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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. Im Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, Im focusing on the role of NSFW material on AI platforms, which could be complicated when AI platforms turn into social platforms. I also look at a powerful new Anthropic model for free Claude chatbot users. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @thesullivan. Sam Altman welcomes NSFW to AI Sam Altman casually said on X Tuesday that OpenAI is planning to introduce NSFW content on ChatGPT as soon as December. The comment, which came at the bottom of a discussion about user mental health, raises all kinds of questions about user safety and trust, and about what audiences OpenAI really wants to serve. Altman says the company hopes to implement a new agegating mechanism through which users will prove theyre old enough to consume adult content. On ChatGPT, that implies frank discussions about sex with the chatbot, or maybe some forms of entertainment such as role-playing with sexy AI companions. Elon Musks xAI has already gone well down that road with its AI Companions, which launched during the summer within the Grok chatbot. The companions, reserved for Premium subscribers on the Grok app, have a NSFW mode and are willing and ready to engage in sexy conversation. The way Altman frames NSFW AI sounds similar to Musks approach to appropriate content. As part of our treat adult users like adults principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults, he wrote on X. So its not hard to imagine ChatGPT going down some of the roads xAI has taken. To some extent, this may apply to image generators too. Musk has already gone there. In August, xAI released the image generator Grok Imagine, which reportedly has a spicy mode that lets users create sexually explicit content, including partial female nudity, via text prompts. Will OpenAIs new permissive attitude about adult content on ChatGPT extend to its other products as well? The companys second-hottest product is the new Sora 2 image generator. The difference between Sora 2 and Grok Imagine is that Sora is a social app. Using the Sora 2 app is a lot like using TikTok, only all the content thats viewed, shared, and created on it is AI-generated, not shot with cameras. That social aspect raises the stakes in the appropriateness question. Right now OpenAI is tightly controlling the content created on Sora 2 (currently invite only). No sexual content is allowed, and the company says it puts an even tighter filter on Sora generations that will be shared socially. The company is using both content moderation AI and human reviewers to detect material that might violate its guidelines. It provides a way for users to report offensive videos and uses an AI algorithm to detect accounts bearing the hallmarks one would associate with being owned by a minor. But the company also says its taking an iterative approach to its content moderation, so todays tight moderation standards could loosen in the future. This could be especially problematic when it comes to the image and likeness rights of Sora users. One of the main features of the Sora app is cameos where users can feature their own likeness, or their friends, or certain celebrities, in their video creations. Allowing NSFW content in this context could open up all kinds of safety and reliability problems for users, and for OpenAI. Altman was surprised by the splash his erotica post made on Tuesday. On Wednesday he tried to explain further in another tweet: As AI becomes more important in people’s lives, allowing a lot of freedom for people to use AI in the ways that they want is an important part of our mission . . . Without being paternalistic we will attempt to help users achieve their long-term goals. But we are not the elected moral police of the world. In the same way that society differentiates other appropriate boundaries (R-rated movies, for example) we want to do a similar thing here. And, safety concerns aside, the adult side of life has always been well represented on technology platforms from VHS to VR to social media. OpenAIs acceptance of adult content isnt likely to make ChatGPT any dumber or less useful, but it may give millions more people another reason to start using the chatbot. Anthropic brings a gift to free Claude chatbot users with new Claude Haiku 4.5 model Anthropic announced its new Claude Haiku 4.5 model Wednesday, which will become the default model for all free Claude.ai users. The model may be the most powerful model currently available to free users of chatbot apps. The arrival of Haiku 4.5 just two weeks after Claude Sonnet 4.5 suggests that things are still moving quickly on the research front. The new Haiku model matches Anthropics previous flagship Sonnet 4 model in software coding and even exceeds it in computer use tasks. Five months ago, Claude Sonnet 4 was a state-of-the-art model, Anthropic says in a blog post. Today, Claude Haiku 4.5 gives you similar levels of coding performance but at one-third the cost and more than twice the speed. It also makes applications like Claude for Chrome run faster. For business users, Haiku 4.5 can be used to power multi-agent workflows where multiple instances of the model work in parallel or collaborate with larger models. For example, Sonnet 4.5 (currently considered Anthropics best model for AI agents) can plan complex projects while several Haiku 4.5 subagents quickly complete individual tasks. The model’s speed and cost efficiency make it particularly well-suited for real-time applications including chatbots, customer service, financial analysis, and research, Anthropic says. What does human-centered AI really mean? I first came to know of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence around 2020. Its an interdisciplinary research institute focused on developing and guiding AI in ways that prioritize human values, ethics, and societal benefit. I had a vague understanding of the concept in 2020, but as AI advanced, post-ChatGPT, I realized that it may be among the most important themes of the 21st century. There are active and passive ways to use AI. You can ask AI to do your work for you, to create a final product. Or you can work with the AI, using it to pull knowledge and inspiration out of yourself. So many of us struggle to stay in that productive thinking space long enough to pull out good ideas. Thinking through something is difficult and requires concentration. Even good ideas that seem to pop up out of nowhere need to be carefully examined to find logical pitfalls. One AI researcher told me that he uses AI as a kind of thinking partner to help him stay engaged in that deep thinking space by providing thoughtful, sometimes critical, feedback. This example is a simple expression of human-centered AI, in which the AI is used as an enabler, not as a proxy for human creation. The problem is this: AI may advance to the point where it is good enough to reason through hard problems and create a good expression of a solution (or an important insight) at the end. In more and more use cases, the AI may be good enough to allow the human to relax while the computer does the work. And the tech industry has no qualms about offering us conveniences (like app-based food delivery) or entertainment (Netflix) that lets us disconnect our brains. But the tech industry has never sold anything as capable as AI. The more use cases in which the AI does the work, the more that human beings are sidelined. We may end up relaxing ourselves into irrelevance and then extinction. More AI coverage from Fast Company: The memeification of Sora 2 Are large language models the problem, not the solution? Exclusive: Big Philanthropy teams up to take on Big AI Overheating at night? An AI-enabled mattress cover could be the answer Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
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When the lights finally dimmed at the 2025 Victorias Secret Fashion Show last night, the first thing guests saw was a gold light emanating from backstage. Model Jasmine Tookes, 9 months pregnant, opened the show in a gold macrame dress with drop pearls and a pearl and crystal wing in the shape of a clam shell. Art buffs might notice that the shell is a callback to Sandro Boticellis renaissance painting Birth of Venus, symbolizing sensuality, divine beauty, rebirth, and new beginnings. The cultural reference is a more elevated and considered nod to womanhood than the shows previous themes which have included Santas Helpers or delicious sweets. The lookand the showcertainly marked a new moment for Victorias Secret. And that was the intention of CEO Hillary Super, who said so in a note left at each seat. The show marked a new era of sexy, she wrote. Not one defined by a single look or mood, but by something deeper: the feeling of being truly comfortable and confident in your own skin. Victorias Secret is in dire need of a reset, and its new executive creative director Adam Selman delivered in this first time producing the mega-show. Selman, who joined Victorias Secret in April following three years as chief design officer at Rihannas rival lingerie brand Savage x Fenty, as well as running his own self-named label and Adam Selman Sport (ASS), If you cant tell by his sport label, Selman is not especially self-serious, but he is astute and forward-thinking, and his design and styling sensibilities deftly balance sophistication and fun. (The 2012 VS fashion show look and crystal naked dress he designed for Rihanna at the 2014 CFDA awards are ones for the history books.) Selmans goal was to bring capital-F fashion back to the Victorias Secret Fashion show, and in the process give the Victorias Secret brand a cultural revamp. In the week leading up to the show, he told me that the pressure was setting in. I’ve realized in the past few days that I’m the one person who oversees the whole thing. He pulled it off. The 2025 Victorias Secret show was so well-executed it may have outpaced the current authority of the actual brand and product. But Selman still has his work cut out for him. Everyone knows Victorias Secret. Following years of design and cultural irrelevance, not to mention self-inflicted business challenges including a toxic work culture and entrenched misogyny, and hundreds of store closures over the past five years, its been a long time since tastemakers have cared. Rihanna performs at Victoria’s Secret’s 2012 runway show. [Photo: Fairchild Archive/Penske Media/Getty Images] A new era for an old mall brand Selman isnt the only one tasked with trying. Victorias Secret has undergone nearly complete creative and brand marketing leadership changes since last years show. Super, who joined from Savage x Fenty just before the show last year, is still in. But Sarah Sylvester, executive vice president of brand marketing for Victorias Secret, who we spoke to about this event last year, is out. Earlier this year, the company made a slew of new exec-level appointments, mostly women: Anne Stephenson, its chief merchandising officer, as president; Ali Dillon, former president of Alex Mill as president of Pink, Amy Kocourek as president of beauty (formerly chief merchandising officer at Kendra Scott), and Selman as ECD in April. In May, the company also hired Elizabeth Press as its CMO, who formerly held the role at Anthropologie. Rihanna at the 2014 CFDA fashion awards. [Photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImageGetty Images] These hires, and the companys renewed focus on its fashion show, are in service of what Victorias Secret calls its new path to potential growth strategy. It wants to build on its 4% Q2 comparable sales growth, reestablish Victorias Secret as an authority in bras, rebuild Pink as a distinct brand, and grow its beauty business. Brand awareness is incredibly high for this brand, Preis tells me about the objective of the fashion show. It’s more about brand relevance and brand consideration for the audience that doesn’t currently shop with us. (The company will also closely track show metrics like site visits, impressions, and social engagement, Preis says.) Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima, Joan Smalls, Bella Hadid, Angel Reese, Jasmine Tookes, Alex Consani, Gigi Hadid, Yasmin Wijnaldum, Alessandra Ambrosio at the 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show held at Steiner Studios on October 15, 2025 in New York, New York. [Photo: Gibert Flores/Variety/Getty Images] A FASHION FANTASY WORLD Selmans overall vision for the show was to elevate it by applying the creative direction one might have as the head of a fashion maison, not a languishing mall brand. For this years show, he crafted the narrative around an overall story arc (the theme is day to night), rather than the disparate themed sections that anchored previous shows. The show’s so big, the expectations are big, the personalities within it’s big, so I wanted to come up with a simple idea, says Selman. When I came into the brand, one of the first things I kept hearing on repeat was that Victoria’s Secret is unique in that we are the first thing she puts on and the last thing she takes off and I love that sort of sentiment. So I took that idea and I’m doing the context of day to night with the show. Gigi Hadid [Photo: Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images] The golden first chapter that focused on the brands nudes and was opened by a radiant Tookes, was followed by a hot peony pink Bombshell, chapter. But you wouldnt know it without looking at the run of show. A circular stage emerged down the runway and showgirls with pink feather fans danced over from the aisle. Then, model Gigi Hadid emerged in an oversized peony opera coat, quickly followed by Irina Shank in a crystal fan headpiece and Paloma Elsesser in pink peony petal wings. The pre-show comments, at least on Victorias Secrets owned channels, called for long-standing brand icons: big hair, more glitter, and the return of models like Adriana Lima. (People want a little fantasy and theres no better brand to do that, says Preis.) This section brought all that, but not in a way youd expect. It was a sparkling glamorous, Ziegfeld-fantasy-inspired morning. Adriana Lima [Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images/Victoria’s Secret] That’s our first collection, or the first section of the show, and how that could come to life in a more fashion forward, thoughtful way? he asks. The show chapters arc toward dusk and bring in other moods and brand codes. The Pink halftime show was an exception and a weak chapter overall; with jean jackets, layered bikinis and black sweatpants that didnt communicate a new point of view. Hot pursuit opened with a grainy black and red interstitial mimicking old movie reviews and washed the runway in scarlet red, along with a slew of provocatively sexy custom designs, including a custom crystal backless minidress and g-string worn by model Amelia Gray and custom chrome angel wings worn by model Alex Consani. Magic hour followed, and brought outfits in gradient pinks, mandarins, and lilacs; followed by a black lace and crystal sparke in “black tie. Each chapter, by the way, links up with a fragrancea play for its emerging beauty lines [Photo: Victorias Secret] Renewed brand heritage Like many resurgent brands, the strategy is to shed what isnt working and leverage the cultural cachet of the brand heritage that does work. The trick is to reinterpret it in a new way that can reestablish contemporary relevance in the current market. The term fashion-forward came up again and again as a way this show would be new and more relevant. People complained last year that the garments looked cheap; the look of the clothes and styling were a night and day difference this year. If you know my work, it’s all centered around playfulness and color and expression, so that’s a big theme, he says. Referencing the shows of high-end designer brands, Selman says he sought to elevate the experience and integrate codes that stem from the brands history throughout each chapter of the show, and nod to whats happening in culture more broadly. I’m trying to think about the world that we’re building beyond just the show here, he says. One such example: Selman says hes showing how Victorias Secret can tap into current fashion trends through lingerie styling in the show; a fantasy with real-world applications. Naked dressing is so in right now, and showing our customer how to wear the product in a maybe a more fashion-forward way that resonates with fashion and culture outside of just the show is another focus. [Screenshots: Victoria’s Secret/TikTok] With a run time of about 40 minutes (about four times longer than a maison show), 72 looks, and 45 million of digital viewers, he brought the spectacle. Along wih a team of experts, Selman directed promo, motion design, event production, set design, model casting, curated front row seating, cast musical guests, and the looks themselves, down to the giant crystal earrings. Joan Smalls [Photo: Gilbert Flores/Variety/Getty Images] Selman worked with artisans in Paris and Italy to create the jeweled wings model wear on stage; its own lofty design challenge. Selman crafted remarkable reinterpretations of wings as headpieces, too, like the golden headpiece Joan Smalls wore in the opener, gracing her head like a dainty set of Apollo’s wings, or Precious Lees peony petal and crystal headpiece or Anok Yais stunning pink fringe and pearl headpiece in the bombshell segment. Today more than ever before, retail, if it’s going to be successful, there has to be an entertainment factor, says Preis. Victoria’s Secret created this incredible experience, right? says Selman. It is the biggest fashion show in the world and so there’s so much rich history and so much joy around it too. We have ravenous fans around those events, so I think it’s about owning it and really leaning into what we’re good at. Fans seem to want the fun and the spectacle of it all. Angel Reese [Photo: Victorias Secret] Pleasure, but not to please everyone The Victorias Secret show is a glitter bomb of frothy pleasure, but its not out to please everyone. It’s fun when it’s real, says Selman. Everything feels so phony right now. The more real that you can give peoplethat’s when things will really come to life. I think we can’t be everything to everyone. Precious Lee [Photo: Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images] Selman says his show is for anyone who wants to be a part of itbut its ok if thats not you. I want everyone to see themselves in this brand. I want everyone to see themselves in the show and the power that we can provide; the power that lingerie can provide. If you see yourself in it, we welcome you. And if you don’t see yourself in it, that’s cool too. We still welcome you. Iris Law [Photo: Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images] Brands rarely can make everyone their customer; in fact, its a fools errand to tryas long as your core audience buys in. The G-string-thin fine line for Victorias Secret however, is whether it can truly capture whats historically sellable about the heritage brandthe glitz, glamour, and sex appealwhile shedding the historically bad associations: getting women to buy into sex thats embodied through the male gaze and packaged us up as campy Christmas gifts, candy, or calendar girls. I want to look hot, and for me personally, that and taste are not mutually exclusive qualities. What does sexy mean in the future? asks Preis. There’s not just one definition. It’s really how it makes one feel and makes one feel good about themselves. We can and we should own that position. We already are known for that, and that’s something that we should continue on with.
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When my teenage son developed mysterious symptoms, I followed the same path anyone else would: I put his health in the hands of a team of medical professionals. Multiple myeloma is a rare blood cancer. It is so uncommon in 17-year-olds that it doesnt appear on diagnostic checklists. Despite having no clear starting point to work from, my sons doctors worked their way to an accurate diagnosis through a process of trial and error, bouncing ideas off each other and testing and discarding hypotheses until they could tell us what was wrong. The process felt inefficient and uncertain at a time when I wanted fast answers and cast-iron guarantees. But this messy and distinctively human approach saved my sons life. AI promises to improve processes like this, replacing the fallible and unpredictable human mind with the analytic power of trained and tested algorithms. As someone who helps organizations implement AI technology, I know just how much potential it has to make processes and workflows more efficient. But before we start replacing human judgment at scale, we need to think carefully about the hidden costs that can come with productivity gains. A recent study in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology presented some sobering findings for AI maximalists. Physicians who spent several months working with AI support in diagnostic roles showed a significant decline in unassisted performance when the technology was withdrawn. This kind of deskilling effect isnt unique to either medicine or AI. We have known for years that extensive GPS use leads to a decline in spatial memory and that easy access to information reduces our ability to recall facts (the so-called Google effect). {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/creator-faisalhoque.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/faisal-hoque.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Ready to thrive at the intersection of business, technology, and humanity?","dek":"Faisal Hoques books, podcast, and his companies give leaders the frameworks and platforms to align purpose, people, process, and techturning disruption into meaningful, lasting progress.","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/faisalhoque.com","theme":{"bg":"#02263c","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420512,"imageMobileId":91420514}} Most people are willing to accept these cognitive losses in exchange for convenience. And that is a trade-off that individuals need to decide for themselves. But when it comes to organizations and institutions, things are more complex. The first concerns that leap to mind are worries about losing access to our AI tools after outsourcing our skills to them. What if the system crashes or performance drops off? While this is a real problem, it is nothing new. We can design backup solutions where necessary, just as we always have with technology. But there is another set of problems that cannot be resolved simply by putting guardrails in place. Human skill sets are important not just because they let us act on those skills, but also because they let managers and decision-makers understand and supervise what is happening on the frontlines. If physicians lose their diagnostic chops, who will validate or audit the output of the algorithms? Who will notice that the edge casesthe patients with statistically implausible diseasesare not being diagnosed correctly? And, perhaps most importantly, who will take responsibility for the algorithmic judgments, whether they are right or wrong? For most organizations, maintaining public trust is a core part of their relationship with society. Just as we wont eat in a restaurant if we dont trust the kitchen to deliver safe food, so we avoid products and services that we believe may harm us. Without accountability, trust is impossible. As an IBM training manual put it nearly 50 years ago: A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision. The same principle holds true for AI. Without a clear accountability trail that leads to a human decision-maker, it becomes impossible to hold anyone responsible for any harms that arise from the AIs behavior. And this accountability deficit can destroy the legitimacy of an institution. We can see these dynamics at work in the U.K.s 2020 exam grading debacle. At the height of the COVID pandemic, with normal exams cancelled, the U.K. government used an algorithm to assign grades. The algorithm imported biases and systematically favored children from wealthy backgrounds. But even if it had worked perfectly, something critical would still have been missing: institutions that can justify their decisions to those affected by them. Nobody will be satisfied by an algorithmic explanation for a result that might have lifelong effects. Ultimately, the government reversed course, replacing the AI judgment with assessments made by each students teachers. What this means for your organization The challenge isnt whether to use AIits how to implement it without creating dangerous dependencies. Here are specific actions leaders, managers, and teams can take: Implement AI rotation schedules: Ensure that teams rotate periodically from AI-assisted work to manual work to maintain core competencies. Create skill preservation protocols: Document which human capabilities are mission-critical and cannot be outsourced. Establish accountability chains: Specify which decisions require human sign-off. Institute analog days: Schedule regular sessions where teams solve problems without AI tools. Design edge case challenges: Create exercises focusing on unusual scenarios AI might miss. Maintain decision logs: Create institutional memory of the value and role of human judgment by documenting when and why you override AI recommendations. Practice explanation exercises: Regularly require team members to explain AI outputs in plain languageIf they cant explain it, they shouldnt rely on it. Rotate expertise roles: Ensure multiple people can perform critical tasks without AI support, preventing single points of failure. Warning signs your organization is too AI-dependent Watch for these red flags that indicate dangerous levels of depndency: Teams cant explain AI recommendations Acceptance of AI results without validation has become the norm Staff miss errors or outliers that the AI overlooks Employees express anxiety about performing tasks without AI assistance Simple decisions that once took seconds now require AI consultation If you spot any of these signs, you need to intervene to restore human capability. The path forward My sons cancer was successfully diagnosed thanks to structured redundancy in his care team. Multiple specialists approached the same problem through different lenses. The bone specialist saw what the blood specialist missed. The resident asked the naive question that made the senior doctor reconsider. This kind of overlap can look like inefficiency at times, but if we dont work to retain it, we lose something vital. We should not shy away from the advantages AI can offer when it comes to analytical speed and pattern-recognition. But at the same time, it is essential that we shield the decision-making process from being overwritten by a single algorithmic voice. We must keep humans in the loop both because they can look beyond statistical likelihood and because they can be held accountable for their final decisions. Yes, maintaining human capabilities alongside AI will be expensive. Training tracks that preserve human skills, AI-off drills, and rigorous human audits all cost money. But they preserve the institutional muscle memory that holds the whole edifice up. The cost of losing the human perspective is one we cannot afford to bear. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/creator-faisalhoque.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/faisal-hoque.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Ready to thrive at the intersection of business, technology, and humanity?","dek":"Faisal Hoques books, podcast, and his companies give leaders the frameworks and platforms to align purpose, people, process, and techturning disruption into meaningful, lasting progress.","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/faisalhoque.com","theme":{"bg":"#02263c","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420512,"imageMobileId":91420514}}
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