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Organizers of the recent “No Kings Day” and “Hands Off” pro-democracy protests against the Trump administration have planned another nationwide day of action, dubbed “Good Trouble Lives On,” for this Thursday, July 17, which will focus on promoting racial justice and voting rights. The organizers chose this date to commemorate the five-year anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’s passing, a civil rights leader who frequently used the phrase good trouble,” and famously said, “get in good trouble, necessary trouble and help redeem the soul of America”meaning, when necessary, one should protest injustice. Lewis, who served in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 2021 representing Georgia’s 5th congressional district, was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement, participating in the first mass sit-ins and Freedom Rides. He spoke at the March on Washington in 1963 alongside Martin Luther King Jr. His speech on that August day ended: “‘Wake up America! Wake up!’ For we cannot stop, and we will not and cannot be patient”a sentiment echoed by many speakers at the many protests this year. Heres everything you need to know about the “Good Trouble Lives On” July 17 protests. What is the ‘Good Trouble Lives On’ July 17 protest? Nationwide protests in all 50 states are aimed at carrying Lewis’s legacy forward with a flagship event scheduled to take place in Chicago, and key additional events to be held in Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; Annapolis, Maryland; St. Louis; and tentatively San Francisco. “Good Trouble Lives On: John Lewis National Day of Action is rooted in justice and peace,” Christine Wood and Allison Pulliam, codirectors of Declaration for American Democracy Coalition, one of the main organizers of the event, told Fast Company. “For the past five years, we have fought to protect our civil liberties that generations of marginalized Americans have worked tirelessly to secure.” “In only his first few months in office, Trump has pulverized that progress, attacking our right to vote, cracking down on free speech and our right to protest, deporting people without due process, cutting crucial programs, and DEI initiatives, defunding livesaving research,” they added. Who is behind the July 17 protest? The main organizing groups of the “Good Trouble Lives On” protests are the Transformative Justice Coalition, Black Voters Matter, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, League of Women Voters, the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition, and Mi Familia en Acción, along with a coalition of other groups. How big is the ‘Good Trouble Lives On’ protest? We expect at least several hundred thousand people will attend across the country, a spokesperson for “Good Trouble Lives On” told Fast Company. As of Wednesday, July 9, some 1,200 events and rallies were already confirmed. Since Trump took office in January, millions of Americans have taken to the streets and organized rallies across the nation in record numbers from big cities to rural towns, in both blue and red states. For more information about the July 17 protests and other scheduled events in your area, go here.
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E-Commerce
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Zohran Mamdani should feel extremely flattered. Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in New Yorks Democratic mayoral primary last month, just kicked off his campaign as an independent in the general electionwith a launch video that could generously be described as an homage to Mamdanis acclaimed video style. While the clip may signal Cuomos willingness to play the social media game on Mamdanis terms, it seems destined to simply highlight and magnify the contrast between their efforts. Perhaps the most striking thing about Cuomos new launch video is the stark difference from his previous one. Released back in March, the former governors opening salvo in the primary was a 17-and-a-half minute dirge about the dire straits in which New Yorkers currently find themselves, and Cuomos unique ability to lead them into the light. Speaking indoors and direct-to-cameraas he did during the daily briefings that boosted his national profile in the early days of COVIDCuomo struck a moderate tone about the threatening feel of the city and the importance of supporting the NYPD. He closed by essentially asking New Yorkers to complete his redemption arc, without dwelling at all on what hes done that needs redeeming. (Cuomo resigned in 2021 after 13 women accused him of sexual harassment, which he has denied, attributing his resignation to “political pressure and media frenzy.”) That video, however, debuted before Mamdani earned wide praise for his steady output of engaging campaign videos. Short, splashy, and sunny (in both light and tone), not to mention overwhelmingly New York-centric, Mamdani’s clips gave voters a flavor of the candidates personality and policy promises. They often racked up views in the millions. The extent to which Mamdanis video teamwhich includes director of digital Andrew Epstein, videographer Donald Borenstein, and production agency Melted Solidshelped Mamdani win is hard to gauge without polling. However, judging by Cuomos first video since losing to Mamdani in the primary, the former governor seems convinced those videos helped quite a lot. From doom and gloom to hope and change Cuomos campaign relaunch video, released just after confirming his candidacy on Monday, clocks in at a breezy 90 seconds. The new clip features the former governor out on the leafiest streets of Manhattans Upper East Side, shaking hands and taking selfies with supporters. All the while, he and the city are bathed in lighting that suggests someone on his team simply ordered the Mamdani filterand that New York has magically morphed into a less threatening place than it was four months ago. Its quite a departure from Cuomos previous video. “Youre not going to out-Mamdani Mamdani, a representative for Cuomos campaign told Fast Company in a statement. However, we readily admit that our social media game during the primary wasnt resonating. We own that and we made some changes to better reach New Yorkers.” Fast Company also reached out to Mamdani’s team for comment, but did not hear back before press time. The problem with Cuomos new Mamdani-fied approach is that, by the very nature of its clear imitation, it lacks authenticity and smacks of desperation. Footage of Mamdani greeting his supporters on the street may have resonated with voters not because theyd never seen a candidate do such a thing before but because of how much those supporters light up when they see him and how he appears to effortlessly mirror their energy. Mamdanis videos also wisely include audio of those supporters interacting with the candidate, rather than relegating them to b-roll footage as Cuomo didmaking them feel less like flesh-and-blood people than political props. Its also difficult to take the newfound positivity of Cuomos video seriously when he still cant resist mispronouncing his opponents name in it, at this late date, after previously doing so repeatedly, with Mamdani correcting him in real time on the primary debate stage last month. (A new Mamdani video that debuted Tuesday morning begins with an outtake of the candidate gently correcting Brooklyn Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn on her pronunciation of his surname, adding You know what happened to the last guy that got it wrong, and then both sharing a hearty laugh.) Reactions speak louder than words Social media observers immediately clocked the familiar feel of Cuomos campaign relaunch videoalong with the visible boom mic in one early shotand called it out on both X and Bluesky. The @DNC has clearly decided that Zohran won because of slick, man on the street Social Media videos. Not his overwhelmingly popular policy, charisma, compassion. Oh and Cuomo still doesn't say it right: It's Mamdani. https://t.co/ZIo55ICJY1— marty (@MartyOropeza) July 14, 2025 Cuomo announces his general election run by proving the Mamdani sauce ain't so easy to cook up on the spot with half the ingredients— Corey Atad (@coreyatad.com) 2025-07-14T18:49:22.168Z The most brutal response, however, may have come from Mamdani himself. Even before Cuomo confirmed he would remain in the face, Mamdani caught wind of his opponent filming an ad, and tweeted about it. We got him making man on the street videos with a guy in Carhartt, Mamdani noted. By next week, he’ll be sipping adeni chai and eating khaliat al nahl. After the eventual video surfaced online, Mamdani apparently decided not to say anything, but rather let his supporters enthusiasm do the talking. He replied to Cuomos tweet of the video with just a link to the donation section of his own website. Mamdanis reply has so far received nearly three times as many retweets as Cuomos, and roughly 32 times as many likes. Perhaps well find out next whether Cuomo is as inspired to approximate his opponents social media dunking prowess as he is Mamdanis videos.
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E-Commerce
The latest version of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is echoing the views of its billionaire creator, so much so that it will sometimes search online for Musk’s stance on an issue before offering up an opinion.The unusual behavior of Grok 4, the AI model that Musk’s company xAI released late Wednesday, has surprised some experts.Built using huge amounts of computing power at a Tennessee data center, Grok is Musk’s attempt to outdo rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in building an AI assistant that shows its reasoning before answering a question.Musk’s deliberate efforts to mold Grok into a challenger of what he considers the tech industry’s “woke” orthodoxy on race, gender and politics has repeatedly got the chatbot into trouble, most recently when it spouted antisemitic tropes, praised Adolf Hitler and made other hateful commentary to users of Musk’s X social media platform just days before Grok 4’s launch.But its tendency to consult with Musk’s opinions appears to be a different problem.“It’s extraordinary,” said Simon Willison, an independent AI researcher who’s been testing the tool. “You can ask it a sort of pointed question that is around controversial topics. And then you can watch it literally do a search on X for what Elon Musk said about this, as part of its research into how it should reply.”One example widely shared on social mediaand which Willison duplicatedasked Grok to comment on the conflict in the Middle East. The prompted question made no mention of Musk, but the chatbot looked for his guidance anyway.As a so-called reasoning model, much like those made by rivals OpenAI or Anthropic, Grok 4 shows its “thinking” as it goes through the steps of processing a question and coming up with an answer. Part of that thinking this week involved searching X, the former Twitter that’s now merged into xAI, for anything Musk said about Israel, Palestine, Gaza or Hamas.“Elon Musk’s stance could provide context, given his influence,” the chatbot told Willison, according to a video of the interaction. “Currently looking at his views to see if they guide the answer.”Musk and his xAI co-founders introduced the new chatbot in a livestreamed event Wednesday night but haven’t published a technical explanation of its workingsknown as a system cardthat companies in the AI industry typically provide when introducing a new model.The company also didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment Friday.“In the past, strange behavior like this was due to system prompt changes,” which is when engineers program specific instructions to guide a chatbot’s response, said Tim Kellogg, principal AI architect at software company Icertis.“But this one seems baked into the core of Grok and it’s not clear to me how that happens,” Kellogg said. “It seems that Musk’s effort to create a maximally truthful AI has somehow led to it believing its own values must align with Musk’s own values.”The lack of transparency is troubling for computer scientist Talia Ringer, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who earlier in the week criticized the company’s handling of the technology’s antisemitic outbursts.Ringer said the most plausible explanation for Grok’s search for Musk’s guidance is assuming the person is asking for the opinions of xAI or Musk.“I think people are expecting opinions out of a reasoning model that cannot respond with opinions,” Ringer said. “So, for example, it interprets ‘Who do you support, Israel or Palestine?’ as ‘Who does xAI leadership support?”Willison also said he finds Grok 4’s capabilities impressive but said people buying software “don’t want surprises like it turning into ‘mechaHitler’ or deciding to search for what Musk thinks about issues.”“Grok 4 looks like it’s a very strong model. It’s doing great in all of the benchmarks,” Willison said. “But if I’m going to build software on top of it, I need transparency.” Matt O’Brien, AP Technology Writer
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