Science explains your place in the multiverse

Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at Saint Joseph’s University and the author of 18 popular science books, including Flashes of Creation, The Quantum Labyrinth, Einstein’s Dice and Schrodinger’s Cat, and Synchronicity. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Become an AI expert with these free online courses

Ready or not, we’re entering the golden age of artificial intelligence. Luckily, there are plenty of free resources to help you wrap your human brain around AI’s more intimidating concepts.

Whether you just want to get a quick lay of the land, you’re personally looking to leverage AI to help you work more efficiently, or you’re set on taking your entire business to the next level, here are some great free courses to help you get there. Let’s begin

Tech layoffs update this week: Sony, Bumble, Expedia, and (maybe) Apple cut jobs

February was another bad month for the tech industry as far as layoffs are concerned. The month began with job cuts at tech giants including Amazon and Snap. Now the final week of February sees even more big names added to the layoffs list, including Sony, Bumble, and, perhaps, Apple. Here’s the latest update on job losses in the sector:

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Yesterday, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it will cut 900 jobs, or about 8% of its glob

Why Microsoft’s stake in buzzy AI lab Mistral is raising eyebrows in the EU

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.

In Microsoft’s Mistral stake, some EU regulators smell betrayal

The French unicorn AI lab Mistral said Monday that it’s sold a small share of the company to Microsoft for $16 million. Founded by Google DeepMind and Meta alumni, Mistral has bille

Chatbots are generating false and misleading information about U.S. elections

With presidential primaries underway across the U.S., popular chatbots are generating false and misleading information that threatens to disenfranchise voters, according to a report published Tuesday based on the findings of artificial intelligence experts and a bipartisan group of election officials.

Fifteen states and one territory will hold both Democratic and Republican presidential nominating contests next week on Super Tuesday, and millions of people already are turning to art

Robinhood launches a retirement plan for gig workers

Robinhood is rolling out a retirement savings plan for certain gig workers, targeting a growing cohort of people who may not have access to traditional 401(k) options.

The new program, called Robinhood Retirement for Independent Workers, will be available to people who find work through Taskrabbit, Grubhub, and Gopuff starting the first week of March.

“A growing number of people are moving away from the usual 9-5, shifting towards freelancing and side hustles to mak

How AI is transforming the next wave of PCs

The looming AI revolution continues to make headlines. Yet, what might come as a surprise to many is the fact that many examples of this transformative technology are going to be available to consumers starting this year. In fact, Lenovo—the world’s leading personal computer company—has already established a sizable presence in the soon-to-take-off AI PC space. The company has invested more than $1 billion developing AI-powered solutions that are poised to redefine the us

Meet Kagi, a Google search alternative worth paying for

You’re reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters.

First, some Fast Company tech stori

‘I might as well be driving a UFO’: Cybertruck owners say their EVs are leaving people in awe—or really pissed off

Brian Lovell has only had his Tesla Cybertruck for a week and already the 48-year-old has experienced a range of unfettered reactions from passersby: Some people point and gape, others rush over to take a photo, and a few even ask if he would take them for a quick spin in the much-hyped EV.

“I might as well be driving a UFO,” says Lovell, who’s based in Murrieta, California.

It’s not exactly surprising that people are aghast to see something tha

New email rules from Google and Yahoo will change your inbox (and your communication strategy)

We all know the pain of misguided sales spam—and lots of it—cluttering our inboxes. Whether it’s emails to our personal addresses that assume our buying habits of a decade ago are the same today, or sales pitches to our work addresses that are completely irrelevant to our roles and responsibilities, we’ve become overwhelmed with poorly targeted emails. Statista found that spam accounted for 45% of the 333 billion emails sent daily in 2022, while research


Chercher