In Apples new holiday ad, A Critter Carol, a group of woodland puppets frolic in a wintery forest to a wildlife-themed parody of the Flight of the Conchordss song Friends. Every element, from the puppets to the set and even the ads typography, was rendered using practical effects.
The ad was directed by TBWA\Media Arts Lab (MAL)a bespoke global agency that partners only with Appleand shot on an iPhone 17 Pro. It appears to be building on a larger marketing theme for Apple. Just this November, MAL worked with the company to create a new visual identity for Apple TV using real glass props and colorful lighting.
This kind of work stands out in a marketing landscape thats become saturated with CGI and AI-generated content. Coca-Cola, for example, has now released not one but two AI-generated holiday ads, both of which have been met with considerable backlash. As consumers are inundated with AI slop across their social media feeds, its becoming less and less common to encounter an ad that makes anyone stop and think, HuhI wonder how they made that?
Apples A Critter Carol signals that a new marker of quality in marketing will be the ability to show real evidence of the creative work that made it possiblenot just the final product.
A Tactile Process
For MAL, creating A Critter Carol was a tactile process from beginning to end. It started with conceptualizing the cast of raccoons, foxes, birds, bears, moles, rats, and others who populate the ads fantastical forest.
[Image: Apple + TBWA/Media Arts Lab]
Every animal on camera was designed and built by a dedicated team of artists. Each puppet needed to be both expressive enough for emotional close-ups and durable enough for manipulation by multiple puppeteers behind the scenes. That meant an intense focus on every possible detail.
[Image: Apple + TBWA/Media Arts Lab]
The puppets were constructed using a combination of internal armatures, foam bodies, synthetic furs, hand-painted surfaces, and carefully crafted glass or resin eyes. Internal mechanisms were added to give each character its unique personality. Before the shoot, a puppet stylist was on hand to tweak body shapes, fur, coloring, and allover shading to give the animals a lived-in look. The final result is a ragtag crew of friendly faces who look like theyve lived in the forest all their lives.
On top of handcrafting the puppets, MAL also made the forest setting using practical effects almost exclusively. The team created a tactile, miniature woodland world 3 feet off the ground that the puppeteers could physically inhabit beneath the set. Handmade trees, snow, and ground textures were built at a scale, allowing the puppets to interact naturally with their environment, while the set was configured in layers to help puppeteers navigate through it while remaining hidden.
In the end, digital effects were used only to remove the puppeteers when the shot couldnt conceal them, and to extend some backgrounds.
[Image: Apple + TBWA/Media Arts Lab]
As a final detail, even the typography that appears on-screen at the end of the ad was created by hand specifically for this project. Its called SFWood, and its a mishmash of various sizes and weights of Apples official font, SF Pro. The name SF Wood comes from the fact that this font was hand-printed using custom woodcuts, then scanned and touched up in post. Irregularities in the ink density and wood texture are preserved in the finished version.
[Image: Apple + TBWA/Media Arts Lab]
The entire ad is an ode to whats possible when artists commit their time and energy to a single project. It hits all the right emotional notes of the seasonnot because its purposefully tugging on viewers heartstrings, but because it feels so deeply human.
Why practical effects might get an AI-induced comeback
For ad agencies and film studios, theres no doubt that generative AI tools are poised to become integral elements of the creative process. But its possible that these shifts may also make practical effects more sought-after among viewers experiencing digital effect fatigue.
[Image: Apple + TBWA/Media Arts Lab]
Aside from Apples recent ads, other projects have also brought practical effects back into popular consciousness. In James Gunns Superman film released over the summer, the ice fortress was painstakingly built using real props rather than CGI. And the highly acclaimed 2024 film The Substance relied almost entirely on practical effects despite its surrealist concept.
As AI begins to make polished final products more easily attainable, it stands to reason that the gritty, hands-on, behind-the-scenes details of creation will become more valuable to viewers. Apple seems, at least on some level, to understand that growing interest in process. Alongside A Critter Carol, it also published a behind-the-scenes video that allows viewers to watch the puppeteers gearing up, production designers arranging the set, and actors cracking up onstage.
Puppeteers dressed like blueberries. Individually placed whiskers. An entire forest built 3 feet off the ground. And so much more, the videos caption reads. Take a look behind the scenes of our new holiday film to see how we handcrafted a cast of woodland puppets and brought them to life on iPhone 17 Pro.
There are plenty of downsides to AIs encroachment on the creative sphere, but one positive might just be that the value of the human touch becomes more clearand for advertisers, the behind-the-scenes process becomes part of the spectacle.
Ocean waves could be an enormous source of power for the grid: in the U.S., the motion of waves along coastlines could generate as much as 1.4 trillion kilowatt-hours a year, or around a third of the electricity that Americans currently use.
But wave power lags far behind other renewable energy. While solar and wind dominate new power installations worldwide, wave energy remains confined to small pilot projects. This makes sense: Its more expensive to build. And harsh ocean conditions make equipment vulnerable to damage in storms.
But in Morocco, one startup is pioneering new technology that could make wave energy more viable, with projects now moving forward at a port and a future data center.
Compared to other wave energy systems, the initial cost is reduced by 70%, says Oussama Nour, CEO and cofounder of the startup, called ATAREC. To help bring down the cost of installation, the company attaches its tech to existing infrastructure rather than building from scratch.
In its first pilot, at the Port of Tanger Meda massive port on the northern coast of Moroccothe startup installed one unit of its tech next to the ports breakwater, a wall built out into the water to shield the harbor from waves. The equipment uses a floating buoy that moves up and down with waves, converting the vertical motion into electricity that can be added to the grid. (Another wave energy startup, Eco Wave Power, also uses existing infrastructure to help lower its costs.)
While solar and wind power are intermittent, wave energy is more predictable and more consistently available. The exact amount varies by location, and changes throughout the day based on conditions like wind and tides. But in its pilot, the company found that its tech produces energy around 62% of the time. Solar power in the region produces energy around 18% of the time, Nour says.
We need to have a mix of wind, solar, and wave [energy], and also batteries, Nour says. By helping fill the gaps when wind and solar arent available, wave power has the potential to help the grid get closer to fully renewable in areas like the Moroccan coast.
The companys technology comes in a range of sizes, with the biggest unit capable of generating 750 kilowatts. At the port, if the technology is installed along the full breakwater, theres room for more than 100 units, which could fully power the port and industrial areas behind it.
A unique design helps make the system more resilient in storms. In bad weather, valves open and let water into the floating buoys so they sink underneath the surface, protecting them from damage. After the storm passes, the buoys rise back up. (For other wave energy tech, storm damage has been a major challenge.) Because the tech is installed next to breakwaters, it’s also easier to access for maintenance than systems that are built farther out in the ocean.
The company, which has raised around $2 million in seed funding so far, is now planning a larger pilot and working on lab tests of its newest system. Its also part of a Microsoft incubator that will later pilot the technology at a data center on the coast.
Since solar and wind have a much larger head startand can be used in more locationswave energy probably won’t end up taking away much market share from them. But it could be useful in certain niches. At a port or a coastal data center that wants to generate as much of its own electricity as possible, for example, solar panels would take up far more space than wave energy tech. Ports could also use the power to produce green hydrogen or ammonia or methanol to fuel ships. And while wave energy can’t provide grid power quite as steadily as geothermal, it also doesn’t involve expensive drilling deep underground, and it’s consistent enough to help make the overall grid more stable.
“I think there’s always going to be a role for different options we can put on the table for different places, for different usage, for different reasons,” says Alexander Dale, the director of global challenges for MIT Solve, a program that leverages MIT resources to help startups like Wave Beat grow. “Helping solutions that are able to fit into different market niches to startand then as they come down the cost curve, more of those niches become availableis good.”
Right now, the levelized cost of energy for Wave Beat’s tech is around 1.5 times more than wind and as much as three times more than solar. Still, Nour says that the cost can become competitive as the tech scales up. It’s already around three times cheaper to install than other wave energy tech, and about half the cost to run.
When Vlad Drguin founded his mid-century inspired toy car company, Candylab, in 2013, he had a Kickstarter page and a dream. His goal was to create wooden model cars inspired by hot rods and classic American car designs; toys that would be both durable enough for play and sleek enough for display. As it turns out, theres a major growing market for that kind of thingand Candylab just rebranded to capture it.
Since its founding, Candylab has secured retail placement in stores like Londons Design Museum, MoMa, the Guggenheim, Barnes & Noble, and the cult favorite apparel brand Kith. Its also notched major brand collabs including with Saint Laurent, Zara Kids, Criterion Collection, The New York Times, and, most recently, Netflixs Stranger Things.
[Photo: Courtesy of Candylab]
In recent years, Candylab has expanded its product offerings into two categories: one is its original line of premium, heftier cars, designed with collectibility in mind, and the second is a new line of smaller, less expensive, more lightweight cars engineered for play. Candylabs toys naturally fit into an increasingly bifurcated toy industry that, over the past few years, has begun targeting two different audiences: kids who want to play with toys, and adults who want to collect them (and maybe play a bit, too).
The companys issue, according to Johnny Selman, founder of the design agency Selman, was that Candylabs branding didnt draw a clear distinction between its core products, making it difficult for customers to understand its offerings. So, his team worked with Candylab to create a new logo, brand positioning, product names, and visual identity that streamline it for a future where toys are meant for every kind of customer.
[Photo: Courtesy of Candylab]
What’s a ‘kidult,’ anyway?
Candylabs products are a prime example of items beloved by a niche that some might refer to as the kidult segment, or an emerging consumer base of adults who are investing in toys of their own.
According to a 2024 Circana report, adults accounted for more toy sales than preschoolers, with 43% purchasing a toy for themselves in the previous year. Companies like Lego and Mattel have increasingly begun tapping into this trend with new, nostalgia-driven items specifically designed for an adult audience. John Paul Chirdon, a creative director at Selman, says Drguins goal has always been to make nice, design-forward toys for kidsand adults interest in the product naturally comes alongside that.
As an adult, you dont really punch down to make something attractive for kids, you just make something really good for kids, Chirdon says. Selmans challenge, then, was to design a brand architecture that was both really awesome for kids and really premium for adults.
[Photo: Courtesy of Candylab]
Designing a new brand for Candylab
When Selman began brainstorming a new brand identity for Candylab, the core problem quickly became clear. Because the company had been built piece-by-piece over time by a small team, it was overflowing with great retro imagery and branding concepts, but lacked a consistent overarching brand story. Across some of the packaging, Johnny says, his team found at least six different versions of the Candylab logo.
[Photo: Courtesy of Candylab]
Selman streamlined the broader branding using past iterations of the Candylab logowhich themselves pulled inspiration from chrome typography on vintage carsto create one retro-yet-legible wordmark that represents the company. From there, it also identified a core color palette for the brand and narrowed its font options to just one type family called Space Grotesk.
This simplification process opened the door for Selman to address the fact that, online, customers had trouble distinguishing between the brands more kid-centric line of cars (then called Candycars) and its more premium, adult-focused large cars (then called Midcentury Americana).
Online, that branding didn’t exist, Chirdon says. The Americana and Candycar lines weren’t visually distinguished from each other or the overarching Candylab brand, leaving consumers confused about the difference between all three. Ultimately, Chirdon adds, we were like, You’re one brandCandylab. Now let’s deal with just making all the products clear.
Looking ahead to new kinds of cars
To start, the team decided to fully rename the premium car line Mints, while the smaller cars are still called Candycars. Now, though, the two lines look entirely distinct on shelves and online.
Mints are universally displayed against an white background, both in packaging and digitally, to keep a cleaner look. Meanwhile, Candycars are packaged and edited onto colorful backgrounds in hues like pastel blue, tangerine, and teal. Mints and Candycars also have their own dedicated logos, each inspired by different eras of car typography.
What we tried to do was push that a little more whimsical for the Candycar line and then push it a little bit more classic grown-up with the Mints line, Johnny says.
[Photo: Courtesy of Candylab]
Candylabs new identity has already appeared online, and it will start rolling out on packaging as new cars debut over time. More importantly, Johnny and Chirdon say, this brand architecture means that Candylab can start introducing new product lines without confusing customerslike an accessory pack of toy roads called Roadworks and a fresh car design called Toons, both of which are part of Candylabs current fundraiser on Kickstarter.
We helped them create the platform to keep going with clarity, Chirdon says.
Three months ago, I fired up ChatGPT and asked it to design a highly aggressive, short-term investment portfolio, selecting five stocks that were most likely to make me fabulously wealthy in six months time.
Then, I threw good sense to the wind, transferred $500 of my actual money into a Robinhood account, and bought the stocks that ChatGPT had pitched.
Since then, its been a wild ride.
My portfolio has flown to new heights, giving me serious FOMO about the fact that I didnt put all my money into ChatGPTs picks.
Then, it singed its wings, falling Icarus-style to lows that had me almost ready to bail on the whole thing and redirect the charred remains of my money to the kind of boring stuff (car payments, dental work) that I probably should have used it for in the first place.
Were halfway through my six-month experiment. Lets dig deeper into how things have gone.
First, a disclaimer. Nothing here should be considered investment advice. As youll see, stocks picked by chatbots are incredibly volatile, and theres a solid chance I could lose most of my investment. Always consult a professional before making your own financial decisions.
A Crazy Strong Start
When I asked ChatGPT to pick a portfolio of five high-growth stocks back in September, it spent almost 10 minutes doing research before returning its picks.
The five it chose were Palantir, AppLovin, MicroStrategy, Agios Pharmaceuticals, and Hut 8.
The bot felt that Palantir and AppLovin had strong, AI-powered businesses that would continue to dominate their markets and grow.
Agios Pharma, the bot reported, was awaiting the results of an FDA trial for a new drug. If the trial was successful, ChatGPT felt its value would soar.
And finally, Hut 8 and MicroStrategy were essentially leveraged Bitcoin plays. Both companies held a lot of Bitcoins on their balance sheets, and so their valuations should swing along with the value of those coinsonly on steroids, because of the effects of leverage.
I hadnt heard of many of those companies. Still, I decided to blindly trust ChatGPTs advice and sink $500 into them, dividing the money evenly across ChatGPTs picks as it suggested.
At first, things went well enough. In the first three weeks of my experiment, my portfolio climbed by about 12%. That was promising.
Then, all of a sudden, things started going very well.
In October, my portfolio took off. Each morning when I opened the Robinhood app, I was greeted by a delightful swirl of green numbers, climbing ever higher.
By the beginning of November, my portfolio was worth $652a gain of almost 1/3 in just two months time. Extrapolating that out to the full year, my gains would have been 180%+ if the momentum continued.
And at the time, it wasnt just continuing. It was accelerating.
I started quietly wondering whether I had been too cautious with this experiment. Maybe I should have put $1,000 into ChatGPTs picks instead of $500. Maybe I should take out a second mortgage and put that money into the bots picks, too.
Or maybe I had discovered a whole new way of investing, and soon every quant fund would be knocking down my door, offering me a $900,000 per year salary (before bonus, of course) to teach them my Thomas Smith AI Stock Investing Method.
And an Equally Crazy Fall
Then, all of a sudden, everything went horribly wrong. Just as October had been a sea of green, November was nothing but blood-red numbers each time I fired up Robinhood.
By the 20th of the month, my portfolio had plummeted from its peak of $652 to only $451.
Thats a 30% decline in about 3 weeksa spectacular fall.
It was also the first time I was genuinely in the red, and had actually lost my own money (on paper, anyway) through my AI investing experiment.
And the losses seemed to be piling on, accelerating just as fast as the gains had done before. That was unsettling, and not something I relished explaining to my accountant at the end of next tax year.
I could imagine the conversation:
So Tom, you have a $500 loss attributed to Misc Investments here. Tell me about that.
Well, I asked ChatGPT to invest money for me, and then blindly followed its exact recommendations. And then I didnt cut my losses when it started going poorly, because I was afraid my readers would yell at me.
**long pause**
I see
How Will it All End?
As I write this in early December, my portfolio has stabilized a bit, and Im back in the black, with a total gain of $14.
Theres still three months left in my experiment, so its possible that my portfolio will rise from the ashes and fly again. But Lambo money is looking increasingly unlikely.
What went wrong? On a basic level, ChatGPTs picks were bad.
Bitcoins value has plummeted over the last few months, and the bots portfolio isby designvery exposed to Bitcoin.
ChatGPT also bet on Agios Pharma getting positive results from its clinical trials. In fact, those results were mixed. The stock duly dropped.
AppLovin was likewise doing great, until the SEC launched a probe into its data gathering practices.
Bad picks arent necessarily the real problem, though. Human investment managers mis-call the market or make bad picks all the time. Risk is part of investing.
The real issue is how confidently ChatGPT backed up its picks with bold, assertive language.
Overall, the portfolio aims for explosive upside rather than stability. Each stock has recent momentum o an upcoming catalyst, so this mix could significantly outperform if trends continue, the bot told me when it selected its portfolio.
The whole thing was tilted for maximal growth the bot assured me, bolded text and all.
About Agios, it said A positive FDA outcome or even renewed optimism could spark a significant rally, and about MicroStrategy it insisted Analysts project that a BTC surge to $150K could yield ~6570% stock gains.
Even its disclaimer (Actual outcomes depend on market moves but all are supported by the cited fundamental and market trends.) isnt really a disclaimer. The bot essentially interrupts itself mid-sentence to further reassure me that its making good choices, and invalidate any sense of caution it may have inadvertently introduced.
Chatbots overconfidence is a well-documented issue. In many cases, the certainty with which bots deliver their responses is annoying, but not damaging.
ChatGPT recently swore to one of my family members that Philadelphias 44 Bus doesnt run on weekends. It was Saturday. As it was telling her this, the bus passed by on the street outside.
That makes for a funny story about bots failability. But when chatbots are performing mission-critical functions related to our health and money, their baked-in overconfidence is way riskier.
I knew what I was getting myself into with my investing experiment. But a naive investor might not read a chatbots stock advice critically. Believing its confident language, they could lose serious money by trusting the bot too much.
As for me, Ive still got my $500 invested, for better or worse. Perhaps ChatGPT will ultimately prove prescient, and a late-stage Bitcoin rally will save my dreams of unbridled wealth.
Or, maybe the rest of my half-grand will evaporate. In another three months, Ill know!
Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issueseverything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.
Heres a roundup of answers to three questions from readers.
1. Ive fired my new employee before
I recently took a new job in my same industry and city. In my new role, Ill have a team of eight reporting to me in various capacities and functions. During the interview process, I got a brief read-out on the team and a high-level talent assessment. Nothing stood out as an issue. On my first day, I met the team reporting to me. One of the people on the team is someone who worked for me before and whom I terminated for cause because of performance at my previous company.
What do I communicate to my management team or HR about this situation? It feels weird to say nothing because ultimately this could be a management issueIm sure this employee doesnt feel great about the situation. On the other hand, I dont want to risk harming this persons reputation at this company if they are doing a good job so far. This person is pretty new here too, and my impression is they are either doing a better job in this role or management has not yet identified an issue with their performance.
Green responds:
Have you talked to the employee yet? Thats important because they are undoubtedly really uncomfortable, if not outright panicking. Ideally, youd tell them that youre happy to be working with them again, youve heard good things about the work theyve been doing (if thats true), and while you know your last time working together didnt go the way either of you wanted, this is a different situation and, as far youre concerned, both of you are starting fresh.
I do think youre right that you need to mention it to your management team or HR. Its unfortunate, because this person is entitled to a fresh start without the firing following them to a different job, but its relevant not as a predictor of the persons work now, but because it could affect the dynamic between the two of you, and either of you could struggle not to interpret things through that old lens. You can keep it very briefI managed Jane at a previous company, and unfortunately the fit wasnt right and we ended up parting ways. Im very willing to start fresh with her and Im hopeful the role shes in could be a great match, but I wanted to flag the prior work relationship. Also, if its been a while since you worked together, stress that, too.
2. Why do people respond to emails with a phone call?
Whats the etiquette on responding to people youve emailed who respond with a phone call? I understand there are times when a phone call is necessary. Ive been getting dozens of phone calls (after sending out a ton of emails on a certain work issue) and they all ask me to call them back. Im just frustrated because if I email someone, its because I dont want to talk on the phone. And the question is usually easily answered via email. Whats the best way to respond?
Green responds:
I get being annoyed, but its not always up to youand sometimes it makes sense.
Sometimes people will call you back because they thinkoften rightlythat itll be faster. They might not be sure about the meaning of your email and they want to clarify before responding, and figure theyll just jump on the phone rather than going back and forth. Or their answer might take a long time to write out but be easier to deliver over the phone. Or they just prefer the phone, just as you prefer email. And not everyone feels they communicate as well in writing as they do out loud.
For an email fan, this can be annoying. When you like email, it feels efficient and convenient and respectful of everyones time. Plus, sometimes its helpful to have a written record of what was discussed as a reference you can look back at later if needed. And if youre having an especially busy day or suspect a call will be 30 minutes when it should be five, it might be fine to let the call go to voicemail, and then email later with, Got your voicemail. Im in back-to-back meetings and will be hard to reach todayany chance email will work? Maybe it will, and theyll tell you if it wont. But save that for when you really need itbecause while you get to have your preferences, they get to have theirs, too.
3. Setting boundaries on requests for help from your significant others network
I am engaged to a wonderful person. We both work in the same field, though for different organizations. We are working to create healthy boundaries between our personal and professional lives and it is important to both of us that we are able to pursue careers independently.
My organization is bigger and engages in some grant-making activities. A coworker of my fiancés recently reached out to me for more information on how their organization could acquire funding. I directed her to publicly available resources, but she responded seeking a personal introduction to our grant officer. This made me uncomfortable; Im happy to connect anyone who asks to see public information, but it felt like she was leveraging my personal relationship to gain access. I know the importnce of networking and personal connections, but I have no professional relationship with this person and weve met only once in passing.
My fiancé and I discussed the need for a policy on how to deal with these kinds of inquiries as we see this being a recurring issue as we move forward in our careers. I would love advice on how to navigate these kinds of requests.
Green responds:
The way you handled it sounds just fine. When she asked for an introduction to the grant officer, you could have said, Oh, we get such a high volume of interest in funding that we ask all grant applicants to follow the process listed on our website. And if she still pushed: Im sorry I cant help. Were really rigorous about asking everyone to use the process on our website so that everyone is treated the same. Thanks for understanding!
In other words, not so different from how youd probably handle it if your fiancé werent in the picture. Explain what the person should do, and then reiterate that if necessary. Be warm and friendly, but hold firm on what you are and arent willing or able to do.
My answer would be different if the person had been requesting something different. If she were asking for something like an informal chat about moving into your fieldas opposed to this kind of special treatmentId encourage you to consider that, like you presumably would consider other similar requests that came through a mutual contact.
Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.
Alison Green
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Netflix’s decision to quietly remove the ability to cast content from its mobile apps to smart TVs and streaming devices has caused a bit of an uproar on social media. The complaints are the usual ones you see when a company removes a feature. Some blame greed. Some are upset their method of end-running subscription sharing has been shut down. Some just jump on the opportunity to complain about Netflix.
But frequent travelers could have a legitimate grievance about the company’s decision to largely end casting.
The change was enacted without warning and without fanfare in November, with some of the earliest complaints from users coming on Nov. 10. Netflix has since changed the help page on its Website to say it no longer supports casting shows from a mobile device to most TVs and TV-streaming devices.” It follows a 2019 decision by the company to remove support for Apple’s AirPlay feature.
Netflix says the casting feature was rarely used by subscribers. But many business and other frequent travelers have come to depend on casting to watch Netflix on hotel TVs instead of their phone’s screen.
The days of free HBO being a sufficient draw to attract travelers are long gone. Today’s hotel visitor wants to be able to connect to their streaming service of choice while they’re on the road. (Missing a screening of a movie you’ve seen before isn’t a big deal. Missing the new Stranger Things and risking spoilers for the rest of your trip can be.)
Hotels, meanwhile, encourage guests to use streaming services, as it puts the cost burden of entertainment programming on the traveler, helping the chain cut expenses.
There’s no universal way to watch streaming services in your hotel room. Some chains let you connect your laptop to your in-room TV, though you’ll need to remember to pack an extra HDMI cable to take advantage of this. Some offer apps directly on the television, letting you scan a QR code to verify the connection on your phone, then access your streaming service. Despite protections by those hotel chains (all login information is wiped at user checkout, something the hotels are contractually obligated to do by the streaming services), many people are still hesitant to link their personal accounts to a public television.
That leaves casting. Many hotels prefer this option, says Richard Leonarz, director of product management for Hospitality Television at Samsung, as it takes the responsibility of clearing user credentials off of their shoulders. (Once the guest and their phone are out of range of the TV, the casting ends.) Casting is also a strong preference for visitors to Airbnb and Vrbo destinations, as owners of those facilities often don’t wipe the credentials of previous guests.
International travelers also frequently prefer a casting option, as it lets them access services that might not be available in the U.S. or a built-in option on a hotel Smart TV.
That said, casting isn’t a perfect solution for hotel visitors. It requires the proper software to be installed on the in-room TV (usually Chromecast) and there needs to be a system in place to ensure a guest’s cast goes to their own TV, not one in the room next door.
Netflix, apparently, hasn’t completely done away with casting. Some older Chromecast devices and TVs that support Google Cast are still able to utilize the technology. That’s only available to subscribers who pay for an ad-free plan, though. Ad-supported plans are unable to cast no matter where they’re attempting to do so.
Several weeks ago, Mozilla Firefox dodged a bullet aimed at its business model — a potential court-ordered cutoff of the Google search-default payments that constitute its primary course of income. But that escape from one feared outcome of the U.S. search-antitrust case against the web giant doesnt change two other things: Firefox remains in an embattled position. That’s bad news for users. Without Firefox, web competition itself would be in a far more dire state. To address its longstanding competition problem, Mozilla’s developers are putting AI to work — albeit, in a less pushy manner than their competitors.
A conversation with Mozilla CEO Laura Chambers at Web Summit in Lisbon in November featured many such things-could-be-worse moments, starting with my question about the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia handing down a ruling in the antitrust case that allowed Google to keep paying browser developers to make its search engine their default. We spent a lot of time working on the case, and we wrote amicus briefs and worked with the judge, Chambers said. I think he really heard our perspective around the importance of keeping browser engines and browser competition safe.
Nine months earlier, Chambers had voiced serious concerns about the prospect of that revenue stream getting dammed. The 2023 annual report of Firefoxs nonprofit corporate parent, the latest available, shows that $495 million of its $653 million in total revenues and support that year came from royalties, meaning a certain percentage of revenues earned by its partners through their search engines incorporated in the Firefox web browser — in other words, Google.
The 230-page opinion by District Judge Amit Mehta opened up a little more latitude for browser developers by holding that Google could not pay for exclusive payment in every browser-usage scenario. But Mozilla has not rushed to explore possibilities created by that ruling, such as making a non-Google, privacy-optimized search site the default for private-browsing windows. We still have Google search as the default, but we continue to add different options, Chambers said. For example, Firefox recently added the AI search tool Perplexity to the menu of search sites available in its address bar.
AI, but for whom?
Mozillas rollout of in-browser AI tools, unlike those of competing browser developers, has not included preset defaults. Firefoxs AI sidebar introduces itself with a choice of AI chatbots, including the big three of OpenAIs ChatGPT, Googles Gemini, and Microsofts Copilot, along with Anthropics Claude and the less-obvious option of Paris-based Mistrals Le Chat.
Its upcoming AI Window, revealed the day I spoke to Chambers, doesnt have a preset default either, although Mozilla has not announced which AI services will be available through this waitlist-required option. I think there’s about 12% of the general population in the U.S., France, and Germany that don’t want to use AI, she said. My guess is it’s probably a little higher of Firefox users.
But she said Mozillas efforts to make AI an option to choose rather than a default to refuse have helped. We don’t jam it down their throats, she said. We do them all in a very privacy-preserving way. In particular, Firefox relies on on-device processing for such features as language translation and automatically organizing an overwhelming array of browser tabs.
Chambers also stressed that Mozilla wants to ensure that AI doesnt close off the open web. It’s incredibly important that people can still discover things, that they can verify, that they can explore around, she said. Yet, the AI Overview answers of its Google default seem to be discouraging that sort of exploration all too well.
As an organization, Mozilla has not leaned too hard into AI. Saying the code that we launch is all still written by people, Chambers added that Mozillas developers have found Anthropics Claude Code and other tools more useful for things like testing and for working through bugs and so forth.
Market share matters
Mozillas core problem, however, is not making new AI features easy to find its finding new users. The browser that singlehandedly destroyed Internet Explorers near-monopoly and then held a quarter of the desktop-browser market in 2011 now sits in fourth place, with under 4% of the market worldwide and in the United States, per Cloudflares statistics.
Chambers said that this tide is slowly turning in Europe thanks to the EUs Digital Markets Act, which requires companies designated as gatekeepers to take such extra steps to avoid favoring their own products as browser-choice screens in Android and iOS. Mozilla says its since seen a 149% jump in daily active mobile users in France and a 130% boost in Germany.
Chambers called the DMA a really great boost for us, saying people get to choose browsers, and then they’re choosing us. She described the desktop market as tougher, offering this overall assessment: Our market share is pretty steady, but we’re making some really good progress.
Whatever slice of the browser market Firefox holds also matters for web compatibility — its the only vaguely mass-market browser that doesnt use WebKit or the Blink engine inside Chrome and browsers written on its open-source Chromium software, such as rave and Vivaldi.
Developing and maintaining a web-rendering framework outside of that duopoly is no easy task, but Chambers called it incredibly important to do. In our earlier conversation, she emphasized that Mozilla owning its own engine gives it a seat at the table in web-standards discussions.
Business horizons
Mozilla has spent years struggling to develop lines of business beyond its Google search-default royalties, with iffy results it shut down its read-it-later Pocket service this summer. But it continues to sell an add-on VPN based on Mullvads service, which Chambers said will soon be integrated into the browser.
In June of 2024, Mozilla stepped into Googles lane by buying the ad-tech firm Anonym, which Chambers said does a better job of still providing high-quality advertising results while keeping information more private through such privacy-preserving techniques as differential privacy. She expressed some hope for an upcoming revision to the EUs e-privacy rules that could help this division better compete with the likes of Google.
But zooming out, much of Mozillas pitch does not involve features or options as much as it centers around what Firefox and the organization behind it are not. As people look around at the people that are shaping the future of the world and the web, a lot of them are billionaires, a lot of them don’t seem to be very aligned with values that they may hold, and I think they’re looking to different leaders, right? she said. They’re trying to find people that are fighting for a better internet, which we’re doing.
Chambers leaned on Star Wars in describing Mozillas work as a little bit of a new version of the Rebel Alliance, Chambers explained, calling this a return to the internets early days when open-source people banded together and they created really great alternatives.
Asked if Google or Microsoft would be the Empire in this analogy, she waved off the question. I think it’s the traditional big tech companies. Mozillas role? Jedis. Definitely Jedis.
Disclosure: I moderated three panels at Web Summit, in return for which the events organizers paid for my hotel and are reimbursing my airfare.
Reducing the visibility of polarizing content in social media feeds can measurably lower partisan animosity. To come up with this finding, my colleagues and I developed a method that let us alter the ranking of peoples feeds, previously something only the social media companies could do.
Re-ranking social media feeds to reduce exposure to posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity affected peoples emotions and their views of people with opposing political views.
Im a computer scientist who studies social computing, artificial intelligence, and the web. Because only social media platforms can modify their algorithms, we developed and released an open-source web tool that allowed us to re-rank the feeds of consenting participants on X, formerly Twitter, in real time.
Drawing on social science theory, we used a large language model to identify posts likely to polarize people, such as those advocating political violence or calling for the imprisonment of members of the opposing party. These posts were not removed; they were simply ranked lower, requiring users to scroll further to see them. This reduced the number of those posts users saw.
We ran this experiment for 10 days in the weeks before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. We found that reducing exposure to polarizing content measurably improved participants feelings toward people from the opposing party and reduced their negative emotions while scrolling their feed. Importantly, these effects were similar across political affiliations, suggesting that the intervention benefits users regardless of their political party.
This 60 Minutes segment covers how divisive social media posts get more traction than neutral posts.
Why it matters
A common misconception is that people must choose between two extremes: engagement-based algorithms or purely chronological feeds. In reality, there is a wide spectrum of intermediate approaches depending on what they are optimized to do.
Feed algorithms are typically optimized to capture your attention, and as a result, they have a significant impact on your attitudes, moods, and perceptions of others. For this reason, there is an urgent need for frameworks that enable independent researchers to test new approaches under realistic conditions.
Our work offers a path forward, showing how researchers can study and prototype alternative algorithms at scale, and it demonstrates that, thanks to large language models, platforms finally have the technical means to detect polarizing content that can affect their users democratic attitudes.
What other research is being done in this field
Testing the impact of alternative feed algorithms on live platforms is difficult, and such studies have only recently increased in number.
For instance, a recent collaboration between academics and Meta found that changing the algorithmic feed to a chronological one was not sufficient to show an impact on polarization. A related effort, the Prosocial Ranking Challenge led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, explores ranking alternatives across multiple platforms to promote beneficial social outcomes.
At the same time, the progress in large language model development enables richer ways to model how people think, feel, and interact with others. We are seeing growing interest in giving users more control, allowing people to decide what principles should guide what they see in their feedsfor example, the Alexandria library of pluralistic values and the Bonsai feed reranking system. Social media platforms, including Bluesky and X, are heading this way, as well.
Whats next
This study represents our first step toward designing algorithms that are aware of their potential social impact. Many questions remain open.
We plan to investigate the long-term effects of these interventions and test new ranking objectives to address other risks to online well-being, such as mental health and life satisfaction. Future work will explore how to balance multiple goals, such as cultural context, personal values, and user control, to create online spaces that better support healthy social and civic interaction.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Tiziano Piccardi is an assistant professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The next big meeting on your calendar might not have any other attendeesit might just be you. A growing number of high-performing leaders, including managers at Google and other Fortune 100 companies, are carving out protected focus blocks and treating them like mission-critical meetings.
With constant pings, shallow tasks, and back-to-back calls, this might be the only way to produce strategic, high-value work. Google and Microsoft have even rolled out Focus Time features that automatically block off calendars to protect deep work.
Paige Donahue is a product marketing leader at Google who helps YouTube creators grow their communities and monetize their followings. She says shes started using the Focus Time feature inside Google Calendar to carve out protected blocks for deep work. Before, my day was really just a stream of constant meetings, and I think a lot of people can relate to that, she says. It was meeting after meeting, ping after ping, and I was finding that I didnt have a lot of time to do the deep work thats really important to move things forward. Now, she notes, its much easier to see forward momentum. [The focus time feature] is really helping me get in the groove and tackle projects . . . instead of getting bogged down by endless meetings.
Deep work has become a job requirement
While the idea of deep work isnt new, the urgency around it is. Leaders can no longer treat focus as a luxury. In todays reactive workplace, carving out uninterrupted time for thinking and creating has become a core leadership responsibility.
And employees want this just as much as executives. According to a recent Twilio survey of over 1,200 UK workers, 47% said they prioritize distraction-free focus time, and 36% said theyd like their employers to formally schedule such quiet periods. This suggests that protecting focus isnt a personal quirkits a cultural shift waiting to happen.
But its all too easy to let your week get sucked up by shallow work, the work that may appear urgent (such as last-minute requests and fire drills) but rarely move you towards the end-of-year KPIs that determine your bonus and future promotion potential.
At Lifehack Method, where we coach executives and teams on productivity, we see this firsthand: when leaders skip focus time, teams flounder in shallow work. When they protect it, they model a culture of depth, clarity, and results. Every Friday, our clients practice a Weekly Planning ritual where they calendarize the entire week, ensuring strategic work has nonnegotiable slots before the week fills up with reactive tasks.
Forget time management, start managing your attention
The calendar is a useful tool, but the deeper shift is about what we choose to protect. As organizational psychologist Adam Grant points out, the old paradigm of time managementsqueezing as much as possible into the dayhas limits and can even be detrimental. The new frontier is attention management: the art of focusing on getting things done for the right reasons, in the right places, and at the right moments, as Grant defines it in a New York Times essay.
When we coach leaders in our programs, we encourage them to embrace this mindset shift. The question isnt How do I fit this in? but Does this deserve my attention? That pivot can mean the difference between a week lost in shallow work and a week that produces breakthrough outcomes. Use your deep work blocks to empty your mind of those pesky urgent tasks and give yourself the gift of diving into your most leveraged activities. These are often not even on your to-do list, thats how little attention they tend to get!
When a calendar block isnt enough, bring a buddy
Of course, protecting time on a calendar doesnt always mean using it well. Getting forward momentum is tough when youre facing procrastination and anxiety about how to start. Thats where accountability comes in. Enter virtual coworking, a rising trend that pairs you with a partner online to ensure you show up and do the work. Many of our clients here at Lifehack Method rely heavily on coworking sessions as a force multiplier to speed through otherwise procrastinated tasks.
Science backs this up. A 2024 study in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that real-time, subtle feedback during lapses of attention helped participants regain focus. The researchers concluded that it may be more effective to intervene during low-focus moments than to simply enforce long, uninterrupted blocks. For high-stakes or creative work, this suggests that lightweight accountability systemslike coworking sessions or structured check-inscan serve as the feedback nudges that keep people in the zone.
Virtual coworking platforms are seeing traction among enterprise employees. Taylor Jacobson is the Founder & CEO of Focusmate, the worlds No. 1 virtual coworking community. He shares that Fortune 500 Focusmate members currently average 31% more sessions than the average user, and 13% more time spent on the platform.
Donahue shares that at work, she uses both virtual and in-person coworking to ensure she says on task. I am a big fan of coworking. I feel that it adds a layer of accountability and its just nice to sit around the campfire with other people who are in it as well. Its a great way to do deep focused work almost like a sprint.
How to make focus time impactful
Protecting focus blocks isnt just about willpower. It requires communication and culture change. Leaders who succeed tend to:
Treat focus time like a sacred meeting. Dont reschedule unless its truly urgent.
Communicate clearly. Let your team know when youre offline for focus and when youll be available again.
Pair protection with accountability. Use tools like Focusmate, oras we do at Lifehack Methodstack focus time with rituals like our Winning the Week Method planning process, which makes deep work part of the weekly rhythm.
Model the behavior. When managers visibly protect focus, employees feel empowered to do the same.
Protect your focus to future-proof your job
As tools evolve and workplace demands intensify, the rarest resource is no longer money, ideas, talent, or even time. Its unbroken attention. Leaders who defend it will drive innovation; those who dont risk drowning in noise. Focus time is not indulgent. Its the only way to do the kind of workcompanies actually pay leaders to do.
I saw my first holiday-themed ad on TV before Halloween. I was startled, yet not surprised. Kind of a funny feeling, really.
Yes, the annual holiday shopping sprint is upon us. For years, the process has been defined by frantic comparison searches and endless product review scrolling. But this year, you can finally delegate the busywork to an army of digital assistants.
AI is no longer just a party trick: it’s a legitimate, price-savvy, personal shopping engine. Want to skip the agonizing research and focus on finding that perfect gift without blowing your budget? Here are four essential AI tools you should be using right now.
Gift Idea Generator
You need a thoughtful gift for someone whose interests are scattered or obscure. Traditional gift guides are useless here. Enter AI.
Feed your favorite generative AI tool a rich, conversational prompt: “My uncle is 70, retired, loves restoring classic cars, collects vintage vinyl, and just started learning Italian. What are three unique gifts under $150?”
The AI cross-references these details against a massive product database to suggest items youd never dream up on your own.
For brainstorming with conversational prompts, services like Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot, or Claude are perfect. If you want tools that link directly to purchasable products, check out dedicated gift AI tools such as Gift Genie or Giftruly.
Price Tracker
In the volatile holiday market, timing is everything. AI price-tracking tools eliminate the need for manual site refreshing and guesswork.
Flag a specific item or product category you want, and set a target price. The AI monitors thousands of product pages and vendor histories across the web, analyzing historical pricing data to determine if a “sale” is actually a good deal and alerts you the moment the item hits your desired price point.
You can use specialized browser extensions such as Camelcamelcamel for monitoring prices on large e-commerce sites, or utilize general AI search tools such as Google Shopping and Gemini to track price drops and historical pricing directly within search results.
Agentic “Just Buy It” Tools
This takes price tracking a step further. Agentic AI can do more than just find the deal; it can be instructed to execute the purchase for you.
Instead of merely entering a search query, issue a full command: “Find the best-rated stainless steel coffee maker with a thermal carafe under $100, and purchase it when a verified deal brings it under $85. Ship it to my home address.”
The AI agent, using your pre-approved payment and shipping details, actively monitors the market and, upon meeting your criteria, completes the entire checkout process – all without you lifting a finger.
Look for platform-specific agents like Gemini with Google Shopping or systems based on OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, which are authorized to perform actions such as completing a checkout.
Automated Review Summaries
Before you commit to a purchase, you need the full picture on quality and common defects. But nobody has time to read 2,000 product reviews filled with shipping complaints and single-sentence praise.
AI uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to consume all available customer feedback, from star ratings to lengthy complaints, and generates a concise summary.
It intelligently extracts and aggregates the key themes, such as “battery life is excellent,” or “setup is too complicated,” presenting a balanced overview in a few short paragraphs or bullet points. This allows you to vet a product in seconds rather than hours.
Many large online retailers, such as Amazon, now have built-in AI summary capabilities displayed above the customer review section. Alternatively, you can simply paste the text of a bunch of reviews into a chatbot such as ChatGPT and ask it to summarize the sentiment and list the pros and cons.
