Microsoft’s new Copilot keyboard makes its AI even easier to access

On new PCs running Windows 11, Microsoft’s AI Copilot will soon be only a keypress away.

The company announced on Thursday that it’s adding a Copilot key to the Windows keyboard, designed to launch the Copilot for Windows AI system when pressed. The Copilot tool can help users answer general questions in the style of other AI chatbots, summarize content from the web, and help with Windows-specific tasks, like changing operating system settings.

The new key is

Why researchers are starting to pay closer attention to animals’ interactions with tech

Right under our noses, animals have developed their own relationship with human technology. Dogs are microchipped, monitored by home security robots, and trained not to bark with “autonomous” shock collars. The agriculture industry uses Fitbit devices to track livestock health. A few Big Ag firms have even deployed facial recognition-esque technology to identify individual cows. Wildlife in several major cities, including New York, are now regularly tracked with cameras, as well

Google was pummeled by antitrust lawsuits in December. 2024 could be even worse

Today, a federal judge ruled Alphabet’s Google must defend itself against antitrust charges brought by 16 states sooner than it had hoped.

Five days ago, Google settled a separate lawsuit—a $5 billion class-action privacy lawsuit claiming the company had secretly tracked consumers in “incognito” mode.

Ten days before that, Google announced it would pay $700 million to settle a lawsuit in which all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico

Why this coming Sunday will be the biggest day of the year for dating apps

The dating world’s biggest day of the year is imminent.

Dating Sunday, which is named for the first Sunday of the new year, is traditionally the busiest day of the year for dating apps. Singles, past the holiday slump and with fresh eyes for relationships, turn to the apps in hopes of finding romance.

A large part of this is marketing (hello, “Super Bowl of dating apps”), but there’s also some data to back up the power behind the day. The number

The New York Times’s OpenAI lawsuit could put a damper on AI’s 2024 ambitions

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly LinkedIn newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. If a friend or colleague shared this newsletter with you, you can sign up to receive it every week here.

What The New York Times suit against OpenAI could mean for AI

The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft late last month, alleging the companies used its content to train their respective AI mod

Major AI questions await returning California lawmakers

California lawmakers return to work on Wednesday for the start of an election-year legislative session dominated by decisions on artificial intelligence and the state’s struggling budget.

The budget is a big issue every year in California, which is the nation’s most populous state and has an economy larger than that of all but four countries. But this year, lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will have to figure out how to cover an estimated $68 billion def

Technology is key to improving the healthcare crisis

America’s healthcare system is on the brink. Cracks exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago have grown and multiplied. Many healthcare systems are operating at a loss, causing hospitals to limit their services or even close, with these lapses in healthcare availability hitting rural and underserved communities the hardest. Healthcare worker staffing shortages are causing declines in care quality and availability nationwide, contributing to an increasing sense of job diss

My 5 big New Year’s tech resolutions for 2024

Happy New Year to you—and thank you for reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter. 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. Your feedback and ideas are one of the best parts of writing this newsletter: Send them to me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com.

A few Fast Company technology sto

A new complaint claims Starbucks’ app traps customers in a cycle of spending

Dedicated Starbucks customers know that the use of the company’s mobile app and digital payment cards to pay for coffee and other goodies comes with restrictions.

You can only add money to the card in $10 increments and must choose a tip from predetermined choices. That means no loading an exact amount for a single purchase or giving an odd tip amount to get your balance down to zero.

And you can’t split a payment between two cards if one doesn’t have

72 hours into 2024 and Elon Musk is already having a terrible year

Elon Musk’s New Year’s hangover is showing some staying power. While 2024 is not even 48 hours old, the ride has already been a little bumpy for the world’s richest man.

Both Tesla and X/Twitter saw significant blows in the early hours of the year (starting with the final moments of 2023), with one losing its dominant position in its industry and the other being dismissed by one of the leading influencers in social media, just as reports emerged about its shrink


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