Fast company - tech

‘The bad news is, this was fake’: The tear-jerking story of author Barbara Miller was a marketing stunt, influencer says

A viral TikTok video showing an empty book signing for an elderly author tugged at millions of hearts—until it was exposed as an alleged marketing stunt.

The book in question, Just Cuz, was reportedly written by Barbara Miller as a tribute to her late husband, Marv. “She wrote it as a way to deal with her grief,” the video’s voiceover explained. Posted last month, the video shows an empty

The American woman who went viral in Pakistan has a crypto coin

The “American woman in Pakistan” now has a crypto coin. 

If you don’t know who that is, American Onijah Andrew Robinson recently went viral after claiming she flew to Pakistan to marry a 19-year-old she met online, only to be rejected. Instead of returning home, she has become somewhat of a celebrity in Pakistan, holding high-profile press conferences in Karachi where she demands money and declares her plans to “rebuild” the country. Thanks to TikTok, she has since

DOGE has disregarded data protection and privacy norms. The consequences will be felt years down the line

It has been a tumultuous few weeks since Donald Trump took office for the second time as president of the United States, While Trump has garnered headlines for his outlandish executive orders aimed at recasting the country in his own shape, Elon Musk, the tech billionaire turned government quango-buster as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been n

3 ways Tesla stands to win from Elon Musk’s war on the U.S. government

Elon Musk has long railed against the U.S. government, saying a crushing number of federal investigations and safety programs have stymied Tesla, his electric car company, and

Will my social media posts really help my career?

There are certain social media rules we can all agree on: Ghosting a conversation is impolite, and replying “k” to a text is the equivalent of a backhand slap (violent, wrong, and rude). But what about the rest of the rules? When can we really remind someone of our old Venmo request? What happens when someone tries to flirt with you on LinkedIn?

Fortunately, terminally online writers Delia Cai and St

This Google Maps ‘safety’ feature is actually making roads more dangerous

Picture this: You’re driving on a crowded highway, preparing to change lanes and pass a tractor-trailer. As you check your mirrors, a loud chime on your car’s infotainment screen rings out.

It’s Google Maps, asking whether a stalled car is still on the shoulder, as other drivers have reported. A prompt appears—Yes or No—requiring a response within seconds. Your already taxed brain now has another decision to process, all while you’re moving at 60 miles per hour.

Scenarios

How SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son plans to win the AI wars

Masayoshi Son is back on top. On January 22, President Donald Trump announced a joint venture from Son’s investment holding company, SoftBank, along with OpenAI and Oracle, to invest billions of dollars in AI infrastructure projects in the U.S. The project, called Stargate, will be chaired by Son. SoftBank is now reported close to finalizing a $40 billion investment in Ope

Streaming is finally profitable. It offers a lesson in patience

Just a couple of years ago, pundits were warning of streaming’s demise. From Netflix to Spotify, these companies were burning through cash. How could they keep operating? 

Now, almost all of the streamers have made it to positive profits. Netflix is the envy of the entertainment industry, while its underlings like Disney+ and Max have also turned around their losses. Last Tuesday, Spotify shares

OpenAI shouldn’t accept Elon Musk’s $97 billion bid to buy it

Let’s say you own one of the most valuable homes in a lush, gated community that has been earmarked as a future point of growth for decades to come. One day, a letter appears in your mailbox, offering to buy your property for between a third and two-thirds of its value on the open market.

On the face of it, you should turn it down. But the person offering to buy it owns every house in the estate, and runs the HOA. They’re also friends with the police chief and the fire department.


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