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Shein IPO: What it could mean for the fashion industry

Last week, ulltra-fast fashion brand Shein confidentially filed for an IPO. The eleven year-old company is known for creating very low cost garments that it can produce quickly for its predominantly Gen Z customers. Today the company has a private-market valuation of $66 billion but is seeking a valuation as h

Why Hulu’s new integration into Disney Plus was such a huge, high-stakes challenge

Four years ago, The Walt Disney Co. seized control of its streaming destiny. Instead of continuing to provide content to the likes of Netflix,  it rounded up its storied brands—Disney itself, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic—and folded them into a family-friendly video platform called Disney Plus. The result of intensive planning and investment, the service launched with great expectations and met them, signing up 10 million subscribers on its launch day. It re

Compass wants to use AI to weather the real estate storm. Are you buying it?

Jenny Morant has had a tough year. In Manhattan Beach, California, where she works as a real estate agent, it’s been impossible to sell a house. What’s driving the market right now? “We’re down to divorces, maybe marriages, maybe babies, and job relocation,” Morant says.

Interest rates are largely to blame: After the Fed raised rates to 5.5% in July and then held them there, the mortgage rate soared. In October, the national average for a 30-year f

This is how AI can close the equity gap and boost the bottom line

Artificial intelligence may seem like a euphemism for institutionalized bias rather than a tool to eradicate it based on the (well-deserved) media attention this issue has garnered. And indeed, AI-powered platforms have committed mammoth grievances.

We’ve witnessed Amazon’s infamous hiring tool, Google’s faulty facial-recognition program, and Apple’s obtuse credit card, among others.

However,

A new RAND report considers a civil reserve space program for the Defense Department

What would it look like for the Defense Department to be able to lean on the commercial space community in times of need? That’s the question examined by a new report from the RAND Corporation released last week.

The paper, titled “A Framework for Building a Civil Reserve Space Program,” looks at how the Pentagon has built programs to activate commercial air and sea assets during conflicts, and lays out questions for how a similar partnership in the sp

Gemini-powered Google phones may make Siri even more of an Achilles’ heel for the iPhone

Google announced on Wednesday a new large language model called Gemini, which has the power of “sight” and “hearing” as well as new learning and reasoning capabilities. What’s more, the company has built a version of the new model to run inside the Android operating system on its Pixel 8 Pro phone. By bringing generative AI to the smartphone, Google is going after its competitor Apple’s main business, and Apple has shown little sign that it’ll

Google takes its best shot against OpenAI with new Gemini AI models

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.

Google announces Gemini model, which can see and hear

Google was caught flat-footed when OpenAI suddenly released ChatGPT to the public a year ago, and the search giant has been furiously playing catch-up

Can Europe actually lead the world on AI regulation?

The generative AI boom has sent governments worldwide scrambling to regulate the emerging technology, but it also has raised the risk of upending a European Union push to approve the world’s first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules.

The 27-nation bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act has been hailed as a pioneering rule book. But with time running out, it’s uncertain if the EU’s three branches of government can thrash out a deal Wednesday in wh

23andMe just updated its ‘dispute resolution’ rules as fallout from a serious data breach continues

On the heels of a hack that saw the data of roughly half of its users impacted, DNA testing service 23andme has changed the dispute resolution and arbitration section of its terms of service.

The company, in a note to customers sent Monday, says it “streamlined arbitration proceedings where multiple similar claims are filed,” and that the new procedures are meant to “encourage a prompt resolution of any disputes.” The changes to the terms of service were

Elon Musk’s xAI wants to raise $1 billion. But can his AI company stand out?

Investor interest in generative AI startups remains high, with more than $21 billion plowed into companies in the first nine months of this year, according to Pitchbook. And xAI, the AI company founded by Elon Musk, wants to add significantly to that total.

xAI aims to raise up to $1 billion in equity investments, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. That’s on top of the $135 million it’s already raised, per the filing; any new i


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