommends another way to take a pause from busyness and get back in touch with yourself The Book of Awakening by poet and cancer survivor Mark Nepo.
The book she reads almost every day
When Wired asked French Gates to name a book she thought everyone should read, she mentioned Nepos book. That made me curious and prompted me to dig into what the book is all about and why she is such a huge fan.
Rather than a novel that spins a story of a nonfiction book designed to teach you about a particular subject, The Book of Awakening is a collection of short essays, one for each day of the year. Theres no need to read from cover to cover, you can dip in and out whenever you feel the urge.
Which is apparently just what French Gates does. In a 2018 social media post she explained, I open The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo almost every day and years later, I still get something new out of it every time I turn a page. It was illustrated by a much marked-up page from her personal copy of the book.
A daily read to quiet the mind
Put that together with the latest Wired interview, and its clear French Gates has been perusing this particular book for more than seven years and still finding valuable nuggets within. What kind of insights is she discovering there?
Marks writing helps me step back, be still, and center myself particularly on days that feel especially chaotic, or when I need a moment of quiet, French Gates continues.
Helping people find enough stillness to remember what truly matters to them and notice the grandeur of the world is just what Nepos book promises. As Amazons description puts it, this spiritual daybook is a summons to reclaim aliveness, liberate the self, take each day one at a time, and to savor the beauty offered by lifes unfolding. It aims to help readers stay vital and in love with this life, no matter the hardships.
Psychologists (and Oprah) agree with French Gates
This all might sound a little woo-woo to some hard-charging entrepreneurs. But hard science suggests that taking even just a few minutes out of your day to cultivate a sense of awe in this way can have impressive benefits.
Research by UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner and others shows awe reduces stress, loneliness, and depression, and nudges us to be kinder and more generous to others. It even seems to have physical benefits, including reduced inflammation.
The idea of taking a quiet moment outside of the hustle and bustle each day to reflect and reconnect with yourself is also endorsed by plenty of other super-achievers besides French Gates. Oprah Winfrey (who also recommended Nepos book) always takes a moment to pause and set an intention before every big event in her day.
I never go downstairs to tape a show. Any kind of media appearance that I dont have a conversation by myself alone, I need time alone, she has said.
Again, this isnt hocus-pocus. Psychologists explain that touching base with our values and intentions primes our mind to pay attention to what really matters to us when things get busy. Just as someone who just bought a Toyota will suddenly notice all the Toyotas on the road, someone who takes a moment to recommit to gratitude is more likely to notice the bright spots in their day.
Read daily for more self-awareness and awe
If taking a quiet moment each day to cultivate awe to quiet your mind and remember your values appeals to you, then French Gates has offered the same, simple advice for years. Pick up a copy of The Book of Awakening and leave it somewhere handy. Naps refresh the mind and body. This book will refresh your spirit, she insists.
Jessica Stillman
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
In a reversal from previous years’ pollution reductions, the United States spewed 2.4% more heat-trapping gases from the burning of fossil fuels in 2025 than in the year before, researchers calculated in a study released Tuesday.
The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to a combination of a cool winter, the explosive growth of data centers and cryptocurrency mining, and higher natural gas prices, according to the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. Environmental policy rollbacks by President Donald Trumps administration were not significant factors in the increase because they were only put in place this year, the study authors said. Heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas are the major cause of worsening global warming, scientists say.
American emissions of carbon dioxide and methane had dropped 20% from 2005 to 2024, with a few one- or two-year increases in the overall downward trend. Traditionally, carbon pollution has risen alongside economic growth, but efforts to boost cleaner energy in recent years decoupled the two, so emissions would drop as gross domestic product rose.
But that changed last year with pollution actually growing faster than economic activity, said study co-author Ben King, a director in Rhodium’s energy group. He estimated the U.S. put 5.9 billion tons (5.35 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide equivalent in the air in 2025, which is 139 million tons (126 million metric tons) more than in 2024.
The cold 2025 winter meant more heating of buildings, which often comes from natural gas and fuel oil that are big greenhouse gas emitters, King said. A significant and noticeable jump in electricity demand from data centers and cryptocurrency mining meant more power plants producing energy. That included plants using coal, which creates more carbon pollution than other fuel sources.
A rise in natural gas prices helped create an 13% increase in coal power, which had shrunk by nearly two-thirds since its peak in 2007, King said.
Its not like this is a huge rebound, King said. Were not sitting here claiming that coal is back and going to dominate the sector or anything like that. But we did see this increase and that was a large part of why emissions went up in the power sector.
It will take time for data to reflect Trump policies
King said the list of more than two dozen proposed rollbacks of American environmental policies by the Trump administration hadn’t been in place long enough to have an effect in 2025, but may be more noticeable in future years.
Its one year of data so far, King said. So we need to see the extent to which this trend sustains.
Solar power generation jumped 34%, pushing it past hydroelectric power, with zero-carbon emitting energy sources now supplying 42% of American power, Rhodium found. It will be interesting to see what happens as the Trump administration ends solar and wind subsidies and discourages their use, King said.
“The economic case for adding renewables is quite strong still,” King said. This stuff is cost-competitive in a lot of places. Try as they might, this administration cant alter the fundamental economics of this stuff.
Before the Trump administration took office, the Rhodium team projected that in 2035 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would have fallen between 38% and 56% compared to 2005 levels, King said. Now, the projected pollution drop is expected to be about one-third less, he calculated.
Experts say pollution increase is an ominous sign
Others who were not involved in the Rhodium report said last year’s increase in emissions is an ominous sign.
Unfortunately, the 2025 U.S. emission increase is likely a harbinger of whats to come as the U.S. federal leadership continues to make what amounts to a huge unforced economic error by favoring legacy fossil fuels when the rest of the world is going all in on mobility and power generation using low-carbon technology, primarily based on renewables and batteries, said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck.
Overpeck said that favoring fossil fuels will harm both the U.S. economy and air quality.
Longtime climate change activist Bill McKibben said bluntly: It’s so incredibly stupid that the U.S. is going backwards on this stuff.”
The Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement it wasn’t familiar with the Rhodium Group report and is carrying out our core mission of protecting human health.
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The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Seth Borenstein, AP science writer
The BBC plans to ask a court to throw out U.S. President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the British broadcaster, court papers show.Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way the BBC edited a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021. The claim, filed in a Florida federal court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.The BBC had broadcast the documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.The broadcaster has apologized to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejects claims it defamed him. The furor triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.Papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami say the BBC will file a motion to dismiss the case on March 17 on the basis that the court lacks jurisdiction and Trump failed to state a claim.The broadcaster’s lawyers will argue that the BBC did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Trump’s claim the documentary was available in the U.S. on streaming service BritBox is not true.It will also argue that Trump has failed to “plausibly allege” the BBC acted with malice in airing the documentary.Attorney Charles Tobin, for the BBC, said Trump can’t prove actual damages because he won reelection by a commanding margin, and carried Florida by 13-point margin, better than his 2016 and 2020 performances. He said the documentary also couldn’t have harmed his reputation because it aired after Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including allegations he “directed the crowd in front of him to go to the Capitol.”The BBC is asking the court to postpone discovery the pretrial process in which parties must turn over documents and other information pending a decision on the motion to dismiss. The discovery process could require the BBC to hand over reams of emails and other materials related to its coverage of Trump.“Engaging in unbounded merits-based discovery while the motion to dismiss is pending will subject defendants to considerable burdens and costs that will be unnecessary if the motion is granted,” Tobin wrote.If the case continues, a 2027 trial date has been proposed.“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” the BBC said Tuesday in a statement. “We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
Jill Lawless and Brian Melley, Associated Press
If youre crypto-rich and cash-poor, you might still have a shot at securing a home loan without having to sell off your assets.
Starting next month, mortgage lender Newrez will let applicants count their cryptocurrency when applying for a home loan. Historically, a borrowers crypto holdings wouldnt be considered in the loan application process. For anyone holding a large amount of digital currency, liquidating someand incurring that tax billmight be necessary to qualify for a loan in instances where traditional investments or cash are scarce.
Today, an increasing number of consumers include crypto in their investment portfolios, while major financial institutions are deepening their involvement in crypto assets, supported by key regulatory developments, Newrez President Baron Silverstein said in the announcement, adding that now is the right time to weave crypto into the mortgage lending business. The company plans to introduce the new option next month.
Crypto isnt Newrezs only high tech experiment. Last week, the lender announced that it would invest an undisclosed amount in HomeVision, an AI-powered tool for the mortgage underwriting process. Newrez isnt a top 10 mortgage company by loan volume, but its clearly angling to make a name for itself as a lender friendly to new technologies that other, bigger lenders might be slower to adopt.
Around 14% of adults in the U.S. own cryptocurrency, but the majority of Americans say they would never buy it, according to a recent Gallup poll. Noting that Gen Z and Millennial investors are more comfortable with crypto, Newrez Chief Commercial Officer Leslie Gillin described the change as opening new pathways to homeownership that offer home buyers increased financial flexibility.
Cryptocurrency settles in
Newrez is one of the first mortgage companies to open up to cryptocurrency, but its unlikely to be the last. In July, the Federal Housing Finance Agency directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mactwo pillars of the U.S. mortgage ecosystemto draft proposals for considering crypto as an asset in mortgage applications. On X, the agencys director William Pulte explained that the plan was part of President Trumps vision to make the United States the crypto capital of the world.
Major U.S. banks and other financial institutions started warming up to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2025. Banks have long been skittish about the much-hyped digital assets due to regulatory uncertainty, their inherent volatility and a lingering association with cybercrime.
But with Trump back in office, crypto is on the menuboth for banking stalwarts and speculative investors, who drove a post-election Bitcoin run that sent the king of coins to new heights. The president is also cashing in, raking in millions via token sales with World Liberty Financial, the Trump familys flashy, ethically dubious crypto venture.
In the current intensely crypto-friendly regulatory environment, major banks have begun tiptoeing into the realm of digital currencies. This year, Chase will let customers leverage credit card rewards points to buy cryptocurrency through Coinbasea first for a major rewards program. Mastercard was reportedly shopping for a major crypto acquisition last year and went on to introduce new support for stablecoin wallets.
The first Big Tech layoffs of 2026 have happened. This week, Facebook owner Meta Platforms reportedly informed employees that up to 1,500 positions in its Reality Labs division would be eliminated. Heres what you need to know about the job cuts.
Whats happened?
Meta this week notified employees in its Reality Labs division that up to 10% of jobs could be lost, according to a Bloomberg report. A day earlier, the New York Times reported that the layoffs were expected.
Reality Labs is a division of the social media giant primarily responsible for developing the companys augmented and virtual reality products. The division was responsible for spearheading Metas failed metaverse virtual-reality world.
How many jobs are being lost?
An exact figure is not known, but according to media reports, Meta is aiming to cut about 10% of its Reality Labs workforce. The division reportedly employs about 15,000 workers, so a 10% reduction equates to around 1,500 jobs lost.
Bloomberg reviewed an internal post to Meta’s employees from the company’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth. In that post, Bosworth announced the 10% layoff estimate.
Fast Company has reached out to Meta for comment.
Why is Meta laying off workers?
In the internal post Bosworth sent to employees, the CTO reportedly announced that Meta was shifting its priorities away from virtual and augmented reality, while metaverse resources will focus more on mobile device experiences as opposed to VR headsets.
At the same time, Bosworth also confirmed that Meta was looking to cut back on its investments in virtual reality (VR) in order to make its business more sustainable.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that the company plans to reinvest the savings [from the Reality Labs cuts] to support the growth of wearables this year.
The metaverse never took off
The fact that Meta is reprioritizing its areas of focus to AI and mobile is of little surprise to those familiar with the companys metaverse virtual world initiatives.
In 2021, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media company, formerly known as Facebook, would be pivoting to the next frontier of technology: virtual worlds.
In October of that year, Zuckerberg announced the metaverse, and was so certain that the future of tech was VR that he even decided to change the companys name from Facebook to Meta.
But in the more than four years since Meta went all-in on the metaverse, consumer interest in virtual reality worlds never developed beyond a niche appeal. Moreover, the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022 made clear that the next era of computing was AI, not VR.
Since then, Meta has gone all-in on AI, and its metaverse products have languished as a result.
Shares of Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) were down more than 2% in midday trading on Tuesday after the news broke.
Metas job cuts are the largest tech layoffs of 2026 so far
The Reality Labs job cuts have earned Meta the distinction of having the largest layoff round of any prominent tech company in 2026 so far.
Many in the tech industryparticularly those working in non-AI sectors and divisionswill now likely be wondering whether other companies will follow suit and eliminate jobs in legacy divisions as tech firms continue to go all-in on AI development.
According to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi, total tech layoffs in 2025 resulted in neqrly 124,00 jobs lost at 269 tech companies.
While significant, the annual level of tech job layoffs has been decreasing since 2022, according to the site. In 2022, there were more than 165,000 tech layoffs. That number rose to nearly 265,000 in 2023, before falling to around 152,000 in 2024.
New AI tools from Docusign aim to make contracts easier to understand and quicker to prepare.
For people signing documents like leases or purchases agreements, a new AI feature will make it possible to request an overall summary of the contract and its key terms. Users will also be able to ask questions about the document, which for consumer agreements could include requesting details about cancellation procedures, fees that may apply, relevant timelines, or terms of a warranty.
The whole purpose of this is to allow and provide a level of trust to the signer so that they understand what is it that they’re signing, says Mangesh Bhandarkar, GVP of product management at Docusign, and help them get through the signature process in a much quicker way, with a better understanding of the agreement itself.
In a demonstration for Fast Company, Bhandarkar highlighted how the AI could generate a basic summary of a residential lease, automatically pulling out key terms like the rental period, monthly rent, and landlord and tenant responsibilities for various utilities. The AI also answered questions about other terms like pet fees, including links to relevant, highlighted sections of the document.
[Image: Docusign]
AIs use in the legal field has been controversial, with some AI legal research and analysis plagued by incorrect answers and AI hallucinations. But Bhandarkar says the company feels confident in its Iris AI system, which has been honed specifically to handle contracts based on Docusigns specialized dataset of written agreements and designed to provide in-document citations. We make sure that it is not hallucinating information that is not in the document, he says.
Still, Bhandarkar emphasizes that Docusign isnt offering formal legal advice or a substitute for getting a thorough understanding of a contract before signing it. Rather, he says, the company is trying to give a better understanding and a quicker understanding of the makeup of the agreement with relevant data that could help you make an informed decision about the actions you’re taking.
[Image: Docusign]
Docusign, which says it helps more than 1 billion people sign contracts every year, reports a recent survey indicated that nearly 75% of contract signers would feel more confident with a plain-English AI summary of the documents theyre signing. And some users, Bhandarkar says, are already using general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT for help in understanding contracts. Theyll now be able to access AI thats both specifically optimized for the task and integrated into the platform theyre already using to review and sign the agreement.
The new feature will likely also help organizations that are creating contracts for consumers to sign, since they may see contracts signed faster and with fewer inquiries. Document creators at all plan levels will be able to choose whether to enable signers to use the tool with particular contracts, Bhandarkar says.
In recent years, Docusign has rolled out other AI features in moving to offer what it calls an intelligent agreement management (IAM) platform, where organizations can draft, store, and analyze contracts using AI and other tools, in addition to simply collecting signatures from other parties. More than 25,000 customers currently use the IAM platform, Bhandarkar adds.
And additional AI offerings aim to make the process of drafting contracts that much faster. Docusigns AI is gaining the ability to automatically detect areas on imported documents such as PDFs that should be turned into digitally fillable fields, making it that much quicker to turn draft agreements into interactive versions without manually dragging and dropping fields, Bhandarkar says. Document creators will naturally be able to preview and edit fields before sending documents out for signature, and field suggestions will be available in all Docusign plans.
The companys AI is also gaining the ability to validate email addresses and phone numbers where agreements are sent for signature, in order to reduce cases where documents are sent to the wrong destination. That feature, which will be available in Docusign Business and IAM plans, relies on a mix of internal data from peoples past interactions with Docusign and external data sources, Bhandarkar says.
Bhandarkar says Docusign will be tracking metrics like whether users of AI summaries review and sign documents more quickly and to what extent contract creators retain or replace AI-generated fields, which should help the company continue to refine the AI.
