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AI has not changed the importance of judgment in product leadership. What it has changed is the cost of getting it wrong. Early in my career, I learned a principle that still guides how I think about building products: The strongest decisions rarely start with perfect data. They start with conviction, a hypothesis shaped by experience, customer insight, and pattern recognition. What ultimately separates high-performing product organizations from average ones is how quickly and confidently instinct is validated. That validation is the true role of product analytics, and increasingly, it is where AI amplifies its value. Analytics tests whether what you believed would happen actually did, and to inform what you do next. When treating analytics as a decision engine rather than a reporting layer, it fundamentally changes how teams operate. ANALYTICS SPRAWL REDUCES CLARITY Across nearly every organization I have worked in, regardless of size or industry, one pattern shows up with remarkable consistency: analytics sprawl. Google Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Adobe Analytics, and Pendo are all excellent tools, adopted with good intent to solve real problems. However, when allor even severalcoexist within a single organization, they often create fragmentation that undermines decision-making. The issue is not the tools themselves, but the absence of a clear leadership decision to standardize. When analytics lives across multiple platforms, each with its own methodology and definitions, even basic questions become difficult to answer. AI magnifies that problem. Ask a simple question like, How many monthly unique visitors do we get? With data spread across multiple analytics platforms, there is no clean answer. You cannot aggregate the numbers. There is no deduplication. Slight differences in definitions erode trust. Teams stop discussing insights and start debating whose data is correct. That is not a tooling failure. It is a decision-making failure. INCONSISTENT DATA SCALES CONFUSION This challenge matters even more in an AI-driven world because AI depends on coherence. Models train on ambiguous metrics. If foundations are inconsistent, AI will scale confusion faster than any human ever could. Especially in organizations with multiple business units and products, analytics must start before dashboards, instrumentation plans, or AI ambitions. It starts with clarity. This comes from understanding what decisions must be made with confidence and what questions must be answered consistently across teams. Once that is established, everything else follows. Selecting the right product analytics platform is based on business requirements, not convenience. That platform may differ by context. In fact, I have yet to implement the same analytics tool twice. What stays the same is the discipline required to make analytics and AI effective at scale. Instinct may start the journey, but data must validate it. Tool sprawl is a leadership choice rather than a technical inevitability, and shared definitions matter far more than dashboards or models. Analytics and AI only matter when they improve decisions. When that foundation exists, AI becomes a true force multiplier, and organizations gain speed, trust, and the ability to scale. Insights surface faster, patterns emerge sooner, and teams spend far less time reconciling data and far more time acting on it. Leaders move from reacting to signals to shaping outcomes. Without that foundation, AI simply makes bad analytics louder. A SIMPLE CHALLENGE FOR LEADERS If you lead product, technology, or digital teams, here are three simple questions to consider: How many analytics tools does your organization use across your products? Do your teams share the same definitions for basic metrics? Can you answer a question once and trust the answer everywhere? If those answers vary, the issue is not analytics or AI. It is decision-making. If your AI strategy is ahead of your analytics foundations, you are scaling uncertainty, not intelligence. Darren Person is EVP and chief digital officer of Cengage Group.
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The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate slipped this week below 6% for the first time since late 2022, good news for home shoppers as the spring homebuying season gets rolling. The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell to 5.98% from 6.01% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.76%. The average rate has been hovering close to 6% this year. This latest dip, its third decline in a row, brings it closer to its lowest level since Sept. 8, 2022, when it was 5.89%. Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserves interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.02% at midday Thursday, down from around 4.07% a week ago. Mortgage rates have been trending lower for months, helping drive a pickup in home sales the last four months of 2025, but not enough to lift the housing market out of its slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes remained stuck last year at 30-year lows. And more buyer-friendly mortgage rates this year werent enough to lift home sales last month. They posted the biggest monthly drop in nearly four years and the slowest annualized sales pace in more than two years. Still, with the average rate on a 30-year mortgage now below 6% as the annual spring homebuying season begins, it could encourage prospective home shoppers who can afford to buy at current rates to shop for a home this spring. Assuming rates stay below 6%, buyers and sellers are going to start getting back into the market, said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. March is when the spring homebuying season typically begins to ramp up and with rates at a three-and-a-half year low, it could be a barn burner of a spring homebuying season. Alex Veiga, AP business writer
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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. Anthropics stance on autonomous weapons may not survive the future Much of the AI world is watching closely as Anthropic tangles with the Pentagon over how the government can use the Claude models. Anthropic has a $200 million contract with the Pentagon, but the contract says the military cant use the AI companys models as the brains for autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insists, after the fact, that the military should be able to use the Anthropic models for all lawful purposes. Hegseth summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon for a Tuesday morning meeting, in which he reportedly gave Anthropic until 5:01 p.m. Friday to comply with the Pentagons demand. If Anthropic fails to do so, Hegseth threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel the AI company to supply its models with no guardrails. Hegseth also said the government would declare Anthropic models to be a supply chain risk, meaning that all government suppliers would be directed to avoid or discontinue use of Anthropic models. Amodei said in an interview after the Hegseth meeting that his company has no intention of complying with Hegseths demands. (Hes got a strong case: After all, government officials agreed to the terms.) Amodei explained that the military relies on human judgement to avoid violating peoples constitutional rights. If AI is making the decisions, there will be no human being to object. Amodei is right, and his companys willingness to stand up for its values is laudable. The trouble is, were rapidly heading for a future where autonomous systems become the norm in warfare. For years, the defense establishment talked about keeping the human in the loop in AI weapons systems. Often that human is a government lawyer who can make calls on rules-of-engagement issues on the battlefield. Today the Pentagon is talking more about fully autonomous weapons that can manage more of the kill chain, or the series of communications and decisions around the destruction of a target. Military leaders often say that whoever can use technology to shorten the kill-chain will win wars. Things like electronic warfare (cyberwar), hypersonic missiles, and drone swarms are making war faster and response times shorter. This may eventually preclude the opportunity for human review and decision-making. Increasingly, the U.S. military may be forced to take humans out of the loop in order to stay competitive with its adversaries. So the result of Anthropics standoff with the Pentagon may be that a safety-conscious AI lab is forced out, and a generally less scrupulous company like xAI is chosen as the alternative. Trump rips off Mark Kellys idea for powering new data centers In his State of the Union address, Donald Trump spent a few minutes on the subject of new data centers for AI, which has over the past few months become a hot button issue for voters. While the tech industry says it needs hundreds of new data centers to support all the AI it’s building, a growing number of voters now understands that the power grid improvements needed to power the data centers may increase their energy bills. I have negotiated the new Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Trump crowed. We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs. Politicos might recognize that message, as it closely echoes what Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, has been saying for months now. Kellys AI for America plan would create an industry-financed AI Horizon Fund to pay for energy-grid upgrades and workforce reskilling. According to Kellys plan, Congress could require data center developers to buy or lease enough land to contain both their facilities and the renewable energy infrastructure to power and cool them. The data center operators could also be required to pay to connect the renewable sources to the local grid, should the power they generate go unutilized. Trumps idea is more of a suggestion. As of now its non-binding, just words. And there was no mention of how the tech companies would generate their own power. Elon Musks xAI, for example, brought its own power to its massive Colossus data center in Memphis. Unfortunately, they were dirty methane-powered turbines, and the facility quickly became one of the areas biggest polluters. High numbers of young tech job seekers AI-cheated on skills tests Cheating on technical hiring assessments went through the roof in 2025, with fraud attempts more than doubling, according to new research from CodeSignal, which runs a developer-skills evaluation platform used in hiring software engineers. The research found that 35% of proctored assessments showed signs of cheating or fraud last year, up from just 16% in 2024. The biggest culprits? Plagiarism, having someone else take the test for you, and sneaking in AI tools that aren’t allowed. The jump was especially noticeable among entry-level candidates. Fraud rates for junior roles nearly tripled year over yeargoing from 15% to 40%making early-career hiring a particularly vulnerable spot in the recruiting pipeline. In a press release accompanying the report, CodeSignal CEO and cofounder Tigran Sloyan partly blamed the normalization of AI tools, noting that 80% of Gen Z reportedly uses AI in daily life, which has made the line between acceptable help and outright cheating much blurrier. Accessibility to AI also makes unauthorized assistance harder to detect and raises the stakes for maintaining fair and reliable skill evaluation, he noted. CodeSignal’s detection systemswhich combine AI analysis, human review, and digital monitoringidentified a few common patterns across flagged assessments. About 35% of candidates frequently looked off-screen, suggesting they were consulting outside resources during the test. Another 23% showed unusually linear typing patterns, where complex solutions just appeared with barely any pauses or debugging. And 15% had answers that looked a lot like known solutions or leaked content. (It’s worth noting that these numbers reflect attempts that were actually caught, not cases where someone successfully slipped through.) The data also surfaced some geographic and procedural gaps. Fraud attempt rates hit 48% in the Asia-Pacific region, compared to 27% in North America. Testing conditions made a big difference, too: Candidates in unproctored environments shoed score jumps more than four times larger than those being actively monitored, which pretty clearly shows that proctoring works as a deterrent. As for how CodeSignal catches all this: the company says it’s spent a decade building out its fraud-prevention infrastructure, which it’s now applied across millions of assessments. It uses a proprietary “Suspicion Score” and leak-resistant test design to flag things like plagiarism, proxy test-taking, unauthorized AI use, and identity fraud. More AI coverage from Fast Company: Harvard study shows AI stock trading rivals many picks made by fund managers He built a hit podcast about the Epstein files. Its entirely AI-generated What if the SaaSpocalypse is a myth? This AI note-taking startup thinks its building the steering wheel for chatbots Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
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Time capsules are designed to be resilient by nature. But no time capsule has survived as long as designers hope Americas Time Capsule will. The time capsule, designed for the semiquincentennial of the U.S. founding, is being created by America250, the nonpartisan, congressionally mandated group organizing commemorations for this year. The plan is to bury the time capsule underground in Philadelphia at Independence National Historical Park on July 4, and for it to be opened in another 250 years, in 2276. [Photo: Courtesy of America250] The problem is time capsules, which are typically buried underground, and exposed to the elements, don’t really last that long. “We’ve unburied some time capsules that are more than 200 years old and the contents haven’t fared well,” says Tony Medema, a special advisor and project manager for the time capsule, during a press conference Wednesday. When a time capsule is buried in a building cornerstone, or stored in a climate-controlled space as is the Bicentennial time capsule (it’s stored on a shelf in the National Archives), it’s easier to preserve whatever is inside. Outside, though, it’s exposed to the elements and could get wet and deteriorate. “The biggest risk to a time capsule is water,” says Jacob Ricker, an engineer for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a Commerce Department agency that standardizes weights and worked on the time capsule. [Photo: Courtesy of America250] The design team is taking several precautions to ensure the time capsule remains protected from water. They made the 36-inch-tall vessel tubular to reduce structural vulnerabilities. The capsule has three inner layers that lock in its contents and protect them from outside elements, followed by an outer stainless-steel finish that covers the entire time capsule. Inside, design decisions were both functional and organizational. A metal bell jar cover creates an air pocket. There are also stacks of interior shelves that will eventually house things like a flag, items from the 2026 Rose Parade, and submissions from all 50 states, five territories, and Washington, D.C. Paper documentsits most delicate contentswill be secured inside an inner chamber. Earlier plans for the time capsule imagined it embedded in a 46-foot-long sculpture of Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 “Join or Die” political cartoon showing a snake made up of pieces representing the then-British colonies. The sculpture is expected to be completed this fall. Organizers, however, determined that for longevity’s sake, it would be better to bury the time capsule underground. [Photo: Courtesy of America250] Independence National Historical Park is about 30 feet above sea level, so rising sea levels shouldn’t be a problem for 250 years, Ricker says, but the time capsule was also designed to withstand flooding. “Because we’re underground, we do get rain and things like that and it is possible that the burial area could get flooded with water. Our design is accounting for that,” he says. “So it shouldn’t see water, even if we get torrential rains or anything like that, which would flood the burial site. It should be 100% sealed just with that outer shell.” NIST scientists helped develop the time capsule alongside preservation experts at the Library of Congress and in coordination with the National Park Service, America250 says. A replica will be displayed at the White House Visitor Center, however, time to see the real thing is limited: the actual time capsule will be briefly displayed in early June in Philadelphia before it’s buried.
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When Dr. Wendy Ross logged on for a Zoom meeting in early 2024, she wasnt sure who to expect on the other side of the call. It was a digital writers’ room, Ross tells Fast Company, “and in the upper left-hand cornerI’ll never forget itwas Noah Wyle. Ross, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician and the director of Jefferson Center for Autism & Neurodiversity in Philadelphia, had received a request to lend her expertise to the writers of a new medical seriesbut they told her only that it was set in an emergency room and would potentially feature an autistic doctor. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I thought it sounded kind of cool, she says. That show went on to become HBO’s hit drama The Pitt, which won three Emmy Awards and averaged 10 million viewers an episode in its first season. Wyle is an executive producer and a star of the show, making his return to medical dramas 30 years after his breakout role on ER. (Ross recalls that show airing at the same time she was first studying medicine: In my fangirl world, we went to medical school together, she saysthough when meeting him over Zoom, she kept her cool.) From the get-go, Ross says, The Pitts writers were very serious about not portraying a stereotypical situation regarding autism. “That was in the original request that was posed to me,” she says. Her advice eventually helped shape fan-favorite character Dr. Mel King (played by Taylor Dearden), a bright-eyed resident new to the ER in the show’s first season. [Photo: HBO] Mel exhibits many autistic-coded traits, like self-soothing, the occasional dropped social cue, and a knack for repetitive, focused tasks. But notably, shes never confirmed on the show to be diagnosed as neurodivergent. Instead, viewers get to see many sides of Mel as the season unfolds: her compassion as she comforts a child losing her sister, her earnestness as she befriends her fellow doctors, her eccentricity as she calms herself by repeating Megan Thee Stallion lyrics like a mantra. The decision not to confirm a diagnosis onscreen was a recommendation from Ross. I suggested that it not be clear whether or not this character knew she was on the spectrum, but that some of these characteristics unfold subtly and naturally, as they do in real life, she says. Autistic women are often diagnosed later in life than autistic men; Ross even points out that many women dont receive diagnoses themselves until their children are diagnosed, prompting them to recognize shared traits. Mel stands in for these women, whose autistic traits could pass for neurotypical if unexamined. You see her sometimes do these quirky, unexpected, very enthusiastic things that are kind of subtle, Ross says, but for people who know, you know. A difficult reality The year prior to being tapped by The Pitts writers room, Ross co-authored an article on the experiences of autistic doctors in the workplace in collaboration with Autistic Doctors International. The data in that article was very disconcerting and, frankly, a little bit sad, she says. Ross and her fellow researchers found that of the 225 autistic doctors surveyed, 77 percent had considered suicide, while 24% had attempted it. 80% of respondents said theyd worked with another doctor they suspected was autistic, but only 22% had worked with a doctor they knew was autistic. There’s a lot of anxiety and depression related to being an autistic doctor, Ross says. Part of it is, its a don’t ask, dont tell kind of situation, because people are afraid of the stigma, and by the time they do disclose, they’ve had so many challenges that things quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Banishing stereotypical mythology Ross work with autistic doctors caught the attention of The Pitt‘s development team, who contacted her through the University of Southern Californias Hollywood, Health & Society program, a service that connects the entertainment industry with experts in medicine and safety. “I think that this is an extremely sincere group of people that is motivated by more than the popularity of a show, and I think that’s really special, says Ross. Ross advised The Pitt to avoid overused tropes of autistic characters on televisionparticularly, what she calls the stereotypical mythology of autistic people being savants. While there are some autistic savants, many autistic individuals have varying levels of cognitive abilities like the rest of us, she says, noting that their actual super strength is in dealing with other neurodivergent individuals in stressful situations (like being in an emergency room). Its really important that we understand all kinds of minds, that we understand that everyone has strengths that they bring to the table,” Ross says. “They don’t have to be savants to provide added value.” Ross also recommended that The Pitt cast a neurodivergent actress in the role, which she says lends a level of authenticity to any portrayal of autism. [Photo: HBO] The Pitt did so in casting Dearden, who shared that she has ADHD after the first season aired. Dearden, for her part, has shared the importance of bringing authenticity to her performance as Mel: Im really sick of what people usually do on TV, she said in an interview with Variety. I feel like every time its ever been portrayed, its usually complete robots or completely dysfunctional and cant survive at all. Its ridiculous. The value of authentic representation Now airing its second season, The Pitt has garnered massive critical acclaim not only for its portrayal of Mel, but for tackling themes like gun violence, substance abuse, and burnout in the healthcare industry. Beyond its stellar cast and writing, Ross attributes the shows success to its focus on empathy. “That’s a pervasive theme that expands well beyond the autistic characters, she says. This idea of having authentic representations of people, of accepting all kinds of people, and understanding that we all have strengths and challenges that we engage with is really critically important. Ross hopes that on-screen portrayals like The Pitts can inspire the real-world healthcare industry to do better by neurodivergent folksnot only patients, but doctors and other healthcare professionals. She compares it to the implementation of ramps for wheelchair users: Though designed for the needs of a specific demographic, they improve the lives of all people with mobility issues. The strategies that we deploy for this population are things that all of our patients and colleagues benefit from, Ross says. This kind of care is the kind that some people really have to have, but that all of us ultimately deserve.
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