When film cameras were invented, people didnt become filmmakers overnight. We pointed cameras at theater stages, digitizing what already existed. It took us a while to reimagine what film cameras could unlock. The real opportunity wasnt recording theater plays. It was stepping outside and inventing cinema.
Thats where many nonprofits are with AI today. Most still layer it on top of existing processes, not because they dont care about innovation, but because they lack both the frameworks to identify the right use cases and the capacity to act on them.
True innovation starts when organizations have the space, skills, and confidence to reimagine how impact itself is delivered in an AI-native way.
By AI-native, I mean rethinking how we solve problems with AI from the get-go, so impact becomes ultra-personalized, timely, scalable, and radically more effective. This is while humans focus on empathy, trust, and complex judgment. AI isnt just a tool. It becomes part of the social impacts operating system.
THE FUNDING GAP IS STRUCTURAL, NOT TECHNICAL
Fast Forwardthe U.S.-based organization focused on growing the tech and AI-powered nonprofit ecosystemrecently published data in their 2025 AI for Humanity report confirming that AI-powered nonprofits are emerging in the social sector. Nearly half of AI-powered nonprofits surveyed say adopting AI has already raised expenses, though. To unlock their full potential, 84% say additional funding is necessary to continue developing and scaling their work. The truth is that while the for-profit sector moves full-steam ahead on AI, nonprofits are at risk of being left behind the tech curve. Many are being asked to solve 21st-century problems with 20th-century tech, Kevin Barenblat, cofounder of Fast Forward told me. The good news is that this is a problem money can solve. There is already momentum among funders who are kickstarting AI in the nonprofit sectorGoogle.org, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and the folks behind Humanity AIbut we want to see more philanthropists investing in AI for good. It is our best chance at a future where AI improves our global well-being.
And the impact curve highlighted in the report is impressive:
At the smallest budgets (under $100,000), AI-powered nonprofits serve a median of just under 2,000 lives. By the time annual budgets cross $1 million, median reach jumps dramatically to half a million people. At $5 million and above, these organizations are reaching a median of seven million lives.
But funding alone wont close the gap. Nonprofits also need accessible, safe ways to start building, without six-figure budgets or advanced tech teams. Thats why Tech To The Rescue builttogether with Hugging Face, the worlds largest open-source AI communitya practical, free AI Open Source Q&A Guide. It helps nonprofits navigate more than two million open modelssafely, affordably, and without needing a data science team. Its a living, community-built resource that saves organizations time, money, and confusion by giving them clear frameworks for evaluating models, understanding licenses, and building responsibly. For many nonprofits, open models can reduce AI costs dramatically compared to commercial toolssometimes all the way to zero.
The next 1224 months will determine which organizations lead the AI-for-good era.
WHAT AI-NATIVE TRANSFORMATION LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE
Organizations breaking the scalability barrier arent just using AI. Theyre redesigning how mission delivery works.
Build once, deploy everywhere
Brazil-based Flying Labs built an AI platform for fire-damage assessment using drone and satellite imagery, and made it open source so it can scale globally. Supported by Lenovo hardware and training, the team processed high-resolution Sentinel-2 data to help Brazils Forest Foundation monitor over 50 protected areas in So Paulo. One build, infinite deployments, and compounding returns for the planet.
Capacity first, technology second
In India, Reap Benefit used Lenovos support under the umbrella of Tech To The Rescues accelerator to build internal AI capability first. Today, their youth-led civic platform has engaged over 120,000 participants and logged more than one million hyperlocal data points. They automate civic-action analysis and personalize programs without growing headcount. They didnt buy tools, they built muscle.
Automate education
For UK-based Reboot the Future, AI reduced resource-classification time from about 2 hours to 5 minutes for a content library serving 22,000 teachers, freeing the team to scale impact. Automation didnt replace educators; it freed their time to focus on more fundamental issues.
These breakthroughs werent only about the tools. They were about readinessinfrastructure, expertise, and strategic design.
5 FUNDING SHIFTS TO UNLOCK THE AI MULTIPLIER
Across our work at Tech To The Rescue, five shifts emerge as the difference between pilots and transformation:
1) Fund people and process, not just pilots
Support technical talentengineers, data staff, product leadsand board-level AI literacy. Fast Forward found that 41% of AI-powered nonprofits surveyed cite lack of in-house expertise as a major barrier when adopting AI.
2) Reward responsible experimentation, early
Fund ethical AI testing before outcomes are perfect. For organizations that are just getting started, Fast Forward recommends developing an AI policy to guide usage. They made creating a policy easy with their free AI policy builder for nonprofits.
3) Make governance a first-mile investment
AI strategy is organizational strategy. Fund leadership capacity before scale, not after.
4) Fund the prototype stage
Unrestricted capital unlocks data infrastructure and experimentation. Lean innovators often build the future, if given room.
5) Pay for shared infrastructure, not parallel efforts
Forty-three percent of AI-powered nonprofits surveyedby Fast Forward already use open-source tools. Fund shared layers where one build benefits many.
PHILANTHROPYS MAKE-OR-BREAK MOMENT
The issues we care aboutfrom global health to climate resiliencewont wait while we digitize analog models. Tools follow capacity, not the other way around. Thats the shift philanthropy must make. Closing this gap isnt optional. Its philanthropys hidden multiplier for millions of lives.
Jacek Siadkowski is cofounder and CEO of Tech To The Rescue.
In April 2000, Elsevier published an article in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, which claimed that the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) from the Monsanto Company didnt pose a risk of cancer or other health issues for humans.
Twenty-five years later, the publisher has retracted that paper, citing litigation that revealed it was based solely on unpublished studies by Monsanto itself.
Furthermore, Elsevier states that the article (titled Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans) appears to have been co-written with Monsanto employees, despite no explicit accreditation.
Monsanto might have also compensated the articles authors: Gary M. Williams, Robert Kroes, and Ian C. Munro, the article states.
“Significant impact on regulatory decision-making”
Its impossible to overstate the influence this article had over the more than two decades since it was published.
The paper had a significant impact on regulatory decision-making regarding glyphosate and Roundup for decades,” Martin van den Berg, the journal’s co-editor-in-chief, writes in the retraction notice.
Van den Berg adds that the lack of clarity regarding which parts of the article were authored by Monsanto employees creates uncertainty about the integrity of the conclusions drawn.”
“Specifically, the article asserts the absence of carcinogenicity associated with glyphosate or its technical formulation, Roundup,” Van den Berg wrote. “It is unclear how much of the conclusions of the authors were influenced by external contributions of Monsanto without proper acknowledgments.
According to Elseviers metrics, the article has been cited 779 times, including 66 policy citations.
Revelations widely covered in 2017
While Van den Berg has just now taken action to retract the paper, the litigation he cites dates back to 2017. The revelations were widely covered at the time, yet the landmark paper remained untouched.
This decision has been made after careful consideration of the COPE [Committee on Publication Ethics] guidelines and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the authorship and content of this article and in light of no response having been provided to address the findings, Van den Berg states as an explanation.
Van den Berg reached out to Williams, the sole living author, for an explanation but received no response.
In recent years, Monsanto has paid billions of dollars across numerous lawsuits alleging that Roundup causes cancer. Bayer, the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant, acquired Monsanto in 2018 and retired the brands namewhich had become a liability.
Fast Company has reached out to Williams and Bayer for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has continued to state that glyphosate is unlikely to be a human carcinogen, based on study reviews.
This week, the Trump administration pushed the U.S. Supreme Court to curb lawsuits against Bayer that allege Roundup causes cancers.
Shares of Bayer AG (ETR: BAYN) jumped more than 12% in response to the Trump administrations brief.
The Federal Reserves preferred measure of inflation changed little in September, likely easing the way to a widely expected interest rate cut by the central bank next week.
Prices rose 0.3% in September from August, the Commerce Department said Friday, in a report that was delayed five weeks by the government shutdown. It matched the increase recorded during the previous month. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.2% in September from August, the same as August, and a pace that if it continued for a year would bring inflation closer to the Feds 2% target.
Compared with a year ago, overall prices rose 2.8%, up slightly from 2.7% in August. Core prices also rose 2.8% from a year earlier, a small decline from the previous months figure of 2.9%.
The data indicate that core inflation was muted in September and will bolster the case for a cut to the Feds key interest rate at its next meeting Dec. 9-10. Inflation remains above the central banks 2% target, partly because of President Donald Trumps tariffs, but many Fed officials argue that weak hiring, modest economic growth, and slowing wage gains will steadily reduce price gains in the coming months.
At the same time, there were some warning signs in the figures. Omair Sharif, chief economist at Inflation Insights, said that Friday’s report overall will likely reassure the Fed that core inflation is mostly cool. But he noted that a measure of services inflation in the report remains elevated and could raise concerns among some Fed policymakers, since the higher figure doesn’t stem from tariffs, but instead broader inflationary pressures.
It hasnt really shown any sign of slowing down, Sharif said. That has to be concerning for them.
The Fed is facing a tricky decision next week: It would typically keep rates high to fight inflation. At the same time, it is worried about weak hiring and a slowly rising unemployment rate. It hopes that reducing rates will spur more borrowing and boost the economy.
Fridays report also showed that consumer spending grew, though at a slower monthly pace in September than the previous month, suggesting Americans were willing to spend despite high prices and stagnant hiring. Spending rose 0.3% in September, down from 0.5% in August.
More recently, Americans appeared to step up their spending on Black Friday and the weekend after Thanksgiving, which could boost growth in this years fourth quarter. Online spending jumped 7.7% during the five days after Thanksgiving, compared to the same period last year, according to Adobe Analytics.
Incomes, meanwhile, rose at a solid 0.4% in September for the second straight month.
The economy is sending unusually mixed signals, as growth appears solid even as the unemployment rate has ticked up to a four-year high of 4.4%. Home sales are moribund and factories have been cutting jobs, yet a boom in investment in artificial intelligence data centers has boosted the broader economy.
But on Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said that businesses shed 32,000 jobs in November, a sign that companies are starting to lay off workers. Should job cuts continue, consumers would likely rapidly dial back their shopping, weakening the economy.
The government will issue its own jobs report for November on December 16, which for now is forecast to show a small gain, according to data provider FactSet.
Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
The Trump administration will be expanding its ban on travel for citizens of certain countries to more than 30, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, in the latest restriction to come since a man from Afghanistan was accused of shooting two National Guard members.
The expansion would build on a travel ban already announced in June by the Republican administration, which barred travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 countries and restricted access to the U.S. for people from seven others. In a social media post earlier this week, Noem had suggested more countries would be included.
Noem, who spoke late Thursday in an interview with Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham, would not provide further details, saying President Donald Trump was considering which countries would be included.
In the wake of the National Guard shooting, the administration already ratcheted up restrictions on the 19 countries included in the initial travel ban, which include Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Haiti, among others.
Ingraham asked Noem whether the travel ban was expanding to 32 countries and asked which countries would be added to the 19 announced earlier this year.
I won’t be specific on the number, but it’s over 30. And the president is continuing to evaluate countries, Noem said.
If they don’t have a stable government there, if they don’t have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States? Noem said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment about when an updated travel ban might go into effect and which countries would be included in it.
Additions to the June travel ban are the latest in what has been a rapidly unfolding series of immigration actions since the shooting Thanksgiving week of two National Guard troops in Washington.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who emigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, has been charged with first-degree murder after one of the two victims, West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, died of wounds sustained in the Nov. 26 shooting. The second victim, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was critically wounded. Lakanwal has pleaded not guilty.
The Trump administration has argued that more vetting is needed to make sure people entering or already in the U.S. aren’t a threat. Critics say the administration is traumatizing people who’ve already gone through extensive vetting to get to the U.S. and say the new measures amount to collective punishment.
Over the course of a little more than a week, the administration has halted asylum decisions, paused processing of immigration-related benefits for people in the U.S. from the 19 travel ban countries and halted visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort.
On Thursday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it was reducing the time period that work permits are valid for certain applicants such as refugees and people with asylum so they have to reapply more often and go through vetting more frequently.
Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
The U.S. stock market is flirting with its all-time high on Friday.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and was on track earlier in the day to squeak past its record closing level, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 69 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:29 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.
If the S&P 500 finishes the day at a record, it would mark the latest time the U.S. stock market has powered past what appeared to be a debilitating set of worries. Most recently, those concerns centered on what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates, whether too many dollars are flowing into artificial-intelligence technology, and if sharp drops for cryptocurrencies would bleed over into other markets.
Renewed hopes for a cut to interest rates by the Fed at its meeting next week helped stocks recover those losses, which included some of their worst days since their sell-off during April. So did a continuing parade of companies saying they’re making bigger profits than analysts had expected.
Ulta Beauty helped lead the market on Friday and jumped 13.2% after the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. CEO Kecia Steelman said its customers are broadly feeling pressure, but Ulta saw growth across its categories, particularly in e-commerce. It raised its forecast for revenue over the full year.
Another encouraging signal for the holiday shopping season came from Victorias Secret & Co. It delivered a milder loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it likewise raised its forecast for sales over the full year. Its stock rallied 11.5%.
Warner Bros. Discovery was also strong and rose 2.3%. Netflix said it would buy Warner Bros. for $72 billion in cash and stock following its pending split from Discovery Global.
The deal for the company behind HBO Max, Casablanca and Harry Potter is not a sure thing, though. It could raise fears at the U.S. government about too much industry power residing at Netflix. Shares of Netflix initially fell more than 5% after the deal was announced, then briefly erased all of the loss before falling again, by 3.2%.
Paramount Skydance, which earlier had been seen as a front-runner to buy Warner Bros., fell 7.6%.
Also on the losing end of Wall Street was SoFi Technologies. The financial technology company fell 7.2% to $27.73 after saying it would add $1.5 billion worth of its stock into the market in order to raise cash. It’s selling the stock at a price of $27.50 per share.
The U.S. stock market broadly has been much quieter this week, a respite following earlier weeks of sharp and scary swings.
After some back and forth, the widespread expectation among traders is that the Fed will cut its main interest rate next week in hopes of shoring up the slowing U.S. job market. If it does, that would be the third cut of the year.
Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can juice the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which is stubbornly remaining above the Feds 2% target.
Economic reports released on Friday did little to change expectations for a coming cut. One said that an underlying measure of inflation that the Fed prefers to use was at 2.8% in September, exactly as economists expected.
A separate report said U.S. consumers appear to be downgrading their expectations for inflation coming in the near future. They’re now forecasting 4.1% inflation for the year ahead, down from their forecast of 4.5% last month, according to the University of Michigan.
That’s the lowest such reading since January, which is important because heightened expectations for inflation can create a vicious cycle that only worsens inflation.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.13% from 4.11% late Thursday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across much of Europe and rose in Asia Friday.
Germanys DAX returned 0.6%, and South Koreas Kospi jumped 1.8% for two of the worlds bigger gains.
Tokyos Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% after data showed household spending in Japan fell 3.0% in October from a year earlier. It was the sharpest drop since January 2024. Japanese markets have been shaky recently after the Bank of Japan hinted that hikes to interest rates may be coming.
By Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Writer Teresa Cerojano contributed.
It is a relatively rare phenomenon: While the stock market continues to experience record gains (the S&P 500 is up over 16% this year), Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to struggle, making it the first time the crypto and stock markets have split since 2014, Bloomberg reported.
That split, with Bitcoin down while stock markets soar, is somewhat unusual. On midday Friday, at the time of this writing, the digital cryptocurrency (BTC) was trading down over 4%, hovering around $88,945far below its record high of over $125,000, but still above a recent low of $85,000 (down almost 30% from the high).
Here’s what to know.
Why is the split between crypto markets and stock markets unusual?
While Bitcoin is known for its volatility, historically, the digital currency and stocks have traditionally risen and fallen together.
So, why has there been a crypto sell off? What is contributing to the drop in investor confidence?
Some of what boosted confidence in the coin was the Trump administration’s early embrace of crypto, ushering in crypto-friendly regulations.
However, as Fast Company has previously reported, a few different micro and macroeconomic factors have started to spook investors, who are pulling back from the more volatile digital currency.
These factors include higher inflation; shifting interest rates; a dampening enthusiasm for AI-related stocks over fears of an AI bubble; and growing concerns over the widening gap between low-income and wealthy Americans, in what is shaping up to be a “K-shaped economy.”
Remind me, what exactly is Bitcoin, anyway?
Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. Unlike a standard currencysuch as the U.S. dollar or the European Union euroit only exists in digital form and operates without government or banking oversight, traded peer-to-peer, making it harder to trace. Instead, Bitcoin uses a decentralized blockchain ledger to verify and securely record transactions.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed a $7.1 million fine on a New York-based property management firm Thursday, accusing it of violating sanctions by managing luxury real estate properties for oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control said Gracetown Inc. had received 24 payments between April 2018 and May 2020 totaling $31,250 on behalf of a company owned by Deripaska. OFAC says it gave Gracetown notice that dealings with Deripaska were prohibited, but the firm proceeded anyway.
Justice Department filings from 2022 connect Gracetown Inc. with U.K. businessman Graham Bonham-Carter, who was arrested in October 2022 for conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska as well as for wire fraud connected to funding Deripaskas U.S. properties and efforts to expatriate the oligarchs artwork to New York.
A lawyer who has represented Deripaska previously didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Gracetown couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Deripaska has faced economic sanctions since 2018, when the Treasury Department accused him of acting for or on behalf of a senior Russian official and operating in the energy sector of the Russian economy. All of his assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction were blocked, and U.S. people and firms are prohibited from dealings related to Deripaska, his properties and his interest in properties.
Deripaska sued The Associated Press in 2017 over a story that March about his business dealings with Paul Manafort, a former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump. Deripaska said the AP article was inaccurate and hurt his career by falsely accusing him of criminal activity. A federal judge dismissed the defamation and libel lawsuit that October.
In 2022, Deripaska and three associates were criminally charged in New York with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and plotting to ensure his child was born in the United States.
Treasury says its Thursday enforcement action against Gracetown highlights the importance of following OFAC-issued guidance and the significant consequences that can occur from failing to do so.
John K. Hurley, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial Intelligence, said “we will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who enable sanctioned actors.
Gracetown was established in 2006 to manage three luxury real estate properties in New York and Washington, D.C., that Deripaska acquired around the same time through various legal entities.
Fatima Hussein, Associated Press
Its been less than two months since President Trump began his demolition of the White Houses East Wing to make room for his big, beautiful White House Ballroom, and the President is already parting ways with the original architect behind the project.
On December 4, a White House spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post that the original ballroom architect, McCrery Architects, has been traded in favor of the firm Shalom Baranes Associates. The swap comes after multiple reports that Trump and Jim McCrery, CEO of McCrery Architects, clashed repeatedly over the size and scope of the new ballroom.
A screenshot of Shalom Baranes Associates portfolio site. [Screenshot: sbaranes.com]
The construction of a giant ballroom is only one part of Trumps plan to remake the White House in his image. Over the past several months, hes updated the buildings interiors with his own Rococo-inspired aesthetics, overhauled the Oval Office into a gold-laden spectacle, and turned the Rose Garden patio into a Mar-a-Lago lookalike.
Still, his plans to tear down the White Houses East Wing to build a $250 million, 90,000-square-foot ballrooma process thats already underwayis by far his most extreme renovation. And now, it seems hes opting for a new architect whos more willing to bend to his personal vision for the project.
Heres everything you need to know about the shake-up, in a handy timeline:
July 31
Late this summer, the Trump administration officially announced its plans to construct a White House ballroom. At the time, the administration named McCrery Architects as the team heading up the project.
McCrery himself has been a vocal supporter of President Trumps push to make classical architecture a federal standard, once stating, Americans love classical architecture because it is our nations formative architecture and we love our nations formation. His firm is most known for designing Catholic churches and academic buildings.
[Rendering: whitehouse.gov/McCrery Architects]
October 20
In October, the Trump administration began tearing down major sections of the East Wing to make way for the massive ballroom. The move came despite both Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitts earlier assurances that the project would not interfere with the existing structure.
November 26
The Washington Post was the first to report tensions between McCrery and Trump. According to the publication, four people close to the project reported that McCrery repeatedly advised Trump to bring down the proposed size of the ballroom, pointing out that a 90,000-square-foot addition would overshadow the original White House.
In a later report from The New York Times, further details about the disagreement emerged. Several sources told the publication that Trumps plans for the ballrooms size have grown dramatically since the plan was first proposed. In addition, Trump reportedly told people working on the ballroom that they did not need to follow permitting, zoning, or code requirements, and encouraged contractors to work quickly to meet the tight timetable of completion before 2029.
It appears that McCrery may have always been doomed to exit the project at some point. One source told The Post that the small size of his workforce made it difficult to meet such intense deadlines. On top of that, McCrery Architects’ relative inexperience with a project of such massive scale and inherent public scrutiny likely set the stage for problems down the line.
Construction continues on the White House grounds in Washington, D.C., in late October 2025. [Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images]
December 4
Trumps split with McCrery Architects was officially confirmed to The Washington Post via a statement from White House spokesperson Davis Ingle, who named Shalom Baranes as the next in line to head up the project. Per The Post, McCrery will remain tied to the effort on a consulting basis.
Baranes, who runs the firm Shalom Baranes Associates, is most known for leading a $1 billion renovation of the Pentagon back in 2001, though his firm has worked on other large-scale projects throughout D.C. Unlike McCrery, hes embraced a neo-traditionalist style. Back in 2017, he subtly spoke out against Trumpsimmigration ban in an op-ed for The Washington Post, wherein he described himself as a refugee and argued that his own success would be impossible without his fellow immigrants.
My hope is that the Trump administration will take actions to ensure that the travel ban is indeed temporary, so that good, hard-working individuals fleeing tyranny can find a new home as I didand that each of them will be given the same opportunity to help build this great nation that I had, Baranes wrote at the time.
The year is quickly coming to an end, and that means tech platforms are tripping over themselves to roll out their year-end recapsall hoping to capture the virality that Spotifys Wrapped year-in-review recap commands each year.
Already in December, weve seen Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, Amazon Music Delivered, and YouTube Recap, with more, like the popular Snapchat Recap, set to debut in the coming weeks. One of those debuts has occurred today, as well. Popular chat platform Discord has now released its personalized Wrapped-like recap: Discord Checkpoint. Heres what to know about it and how to view yours.
Discord announced Discord Checkpoint 2025
Discord has announced that its personalized Discord Checkpoint recap will be rolling out to its users over the next few days. In previous years, Discord has announced a Checkpoint recap, but the start it released for it encompassed its global user base.
Discord Checkpoint 2025 is the first time the platform is offering a year-in-review personalized for each of its individual users, provided they were active on the service enough to generate a Checkpoint recap, and that their privacy settings allowed the use of their data.
What’s included in my Discord Checkpoint 2025?
[Art: Discord]
There are two main components of your Discord Checkpoint 2025. The first is a recap of your usage and interactions on the platform.
Heres some of what your Discord Checkpoint 2025 will show you:
How many messages you sent
How many minutes in voice chat you spent
How many emojis you posted
What other Discord users you spent the most time with
The servers you used the most
But Discord 2025 Checkpoint will also display one of 10 Checkpoint cards. These cards represent 10 different types of Discord users. Your card will come with a matching avatar you can choose to display on your profile so other Discord users can see if youre in the same group.
How can I access my Discord Checkpoint 2025?
To access your Discord Checkpoint 2025, make sure you have the latest version of the desktop or mobile app.
If you are using the desktop app:
Click the flag option in the top-right corner. Your Checkpoint will be displayed.
If you are using the mobile app:
Tap the You tab in the bottom-right corner.
Tap the Checkpoint banner. Your Checkpoint will be displayed.
Can I share my Discord Checkpoint 2025?
Yes, users can choose to share their Discord Checkpoint 2025.
To share your Discrod Checkpoint, tap the Share button on the Summary page and then choose where youd like to share it.
Discord Checkpoint 2025 will be available to Discord users until January 15, 2026.
Being tired is practically a personality trait in corporate Americaespecially in 2025. Everybody is exhausted, it seems. Folks are doing fiftyleven jobs. Youre always juggling tasks, always late for the next meeting because the last one ran long. But when youre one of the few Black employees at the gig, theres a subconscious fear of looking like youre in over your head, especially with the looming fear of layoffs. So you push through, even when youre running on fumes. You go harder, telling yourself youll rest once you get through the busy patch. But thats a lie. The job is a perpetual busy patch.For months, I kept telling myself I was just tired. Regular tired. The kind of tired you fix with a good nights sleep and maybe a WFH power nap between meetings. But one random Tuesday, as I stared blankly at my laptop trying to decipher a three-sentence Slack message like it was hieroglyphics, it hit me: This wasnt normal fatigue. My mind was cooked.
The exhaustion hit back in the spring, but it was nothing like the dramatics you see in movies. There were no panic attacks in the bathroom or conference room crashouts on Kyle. It showed up subtly, in little ways that I dismissed. Id reread emails multiple times because the words refused to connect in my mind. I had the attention span of a goldfish. Id get irrationally annoyed by people asking me perfectly reasonable questions. I was just . . . over it. I chalked it up to adulting, the natural byproduct of ambition and bills. This too shall pass, I thought.The breaking point wasnt cinematic. I was in a brainstorming session when I realized my mind felt blank. I managed to offer a few contributions to the meeting, but they were all cliché rehashes, none of the outside-of-the-box ideas Id usually bring to the table. I felt like Charles Barkley in Space Jam after the Monstars stole the NBA players skillslike a whole scrub.
Shortly after, I took a week off. Booked a trip. But a change of scenery didnt fix anything. I came back just as fried, which was more depressing. I tried damn-near all of the things Solange sings about in Cranes in the Sky. Then I realized I required a factory reset.
I began to make some real changes to improve my work-life balance. It wasnt just that I needed time away from the office; I needed better boundaries and mental-health maintenance. I began closing my laptop at a designated time, and keeping it closed until it was time to clock in the next day. I blocked off meeting-free focus time during workdays. I got a biweekly gym routine going. I stopped thinking of myself as a machine that could operate nonstop.
Somewhere along my come up, I had convinced myself that I needed to treat my job like I was back in college. In those undergrad days, I felt the need to pile on electives and explore diverse fields of study. I wanted to be well-rounded and sure of my career path. But once I was in the workplace, it became about being marketable. I took on fringe projects outside of my job description to open myself up to new opportunities and, ideally, more moola. The game plan served me well until it didnt.
Ive been taking it easy since then. I have nothing to prove to anyone else, or to myself. So I stay in my lane. I delegate more. I turn down things that arent my responsibility. Ive unlearned the foolish idea that rest is a reward, something I had to earn by pushing myself to the brink. Doing the most is a thing of the past.
It took burning out for me to learn a simple truth: Nothing at work is worth losing yourself over. Not the project, not the promotion, not the pat on the back. Protect your energy like its finite, because it is. If youre feeling the kind of tiredness that sleep cant fix, follow the sage guidance of Ice Cube: Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
