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As the director of commercial engagement for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a Department of Defense (DOD) organization that funds startups developing cutting-edge weapons technology for the military, Sarah Pearson is well acquainted with keeping secrets. Whats surprising is that her team often keeps secrets from the very startups it recruits. Its not for any cloak-and-dagger reason, just bureaucracy. With security clearances taking up to 18 months, Pearsons team often supplies startups with fake datamade-up enemy capabilitiesto simulate real defense scenarios, so they have something to work on until they’re cleared to access classified material. In the fast-moving world of AI, if it takes 18 months . . . I no longer need that company, their model is already obsolete, she says. Enter Nooks, a startup that acts as a kind of coworking space for classified communication. The companys cutesy name and squirrel logo belie its purpose: to build and maintain a network of these high-tech, espionage-proof, on-demand facilities where startups can handle classified informationspaces known as SCIFs, or sensitive compartmented information facilities. Traditionally built inside military sites, defense contractor offices, and government buildings, SCIFs are fortified rooms designed to prevent electronic surveillance or intrusion. They require layers of specialized material, electronic shielding, metal reinforcements, and heavy security. Nooks was founded in 2021 by former Navy pilot Sean Blackman and two fellow aviators to solve a paradox plaguing national security: you need a SCIF to win a defense contract, but probably dont have the funds or permission to build one without already having a contract. Instead, they asked, what if startups could rent access to SCIFs without the millions in upfront costs and years it takes to construct? The firm just raised a $25 million Series A round, led by New Yorks Zigg Capital, in conjunction with the Space Development Agency within the Air Force, valuing the firm at $105 million. It now plans to launch its first three locations this year: in Arlington, Virginia; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and El Segundo, California. The idea is to offer classified infrastructure as a service, with 50,000-square-foot-sites subdivided into different classification levels, and eventually, grow to a network of 100 sites nationwide, especially areas with tech talent. Theres only so much you can do unclassified before it becomes, ‘well, this was a nice science project,’ Blackman says. Where traditional SCIFs are like buying a home and companies like Westway offer long-term leases, Nooks is more like Airbnb for classified work. For startups, that means faster entry into military innovationand for the military, a broader talent pool. ‘An outdated process’ SCIFs must be located in buildings without foreign ownership or proximity to adversarial entities, which is why many operators buy entire buildings outright. The design and security standards every SCIF must adhere to, set by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, evolve sporadically as surveillance threats shift. (Pearson says the reason for the last SCIF update, ICD 705, which contained a laundry list of updates, remains classified.) Meanwhile, many existing SCIFs are aging out of use, and the upkeep costs are adding up. Virginia Representative Rob Wittman, a member of the Houses Defense Modernization Caucus, says older SCIFs are small, isolated, and look like a walk-in cooler slammed into the corner of the building. These older spaces dont make for an attractive workspace for todays budding tech talent, and the cost of replacing offers a huge opportunity to Blackman. Nooks seeks to untangle a bureaucratic bottleneck that defense and tech industry advocates say stifles military innovation. Battlefield technology is rapidly evolving, and startups want to take advantage of federal funding for dual-use tech that has civilian and battlefield applications, and funding is flowing. Already this year, over $3 billion has been invested in defense startups, according to Pitchbook, and the Pentagons $1 trillion budget will focus on high-tech weapon systems like drones, cybersecurity, robotics, and AI. Blackman, who had a stint at Facebook and experience in the defense innovation space, saw an opportunity to get government moving more like a startup; beginning in 2021, he and his colleagues interviewed hundreds of people across the defense innovation space to figure out their pain points and earn the trust needed to open Nooks, and eventually landed a small Air Force contract to start testing out the concept. But to make these startup investments work requires classified info and sharing enemy battlefield capabilities; some DoD requests for proposals cant even be seen outside a SCIF. The large defense contractorscalled primeshave historically taken the overwhelming chunk of defense spending, and maintain a chokehold on SCIF access. But startups often lack such access, and some go to extreme lengths: hiring staff with preexisting clearances, flying employees across the country to SCIFs, or even selling to a prime just to get in the room. Building a new SCIF can cost millionsan immediate barrier to entry that comes at a time when warfare is changing faster than ever. Drone development alone has created a cat-and-mouse game, says Eric Snelgrove, founder of the consultancy Revere Federal Strategies. Every four to six months, as new GPS, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or electronic warfare tech gets developed, previous drone models become irrelevant. A startup working on this tech needs classified updates of these rapidly changing conditions to make sure their design is relevant, shortening the feedback loop to almost constant iteration. Wittman says the gap between the SCIF space we have and what we need is significant, though he wouldnt get into specific numbers for security reasons. Our defense ecosystem is still hampered by an outdated process that just isnt allowing us to be able to operate at the speed of relevance, he says. ‘A rear-view mirror nation’ Ken Biberaj, an executive managing director at the real estate brokerage Savills, says SCIF access is fast becoming a standard question among advanced manufacturing and dual-use startups he works with. Much of my time now is spent with new defense/dual-use companies looking for a site and the question of a SCIF will always come up, he says. San Diego State University sees the potential of locating a Nooks site within a forthcoming mixed-use campus extension featuring 1.6 million square feet of innovation space, allowing students and startups to do classified work on topics like material science research or cybersecurity. Officials see it as a magnet for engineering and research talent, and funding. The demand for SCIF access grows, which the Pentagon is taking note of, but the challenge remains how fast the government can get more startups in the right, highly-secure rooms. We’ve always had the luxury of being what I call a rear-view mirror nation, says Wittman. Weve just had to look and see how far ahead of our adversaries we are. Today, we have to be a windshield nation, see that there are some folks ahead of us, and not only press the gas pedal, but figure ut how were going to be innovative and creative. The Trump administration has focused on bringing new, innovative companies into the defense-industrial complex and signed an executive order on defense procurement reform. Pearson says the DIU and others are trying to streamline the clearance process; shes optimistically aiming to cut it to three months. The National Defense Authorization Act budget approved last year also has $100 million budgeted for the creation of more shared classified workspaces, some of which will support Nooks. The technology stack that you need to fight a desert war in the Middle East is vastly different from what you need to fight China, right? says Blackman. The companies that the DOD tends to work with dont have that technology; theyre great with planes and tanks and missiles, but they suck at software. Theres just a whole sector thats really good at this stuff that wasnt meaningfully being engaged in the defense business.
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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Googles AI Studio and Labs let you experiment for free with new AI tools. I love the way these digital sandboxeslike the one from Hugging Facelet you try out creative new uses of AI. You can dabble around then download and share what you make, without having to master a complex new platform. Read on for a few Google AI experiments to try. All are free, fast, and easy to use. 1. Transform an image Upload a photo and use Geminis AI Studio Image Generation to transform it with prompts. Iterate on your original image until you get a version you like. The model understands natural language, so you dont have to master prompt lingo. 2. Generate an AI voice conversation AI-generated voices are increasingly hard to distinguish from human ones. If youre surprised, try Generate Speech in the AI Studio or Googles NotebookLM. How to use Generate Speech in Googles AI Studio Paste in text, either for a narration or a conversation between two people Open the settings tab to pick from 30 AI voices. Each is labeled with a characteristice.g. upbeat, gravelly, or mature. Click run to generate the conversation. Optionally adjust the playback speed. Download the file if you want to keep it, or paste in different text to try again. Example: a silly 90-sec chat between two violinists I scripted with Gemini and rendered quickly with this Generate Speech tool. Use case: Make a narration track for an instructional video. ElevenLabs has a better professional model for this, but AI Studios is free, easy and quick. Alternatives Googles Gemini AI app can also now generate audio overviews from files you upload, if youre on a paid plan. Googles free NotebookLM has a new mobile app, and now lets you generate an audio conversation in any of 50 languages. Unlike Generate Speech in AI Studio, NotebookLM audio overviews summarize your material, they dont perform words as written. Why NotebookLM is so useful. Googles Illuminate lets you generate, listen to, share, and download AI conversations about research papers and famous books. Heres an audio chat about David Copperfield, for example. A bit dry to listen to, but still useful. 3. Make a gif Try Magical Gif Maker, one of 20 showcase apps in the Build section of AI Studio. Try making a moving visual featuring the name of your publication, group, or event. I experimented with kinetic text and word art. Also worth trying in the Build AI Studio: Flashcard maker, Video to Learning App & Maps Planner. Alternative: You can also make a static image with Googles Imagen 3 or the new Imagen 4. Write a short prompt and select your preferred aspect ratio. So far I still prefer Ideogram (why I like it) and ChatGPTs new image engine. 4. Generate a short video Googles Veo 2 and Flow let you generate free short video clips almost instantly with a prompt. Create a clip to add vibrancy or humor to a presentation, or a visual metaphor to help you explain something. Here are 25 other quick ideas for how you might use little AI-generated video scenes. How to create a video clip with Veo 2 Pick a length (5 to 8 seconds) and select horizontal or vertical orientation Write a prompt & optionally upload a photo to suggest a visual direction Example: Take a look at a parakeet photo I started with and the 5-second video I generated from the photo with Veo 2. Tip: Convert short video clips into gifs for free with Ezgif or Giphy. Unlike vido files, gifs are easy to share and auto-play in an email or presentation. Whats next: Remarkably lifelike clips made with Googles newer Veo 3 model went viral this week. These AI-generated visualswith soundare only available on the $250/month(!) plan for now, so try Veo 2 for free. 5. Explain things with lots of tiny cats This playful mini app creates short, step-by-step visual guides using charming cat illustrations to explain any concept, from how a violin works to the concept behind the matrix. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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In the last 12 months, Target has publicly walked back its long-held DEI commitments, faced a weeks-long boycott from customers, and become one of several corporations that diminished its annual support for NYC Pride. But when June 1 rolled around, the company still trotted out its annual collection of Pride-inspired, rainbow-adorned merchand, for a number of reasons, its not landing well with queer customers. This years collection includes a series of apparel printed with slogans like Authentically Me and Glowing with Pride, rainbow-hued cat and dog doys, and, oddly enough, a couple of Pride-themed collectible bird figurines. Since the merch debuted, customers have been quick to notice an issue: Several of the items labels are printed with lorem ipsum filler copy. Targets pathetic 2025 Pride collection has arrived, one Reddit post on the subject reads. According to a spokesperson, Target is aware of the error, which it says originated with a vendor, and is working to address the issue. But for many customers, this labeling oversight feels like both a symptom and a symbol of larger issues at Target. For years, the company has turned Pride Month into a full-on branding extravaganza, releasing entire collections in stores and showing up as a sponsor at Pride parades across the country. In a series of events starting in 2023, though, Target has capitulated to rising conservative pressure, dialing back its Pride merch, ending its DEI commitments, and, this year, retreating from Pride parade sponsorship. Taken together, these factors make Targets 2025 Pride collection feel, at best, like a desperate bid to save face, and, at worst, like an attempt to cash in on a community that its too afraid to support outside of store walls. Targets retreat from Pride Target first launched pride products in 2015, and largely continued to expand its Pride-based inventory in the years following, openly doubling down on its support for the queer community during a bout of transphobic backlash in 2017. However, starting in 2023, the brands approach to Pride has been in flux. In May of 2023, CEO Brian Cornell told Fortunes Leadership Next podcast that the companys DEI efforts had fueled much of our growth over the last nine years. Mere weeks later, though, Target removed some items from its annual Pride collection after receiving an influx of conservative pushback, and even threats to its employees, over the items. The waters have been increasingly muddy for Targets Pride efforts ever since. In 2024, the company scaled back its Pride Month sections from all stores to only select locations and online. Then, this January, as companies across the country stepped back from DEI initiatives under the Trump administration, Target announced a series of its own concessions. The brand shared it was concluding certain goals and initiatives tied to racial equity in hiring, no longer participating in external surveys from the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign, and renaming its supplier diversity team to supplier engagement, shifting its focus away from explicitly courting brands with diverse ownership. To many loyal customers, this announcement felt like a betrayal, especially given that Target had previously been more vocal than its corporate peers on DEI initiativesand that the company has profited annually on Pride Month. This sparked a boycott of the brand that caused foot traffic to drop and share prices to plummet. In the aftermath, the Twin Cities pride parade announced that it would no longer accept Target as a sponsor. And, according to NYC Pride spokesperson Kevin Kilbride, Target was one of several brands that either backed out, reduced its contribution, or asked for its involvement to go unpublicized in the event. Targets retreat from Pride is part of a larger trend this year of corporations choosing not to renew their sponsorshipa pattern thats left many queer consumers wondering if corporate support was always just rainbow washing, or an attempt to signal affinity with LGBTQ+ customers merely to profit off of them. The [queer] community has been completely abandoned by a number of major companies, across a lot of brand categories, Joanna Schwartz, a professor at Georgia College & State University with a specialty in LGBTQ+ marketing, told Fast Company in May. The current prevailing wind is out of a far more conservative place, and companies are trying not to make anyone mad, but the companies that were really trying to make an easy buck off of the community were the first ones to leave. ‘Now they’re trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity’ Now that Pride Month has officially arrived, Target is left in a sticky situation. The company is attempting to walk a tightrope between avoiding a conservative outcry for its Pride merch while also striving not to alienate LGBTQ+ customers (who, according to a 2023 study by the investment adviser LGBT Capital, hold an estimated $3.9 trillion in global purchasing power). This year, Targets Pride collection looks fairly similar to last years and is, once again, only available in some locations. In a statement to Fast Company, a spokesperson shared, weare absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyoneour team members, our guests, our supply partners, and the more than 2,000 communities were proud to serve. As we have for many years, we will continue to mark Pride Month by offering an assortment of celebratory products, hosting internal programming to support our incredible team, and sponsoring local events in neighborhoods across the country. Regardless of its intentions, Targets Pride merch is coming off decidedly hollow for queer customers this year, given its backtracking from the community at large. Whenever its time to profit off Pride, Target rolls out the rainbows, one X user wrote. But when it comes time to actually stand with the queer community? Crickets. Your Pride merch means nothing without a spine. On Reddit, users under a post regarding the unfinished lorem ipsum tags expressed discomfort with parts of the collection. One of the items is a moving truck figurine decked out in the lesbian flag and the phrase “Move N,” a reference to the concept of U-Hauling. Per Urban Dictionary, the slang term pokes fun at the stereotype of the speedy act of moving in together after a brief courtship between lesbians. One commenter called the figurine insulting AF. Others pointed out the lack of any reference to the trans or nonbinary communities. Still others were generally frustrated with the companys unreliable support. Gay folks never asked for Target to sell cheap low quality merch with rainbows splattered all over it, one user commented. All we asked for was to be treated fairly and allowed to live our lives. They made this shit to get our business. Now they’re trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity.
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