Last month, a food research organization called Nectar released an expansive set of findings from taste tests that rated plant-based meat alternatives alongside actual meat. One bit of information stood out: In terms of taste, 54% of people on average found 20 vegan products (such as burgers, nuggets, and sausages) from 13 brands (including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and Gardein) to taste as good as or better than analogous conventional meat products. This should probably be good news for those of us who are concerned about the environment, public health, and animal welfare.
But the flipside of this discovery is that even though plant-based meat is starting to taste just as good as (and in some cases better than) animal meat, most people arent changing their purchasing habits accordingly. If taste is king, it doesnt deserve the crownand ignoring this reality will doom alt protein to irrelevance.
For many decades now, people in a whole array of fields have been on a mad mission to figure out how to get people to eat less meat. It has long been clear that education alone about the problems with factory farming isn’t enough to get people to change their behavior. Certainly shaming people, demanding total lifestyle overhaul, and expecting perfection are tactics that dont workthats why I cofounded the Reducetarian Foundation, because encouraging incremental change actually does work. But even that has its limits.
Indeed, I have always believed that a more pragmatic approachoffering people better options in the marketplaceis ultimately one of the most effective ways to drive change. Specifically, I figured that the pillars of price, convenience, and especially taste were a sort of holy grail for the alt-meat industry. We can’t reasonably expect people to change their eating habits unless and until the more ethical, environmentally friendly, and healthy option is also the more affordable, convenient, and delicious choice.
Interestingly, weve reached a point where, at least in the case of some products, plant-based meat is indeed as tasty as (or, to some people, even tastier than) real meat. Prices are nearing parity (though aren’t quite there yet) and in some cases are even cheaper than animal meat. And plant-based meat is easier than ever to find, with major brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat stocked in mainstream supermarkets and fast food chains like Burger King and Starbucks offering alt-meat options. Plant-based meat may not have totally surpassed regular meat in the price-taste-convenience (PTC) trifecta, but compelling data shows that were closer than ever.
And yet, weve yet to see a real revolution in consumer habits. Plant-based meat still only makes up about 1% of total retail meat sales. Were still a nation of meat eaters, eating more than 225 pounds of meat per year (and climbing), making us one the biggest meat-eating nations in the world. Suffice it to say, the scales aren’t tippingat least not to the degree wed expect to see if the so-called PTC hypothesis were wholly true.
It turns out that in 2023, researcher Jacob Peacock, of the think tank Rethink Priorities, actually put the PTC hypothesis to the test, reviewing existing research on plant-based meat and consumer behavior. His conclusion? PTC doesnt explain peoples choices. At least, not as comprehensively as some of us believed it would.
Peacock explains some major problems with collecting good data on consumer choiceslike not enough real-world research, unreliable self-reports, and missing control groups. He also reviews many studies showing that people still prefer animal meat over plant-based meat, even when price and convenience arent issues and they say the taste is similar. Even in hypothetical situations, people tend to report that theyd still prefer real meal to alt-meat, regardless if it’s indistinguishable in terms of price, taste, and convenience.
One of Peacocks conclusions is that we’ve been underestimating the importance of social and psychological factors. Diet, especially when it comes to meat consumption, is highly politicized. Conservative-leaning people are likely to be dissuaded by environmentally friendly messaging, and several Republican politicians have proposed legislation to keep the alt-meat industry out of their states. Meat is also gendered, being socially linked to masculinity.
These ideas may be divorced from rationality, but people dont always behave rationallyemotional, social, and psychological forces are at play, too. It comes as a bit of a blow to think that even if someone in the culinary or food tech spaces creates the most delicious burger the world has ever seen, and at an affordable price, most people will still go for regular old beef.
One caveat to all this is that the Nectar study found there’s still room for improvement in taste even among the top performing products. For example, it reported that among those who preferred the plant-based products, they prefered them less strongly than those who preferred animal meat. In other words, the animal meat attracted more die-hard fans. This partially explains why some plant-based brands won a Tasty Award, in the language of Nectar, but not a Parity or Superiority Award, which is reserved for products that have an equal or much greater chance of being preferred. Still, the limitations of taste are clear. Given more than half of participants rated 20 plant-based meat products the same or better than animal-based meat, wed expect plant-based meat sales to be a lot higher if taste primarily explained consumer behavior.
As frustrating as it may be to champions of alt-meat, this is information we can use. Price, taste, and convenience are certainly factors in consumer choice (if smaller factors than we previously believed), and it can only help the sectorand thus, make a real difference in changing the way people eatto make plant-based meat as tasty and cheap as possible. All of the time and resources going toward that have, likely, not been wasted.
But now, its clear we need to diversify our attention. We need researchers to delve into the more amorphous factors that drive peoples food choices, and we need marketers and educators to include them in their messaging. When someone chooses meat over plant-based alternatives, even when they acknowledge that the plant-based option tastes just as good, we need to find out why.
We need to start gathering information so we can make a real effort to combat the psychological and social factors keeping people from switching to alternative meats. What is it thats actually stopping them, and how can we remove or lessen those obstacles? Answers to these questions wont come easy, but nothing worthwhile ever does.
Every day, people are constantly learning and forming new memories. When you pick up a new hobby, try a recipe a friend recommended, or read the latest world news, your brain stores many of these memories for years or decades.
But how does your brain achieve this incredible feat?
In our newly published research in the journal Science, we have identified some of the rules the brain uses to learn.
Learning in the brain
The human brain is made up of billions of nerve cells. These neurons conduct electrical pulses that carry information, much like how computers use binary code to carry data.
These electrical pulses are communicated with other neurons through connections between them called synapses. Individual neurons have branching extensions known as dendrites that can receive thousands of electrical inputs from other cells. Dendrites transmit these inputs to the main body of the neuron, where it then integrates all these signals to generate its own electrical pulses.
It is the collective activity of these electrical pulses across specific groups of neurons that form the representations of different information and experiences within the brain.
For decades, neuroscientists have thought that the brain learns by changing how neurons are connected to one another. As new information and experiences alter how neurons communicate with each other and change their collective activity patterns, some synaptic connections are made stronger while others are made weaker. This process of synaptic plasticity is what produces representations of new information and experiences within your brain.
In order for your brain to produce the correct representations during learning, however, the right synaptic connections must undergo the right changes at the right time. The rules that your brain uses to select which synapses to change during learningwhat neuroscientists call the credit assignment problemhave remained largely unclear.
Defining the rules
We decided to monitor the activity of individual synaptic connections within the brain during learning to see whether we could identify activity patterns that determine which connections would get stronger or weaker.
To do this, we genetically encoded biosensors in the neurons of mice that would light up in response to synaptic and neural activity. We monitored this activity in real time as the mice learned a task that involved pressing a lever to a certain position after a sound cue in order to receive water.
We were surprised to find that the synapses on a neuron dont all follow the same rule. For example, scientists have often thought that neurons follow what are called Hebbian rules, where neurons that consistently fire together, wire together. Instead, we saw that synapses on different locations of dendrites of the same neuron followed different rules to determine whether connections got stronger or weaker. Some synapses adhered to the traditional Hebbian rule where neurons that consistently fire together strengthen their connections. Other synapses did something different and completely independent of the neurons activity.
Our findings suggest that neurons, by simultaneously using two different sets of rules for learning across different groups of synapses, rather than a single uniform rule, can more precisely tune the different types of inputs they receive to appropriately represent new information in the brain.
In other words, by following different rules in the process of learning, neurons can multitask and perform multiple functions in parallel.
Future applications
This discovery provides a clearer understanding of how the connections between neurons change during learning. Given that most brain disorders, including degenerative and psychiatric conditions, involve some form of malfunctioning synapses, this has potentially important implications for human health and society.
For example, depression may develop from an excessive weakening of the synaptic connections within certain areas of the brain that make it harder to experience pleasure. By understanding how synaptic plasticity normally operates, scientists may be able to better understand what goes wrong in depression and then develop therapies to more effectively treat it.
These findings may also have implications for artificial intelligence. The artificial neural networks underlying AI have largely been inspired by how the brain works. However, the learning rules researchers use to update the connections within the networks and train the models are usually uniform and also not biologically plausible. Our research may provide insights into how to develop more biologically realistic AI models that are more efficient, have better performance, or both.
There is still a long way to go before we can use this information to develop new therapies for human brain disorders. While we found that synaptic connections on different groups of dendrites use different learning rules, we dont know exactly why or how. In addition, while the ability of neurons to simultaneously use multiple learning methods increases their capacity to encode information, what other properties this may give them isnt yet clear.
Future research will hopefully answer these questions and further our understanding of how the brain learns.
William Wright is a postdoctoral scholar in neurobiology at the University of California, San Diego.
Takaki Komiyama is a professor of neurobiology at the University of California, San Diego.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Just a few months into Donald Trumps second term, are the manosphere influencers who championed him already starting to backpedal?
In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan raised concerns about the presidents decision to send undocumented immigrants directly to El Salvadors mega-prisonswithout trial, lawyers, or, as critics argue, any semblance of due process.
“What if you are an enemy of, lets not say any current president. Lets pretend we got a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and this is a common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador, youre a gang member. No, Im not. Prove it. What? I got to go to court. No. No due process,” said Rogan. We gotta be careful we dont become monsters, while fighting monsters.
For those who had been sounding the alarm during Trumps campaign, it was a painful watch. Watching Joe Rogan figure this shit out in real time is painful, one commenter wrote. That ol Even a broken clock is right twice a day idiom comes to mind, another added. As one Reddit comment pointed out, Why does he need to use a hypothetical president to make this point? This entire commentary describes the current administration.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler)
This election cycle, Trump owes at least part of his victory to Rogan and other manosphere influencers who endorsed him. After hosting the now-president on The Joe Rogan Experiencein what became one of the most-watched podcast episodes of all time, with 58 million views at the time of writingRogan followed up with a full-throated endorsement just one day before the 2024 election. Are we now seeing the first cracks appear?
Rogan isnt the only vocal Trump supporter expressing unease in recent weeks. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who publicly backed Trump during the campaign, voiced frustration after the presidents rollout of sweeping tariffs sent markets into a nosedive. Portnoy claimed he lost $7 million in the aftermath.
So, Trump rolls out the tariffs, right? Portnoy said in a livestream posted April 7. This is a decision that one guy made that crashed the whole stock market. Thats why were calling it Orange Monday and not Black Monday.
Just days earlier, Portnoy had reaffirmed his support for Trump. I voted for Trump, I think hes a smart guy, he said in a clip. I also think hes playing a high-stakes game here. Im gonna roll with him for a couple days, a couple weeks, see how this pans out. By Monday, he said his estimated losses had climbed to $20 million.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Across industries, a new era of climate innovation is accelerating. The momentum is visible in the data: Global clean energy investment surpassed $2 trillion for the first time in 2024, double the amount invested in fossil fuels.
While solar panels, wind turbines, and grid-connected batteries often grab the headlines, the low carbon economy is growing in far more corners than many realize.
Since founding Supercool last summer to cover proven and scaling climate solutions, Ive seen needle-moving innovation accelerating across farms, factories, and finance departments.
One sector in particular shows remarkable progressthe built environment, which accounts for 34% of global carbon emissions.
From hard tech and material breakthroughs to AI-powered intelligence to novel business models, here are three approaches to decarbonizing buildings happening now.
1. Hardtech innovation: Build with carbon-negative materials
The engineered materials we use to build our suburbs and citiesprimarily timber, concrete, and steelcreate a lot of carbon emissions in their manufacture. Concrete and steel account for nearly 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Wood-based materials like oriented strand board (OSB), which are commonly installed in new homes, generate most of their manufacturing carbon emissions from burning wood to generate heat during production.
Plantd transforms the built environment using carbon-negative building materials derived from alternative biomassa hardy, fast-growing grass. Four years ago, I cofounded the company with two former SpaceX engineers. To realize its ambitions, Plantd established a new agricultural supply chain innovating at every step, from building an in-house tissue culture lab to establishing full-scale greenhouse operations to supplying commercial farmers with the companys proprietary grass.
[Photo: Courtesy of Plantd]
Why grass? Because it grows incredibly fast, like bamboo, rapidly removing atmospheric carbon in the process, and possesses the structural characteristics to be transformed into durable engineered building materials.
Yet, the key to sequestering carbon in our materials is Plantds manufacturing technology. Our team pioneered a modular, electric-powered production line that turns grass into finished products that replace plywood and OSB in new home construction.
Its a first-of-its-kind technology that distinguishes a Plantd production facility from every other engineered wood facility in the world; ours is the only one without a smoke stack on top of the building.
This past fall, D.R. Horton, the largest homebuilder in America, which builds about one in every 10 U.S. homes, ordered 10 million Plantd panels, enough to form the walls and roofs of 90,000 new single-family homes.
2. Software innovation: Give buildings brains
An even bigger source of building-related carbon emissions is the energy required to operate them. Globally, this accounts for 26% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
The top culprit: HVAC systems.
The heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment needed to keep us comfortable indoors are responsible for about 35% of all energy used in U.S. buildings.
The challenge is that thermostats, even the smart ones, arent very bright. They can track whats already happened and react to whats happening right now, but they cannot anticipate changes in weather, occupancy, carbon intensity of the grid, and energy costs.
BrainBox AI can. Using AI-powered intelligence, its cloud-based control system connects to the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of HVAC components in a building and sends them real-time instructions.
The companys platform provides over 15,000 buildings worldwidefrom Nordstrom to Family Dollarwith the intelligence to see six hours into the future with 96% accuracy.
By knowing the future, BrainBox AI cuts energy, costs, and carbon emissions and improves comfort. Its an easy-to-install solution that works with existing systems and equipment.
The results? HVAC-related emissions reductions of up to 40% and energy savings as high as 25%.
3. Finance innovation: Make efficiency upgrades free
Many buildings are stuck with legacy equipment that gets the job done but consumes far more energy than their more efficient modern counterparts. Yet, new equipment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, often placing upgrades out of reach.
Budderfly has built one of the fastest-growing businesses in America by removing the cost barrier. The company identifies energy-intensive businesses like fast food chains and offers them a deal that sounds almost too good to be true: free upgrades to energy-efficient systems, including HVAC, lighting, refrigeration, and secrity. Budderfly foots the bills and shares the monthly energy savings with its customers.
Scale is key to making this business model work. Budderfly has raised nearly $1 billion to pay for the equipment it installs in customer locations. Its rapid expansion enables it to secure preferential pricing from global equipment suppliers that individual owners and franchisees could never obtain independently.
Budderfly also takes over billing, which is one less thing for customers to worry about, and gives the company a trove of data to drive further energy reductions and cost savings.
From Taco Bell to McDonalds to Sonic, clients are guaranteed to see savings from day one. In 2024, Budderfly generated $200 million in revenue and now operates in more than 7,000 locations nationwide. Its customers collective energy use dropped 43% last year.
The takeaway
Whether its growing new materials, giving buildings the ability to think ahead, or reimagining who pays for energy systems, the low carbon economy isnt just coming someday. Its already being built.
Josh Dorfman is the CEO and host of Supercool.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Theres no question that artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm. However, as the initial excitement over the technology fades, we find ourselves in a new phase of thoughtful exploration. There are many innovative AI startups that have captured the worlds attention; however, many organizations still struggle to develop a clear roadmap to take full advantage of this transformative technology.
So, whats the hold up? And how can business leaders avoid fleeting trends, effectively align their teams, and successfully integrate AI to achieve measurable impact and ROI for their business?
Embrace the journey
AI is already transforming industries, boosting efficiency and automating tasks ranging from data entry and language translation to document processing. And the benefits are clearrecent Accenture research found that the vast majority of organizations are seeing stronger-than-expected returns from their generative AI investments.
Still, its important to keep a balanced perspective. While many AI solutions promise substantial benefits, the real challenge is identifying those that add tangible value. With new technologies emerging almost weekly, some leaders may also hesitate to invest because they are unsure if a better option is just around the corner.
AIs true power comes from practical, enterprise-ready applications. For business leaders wondering where to start, the key is identifying the right challenges to tackle and knowing when and how to implement solutions effectively. Here are seven actionable tips to help you navigate this exciting landscape and build an AI decision-making framework tailored to your organizations needs.
1. Identify the use case
First, pinpoint your specific needs and business objectives. Start within your organization, identifying pain points AI can address. Think about what AI does well, like spotting patterns, crunching numbers, and making predictions. Could it help with document translation, content creation, or customer insights? With so many potential applications, determining where to start might seem daunting. A focused, purposeful approach ensures youre investing in AI solutions that deliver real results.
2. Consider specialized models
Over the last two years, we’ve seen much of the excitement around general purpose AI models outpace their value. As you evaluate AI tools for your organization, consider specialized AI models offering tailored solutions for specific industry needs.
General AI models can do many things pretty well, but for higher stakes and more specific demands, specialized models often address complex, industry-specific challenges more effectively. For example, healthcare AI models can help doctors identify diseases more accurately, while banks use credit-scoring AI to determine whos likely to pay back loans. Language AI tools like DeepL are also specialized to businesses communicating across languages and markets.
Specialized AI offerings are trained on domain-specific data optimized for particular tasks or industries, delivering enhanced quality and accuracy with lower risk of errors. Theyre also often designed with built-in compliance features aligned with industry regulations. This makes them more cost-effective, with clearer ROI.
3. Are humans the answer?
When youre holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right? As the founder of an AI company, you might be surprised to hear me say this, but just because AI is the big thing right now doesnt mean its the singular solution for every problem or opportunity. So before diving into the deep end, consider if a human solution might actually be more effective than AI. Weighing what people, supported by AI, do best versus what AI can offer on its own, will help ensure you take the right approach for your organization’s needs.
4. Start with pilot projects
If youre about to deploy an AI solution for the first time, begin with pilot projects to test your AI integrations in smaller, controlled environments. Starting small with a more limited investment reduces overall risk and can allow you to gather real-world data, monitor performance, and assess alignment with business goals before scaling. Pilot projects can also help build confidence within your teams and among leadership, making way for more successful full-scale AI deployments.
5. Invest in tech (and training)
To truly harness AI’s potential, focus on bringing in new talent and continuously training existing employees. Depending on the implementations complexity, you might need new positions like data scientists, machine learning engineers or specialists. Upskilling your existing workforce can be equally essential to ensure employees can adapt and thrive alongside technological advancements.
6. Have a solid data strategy in place
AI requires large volumes of data to perform its best, so it’s essential to have a solid data strategy infrastructure in place. Your plan should address how your organization will collect, securely store and access data; ensure compliance with evolving data privacy regulations, copyright standards and ethical guidelines; and assign responsibility for ongoing data governance and management. Answering these questions up front will save your company stress and problems later.
7. Refresh your ROI framework and adjust it regularly
Most business leaders can recall digital initiatives that didn’t meet expectations, which can lead to concerns that their AI investments might follow a similar path. To enhance your ROI, outline your initiatives measurable goals, such as efficiency, cost savings, or an enhanced customer experience. Establish baseline metrics to understand current performance; then track improvements directly linked to AI.
Its important to be adaptable, regularly revisiting goals and metrics to reflect evolving business priorities, market conditions, and technological changes. Unlike standard digital projects, AI initiatives can uncover new opportunities or shift mid-course. Also consider AI’s long-term strategic advantages, which may take time to come to fruition.
From hyperbole to high performance
To make AI work, organizations should shift their focus from what’s trending to enterprise-ready solutions that deliver lasting and specific value. Define your use cases up front, adopt an agile ROI framework, a robust data strategy, and commit to continuous improvement. This will unlock AI’s transformative potential and build a foundation for long-term competitive advantage.
Jarek Kutylowski is CEO and founder of DeepL.
Tesla has reached a potentially lethal moment in its history, and it isn’t solely due to CEO Elon Musk’s political radicalization. Years of design and technology stagnation have led to a languishing model line and outdated technology. Back in 2023, I wrote that the beleaguered carmaker should aspire to survive and become yet another car manufacturer. Now that objective feels more pressingand distantthan ever.
The company just announced a new quarter of abysmal vehicle sales. Teslas first quarter of 2025 was a disastera 71% decline in net income compared to the same quarter last yearexcept for a better-than-expected gross margin thanks to its energy business. Its EV sales cratered, with a 13% sales drop in relation to the previous quarter. Worse yet: The company would have posted a loss if it werent for the government’s zero-emission credits.
Predictably, Musk tried to distract from all of this with more of his usual empty promises about self-driving cabs and magical robots. During the Q1 financials conference call, he declaredwith a faltering train of thoughtthat he remained optimistic about the future of the company. A future that is based on a large number of autonomous cars and autonomous humanoid robots. He said that he expects autonomy to start moving Teslas financial needle in mid-2026.
Musk also claimed Teslas humanoid robot Optimus will be working at Teslas factories by years end. I feel confident we will make a million units per year in less than five years, maybe four years, he said. Tesla will be the most valuable company in the world by far if we execute well, he declared after a pause. Then he said it will be maybe as valuable as the next five companies combined.
Delay tactics
Is anyone falling for all this bluster? Im not. You shouldnt either. Musks promises have a tendency to end in the graveyard of delusions, some of them literally buried, most delayed for many years.
During the Cybercab reveal in October 2024, he promised the two-seater with scissor doors and no steering wheel by 2026, a claim that was met with derision. Remember that he promised robotaxis for 2020. The company declared in its Q1 report that the Cybercab is scheduled for volume production starting in 2026.
Thats very unlikely to happen, as fully autonomous Tesla cars have not been approved anywhere, and they are far from going through the certification process needed for volume to happen. Waymo is still progressing slowly in its approval process and it’s years ahead of Tesla. Full Self-Driving manages just 489 miles between disengagements, dwarfed by Waymos 17,311, notes industry expert Ashok Elluswamy.
To achieve human-level safety, analysts say, Tesla needs a 1,400x improvement. Which is why Musks claim of launching unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) in June 2025 sounds so absurd. Teslas FSD currently remains a beta experiment linked to federal probes and crashes. Meanwhile, Volvo and Mercedes currently deploy safer autonomous tech made by Waymo, a company that already has self-driving cabs on the road.
Even if Musk could actually deliver on his Cybercab promise, Teslas internal analysis admitted Robotaxis would hemorrhage cash. According to a report by The Information, the companys own executives warned Musk that the payback around FSD and Robotaxi would be slow . . . very, very hard outside the U.S. He ignored them. Instead, he canceled the Model 2the alleged name for an affordable Tesla modelto chase the geofenced 5mph Disneyland ride of Robotaxis, as critic Dan ODowd mocked. The company is now implicitly recognizing it made a mistake in its first quarter financial report, saying that more affordable options are as critical as ever. No wonder its top designers and engineers are leaving the company.
Rotting design and cybertruck carnage
During the call, Musk said he will focus more on Tesla and less on the government, blaming people benefiting from fraudulent government money for the protests against him. In his mind, these fraudsters are responsible for the company’s ongoing disaster, not him. But that shouldnt distract from the real reasons for the Teslapocalypse. This didnt happen because of Musk’s support for Donald Trump, though it did accelerate it.
Even without Musks recent behavior, Tesla would still suffer from its preexisting condition and the bare facts of its business model: stale design, no forward vision, no technolgical innovation. This is a trifecta for failure. Tesla lacks what it needs to save itself from the current realities of the automobile market. Chinamainly BYD and brands like Xiaomi and Xpenghas established itself as the clear design and technological car manufacturing leader in the world, resulting in its top spot in global sales, despite U.S. tariffs. And in Europe, Japan, and South Korea, the old brands have finally risen to the challenge, with BMWs EV sales in Europe overtaking Tesla for the first time in February of this year.
Teslas collapse began with its rotting design DNA. The Model S is 10 years old now, Adrian Clarke, a veteran car designer, told me in 2023. Its other carsModels 3, X, and Ylook like spitting-image cousins. Its 2025, and except for a lackluster refresh of Model Y so unappealing that the company has just announced a zero-interest five-year buying plan, nothing has changed. Teslas lineup remains a museum of stagnation in an industry where everyone refreshes models yearly. Most manufacturers would replace a model after about seven or eight years, Clarke told me. But Tesla clings to a decade-old template, a strategy former Jaguar designer Jeremy Newman calls strategically irresponsible.
How can anyone expect the market to keep buying Teslas when every other manufacturer is releasing new models, like BYDs Yangwang U7 and its magical suspension system that eliminates all bumps. Then theres the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and its supercar features that come at regular sports car prices. Or the BMW iXthe best 2024 EV according to Consumer Reports. With this in mind, can anyone truly be surprised to see Teslas U.S. market share plummeting from 79.4% in 2020 to 65.4% in 2022 to 48.7% in 2024? Only the most deluded fanboys and Tesla bulls could ignore this. Everyone else is seeing the writing on the wall.
The Cybertruck epitomizes Musks delusional leadership. When it launched, industry experts criticized and warned about its design. Cold, sterile, and almost repulsive, legendary designer Frank Stephenson spat. Everyone I know thought theres no way theyre gonna get that into production, Clarke said at the time. They were partially right. The trucks dead straight panels defied manufacturing logic, leading to countless recalls for razor-sharp frunks that slice fingers, accelerators that stick mid-drive, and bulletproof windows that can shatter from hail. By June 2024, more than 11,000 units faced recalls for failing wipers and loose trim. Sales cratered: After peaking at 16,692 units in Q3 2024, sales dropped to 12,991 in Q4a 22% decreaseand fell further to 6,406 in Q1 2025, marking a 50% decline from the previous quarter.
Can it be saved?
Now you can add cratering financials to this technological and design mayhem. Teslas Q4 2024 deliveries hit a record 495,570 vehicles, but the cost was catastrophic. Price cuts and 0% financing slashed profit margins, with average sales prices plunging to $41,000the lowest in four years. Annual deliveries fell 1.1% to 1.79 million, Teslas first decline since 2011. Meanwhile, BYD sold 595,413 battery electric vehicles in the same quarter. Analysts called Teslas performance an unmitigated disaster masked by temporary incentives.
Today confirmed what we knew. Teslas first-quarter 2025 revenue came short of the estimated $21.1 billion at only $19.3 billion. Auto revenue fell 20%. Its the worst quarter in almost three years, and the companys first-ever year-to-year drop in sales.
Sure, the protests at stores and vandalism of Tesla lots fueled by Musks polarizing politics didnt help this situation. But at the end of the day, if you give consumers the choice of buying a new EV design with superior technology at a lower price or a tired Tesla model, they will choose the former. Having a better product at the best price possible is the most important part for the long-term survival of any company. Talking to CNBC, Patrick George, editor-in-chief of InsideEVs, said the biggest operational challenge in the latest quarter was the nuts-and-bolts job of being a car company. For a car company that runs on, you know, car sales, things like robocabs and humanoid robots are a distraction. Its no wonder that Teslas stock plummeted since December.
Meanwhile, the rest of the market keeps innovating at record speeds. BYDs flash-charging techrefueling EVs in five minutesand its Blade battery, hailed as the worlds safest, have left Tesla in the dust. The Xiaomi SU7, a luxury sports sedan priced like a Toyota, sold 88,898 units in 24 hours, proving Chinese brands can out-innovate and undercut. In Europe, BMW and Mercedes leveraged 60% customer loyalty to reclaim the luxury segment. People want cars that fit into their lives, Clarke told me two years ago. It was an industry lesson that Musk ignored.
Legendary investor and economist Bruce Greenwald warned about all of this in 2021, way before Musk descended into the political mud: Twenty years from nowyou really think that [Tesla is] going to dominate the auto market? Not a chance. He was wrong by almost two decades.
After todays results, there are only two questions in my mind. First: How much more value will Musk oblterate before shareholders eject him? And the other, more pressing question: Will the next CEO be able to save the company? Tesla needs to do something radical right now. And that should start with Musk leaving the company.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
With the U.S. government reducing and, in some cases even freezing federal funding, many nonprofits will need to seek other sources of philanthropic support.
According to the 2024 Giving USA Report, corporate charitable giving in the U.S. totaled $36.6 billion in 2023, making it the fastest-growing nonprofit revenue source over the past five years. But less quantifiable is the value many corporate funders provide in addition to financial support. Most corporate philanthropies are not interested in merely signing a check or attaching their logo to an event. Instead, they are looking for ways to strategically collaborate with organizations and the communities they serve through time, talent, and treasure.
The 3Ts: Time, talent, and treasure
Companieswantto make a difference in the places wheretheiremployees and key stakeholders live, work, and play. One of the greatest corporate resources that the countrys 1.8 million nonprofits can tap into is time, especially through skillsand service-based volunteer opportunities for companies employees. A 2023 global study conducted for Ares Management by Edge Research found that employees who volunteer through their workplace are twice as likely to recommend their organization to job seekers than those who dont volunteer.
In addition, do not overlook the ways your nonprofit can benefit by leveraging those employees talents. Nonprofits can request pro bono support in the form of guidance and counsel from employees who are subject matter experts and will find that employees are generally more than willing to share their skills at no cost.
Of course, it is critical for nonprofits to pair the benefits of time and talent with treasure, i.e., the funds needed to help them increase their reach and impact. But building connections by first seeking employees time and talent can actually strengthen grant applications and unlock corporate fiscal support because theres already corporate buy-in.
5 ways to unlock corporate support
Here are five ideas to increase the likelihood that corporate philanthropies will collaborate with and fund your nonprofit.
1. Align with the corporate mission
Understand the funders giving priorities, funding cycles, and core values. Make sure you can answer these questions:
Does your nonprofit share a similar mission, vision, and strategic objectives?
What other nonprofits has the company previously supported?
Was the companys support in the form of time, talent, treasure, or some combination of these?
2. Make a connection
Introduce yourself to the corporate giving or philanthropy officer by sending a quick email or LinkedIn message. Share information about your organization and how it aligns with the companys philanthropic priorities and values. Include two potential ways you could collaborate, but do not send a proposal until you have had a chance to learn more about the company and are certain there is alignment.
3. Build partnership
Before asking for funding, establish a relationship with the company. One method with proven success is connecting through a project that allows the companys employees to identify with your nonprofits mission through volunteerism. The more you can communicate the importance of your organizations work to a potential corporate funders employees and engage them, the greater the opportunity for you to make the case for grant support or sponsorship.
4. Be clear, concise, cogent, and compelling
Be clear about the type of support you are seeking and be able to talk about the potential geographic and demographic reach of what youre proposing for support. Share your past accomplishments and proven impact, and be very clear about the societal challenge you are seeking to solve with the requested funding. Keep in mind that proposals that introduce new approaches to solving long-term problems are often favored.
5. Engage in storytelling
Describe what success will look like and explain how you will communicate that success to the world. Showcase the story you will tell about your nonprofits achievements and how your funder played a role in that success.
As we head into a sustained period of change, keep in mind that corporate philanthropies are looking to partner with organizations that address societal challenges and bring meaningful benefits to their local communities where they do business. When nonprofits bring partnership opportunities that demonstrate a deep sense of purpose and compelling vision, they can unlock a treasure chest of benefits.
Michelle Armstrong is president of the Ares Charitable Foundation.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Late for a meeting across town, you check a map app for the fastest route, toggle to the citys transit site for schedules, and work out options for traveling the last mile from the train station to your destination. You think through the logisticsmetro card, e-tickets, scanning app, method of paymentfor each leg of the trip. Then you open a ride-hailing app as backup.
MaaS: Cities slicker
Its a fragmented, frustrating experience, which has prompted an innovative response. Mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) integrates various modes of transportation into a single, seamless platformusually an app or website. In some cities its already a reality. Platforms like Jelbi in Berlin,or Floyain Brussels are prime examples of MaaS in action, and similar schemes have been established in cities as far apart as Sydney, Bangalore, Abu Dhabi, and Denver. By aggregating data across different transport services, MaaS apps offer users a unified platform to plan, book, and pay for travel while also providing cities and businesses with critical insights into mobility patterns. At their best, they give users greater flexibility, streamline costs, and mitigate traffic congestion and carbon emissions by reducing the need for car trips.
Theyre not without their challenges. One of the first MaaS apps, Helsinkis Whim, folded last year because of problems with its subscription model. MaaS adoption is often impeded by technical, operational, regulatory, and human challenges, too. These include issues around data integration and standardization, API and platform compatibility, competition between service providers, and poor user experiences coupled with slow shifts in user behavior. The direction of travel is clear, though: Urban mobility is getting an upgrade through innovations which prioritize seamlessness and enhance interoperability.
Journey to enlightenment
The potential of MaaS extends beyond convenience. The real power lies in the insights generated by millions of journeys. These insights are turbocharged by the application of AI to the underlying data, helping cities to optimize transit routes, reduce inefficiencies, and guide infrastructure investments. They also enable businesses to analyze commuting trends, predict workforce needs, and enhance sustainability efforts by measuring and managing their carbon footprints.
Over the past decade, integrated transit payment systems have encouraged the use of sustainable public transport worldwide by allowing commuters to seamlessly switch between buses, subways, and trains with a single payment method. That breakthrough in convenience helped drive multimodal transit adoption in cities from London to Tokyo. MaaS builds on that foundation, expanding the model through digital mobility wallets and app-based platforms that link public and private transportation in a fluid transit experience.
Through advanced data analytics and AI, for example, MaaS providers can forecast demand surges, adapt dynamic pricing in real-time, and facilitate predictive maintenance for public transportation fleets. By standardizing and sharing mobility data across operators, cities could reduce bottlenecks, enhance safety, and create more user-centric urban transportation policies.
Tokenization: A ticket to ride
Tokenization is a proven way to secure and streamline payments. It replaces sensitive payment card details with a unique, randomly generated codethe tokento protect the actual cardholder information during transactions.
This is what happens when you tap your phone to pay, for example. By assigning digital tokens to mobility services and transactions, MaaS platforms can create more secure, flexible, and interoperable experiences.
Tokenization could enable:
Seamless multi-modal payments: Users could store a universal mobility token in their digital wallet, allowing them to switch between transit options effortlessly.
Personalized mobility subscriptions: Employers and cities could offer customized MaaS packages tailored to individual commuting habits, reducing reliance on private vehicles.
Enhanced security and privacy: Tokenized transactions would minimize the need for sharing sensitive payment details across multiple platforms, addressing concerns around data protection.
If integrated effectively, tokenization could accelerate MaaS adoption by improving user trust, simplifying transactions, and unlocking new business models for transportation providers. No more juggling four apps just to get to workone token, one tap, every route.
The road ahead
The trajectory of MaaS adoption will be shaped by how well data is harnessedboth to enhance user experience and to drive public and private sector innovation. Advances in AI-driven analytics, new tokenization use cases, and real-time data sharing could unlock the full potential of MaaSmaking mobility smarter, more efficient, and more adaptable to future urban challenges.
By embracing the power of data and emerging technologies, MaaS could fulfill its potential as a transformative force in urban mobility.
Ken Moore is the chief innovation officer at Mastercard.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
There was a time when data centers were quietly built throughout the countryjust another utility necessary to meet the need of businesses and consumers. Today, theyre bigger and more power hungry, and thats drawing a new level of attention. So much so that, in a recent rezoning hearing attended by hundreds of residents, attendees expressed concerns about the proliferation of data and data centers.
Clearly, big data applications are driving the surge in the data center industrys expansion today. But we started to wonder how much wasted data is out there and if consumers understand how they connect to data centers. Are people paying (increasingly high) fees to store waste? Do they understand it all lives in a physical, powered location? As a company, we are dogged about zero waste. Were certainly not in the business of building virtual landfills.
Being curious, we set out to dig deeper, to understand how Americans see digital accumulation. Between January 21 and February 5, 2025, Compass Datacenters polled 1,005 Americans for their perspectives on digital accumulation. At the heart of the study was this question: Are we a nation of digital hoarders?
The results
We learned that few people connect the dots between the cloud and the physical infrastructure behind it. Nearly 60% of respondents claimed they use cloud storage, but only 23% recognized that as being a physical location.
While people said they do delete files on occasion, those occasions are few and far between. People are motivated to hit delete to keep their devices functioning; few exercise good digital hygiene as a matter of security. Respondents were quick to say theyre afraid of deleting something they might need later. One-third of respondents said the prospect of dealing with digital accumulation makes them feel overwhelmed, anxious, and stressedso much so that 60% said theyd rather wash dishes than clean out digital files.
Further, there is an out of sight, out of mind mentality when it comes to digital files. Its troubling to see younger generations buying their way out of practicing good digital hygiene. Nearly half (49%) of Gen Z and millennials polled say they pay for data storage. Of the Gen Z group:
48% pay $1-$20 each month
40% pay $20-$40 per month
11% pay $40-$60 monthly
Accounting for a 3% inflation rate, assuming a 25-year-old pays $20/month for data storage until the age of 85, they will spend $40,000 over their lifetime on digital storage.
Data retention in the workplace
This trend is not relegated to consumers. Studies indicate that less than 20% of large businesses have procedures for data retention or information governance.
Businesses can set the tone and be champions for better digital hygiene by prioritizing clear policies for data retention and digital storage and ensuring compliance for security and efficiency. Best practice in the business world is not unlike consumer guidance. You have to identify the types of data to retain, the file retention duration, and the appropriate storage methods. Discipline around stored data review can help identify which redundant or outdated information to eliminate, thereby reducing storage costs and minimizing digital clutter.
Additionally, leveraging encryption and secure access controls can protect sensitive data from unauthorized access and breaches. By adopting these best practices, companies can maintain a streamlined and secure digital environment supporting their operational needs and regulatory requirements.
The bottom line on digital waste
Digital waste is still waste. Just as a more orderly physical spaces fosters productivity and reduces stress, a more organized digital life can lead to greater efficiency and less anxiety. Taking small, consistent steps now to delete unused apps, unsubscribe from unnecessary emails, and regularly organize our files creates a more sustainable digital ecosystem.
We share other tips for creating disciplines about what to store and where, and how to integrate best practices into daily life at Delete Digital Dust Bunnies, a site highlighting this kind of Earth Day cleanup.
By recognizing the tangible impact of our digital lives and embracing the practice of digital decluttering, we can all contribute to a more sustainable digital future. Earth Day is a great time to swipe out the extraneous data and lighten the load, for us and for the future.
Chris Crosby is CEO of Compass Datacenters.
In April 2023, the New York State Board of Regents unanimously voted to prohibit mascots, team names, and logos with any connection to Indigenous peoples in public schools. This move was made to ratify a notice sent months before by the New York State Education Department to public schools to change any mascots depicting Native Americans that do not have explicit permission from local tribal leaders or face removal of school officers and the withholding of state aid.
Although dozens of schools began the process of changing mascots, school districts such as Massapequa stood fast. Eponymously named after the Massapequa tribe, the school district uses a chief mascot throughout the town and at Massapequa High School. The slogan Once a Chief, always a Chief can be often found on residents T-shirts and heard throughout the area.
In a letter sent by the Massapequa Board of Education to the New York State Board of Regents, the council stated that the mascot was more than a symbol to Massapequa, and stated that we in Massapequa will not sit idly by while an unelected group of officials tries to remove our history.
However, according to JP OHare, a spokesman for the state’s Education Department, the Massapequa school district did not make an attempt to ask permission from local Indigenous leaders. Disrespecting entire groups of people is wrong in any context, but especially in our schools, where all students should feel welcome and supported, OHare said in an interview with the New York Times.
Now, two years into the conflict, President Trump has added another wrench in the Board of Regents ruling. Taking to Truth Social on Monday, the president affirmed his support for the Massapequa Board of Education.
Forcing them to change the name, after all of these years, is ridiculous and, in actuality, an affront to our great Indian population, Trump said. By copy of this TRUTH, I am asking my highly capable Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, to fight for the people of Massapequa on this very important issue.
Federal funding at stake in broader DEI fight
So far, it is unclear what power McMahon may actually have to oppose state education law. Fast Company reached out to the Department of Education (DOE) for comment.
Nevertheless, attention like this from the Trump administration should not be taken lightly. Earlier this month, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from public schools that have enacted what the administration considered to be unfair diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
In response to the presidents comments, the Massapequa School Board released a statement thanking Trump for speaking out, local media reported. We are honored that President Trump has recognized our efforts and brought national attention to our cause. His support is a powerful affirmation of what were fighting for.
Fast Company was unable to reach the school board for further comment as its press mailbox was full and email requests bounced back. We also reached out to the New York State Education Department and the National Congress of American Indians. We will update this post if we hear back.
