Artificial intelligence can help create equity and engagement.

Todayas education system is driven by rules and standardization, too often ignoring the specific needs of individual learners, particularly those already facing disadvantages. AI can change that. 

Musk told investors on a conference call that he guessed the Tesla robot, called Optimus, would be able to perform tasks in the factory by the end of this year.

Tesla’s humanoid robot is still in the lab, but it may be ready to sell as soon as the end of next year, chief executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce could move for an injunction temporarily blocking the FTCas rule from taking effect as the case proceeds.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business lobby, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to strike down a federal agency’s near-total ban on employers requiring workers to sign agreements not to join rivals or launch competing businesses.

Inequality is about more than just pay. A new survey reveals stark realities for women at work across 10 different countries.

The gender wage gap has narrowed to women earning 92 cents to a manas dollar among workers younger than 34. However, pay is not the only way inequality manifests. A new report by Deloitte surveyed 5,000 women across 10 countries to understand what they experience at work. Here are the top findings:

Similar crowdfunding platforms already exist in Mexico, but none have GoFundMeas reach.

Mexican fundraisers can now solicit donations on GoFundMe, the company announced Tuesday, as the crowdfunding giant expands into what it hopes is the first of more untapped Latin American markets to follow.

Mexico marks the 20th country serviced by GoFundMe. The for-profit platform is eyeing new international targets now that the unprecedented strain of crowdfunding campaign levels spawned by COVID-19 has eased to pre-pandemic figures, CEO Tim Cadogan told The Associated Press.

Mexico’s status as one of the world’s largest 15 economies and a close U.S. partner made it a logical fit, said Cadogan, as did on-the-ground interest evidenced by high search volume for GoFundMe and user attempts to establish in-country campaigns.

The company finds that its generally popular appeals for help with medical expenses and emergency aid are also common in Mexico a a country with relatively high out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures and a history of severe natural disasters.

Cadogan pointed to Category 5 Hurricane Otis’ deadly touchdown last fall on the southern Pacific coast and the resort city of Acapulco. The GoFundMe community raised about $1.5 million to help recovery and rebuilding efforts, Cadogan said. But Mexicans themselves could not launch campaigns.

“If we had been available then, I think more people would have been able to avail themselves of the service,” Cadogan said.

Mexico remains a country where about half the population lives in poverty, and where any unexpected expense a most often medical, but also related to events as terrifying as kidnapping or extortion a can prompt appeals for funds.

United States users had previously circumvented the geographic restrictions by opening GoFundMe campaigns on behalf of relatives in Mexico or other Latin American countries, according to Jeremy Snyder, a bioethicist who researches medical crowdfunding. Snyder expects that the expansion will ease the flow of money between users from the two countries, where many families have ties to both sides of the border.

“It’s just more evidence of the spread and normalization of crowdfunding,” Snyder said of Tuesday’s announcement.

Likeminded networks already exist in Mexico. Founded in 2016, Donadora first supported creative industries before refocusing on personal causes. Some 527,000 donors have given about $14 million, or 239 million Mexican pesos, to more than 6,800 campaigns, according to the company website. Donadora keeps 6.5% of donations before releasing the funds.

But none have the reach of GoFundMe. Cadogan said GoFundMe is well positioned because of its strong brand awareness, advantageous pricing structure and security protections. GoFundMe takes 2.9% of every transaction plus another five Mexican pesos. The company also guarantees full refunds of any donation amount for users who successfully file claims within one year of making a payment.

Junueth Mejia Martell, Hispanics in Philanthropy’s deputy director of digital philanthropy and innovation, welcomed the move. She said the nonprofit, which seeks to bridge gaps in philanthropic funding for Latino causes, has been building a culture of collective giving alongside other platforms. GoFundMe’s expansion provides yet another avenue for crowdfunding.

“This strengthens the muscle of generosity, of philanthropy, in Mexico,” she said.

Financial technology startup Stripe will serve as the online payment provider. Fundraisers must be at least 18 years old, share a Mexican postal address, have a Mexican bank account and submit their federal taxpayer registry number.

The rollout will inform the company’s consideration of other Latin American countries where GoFundMe currently does not have a presence, Cadogan said.

“We would love to serve more markets,” Cadogan told AP. “But we want to understand them carefully and really see how, in this case, our first Latin American market plays out.”
a-
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

In a market where experience rules, organizations that let operations languish do so at their own risk. Hereas why a astrategica approach is required.

Last year, while devising a nationwide network of distribution centers for deliveries, one of the leading U.S. pharmacy chains realized that it has an advantage neither its retail rivals nor delivery apps could match: its 8,700 stores. So, the retail giant put its distribution center plans on hold as it switched to fulfilling orders for toothpaste and nail polish from nearby stores instead. Given that 78% of Americans already live within five miles of one of its stores, the average delivery time promptly plummeted from two or three days to less than an hour.

The long-awaited bill is, in some ways, only the beginning.

Following years of public scrutiny over TikTokas ties to China, the Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would require TikTokas parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app within nine months or face a ban in the U.S. The bill, which already cleared the House last week, was part of a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, which President Joe Biden said he will sign into law on Wednesday.

Consumers are not at risk since pasteurization kills the virus, but PCR lab tests still detect the genetic material.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk had tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has infected dairy cows.

The agency stressed that the material is inactivated and that the findings “do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers.” Officials added that they’re continuing to study the issue.

“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in a statement.

The announcement comes nearly a month after an avian influenza virus that has sickened millions of wild and commercial birds in recent years was detected in dairy cows in at least eight states. The Agriculture Department says 33 herds have been affected to date.

FDA officials didn’t indicate how many samples they tested or where they were obtained. The agency has been evaluating milk during processing and from grocery stores, officials said. Results of additional tests are expected in “the next few days to weeks.”

The PCR lab test the FDA used would have detected viral genetic material even after live virus was killed by pasteurization, or heat treatment, said Lee-Ann Jaykus, an emeritus food microbiologist and virologist at North Carolina State University

“There is no evidence to date that this is infectious virus and the FDA is following up on that,” Jaykus said.

Officials with the FDA and the USDA had previously said milk from affected cattle did not enter the commercial supply. Milk from sick animals is supposed to be diverted and destroyed. Federal regulations require milk that enters interstate commerce to be pasteurized.

Because the detection of the bird flu virus known as Type A H5N1 in dairy cattle is new and the situation is evolving, no studies on the effects of pasteurization on the virus have been completed, FDA officials said. But past research shows that pasteurization is “very likely” to inactivate heat-sensitive viruses like H5N1, the agency added.

Matt Herrick, a spokesman for the International Dairy Foods Association, said that time and temperature regulations for pasteurization ensure that the commercial U.S. milk supply is safe. Remnants of the virus “have zero impact on human health,” he wrote in an email.

Scientists confirmed the H5N1 virus in dairy cows in March after weeks of reports that cows in Texas were suffering from a mysterious malady. The cows were lethargic and saw a dramatic reduction in milk production. Although the H5N1 virus is lethal to commercial poultry, most infected cattle seem to recover within two weeks, experts said.

To date, two people in U.S. have been infected with bird flu. A Texas dairy worker who was in close contact with an infected cow recently developed a mild eye infection and has recovered. In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program caught it while killing infected birds at a Colorado poultry farm. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.

In a new play at New Yorkas Public Theater, a Nigerian American writer uses surrealist drama to explore how white-dominant workplaces can alienate people of color.

Albert Camus, the French novelist and playwright, wrote that aFiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.a In the surrealist play Jordans, Nigerian American playwright Ife Olujobi uses fiction to underscore the painful truths of what itas like to be marginalized in the workplace. The play features Jordan, an ambitious Black female assistant working at an event company thatas primarily white. When another Jordan, a Black male manager, gets hired to improve the companyas aimage and culture,a Jordan and Jordan find themselves locked in a struggle for professional and personal survival.

The eight-year contract includes a signature shoe.

Caitlin Clark appears to be on the cusp of setting another record.

The most prolific scorer in NCAA Division I history and the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft will continue her association with Nike by signing a $28 million contract that spans eight years and includes a signature shoe.

The Wall Street Journal and The Athletic reported the pending deal, citing unnamed people familiar with the negotiations between the sportswear giant and Clark’s agents.

Excel Sports Management, which represents Clark, declined to comment. Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Clark’s initial name, image and likeness deal, signed in 2022, expired at the end of the 2023-24 season.

The new deal would be the richest sponsorship contract for a women’s basketball player.

Under Armour and Adidas also participated in contract discussions with Clark’s team in February, according to the WSJ and Athletic. Puma also showed some interest but walked away when told the bidding would start at $3 million per year, according to the WSJ.

Clark received offers of $16 million over four years from Under Armour and $6 million over four years from Adidas, with both including a signature shoe, according to the WSJ.

Clark earned about $3 million in NIL money at Iowa with deals she has had with State Farm, Gatorade and others, according to On3.com.

Clark’s agents were working on the new Nike contract even before she announced she would turn pro instead of return to Iowa for a fifth season under the COVID-19 exemption offered to players in college during the 2020 pandemic season.

After averaging 31.6 points and leading the Hawkeyes to a second straight national championship game, Clark was drafted No. 1 by the Indiana Fever on April 15. She’ll earn a $76,000 salary as a rookie.

She’s been the main driver for the dramatic uptick in women’s basketball interest with her mix of deep 3-point shots, flashy thread-the-needle passes and overall court presence. A women’s basketball-record 18.9 million viewers watched Iowa’s loss to South Carolina in the NCAA title game, and a WNBA-record 2.45 million watched the draft.

Of the Fever’s 40 games this season, 36 will be nationally televised, and ticket sales have skyrocketed around the league.

Her marketability is enhanced by her polished performances in media settings, and her surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” two weeks ago was widely acclaimed and exposed her to an even wider audience.

The reported eight-year contract with Nike shows the sportswear giant’s commitment. At 22, Clark could play well over a decade in the WNBA and she could be on the U.S. roster for the Olympics in Paris this year, in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane, Australia, in 2032.

Altair explains how AI-powered engineering can help you stay ahead of the market and deliver unmatched valueano matter what youare designing

Todayas world operates at a furious pace. Modern technology, including landscape-altering technology like generative artificial intelligence (genAI), is reshaping how products are designed, made, used, and discarded. In industries from automotive and aerospace to electronics, life sciences and beyond, research, development, and manufacturing design cycles continue to condense. This presents product engineers and designers with a variety of hurdles, and one big, overarching question in all their projects: How can we continue to accelerate design cycles to meet market demand without compromising productsa performance or quality?

The Garden State tax rebate is available to those telecommuters whose appeals to New York State are successful.

Telecommuting, a pandemic-era novelty that has become a permanent alternative for many people, has some Connecticut and New Jersey employees of New York-based companies questioning why they still have to pay personal income tax to the Empire State.

Their home states are wondering as well.

Fed up with losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue each year, New Jersey is now offering a state tax credit to residents who work from home and successfully appeal their New York tax assessment. Connecticut is considering a similar measure.

The Garden State’s bountyaa rebate worth roughly half a person’s refund of income taxes they paid to New York for the 2020-2023 periodahas been claimed so far by one winning litigant since the state made the offer in July, according to the state’s Division of Taxation. That taxpayer received a $7,797.02 refund for their efforts. Officials hope that person’s windfall will encourage others to follow suit.

Another New Jersey resident who is taking up the state’s offer is Open Weaver Banks, a tax attorney who prefers working from home to braving an “awful” commute into the Big Apple. She’s also filed one of a growing number of similar challenges.

“The process of doing the refund and the appeal isn’t all that intimidating to me,” said Banks, a tax partner at Hodgson Russ LLP. “I’m on New Jersey’s team here. I would like to see more residents doing this. I think they have a really fair point.”

New York requires out-of-state commuters who work for New York-based companies to pay New York income taxes, even if they’ve stopped physically going in to the office most days a week, unless they can satisfy very strict requirements for what constitutes a bona fide home office.

A home office near a specialized track to test new cars, for example, might qualify if it couldn’t be replicated in New York. But a worker with specialized scientific equipment set up in their home that could be duplicated over the border would still have to pay, according to a memorandum from the New York State Department of Taxation.

When the nature of work was upended in 2020, New York should have “softened” these requirements, Banks said. “And they didn’t. They are just standing by and fighting the claims.”

Both neighboring states have implemented “retaliatory” tax rules that affect New Yorkers who work remotely for Connecticut or New Jersey-based companies, but these workforces are far smaller and their overall tax payments don’t make up the difference.

Out-of-state taxpayers paid New York nearly $8.8 billion in 2021 in taxes, roughly 15% of the state’s total income tax revenues, according to the Citizens Budget Commission in New York. Of that, $4.3 billion came from New Jersey taxpayers and $1.5 billion from Connecticut taxpayers.

It’s unclear how much of that was earned at home. But out-of-state employees of New York-based companies who work remotely are increasingly appealing their tax bills, Amanda Hiller, the acting commissioner and general counsel for the New York Department of Taxation and Finance, told state legislators recently.

Hiller acknowledged that New York’s decades-old policy, known as a “convenience of the employer rule,” has created a financial burden for New Jersey and Connecticut, which provide tax credits to their residents for the income taxes they’ve paid New York so they are not double-taxed.

New Jersey’s Division of Taxation said the state’s long-term goal is to have New York’s rule overturned entirely, something that will likely require a taxpayer’s legal challenge to succeed before the U.S. Supreme Court. That could be a tall order: New Hampshire tried to sue Massachusetts for temporarily collecting income tax from roughly 80,000 of its residents who worked from home during the pandemic, and the Supreme Court rejected the complaint without comment.

Officials in New Jersey estimate it could reap as much as $1.2 billion annually if residents working from home for New York companies are taxed at home.
Connecticut could recoup about $200 million, its officials say.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has proposed an initiative similar to New Jersey’s that needs final legislative approval. It’s unclear, however, whether it can pass before the session ends May 8.

“We think it’s an unconstitutional overreach by the state of New York,” Jeffrey Beckham, secretary of Connecticut’s state budget office, said recently. “We think our residents should paying tax to us and they’d be paying at a lower rate.”

Indeed, the top marginal state income tax rate, as of Jan. 1, for individuals in New York is 10.90%. Connecticut’s top rate is 6.99% and New Jersey’s is 10.75%, according to the Tax Foundation.

“An awful lot of people are hurt by these laws,” said Edward Zelinsky, a Connecticut resident, tax law expert and professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York City. “While New York and other states like to pretend that these are wealthy people, the people who are most hurt by this rule are often people of modest income, middle income, people who can’t afford lawyers.”

Zelinksy has been trying, so far without success, to challenge New York’s tax rule for about 20 years, including a pending case over the income he earned working from home while his school was closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

A small number of states, including Arkansas, Delaware, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, have tax rules similar to New York’s. New Jersey and Pennsylvania have a reciprocal income tax agreement.

Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, who is in the unique position of being the former New Jersey state treasurer and a former New York commissioner of taxation and finance, believes eventually the right litigant will “get it before the right court to challenge it.”

But former New Jersey state Sen. Steven Oroho, an accountant who commuted for nearly two decades into New York City and who pushed as a legislator to address the inequity, said he’s skeptical of New Jersey’s commitment to the effort, which puts the financial onus of a potentially lengthy and expensive legal challenge on the individual taxpayer.

“New York is very, very aggressive and unfortunately, in my view,” said Oroho,
“New Jersey has been extremely passive.”

The mega influencers are bringing Chamberlain Coffee and 818 Tequila together for a new espresso martini kit. Even with extreme fame, they still have audience to gain.

Emma Chamberlain was 18 when she founded Chamberlain Coffee, a acoffee snob approveda company focused heavily on the caffeinated beverages that appeal to Gen Z consumers, who tend to favor iced coffee over hot, and sweeter blends instead of unflavored roasts. The brandas packaging is brightly colored and adorned with cartoon animalsacold brew single packets, matcha latte kits, and flavored blends feature names like aSweet Otter Cake Battera and aFluffy Lamb Vanilla.a 

The eligibility cap for salaried employees will go up to $58,656 in 2025.

The Biden administration has finalized a new rule set to make millions of more salaried workers eligible for overtime pay in the U.S.

The move marks the largest expansion in federal overtime eligibility seen in decades. Starting July 1, employers will be required pay overtime to salaried workers who make less than $43,888 a year in certain executive, administrative and professional roles, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That cap will then rise to $58,656 by the start of 2025.

“Too often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay. That is unacceptable,” acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said in a prepared statement.

She added that the administration was “following through on our promise to raise the bar.”

Tuesday’s news marks a significant jump from the current overtime eligibility threshold of $35,568, which was set under the Trump administration in 2019ajust three years after a more generous Obama-era effort was ultimately scuttled in court after facing pushback from some business leaders and Republican politicians.

Under the federal law, nearly all hourly workers in the U.S. are entitled to overtime pay after 40 hours a week. But many salaried workers are exempt from that requirementaunless they earn below a certain level.

The new rule also expands overtime eligibility for some highly-compensated workers. According to a Labor Department FAQ, the current $107,432 annual threshold for highly-compensated workers is set to increase to $132,964 on July 1 and $151,164 by the start of 2025.

The Labor Department estimates that 4 million lower-paid salary workers who are exempt under current regulations will become eligible for overtime protections in the first year under the new rule. An additional 292,900 higher-compensated workers are also expected to get overtime entitlements.

The July 1 increases update the current salary thresholds using methodology put in place under the Trump administration’s 2019 regulation. The new rule’s methodology takes effect Jan. 1, the Labor Department said, with salary thresholds set to update every three years based on the latest wage data.

The Biden administration first announced plans for its new rule in late August, and submitted a proposal in September. The Labor Department said it “conducted extensive engagement with employers, workers, unions and other stakeholders” and considered more than 33,000 comments as it developed the final rule.

Critics have argued that the new regulation could saddle companies with new costs and add to persistent labor challenges. In a statement, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said that employers “are staring down the barrel of billions in annual costs to comply with the rule” while calling the regulation “excessive and heavy-handed.”

Meanwhile, advocates applauded the administration’s ruleawith some noting that such a move is overdue. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute says that the overtime threshold has not been updated properly for almost 50 yearsaleaving millions without such federal protections.

“The rule is an important step toward correctly valuing one of the most precious resources workers haveatheir time,” EPI president Heidi Shierholz said Tuesday. “This rule is an essential milestone in creating a stronger, fairer economy.”

CEO Elon Musk had warned earlier that the company would cut about 10% of its global workforce. Now legal disclosures have revealed new details.

Earlier this month, Elon Musk sent a memo to Tesla employees announcing that the EV maker would cut amore than 10%a of its global workforce in order to help the company prepare for its next phase of growth. That reduction meant Tesla would let go of at least 14,000 of its 140,000-strong workforce. But as Tesla employs workers in numerous states and countries around the world, it wasnat known which areas would be hit the hardest by the layoffs.

In an ideal world where companies donat nickel-and-dime PTO and managers trust their employees, it would be easy. But we donat live in an ideal world.

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companyas mini-advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions.

Even though India had the most users outside of China, its content creators simply moved to other platforms.

The hugely popular Chinese app TikTok may be forced out of the U.S., where a measure to outlaw the video-sharing app has won congressional approval and is on its way to President Biden for his signature.

In India, the app was banned nearly four years ago. Here’s what happened:

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messengeras new built-in AI chatbot does little to unlock new experiences that are specific to those apps.

Many companies dream of dominating the era of artificial intelligence. But hardly any can flip a switch and instantly put their AI in front of the eyeballs of a meaningful percentage of humanity. One of the few that can is Meta, which reaches nearly 4 billion people a month via Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.

Mining popular digital currencies demands a tremendous amount of energy, and the reduced supply of Bitcoin will spur operations that are centered on that goal to work even harder.

The recent Bitcoin halving has put a spotlight on the popular cryptocurrencyaand raised new questions about the environmental footprint of the crypto world.

Standard interview techniques donat always showcase a personas skills and capabilities.

Over the past few years, many companies have poured money and resources into diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Some have made a lot of progress, others have not.