I recently typed a simple question into Google search: How much screen time is too much for teenagers? Instead of presenting links, as Google had been doing for many years, it gave me an AI-generated answer. The artificial intelligence agent cited a number, then complicated that reply, noting that quality and balance of time could matter more than the number of hours, and that “too much” time could depend on a teenager’s sleep, exercise, school demands, and mood.

This year, I’ve been building an AI social media production pipeline to promote the 25+ shows on the Autistic Culture Podcast Network. It took me a week of effort, but I managed to program Claude Code to talk to NotebookLM, which now feeds our YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok pipeline, and a task that used to take me a full day now runs in the background. The first time I ran a real batch through it, I felt the guilt of always being behind fade away. I could physically feel my nervous system recalibrating. Maybe for the first time since I was 10 years old, with these artificial intelligence agents, I could recapture the feeling of not being behind!

Today’s frontier AI models know everything–how to safely thaw a frozen chicken breast, re-shingle your roof, and treat your dog’s ragweed allergies, if my recent chat history is any indication.

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the most recent consumer price index, which tracks inflation of important consumer goods—including your groceries. The cost of food has risen sharply, according to the CPI, with the same cart of groceries costing 2.7% more in August 2026 than in August 2025. What’s more, food prices have increased by an eye-watering 33% since August 2019.

The new iPhone 18 Pro series went on sale this week. Though they are the best iPhones Apple has ever made, their enhanced features—blazing-fast chips, better cameras, and foldability—come at a high price. While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max started at $1,099 and $1,199, respectively, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max begin at $1,199 and $1,299.

A husband in Taiwan suspected his wife of having an affair. In September 2023, he found a used toothbrush at their holiday home, and garage video showed an unfamiliar man driving his wife there. Three months later, he opened their robot vacuum’s app to speak with her and saw an intimate encounter through its live camera.

“I don’t think about my life in terms of ‘superstar.’ I’m just a workin’ girl. I always say, and it’s the truth, that I am a workhorse that looks like a show horse.” —Dolly Parton, May 2025

Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In.

Just a tiny portion of the population flies on private jets, but those jets make an outsize impact on the planet. And though most Americans don’t fly private, they’re helping subsidize those flights through their taxes.

Security officers at some of the most prominent tech companies in Silicon Valley have been poised to walk off the job since voting to authorize a strike earlier this month. The workers have been in talks with major security contractors like Securitas and Allied Universal for months as they seek to reach a new contract agreement.

Newly revealed court files show that what AI companies say behind the scenes doesn’t always line up with what they tell the public.

In a normal context, the phrase “My husband and I work for JPMorgan” might be merely a not-so-subtle flex.

The NFL season just got underway, but preparations for the 2027 Super Bowl began at ESPN as soon as the 2026 game ended this past February. 

An advertising company is challenging consumers to pick its AI-generated ad out of a lineup, and so far participants aren’t up to the task.

As more women join the workforce and gradually gain representation in leadership roles, the lack of resources like affordable childcare and paid maternity leave has become increasingly consequential. 

The key to Adidas’s recent revival? Getting rid of all the “no-sayers,” CEO Bjørn Gulden told an audience at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York. He credits this strategy for turning the brand around after a tumultuous period.

Barclays workers in the United Kingdom are protesting the bank’s move from two office days a week to three (with senior staff expected four days) and demanding that the firm cover costs associated with the policy. 

As concern rises over the risks of artificial intelligence, hopes for any kind of global approach depend on cooperation between the U.S. and China — superpowers that seem only to be more skeptical of each other’s AI strategy.

AI governance is expected to be on the agenda in a meeting planned for next week in Washington between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The topic has gained urgency in both countries, with American tech leaders saying that averting worst-case scenarios for rogue AI depends on a degree of cooperation with China.

But both countries are vying for a decisive advantage on AI, with Trump warning that any efforts to regulate the technology would help China. That sets up a meeting in which any agreements might be superficial but a possible start to something larger.

“A formal agreement or consensus may be near impossible, but they do not need to go that far,” said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies’ Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs. “Trump and Xi just need to create political space by acknowledging AI poses risks to both countries.”

Despite being the third-largest fast-food hamburger chain in the world and the second-largest in the U.S. after McDonald’s, Wendy’s has struggled lately with declining sales and a shrinking store footprint.

Someone can convert an idea into reality faster than ever before with the help of generative AI, and that makes the role of humans in the process even more important. “More is not always better. Faster is not always better,” said Emily Galloway, Spotify’s senior director of product design, at the New Rules of Great Design panel during the 2026 Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City. “Human judgment is becoming so important.”