Meetings are breeding grounds for three highly toxic power moves:
AMPLIFICATION: The boss speaks, and suddenly its gospel. People start self-censoring, sugarcoating bad news, and swallowing their dissenting opinions.
INCOMPETENCE: When a leader cant run a meeting, it drains the rooms energy. People leave annoyed and wondering why they bothered to show up.
JERK BEHAVIOR: Bullies, interrupters, and blowhards hijack the room. Collaboration isnt just stifledits publicly executed.
These power moves reduce meetings to lifeless, performative rituals where the people who hold the most power call the shots and everyone else plays defense.
But it doesnt have to be this way. Design your meetings to defang these power moves, and youll create a space where people speak up, push back, and bring bolder and better ideas to the table.
Amplification: When Power Overpowers
Jade Rubick, former VP of engineering at New Relic, remembers the exact moment he became brilliant. It wasnt because of a sudden surge in IQ or creativity. It was his promotion to senior director, accompanied by a glowing speech in front of his peers.
Overnight, everything changed. In meetings, people went out of their way to praise his ideas. Person after person would go out of their way to say why my suggestion was the right approach, Rubick recalls. All of a sudden, my ideas were BRILLIANTAll of a sudden, I was a different person, a Very Important Person.
What Rubick experienced was a classic case of what Professor Adam Galinsky calls amplification: the invisible megaphone leaders inherit when they step into a position of power. A passing comment becomes a marching order. An offhand suggestion rockets to the top of the teams priority list. A poorly timed yawn during your presentation plunges you into a spiral of self-doubt: They hate this. They hate me. Instead of focusing on the work, people start decoding every glance, sigh, or eyebrow twitch as part of a high-stakes game of corporate charades.
When amplification takes over meetings, people start filtering their ideas or stop sharing them altogether. They nod along like bobble-heads and, before long, the room turns into an echo chamberparrots squawking back the leaders words instead of expressing their own. Heres how you can address it.
1. Dial down the talking
Research shows that high-performing teams share airtime more equally. In a perfect world, leaders would recognize that and adjust accordingly. But self-awareness isnt always their strong suit. And the more power they hold, the less likely anyone is to tell them theyre hogging the mic.
If youre dealing with a leader who cant stop steamrolling the room, there are ways to take back the room. At one organization, team members came up with a creative solution: a miniature stuffed horse. If someone is too long-winded, anyone can toss the horse in front of that person as a signal to stop beating a dead horse, one team member explained.
Now, chucking stuffed animals at your coworkersespecially the powerful onesis probably a career-limiting move. But the spirit of the idea is sound: Find a way to flag the airtime hogs.
Fortunately, technology offers a safer option. Today, tools like Fireflies.AI and Equal track metrics like talk-to-listen ratios and flag monologues. Some even analyze gender dynamics, surfacing when women and nonbinary participants are getting drowned out.
Another way to stop people from hijacking the conversation is to get them to speak last. At Pixar, cofounder Ed Catmull understood the risks of speaking first. In brainstorming meetings, he deliberately held back his input until the end so his team could explore ideas without the gravitational pull of his amplified words. Catmull understood what many leaders overlook: New ideas are fragile. As he put it, they need protection from getting pancaked by heavy-handed forces like a leaders amplification.
Thats also why Catmull struck a deal with Steve Jobs when Jobs was CEO of Pixar. They agreed that Jobs would sit out of Pixars legendary Braintrust meeting, where senior creatives critiqued early-stage films. As Catmull put it, Jobss bigger-than-life presence would make it harder to be candid.
2. Don’t amplify ambiguity
Weve all been there: Your boss drops a cryptic meeting invite on your calendar and your brain immediately spirals. Am I in trouble? Is this about that thing I said in Slack? Am I getting fired? Amplification kicks in, and that vague invite snowballs into employees worst-case scenarios.
This kind of ambiguity is the second type of communication that Adam Galinsky, a social psychologist and Columbia business school professor, says is prone to amplification. When leaders say or do something vague, employees fill in the blanksoften with their own worst fears.
Galinskys advice for leaders prone to amplification is simple: Be transparent. A quick message like Hey, I need to see you laterits nothing to worry about can save your team from hours of anxiety.
And if your calendar is public, dont leave room for speculation. Trust me, your team is watching your calendar if its public, and theyre overanalyzing every entry, especially the vague ones. Dont give their imaginations room to fill in the blanks. Because theyll assume theyre the blanks.
Incompetence: The Accidental Power Move
Some of the most destructive power moves arent malicious. Theyre the result of sheer incompetence, which is amplified by a leaders position of power. Its like handing a megaphone to someone who doesnt know how to use it. They shout into the wrong end, and the whole room winces at the ear-splitting feedback.
Leaders who dont know how to effectively design and deploy meetings end up scheduling them for every problem, real or imagined. According to Neil Vyner, VP of growth and go-to-market at Worklytics, just 5% of employees schedule 60% of all meetings. These serial schedulers tend to be the most powerful people in the company (or their assistants acting on their behalf).
New managers are some of the worst offenders. Theyre promoted because they excelled in their previous roles, not because they know how to facilitate productive discussions, navigate hairy decisions, or avoid letting their new dinosaur tail knock over their teams ideas. Theyre handed a packed calendar of high-stakes meetings and a megaphone, but no user manual.
Meanwhile, their employees watch their boss bumble through bad meetings and assume, Well, I guess this is how its done. Inefficiency gets institutionalized, and before long, the entire team is trapped in a cycle of toxic meeting mediocrity. Or worse, full-blown dysfunction.
1. One-on-ones aren’t for you, boss
Incompetent managers often treat one-on-ones as their meetinga chance todownload updates, deliver monologues, or check a box. But thats not how they should be treated. As Ben Horowitz puts it, The key to a good one-on-one meeting is the understanding that it is the employees meeting rather than the managers meeting. A leaders job is to create space for whatever employees need to move their work forward, whether its advice, a pitch, or just a chance to vent.
According to research by Gallup, just one meaningful one-on-one meeting each week does more to build high-performance relationships than any other leadership activityand meetings as short as 15 minutes are enough to make a difference.
2. Stop hosting meetings just to spoon-feed the boss
One of the most commonand costlysigns of incompetence is the boss briefing: a meeting held not to collaborate or solve problems, but to spoon-feed status updates to a leader who cant be bothered to check the project tracker.
If you just need updates from your team, dont drag them into a hostage situation. Ask for a written summary or a short video update instead.
The same goes for updates that youre pushing out to your team. Skip the meeting and record a quick video instead. Film it from a real-life backdrop: a home office with kids barging in, or post-run and still dripping with sweat. That kind of raw, unfiltered communication hits differently. It satisfies the TikTok generations appetite for authenticity and transparency.
Jerk Behavior: When the Boss Is the Bully
Unlike amplification or incompetence, jerk behavior isnt an accidental or inevitable side effect of holding a position of power. Its a deliberate abuse of it. And unfortunately, its disturbingly common. Research by Simon Croom, a professor at the University of San Diego, found that 12 percent of corporate senior leaders exhibit psychopathic traits, up to twelve times the rate found in the general population. Yikes.
Jerk behaviorinterrupting, nitpicking, steamrolling, humiliating, or straight-up bullyingsucks the oxygen out of the meeting. And the damage doesnt stay neatly contained at the top. It spreads. Employees who cant push back against a jerk boss dont just absorb the blow, they pass it along to the next person in line. Sure enough, supervisors who report to abusive bosses are more likely to engage in abusive behavior themselves.
1.Shine a light on jerk behavior
Sometimes, the fastest way to shut down jerk behavior is to bring it into the light. Set up an anonymous feedback form so employees can report toxic behavior without fearing retaliation. But thats just step one. Dont let feedback languish in a forgotten Google Doc. Act on it. Prove youre serious about creating a jerk-free culture. Because doing nothing is worse than not asking for feedback in the first place. It sends a clear message: Were going to pretend that your voice matters, but it really doesnt.
And thats just another form of jerk behavior.
2. When all else fails, protect yourself
Some jerks are beyond redemption. If youre stuck with one of these un-fixable types, your best move is self-preservation. Dont let their toxicity take up space in your head. Or on your calendar.
Start by limiting your exposure to them. Avoid meetings with them if you can. If thats not an option, move the conversation to email or chat to contain their toxicity behind a digital firewall. This will also generate a handy digital paper trail if you need to file a formal report with HR.
And whatever you do, dont feed the beast. Jerks thrive on attention, so starve them of yours. Keep your responses short, flat, and factual. The less entertaining you are as a target, the faster theyll lose interest. Your goal isnt to win them over. Its to bore them into submission.
Excerpted from Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done. Copyright 2026, Rebecca Hinds. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved
A decade ago, when Claire Burgi moved to New York City, she decided to cut meat out of her diet. The 33-year-old actor and audiobook narrator, who lives in Queens, grew up in California, where shed seen the effects of climate change firsthand. She knew that meat consumption was a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions and that vegetarianism was a way to help conserve resources and reduce pollution.
When I was young, it rained a lot, she says. Now, it rains much less. All the fires are astoundingly horrific. The December 2017 Thomas wildfire burned more than 280,000 acres in and around Burgis hometown of Ventura, just north of Los Angeles.
I just didnt want to be contributing to anything that was causing that, Burgi says. She recently made another major decision to reduce her eco-footprint: not to use generative AI.
Shes been shocked, she says, by research showing how much electricity that the underlying technology generative AI tools like ChatGPT use, and how much this is raising carbon emissions. One paper published in 2023 predicted that AI-related infrastructure would soon consume six times more water than is used in Denmark yearly. Another piece of research from 2024 showed that a request made through ChatGPT consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google search.
They make me think of Frankenstein, Burgi says of AI models. There have been times in history, she says, when humans have acted without any idea of what the consequences would be, because it was convenient for us in that moment.
Right now, she adds, thats whats happening with AI.
In general, women have been slower to adopt AI use than men. This gender gap has been well documented over the last few years. According to Harvard Business School associate professor Rembrand Koningwho synthesized data from 18 studies covering more than 140,000 individuals across the worldwomen are about 20% less likely than men to directly engage with this new technology.
Whats less clearly established is the precise reason why. But when it comes to environmentally motivated reasons, Burgi isnt alone.
“Environmental angst”
The reasons for this gender gap vary. Some studies indicate that women are less likely to trust that gen AI providers will keep their data secure. Other research shows that women are more fearful of a loss of control that comes with these technologieswhich is, for example, reflected in their more muted enthusiasm for driverless cars. Studies have also shown that women are more likely to avoid AI because of fears that it could steal their job, and still other studies have found that women are more concerned than men about the ethical implications of AI use.
But a growing body of research also indicates that a sizable chunk of the gap might be attributable to the type of environmental angst that people like Burgi feel. Earlier this month, academics at the University of Oxford published a paper showing that the reasons for the adoption gap are manifold, but that environmental concerns certainly play a significant part.
The research, titled Women Worry, Men Adopt: How Gendered Perceptions Shape the Use of Generative AI, draws on survey responses from 8,000 individuals in 2023 and 2024 across the U.K. It established that 14.7% of women and 20% of men reported using gen AI tools frequentlyat least once a weekin a personal context. This corresponds to a gap of just over 5 percentage points.
But the gap widens significantly in subsets of respondents who admit to being concerned about environmental and mental health risks. Among those who say they are worried about the climate, the gender gap is 9.3 percentage points; for those concerned about the mental health impact of these new technologies, it widens to 16.8 percentage points. Among older users of artificial intelligence, the gender gap for concerns about AIs climate effect is particularly wide: almost 18 percentage points.
These findings echo previous research showing that women are more likely to display eco-anxiety than mena phrase thats been coined to refer to the mental health distress caused by climate change, ranging from concerns about the impact of extreme weather to the future of biodiversity. And the academics at Oxford write that their findings align with evidence of greater social compassion and moral sensitivity among women.
Counterintuitive findings
Fabian Stephany, a departmental research lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute and one of the authors of the study, says that one of the most interesting things his research found was that some common preconceptions about AI usage werent corroborated.
Theres a widely held assumption, for example, that greater tech literacy translates into higher use and adoption. But he found that this isnt always the case. In fact, in some cases, greater literacy and knowledge about AI actually drove down use.
Also of note, the research found that among those who said they were concerned about AIs impact on the environment and on mental health, womens concerns were more likely to translate into action than mens concerns. In other words: Women were more likely to stop using AI because of the way they felt about it.
Asked why that might be, Stephany said he could only speculate. Research done by academics in Iran in 2022, though, might provide an answer: It shows that women generally lean toward a more collectivist mindsetreflected in concerns for society, for examplewhile men tend to lean toward a more individualist one.
Women are “the canary in the coal mine”
Stephany says that the last thing he wants people to take away from this research is that women need to change or be fixed in some way. Their concerns are real, he says.
Women are like the canary in the coal mine. And we should listen to these concerns, he adds. The important thing isnt to tell women to be more optimisticits to address the harms. And, he says, these harms can be addressed.
Biases can be reduced, carbon footprints can be lowered, smaller models can be run locally, Stephani says. We dont have to wait for future breakthroughs. We can reduce harms now.
His research suggests that theres a sizable market of people with strong convictions about AI consumption, he says. A more green, sustainable, inclusive gen AI model would have a clear target market.”
And there are already platforms available that seem to be tapping into this market that Stephany mentions. GreenPT, for example, bills itself as a platform that runs on renewable energy and is hosted in Europe for strict data protection. Viro, another platform, funds clean energy projects and markets itself as a climate-neutral alternative to less environmentally conscious options.
Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which operates ChatGPT, tried to allay fears that his technology might be accelerating climate change by framing it as a tool to enhance sustainability. If we have to spend even 1% of the worlds electricity training powerful AI, and that AI helps us figure out how to get to non-carbon-based energy or to do carbon capture better, that would be a massive win, he said.
As for Burgi, she would want to see a lot of changes before even entertaining the idea of intentionally incorporating AI use into her daily life. She doesnt think that anything could meaningfully allay her ethical concerns about AI. Especially as an artist, I just don’t feel morally aligned with using AI, she says.
In terms of her environmental concerns, shes similarly skeptical.
If there was more transparency, and if it seemed like more thought and care was being put into these thingsif it wasnt just about greed and capitalismthen I might consider it from an environmental concern, she says. But right now? I dont really see any of that happening.
The U.S.’s population growth is slowing as immigration has declined amid President Donald Trump’s deportation push and stricter border policies.
According to new Census Bureau data, the drop-off is the biggest since the COVID-19 pandemic. From July 2024 to July 2025, the population of the United States grew by 1.8 million people (about 0.5%). This was mostly driven by immigration: During that period, the U.S. added 1.3 million immigrants. This is a steep decline from the previous year, in which 2.7 million immigrants arrived.
The Census Bureau predicts that by July of this year, the number of immigrants could drop even more, to just 321,000. Meanwhile, the number of deportations, including self-deportations, totaled nearly 3 million as of January 20, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Previously, immigration in the U.S. had been growing for over 50 years until new policies enacted by the Biden administrationsuch as tightened border security measures and restricting asylum for those crossing between ports of entrytook effect in 2024.
“The big takeaway is, wow, the Trump administration, and even the end of the Biden administration, made a big difference,” Steven Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told CBS News. “It sure looks like we’re seeing a fundamental change that reflects policy.”
Aside from a decline in immigration, population growth has already been slowing for decades due to declining birth rates in the U.S.
Impacts across the labor force will be undeniable, experts say. Juan Carlos Rivera, an immigration attorney based in Miami, has seen the effects of the U.S.’s new policies firsthand, given the uptick in deportations. Rivera says most of the individuals in the deportation cases hes seen were working and contributing to the country’s economy.
Needless to say, deporting employees will come with hefty consequences, according to Rivera. “When fewer workers are available, businesses face higher labor costs, reduced productivity, and slower expansion,” he says. “That pressure shows up in higher prices for consumers and weaker overall economic growth.”
Rivera also believes that the current immigration enforcement tactics will impact the nation’s ability to stay competitive with the rest of the world. “Other countries are actively competing for workers and talent as their populations age. If the United States does not maintain a legal and reliable immigration system that supports workers across skill levels, it risks losing ground in innovation, supply chain stability, and long-term economic leadership,” Rivera explains.
According to a new report from Sedgwick, an HR administration company, immigration enforcement is already creating some of those broader economic issues. Per the 2026 report: “Immigration-related labor disruptions affect three-quarters of organizations to varying degrees,” which it calls “a chronic operational drag rather than an acute crisis.”
Dave Arick, managing director of global risk management at Sedgwick, tells Fast Company that certain industrieslike healthcare, technology, and hospitality, which “rely more heavily upon scientific and technical qualifications for key roles”are already navigating “a highly competitive environment for attracting and retaining people with specific expertise and experience, especially when coupled with high market growth.”
Therefore, Arick says that new immigration changes, such as those that “restrict immigrant higher education and employment,” will further “shrink the available talent pool”which will, in turn, “drive up costs to acquire the highest-qualified available candidates.”
Following last week’s anti-ICE economic blackout in Minnesota and national Free America Walkout, organizers are once again urging Americans to stop working, attending school, and spending money to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown surging across the country. The fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alexi Pretti by federal officers only increased the public outcry against the Trump administrations hardline immigration and border policies and aggressive tactics used by swarms of masked agents. Here’s what to know.
What is National Shutdown Day?
National Shutdown Day on January 30 is a call to striketo disrupt business as usualas a way for Americans to register their mounting anger at the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis and other cities nationwide. (Some 69% of Americans say President Trump is trying to exert more power than previous presidents, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center.)
With the tagline No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE, the nationalshutdown.org website reads, The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole countryto stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN. The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr. by federal agents. . . . It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!”
Organizers are also calling on Congress to cut funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, when it votes on the current funding package ahead of a possible federal government shutdown.
Walkouts, events, vigils, and protests are set to take place in all 50 states, including in New York City, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphiafrom state capitals (Honolulu) to federal buildings and courthouses (Tucson, Arizona, and Cincinnati), universities (Stanford, Santa Clara University, the University of Washington, Northeastern University), and even some high schools (in Miami).
On Friday, a number of student groups at the University of Minnesotaincluding the Somali Student Association, Black Student Union, and Graduate Labor Unionwill lead a walkout on campus. Students are always at the heart of movements for justice across the world, they said in a statement. Students are encouraged to participate in [the] protests after walking out.”
Businesses nationwide to close for general strike
Following Minnesota’s recent statewide strike, local businesses in the Twin Cities and across the nation are planning to close on Friday. They include 50 businesses and shops in Portland, Maine; several restaurants in Denver; bookstores, coffeeshops, and retailers in Rochester, New York; businesses in Omaha, Nebraska; a Las Vegas pizza shop; and numerous Los Angeles restaurants, to name just a few, according to local news reports.
It has been increasingly difficult to watch what is unfolding in our country, the owners of Denver restaurant Sp Sa told television station KDVR. We have felt so helpless and alone, and its abundantly clear that no one will come to save us, so it is our civic duty to unite as a community in support of the most vulnerable.
Grassroots organizers 50501 are calling for additional “ICE Out of Everywhere protests on Saturday, January 31, at ICE detention centers and offices; at airports to target airlines that are transporting ICE detainees, including Global Crossing Airlines and World Atlantic Airlines; and at some Congressional offices, according to The Guardian.
Who is organizing the National Shutdown?
National Shutdown Day, like many of the previous national walkouts and protests over the past year, lists a broad coalition of grassroots partners, including: 50501, local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, Defend Immigrant Families Campaign, Council on American-Islamic Relations, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, student groups, labor unions, and immigrant rights organizations.
In addition, the strike has garnered the attention of a number of Hollywood celebrities, including Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Edward Norton.
“We cannot act like this is not happening,” Norton, a longtime political activist, said at a recent Sundance Film Festival panel discussion. What theyre doing in Minnesota with the strike needs to expand. I think we should be talking about a national, general economic strike until this is over.
New York University professor Scott Galloway has also called for a prolonged general economic strike.
Two of Elon Musks best-known companies look likely to be headed for a mega merger ahead of a mooted IPO. SpaceX, the South African entrepreneurs space exploration firm, and xAI, the AI company he established in 2023 to challenge OpenAI, are reportedly in discussions ahead of a merger and initial public offerings.
Two business entities were established in Nevada on January 21, Reuters says, that are potentially designed to facilitate the deal. Combined, the two businesses are worth more than $1 trillion. Tesla, Bloomberg reports, could be involved as well.
The IPO could happen in mid-June. Why mid-June? Because that’s a point when Jupiter and Venus will be in conjunction with one another, passing close to each other in their respective orbits, the Financial Times separately reported. June also happens to be Musks birth month; hell be 55 years old on June 28. Its suggested that the merged entity would be looking to raise up to $50 billion, nearly twice the amount of the largest IPO in history to datewhen Saudi Aramcos 2019 raise of $29 billionand would be doing so at a valuation of $1.5 trillion. None of the companies in question immediately responded to requests for comment.
Such a merger is big news, in part because of Musks name and infamy, but also because it represents the pooling of two firms that appear at first not to be connected. But there are business synergies that make sense, says Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space. I view the merger as Musks way to vertically integrate AI services by providing xAI with satellite infrastructure for on-orbit compute, he says.
Musk has previously saidlike a number of others in the tech worldthat building data centers in space will be an important part of ensuring that were able to meet the compute demands of the current and ongoing AI revolution, in which Musks xAI is playing a large role through its Grok chatbot. Getting those data centers into space, if it ever happens, would need the rockets that SpaceX has become specialized in: Research company Payload Space estimates that SpaceX made $15 billion in revenue last year, around one-third of which was from launches. (The remainder was from its Starlink satellite internet service.)
The viability of orbital data centers remains a subject of debate, but Musk is a firm believer that they are the future, acknowledges Henry. With that conviction in mind, it makes sense for him to merge SpaceX and xAI. Doing so would help Musk avoid the headache of having to arrange, pay for, and plan out capacity on Earthsomething xAI is already in trouble about, after the Environmental Protection Agency recently ruled that the AI companys Colossus data center generated more electricity than was legally permitted. Rather than having xAI pay for data centers on the ground, SpaceX can host them in orbit on the Starlink satellite constellation. xAI could get cost savings by vertically integrating with orbital data centers, similar to how Starlink saves on launch costs by being part of SpaceX, says Henry.
Not everyone is as convinced of the business case, however. It shows Elon Musk is good at raising money on whatever the theme is at the moment, acknowledges E.W. Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, and an auto industry analyst. Niedermeyer believes that the mooted move is more about puffing up both Musks companies in the eyes of the public. It’s a classic Elon Musk move in the sense that I was both totally shocked by it, and then almost immediately, not at all shocked, he says.
Niedermeyer believes the merger helps both companies support one another, and potentially access more cash from a public offering, that will keep them both going. We know very little about their actual economics, because they’re privately held companies, he says. But what we do know is not wildly encouraging, pointing to the fact that both repeatedly raise cash from investors, suggesting theyre not able to fund their own growth. It looks like Elon Musk has one window to do a big IPO, and he wants to make the most of that, says Niedermeyer.
Part of the problem is that xAIs cash burn is likely to be significant because of the demand for AI products like Grokan issue that Musks AI company isnt alone in feeling, Niedermeyer admits. On the space exploration side, Niedermeyer says that the Falcon 9 and Starship initiatives are literal moonshot projects that take a lot of cash. Thats what makes it so surprising that SpaceX could go public: Musk has previously said in 2013 that SpaceX had to remain private in order to maintain its overall mission. I see this as a way to keep things rolling along, says Niedermeyer.
But it also runs the risk of alienating some of Musks most ardent fans, he warns. Ive already seen evidence in forums that the IPO plan has been really toxic to some of the most committed parts of his fanbase, Niedermeyer says. I just see this as being sort of the last big cash-in and I genuinely don’t know where he goes from here.
Microsoft stock just suffered its biggest single day drop since 2020. Meanwhile, Meta stock popped by 10%. Both tech giants are spending billions on AI talent and infrastructure, but investors clearly feel skittish about Microsoft at the start of 2026 and bullish on Metas tale of near-term upside.
For a company that famously whiffed on the metaverse, Meta is looking more reasonable these days. The company is still poised to invest eye-popping sums into artificial intelligence in the coming years, but so are all of its peers, Microsoft included. In an era of AI hype and sky-high expectations, Meta is following the crowdnot leading itfor better or worse.
In 2026, the company is building a grounded narrative around its strong revenue growth. Meta is an advertising company through and through and in 2026 its emphasizing that core competency while pointing to strong revenue growth backing up the story. Meta reported $59.89 billion in revenue in the last quarter, beating Wall Streets by over $1 billion. The company said more people are using its wide family of social apps, with 7% daily active user growth year over year across its products.
Mark Zuckerberg still took some time in Wednesdays earnings call to declare that he cant imagine a world where most glasses that people wear aren’t AI glasses within the next few years, but at least he didnt lead with the companys latest cash-burning consumer hardware bet.
Metas AI spending green light
The Menlo Park tech giants investment in AI is only growing. In 2026, Meta expects to splash out between $115 billion and $135 billion in capital expenditures, way up from the $72.22 billion it spent across 2025. Meta says that increase will largely be driven by upped investment into Meta Superintelligence Labs, its AI division. Were in this interesting period where weve been rebuilding our AI effort, and were six months into that, and Im happy with how its going, Zuckerberg said.
Meta is bullish on its near future revenue too. The company is expecting to bring in between $53.5 to $56.5 billion in its next quarter. On its earnings call, executives highlighted how weaving AI into its existing products is explicitly boosting its ad business.
There are several major business opportunities that were focused on one is just going to be improving the core products and accelerating the current business, Zuckerberg said, noting that Metas products are already benefitting from AI integration into their recommendation engines. The company says that advertisers are responding to ad performance improvements already and those successes are driving conversion growth and revenue.
Investors took note, the stock popped and the companys narrative about where all that AI spend will go seems to make sense to the market, at least for now.
Microsofts story is complicated
Investors seem to appreciate that Meta is eating its vegetables and bolstering its ad business these days, but Microsoft is a different story.
Microsoft, once the boring PC company, is on the cutting edge of the AI boom. The company handily beat expectations in its own earnings report this week, notching $81.3 billion in quarterly revenue a 16% year over year increase. Its net income bested expectations too. So what went wrong?
If investors are worried about being over indexed on Microsoft, Microsoft may be worried about being in too deep with OpenAI. The tech stalwarts AI bets are complex due to being bound up with OpenAI, which the larger company has invested more than $11 billion into to date. Microsofts latest earnings were buoyed by OpenAIs transformation into a more traditional for-profit company, which Microsoft will own a 27% stake in, valued at $135 billion. That investment delivered Microsoft $7.6 billion in net income in the last quarter.
Microsoft increasingly competes with its longtime partner, but remains worryingly dependent on it at the same time. The company is holding onto an astronomical $625 billion backlog in pent up demand for its cloud computing business, but just disclosed that OpenAI accounts for 45% of those outstanding cloud contracts. If OpenAI stumbles, Microsoft does too.
Microsoft may be powering the AI revolution, but, until solved, its capacity woes put an awkward cap on the revenue that business can bring in. To fix the problem, the company is feeding its voracious appetite for cloud computing capacity but all of that spending may start to rattle investors. Microsoft shelled out $37.5 billion in capital expenditures in the last quarter, a figure that includes AI infrastructure investment like data centers. Meanwhile, its Azure cloud business grew 39% in the quarter, beating expectations but staying flat from last quarters growth.
In the companys earnings report, CEO Satya Nadella argued that Microsoft is well-positioned in the beginning phases of AI adoption. We are pushing the frontier across our entire AI stack to drive new value for our customers and partners, Nadella said.
AIs major players are set to sink more cash than ever into the technology this year. But after a few years of AI-driven sugar highs, the industry may finally be tempered by investors eager for an endgame.
Sunday’s Grammys mark a return to normalcy after the 2025 show was altered to focus on Los Angeles-area wildfire relief efforts.
I think we will see some history-making moments, Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. told The Associated Press. With artists being nominated in categories they haven’t been previously nominated in, and a new crop of talent coming through the system this year I think we’re going to see some really exciting results.
Heres what you need to know about the 2026 Grammys, including how to stream and where you can see musics biggest stars walking the red carpet.
How do I watch the Grammys?
The main show will air live from LA’s Crypto.com Arena on CBS beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. Paramount+ premium plan subscribers will be able to stream the telecast live, too. (Paramount+ essential subscribers will have on-demand access the next day.)
The Grammys can also be watched through live TV streaming services that include CBS in their lineup, like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and FuboTV.
The Premiere Ceremony will take place ahead of the Grammys telecast, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern from the Peacock Theater. It can be streamed at the Recording Academys YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com.
Who is performing at the Grammys?
The show will feature a special segment in which all eight of this year’s best new artist nominees will perform. That means Leon Thomas, Olivia Dean, global girl group Katseye, The Marías, Addison Rae, sombr, Alex Warren, and Lola Young will all share the stage before going head-to-head for one of the night’s biggest prizes.
Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, Clipse, and Pharrell Williams will also perform.
Reba McEntire, Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson will take the stage for the in memoriam. Ms. Lauryn Hill will pay tribute to DAngelo and Roberta Flack. Post Malone, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith, Duff McKagan and Slash will honor Ozzy Osbourne.
Who is presenting at the Grammys?
Doechii and Harry Styles are the first confirmed presenters.
Who is hosting the Grammys?
Comedian Trevor Noah will host the show for the sixth consecutive time and it will be his last.
I am beyond thrilled to welcome Trevor Noah back to host the Grammys for his sixth, and sadly, final time, Grammys’ executive producer Ben Winston said in a statement. Hes been the most phenomenal host of the show. Hes so smart, so funny, and such a true fan of the artists and music. His impact on the show has been truly spectacular, and we cant wait to do it together one last time.
The only other people to host six or more Grammy telecasts were musical artists: Andy Williams hosted seven shows, followed by John Denver with six. Noah previously tied LL Cool J, with five.
Noah himself is a four-time Grammy nominee and is up this year in the audio book, narration, and storytelling recording category for Into The Uncut Grass, a childrens story.
He’s a special host. He really finds the right balance between being funny and smart and knowledgeable but also being a fan of music. And I love that. Its so hard to find that combination, Mason jr. said.
As for his departure? Every person at some point in their career, they decide they want to do something else, Mason jr. said. And were so appreciative of the years that we got from Trevor. Hes really helped define the show and make the show what its become over the last six years.
How can I watch the red carpet?
The Associated Press will stream a four-hour red carpet show with interviews and fashion footage. It will be streamed on YouTube and APNews.com.
Who is nominated for the Grammys?
Kendrick Lamar leads the nominations with nine total. He’s up for record, song and album of the year marking the third time hes had simultaneous nominations in those big categories as well as pop duo/group performance, melodic rap performance, rap song and rap album. Hes also nominated twice in the rap performance category.
Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer/songwriter Cirkut follow Lamar with seven nominations each.
Thomas, Bad Bunny, Serban Ghenea and the aforementioned Carpenter all boast six nominations. Andrew Watt, Clipse, Doechii, Sounwave, SZA, Turnstile and Tyler, the Creator have five each.
There are a number of first-time nominees as well this year, including Tate McRae, Zara Larsson, PinkPantheress, JID and Timothée Chalamet. You read that correctly.
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For more coverage of this years Grammy Awards, visit: www.apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards
Maria Sherman, AP music writer
The legendary $4.99 rotisserie chickens from Costco are under fire this week as a proposed class action lawsuit claims the big box retailer has been misleading customers.
Two California shoppers noticed something that might seem obvious in retrospect: To sell an entire, slow-roasted chicken in a plastic bag, Costco added two preservatives. Problem is, the Issaquah, Washington-based company had promised on the packaging, in-store displays, and online that the chicken contained no preservatives.
The lawsuit filed last week with the Southern District claims that Costcos promise that its rotisserie chickens contain no preservatives signals to reasonable consumerslike the two women who are plaintiffs in the casethat nothing was added to preserve the taste, flavor, texture, or shelflife of the product. But two preservativessodium phosphate and carrageenanare listed on the ingredient list.
Costco Wholesale Corporation has systemically cheated customers out of tensif not hundredsof millions of dollars by falsely advertising its Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken as containing no preservatives, the lawsuit reads, in part.
Consumers reasonably rely on clear, prominent claims like No Preservatives, especially when deciding what they and their families will eat, Wesley M. Griffith, the California managing partner with Almeida Law Group, which represents the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, said in a statement. Costcos own ingredient list contradicts its marketing. Thats unlawful, and its unfair.
INGREDIENTS IN FOCUS
Costco has already taken steps to address the main concern of the lawsuit.
To maintain consistency among the labeling on our rotisserie chickens and the signs in our warehouses/online presentations, we have removed statements concerning preservatives, a company representative said in a statement to KTLA 5 News. We use carrageenan and sodium phosphate to support moisture retention, texture, and product consistency during cooking. Both ingredients are approved by food safety authorities.
These ingredients have landed other big companies in hot water in the past: In late 2024, a judge ruled that Kraft Heinz must face a proposed nationwide class action lawsuit that similarly focused on the companys use of sodium phosphate in its macaroni and cheese products. And the addition of carrageenan in products labeled as natural or organic has been the subject of several lawsuits in recent years.
Whats more, Costco has faced criticism of its use of carrageenan in the past. The Cornucopia Institute, an organic food watchdog group, sent a letter to Costco in 2023 urging it to remove carrageenan from organic products. And the ingredient is one of many targeted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
SUIT SEEKS MONETARY DAMAGES
In the latest lawsuit filed against Costco, the plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages, and if a judge approves a class action lawsuit, that might mean the retailer has to pay out anyone else who bought the chicken during a specified time period.
Interestingly, the plaintiffs said they might have still opted to purchase the rotisserie chicken had they known about the two ingredients, but would have paid significantly less for it. It might be hard for some people to imagine paying even less, as Costcos rotisserie chicken is considered a loss leader, meaning the company realizes very little or no profit selling it.
Costco shares fell nearly 1% in mid-day trading on Thursday, extending a selloff of more than 3% in the past week.
Tax filing season is underway, and the IRS expects 164 million people will file returns by April 15.
The average refund last year was $3,167. This year, analysts have projected it could be $1,000 higher, thanks to changes in tax law. More than 165 million individual income tax returns were processed last year, with 94% submitted electronically.
People with straightforward returns should not encounter delays, but because of an exodus of IRS workers since the start of the Trump administration, the national taxpayer advocate has cautioned that the 2026 tax filing season is likely to present challenges for those who run into problems filing.
While last year IRS employees were not permitted to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until after the taxpayer filing deadline, many of those customer service workers have now left. The IRS started 2025 with about 102,000 employees and finished with roughly 74,000 after a series of firings and layoffs led by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Heres what to know:
When refunds will go out
If you file electronically, the IRS says it should take 21 days or less to receive your refund. If you choose direct deposit, it should take even less time. If you file a paper return, the refund could take four weeks or more, and if your return requires amendments or corrections, it could take longer.
The IRS cautions that taxpayers not rely on receiving a refund by a certain date, especially when making major purchases or paying bills.
How to check the status of your refund
Taxpayers can use the online tool Wheres My Refund? to check the status of their refund within 24 hours of e-filing and generally within four weeks of filing a paper return. The Wheres My Refund? tool will also provide projected deposit dates for most early EITC/ACTC refund filers by Feb. 21, according to the IRS.
Information related to this tool is updated once daily, overnight. To access the status of your refund, youll need:
Your Social Security or individual taxpayer ID number (ITIN)
Taxpayers can also consult the IRS2Go app, or their IRS Individual Online Account, to check their refund status.
How tax refunds work
If you paid more through the year than you owe in tax, due to withholding or other reasons, you should get money back. Even if you didnt pay excess tax, you may still get a refund if you qualify for a refundable credit, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Child Tax Credit. To get your refund, you must file a return, and you have three years to claim a tax refund.
Who qualifies for the Earned Income Tax Credit
To qualify for the EITC, you must have under $11,950 in investment income and earn less than a specific income level from working.
If youre single with no children, your income level must be $19,104 or below. And if youre married filing jointly with three or more children, you must make $68,675 or below. To determine if your household qualifies based on your marital status and your number of dependents you can use the online EITC Assistant tool.
Who qualifies for the Child Tax Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit
If you have a child, you are most likely eligible for the Child Tax Credit. The credit is up to $2,200 per qualifying child. To qualify, a child must:
Have a Social Security number
Be under age 17 at the end of 2025
Be your son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half-brother, half-sister, or a descendant of one of these (for example, a grandchild, niece or nephew)
Not provide more than half of his or her own support for the tax year
Have lived with you for more than half the tax year
Be claimed as a dependent on your tax return
Not file a joint return for the year (or filed the joint return only to claim a refund of taxes withheld or estimated taxes)
Be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or a U.S. resident alien
You qualify for the full amount of the Child Tax Credit for each qualifying child if you meet all eligibility factors and your annual income is not more than $200,000 ($400,000 if filing a joint return).
You qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit if ($1,700 per qualifying child) if you meet these factors and have little or no federal income tax liability. You must have earned income of at least $2,500 to be eligible for the ACTC.
When the tax credits will become available
The IRS expects most refunds for the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit to be available in bank accounts or on debit cards by March 2 for taxpayers who choose direct deposit. Some taxpayers may receive their refund earlier, depending on their financial institution.
Whats different this year
This year, most taxpayers must provide their routing and account numbers to receive refunds directly deposited into their bank accounts. That’s because the IRS began phasing out paper tax refund checks on Sept. 30 in accordance with an executive order.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
Cora Lewis, Associated Press
Virginia-based Gerber Products Company is voluntarily recalling limited batches of Gerber Arrowroot Biscuits, a cookie-like snack meant for children 10 months or older.
On January 26, the baby food and snack producer issued the voluntary recall due to the potential presence of soft plastic and paper pieces that “should not be consumed,” the company said this week.
The material comes from a supplier of arrowroot flour that initiated its own recall, Gerber said. The company said it was no longer working with the supplier, though it did not name the supplier in its recall notice on Monday.
No illnesses or injuries have been reported. Gerber says it is issuing the recall “out of an abundance of caution.” On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the recall notice on its website.
What products are included in the recall?
The nationwide recall applies to limited batches of 5.5-ounce Gerber Arrowroot Biscuits, produced between July 2025 and September 2025. Gerber emphasizes that no other products are impacted.
Product packaging images and other details are included n the FDA’s website. Gerber markets the products as “crawler snacks,” and “baby’s first biscuit,” noting that the treats dissolve easily. It alternatively describes the product as cookies.
Customers should check the back of the product packaging to verify whether their package is included in the recall.
Each package has a 10-digit batch code listed next to the best-before date. The best-before dates range from mid-October into mid-December 2026. The full list of batch codes is available on Gerber’s website.
[Photo: via FDA]
Fast Company contacted Gerber to ask for more information about the arrowroot flour supplier. We will update this story if we get a reply.
Impacted products should not be consumed
Customers who have purchased the impacted product should not feed it to their child. They should return the product to the retailer where it was purchased for a refund. All-day consumer support is available by calling 1-800-4-GERBER (1-800-443-7237).
Gerber is a subsidiary of Swiss multinational food giant Nestlé S.A.
