 |
|
|
|||||
On the heels of its intriguing Super Bowl ad, AI.com is garnering all sorts of interestso much, in fact, that the company’s website crashed as Super Bowl viewers scrambled to see what the company no one has heard of was all about. The new AI platform, founded by Crypto.com CEO and cofounder Kris Marszalek, reportedly spent a whopping $85 million on the Super Bowl spot, only to garner such a heavy volume of traffic that he had to post on X: “Insane traffic levels. We prepared for scale, but not for THIS,” followed by three fire emoji. That 30-second commercial, which ran during the coveted fourth-quarter ad slot, encouraged fans to go to the site and create an AI handle, lured by the promise it would “perform real-world tasks for the good of humanity.” What exactly does that mean? According to the company’s release: “With a few clicks, anyone can now generate a private, personal AI agent that doesnt just answer questions, but actually operates on the users behalforganizing work, sending messages, executing actions across apps, building projects, and more,” the company said. The company also asks people to “join now to claim your unique ai.com/username,” which requires entering credit card information to allegedly “verify that you’re a human” in order to secure a handle. Fast Company has reached out to AI.com for more details on why a credit card is required for verification. However, many who scrambled to the site were left with more questions than answers. One X user wrote: “I’m on the site but it’s not clear what http://ai.com offers!” On Meta’s Threads, user hridoyreh posted: “Why and for what exactly do I need to add a card for my AI.com username? Is this how they want to recover the $70 million they spent?” To which one user replied: “Ran into that this morning and was a big NOPE from me.” And another commented: “Literally no idea what that website / product does.” Marszalek reportedly bought the domain for $70 million, which is estimated to be “the single largest domain purchase in history,” according to the company, as reported by the Financial Times. According to AI.com’s release, the company’s “key differentiating feature is the agents ability to autonomously build out missing features and capabilities to complete real-world tasks. … Such improvements will subsequently be shared across millions of agents on the network, massively increasing the utility of each agent for ai.com users.” It also said users will soon be able to deploy their agent to do a range of actions, like trading stocks, automating workflows, organizing and executing daily tasks with their calendar, or even updating their online dating profileall while remaining private, permission-based, and fully under the users control.
Category:
E-Commerce
As backlash over Bad Bunnys Super Bowl LX halftime show rippled through conservative media, a notable group of right-leaning commentators broke with President Donald Trump to defend the performancein some cases walking back their own earlier criticism. Despite Bad Bunnys message of love and unity, the performance has been placed squarely at the center of the culture war in recent weeks. After initially calling for viewers to turn off the halftime show and labeling Bad Bunny a fake American citizen who publicly hates America, influencer and boxer Jake Paul, 29, has now claimed amnesia over his viral rant. Guys i love bad bunny idk what happened on my twitter last night ?? wtf, he posted on Monday morning. He also claimed his initial post was misinterpreted online, clarifying that it was Bad Bunnys values he was calling fake not his citizenship. Guys i love bad bunny idk what happened on my twitter last night ?? wtf— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) February 9, 2026 The overnight switch-up might be less a change of heart and more a reaction to the tide of public opinion turning against him. Even his brother and fellow influencer publicly disagreed with the take. Logan Paul replied to the post, writing: “I love my brother but I don’t agree with this Puerto Ricans are Americans & Im happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island.” A fake American citizen? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also responded on Monday on X. Didnt you MOVE to Puerto Rico to avoid paying your taxes while kids across America go hungry? A fake American citizen?Didnt you MOVE to Puerto Rico to avoid paying your taxes while kids across America go hungry?Meanwhile Benito actually funds low income kids access to arts and sports programs, while you defund them.Of course youre mad. He makes you look small. https://t.co/lLfY8pcBLn— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 9, 2026 Mike Nellis, former Senior Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, also chimed in to say: Future historians will mark Jake Pauls meltdown over Bad Bunny as the moment the left officially won the culture war. President Donald Trump was another vocal critic of Bad Bunnys halftime show, taking to Truth Social to call it “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER,” in a social media post on Sunday. But by Monday, a number of conservative commentators and Trump allys had hit back at the President. Anti-woke broadcaster Piers Morgan, who has previously been friendly towards the president, responded on Monday: Couldnt disagree more, Mr President. I absolutely loved Bad Bunnys halftime show… Oh, and Spanish is 1st language for 50m+ Americans! Couldnt disagree more, Mr President. I absolutely loved Bad Bunnys halftime show. Amazing (best in Super Bowl history?) theatre/choreography, great energy, superbly confident performance, and a very welcome unifying message.Oh, and Spanish is 1st language for 50m+ Americans! pic.twitter.com/9rVUEmisRI— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 9, 2026 Im sorry but I just genuinely question your taste level if you didnt enjoy the Bad Bunny halftime show, Republican Meghan McCain also posted on X. And everything in life doesnt have to be ruined with politics. Im sorry but I just genuinely question your taste level if you didnt enjoy the Bad Bunny halftime show.And everything in life doesnt have to be ruined with politics.— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) February 9, 2026 Bad Bunny spotlighted Puerto Rican culture in a 13-minute spectacle at Levis Stadium in Santa Clara, California, reaching an estimated 135.4 million viewers. Over on YouTube, Turning Point USA streamed its own alternative concert featuring Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, and two other country artists, which peaked at about 6.1 million concurrent viewers.
Category:
E-Commerce
Investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary once declared that to succeed in business you must be willing to grind out 25 hour work days. He has since walked back on that idea, calling it, in his own words, sheer stupidity. In fact: The worst advice I hear young founders talk about all the time is that they want to work 18 hours a day. How stupid is that? OLeary said in a video posted on his Instagram page last week. The eat-sleep-work lifestylealso known as the 996 schedule first imported from China, which stands for 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a weekhas since gained momentum among Silicon Valley tech companies. Despite his previous declarations, OLeary says it’s high time to put that idea to bed. Youve got to get some sleep, you have to eat well to stay focused, he says. Thats how youre successful. Being tired is practically a personality trait in corporate America. Harvard University research found 55% of CEOs get six hours of sleep a night or less. Yet, research consistently shows that productivity is closely tied to sleep. One 2019 study found that sleep-deprived entrepreneurs were more likely to favor weaker business ventures, failing to look past the surface-level features of new business ideas to understand their long-term potential. For the sleepless founder, making important decisions also becomes more difficult after a long day of work, as the effects of decision fatigue start to take hold. Theres lots of evidence that you should make the major decisions right after you wake up when you have the maximum energy and your mind is clear, OLeary says. Success should not come at the detriment of your health. This idea that you dont get any sleep, as if its good for investors, is sheer stupidity, he says. Eating well, getting sleep, and exercising are his actual secrets to optimization. O’Leary now sees those founders hustling 18 hours a day (or at least, those who look like theyve been) as poor bets. If you show up looking half-dead, Im not investing, OLeary wrote in the video caption. Youre not a hero, youre a liability.So, the next time you feel pressure to camp out in the office, take a page out of OLearys playbook and: Go home and get a good night’s rest. Show up to work looking and feeling fresh. Tackle your most important tasks first thing. In doing so, youll not only look better and feel better but maybe most importantly. . .work better.
Category:
E-Commerce
On Jan. 19, 2025, someone paid $75.35 to buy a Trump meme coin. Today, assuming that investor held the cryptocurrency, the investment has lost 96% of its value. The crypto market has been more volatile than usual in recent weeks. Last week alone saw daily swings of as much as $10,000 in Bitcoin, the leading digital currency, pushing it down to nearly $60,000, a level not seen since 2024. Bitcoin has since recovered somewhat, though it is still hovering near $70,000, well below its $122,000 high last October. But as mainstream cryptocurrencies continue to give investors whiplash, meme coin holders have fared even worse. The Trump coin, in mid-morning trading Monday, stood at $3.39, according to CoinMarketCap. The Melania coin, which once traded as high as $13.73, is down roughly 99%, changing hands for about 12 cents. The drop in the Trump coin comes roughly a year after it began to lose investor support following Trumps inauguration. Last February, the coins market capitalization stood at $3.5 billion, already well below its $14.5 billion peak on the eve of his second inauguration. Today, it has fallen to $1.78 billion. Non-political meme coins have also seen steep declines. Dogecoin, which once flirted with $1 per coin, is now trading just over 9 cents. That represents a 25% decline year to date and a 68% drop since last September. Shiba Inu now costs $0.000006060, meaning that buying 1,650 coins today would cost just under one centa 20% drop from its highs last October. Losses over the past week span the broader meme coin market: Pepe fell 13%. Bonk dropped 16%. Pudgy Penguins declined 20%. And pippin slid 35%. (No, we didnt make any of those names up, and no, its not surprising if you havent heard of several of them.) Cryptos turbulence comes amid broader market instability in 2026. Wall Street has experienced its own roller-coaster ride, and even precious metals have been volatile, with silver prices swinging between $71 and $115 since Jan. 1. What makes crypto’s ups and downs particularly noteworthy, though, is the financial stakes held by President Donald Trump’s two eldest sons. Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr co-founded American Bitcoin, a publicly-traded bitcoin mining and treasury management company in March of last year. (The stock has fallen from $7.40 per share when it began trading to $1.28 in midday trading Monday.) Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and 19-year-old Baron Trump are also co-founders of World Liberty Financial, a crypto company that is now generating more revenue for the family than the Trump real estate business. The Wall Street Journal calculates that the company has brought in at least $1.4 billion for the Trump family since Trumps re-election. The sons of Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also operate businesses with crypto interests. A White House spokesperson told the Journal that there are no conflicts of interest, as the ventures are run independently by the politicians sons. Meme coins have always been risky investments. All too often, they’re rug pullsget-rich-quick schemes where one entity sees significant returns, but investors are left with useless holdings. And while they might be tied to a pop culture phenomenon or a person, there’s no guarantee there’s any formal relationship between the two. That could be the case with the Melania meme coin. Last October, a lawsuit was filed alleging that the coins backers orchestrated a large-scale pump-and-dump scheme involving at least 15 cryptocurrencies, including $MELANIA. The complaint alleged that First Lady Melania Trump was used as window dressing for a crime engineered by Meteora and Kelsier. “Neither Melania Trump nor her representatives knew the project was part of a systemic fraud, and they would not have agreed to any use of her name had they known the truth,” the suit read.
Category:
E-Commerce
Kroger named former Walmart executive Greg Foran as its chief executive officer on Monday, 11 months after the abrupt resignation of its previous CEO. Foran has a reputation as a tech-savvy and detail-oriented leader. He led Walmart’s U.S. division from 2014 to 2019, where he focused on cleaning up stores, ensuring items were in stock, and improving the fresh produce selection. He also introduced online ordering and pickup, and accelerated Walmart’s digital capabilities. Walmart has reshaped itself into a tech-powered retail giant that has leaned heavily into automation and artificial intelligence, and it’s one of the biggest competitive threats to Kroger, the largest stand-alone U.S. supermarket chain. Shares of The Kroger Co. rose nearly 7% in early trading Monday after Kroger said Foran would lead the company. Walmart has become a larger challenge to Kroger and other traditional grocers as Americans increasingly pick up their groceries along with other general goods that Walmart sells. Walmart currently controls around 21% of the U.S. grocery market, compared to 8.5% for Kroger, according to the market research company Numerator. Kroger has also felt pressure from fast-growing discount chains like Aldi and Lidl and online behemoths like Amazon. Kroger proposed a merger with Albertsons in 2022 as a way to better compete with its rivals. But the Federal Trade Commission and two states Washington and Colorado sued to block the merger in 2024, saying it would raise prices and lower workers wages by eliminating competition. Judges ultimately ruled that the merger should not proceed. Kroger has struggled to adjust as customers increasingly embrace delivery, pickup and ship-to-home for their groceries. The company said in December that its e-commerce sales jumped 17% in the latest quarter. In November, Kroger shuttered automated fulfillment centers in Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida and said it would monitor its five remaining facilities. The company said it found that delivering directly from its stores was faster and cheaper than using the automated facilities, where robots pick and pack groceries. Kroger said the closures could help make its e-commerce business profitable this year. Kroger also recently expanded its partnerships with the third-party delivery services DoorDash and Uber Eats. For years, Kroger had limited what third parties could deliver and instead tried to meet demand with its own delivery drivers. But Kroger has also found that it needs to tread carefully when experimenting with new technology. When some of its stores switched to digital price labels, which allow stores to change prices instantly, state and federal lawmakers questioned whether the company would use the technology to surge prices. Kroger also got heat from lawmakers about a partnership with Microsoft that would place cameras in aisles and offer personalized deals to shoppers based on their gender and age. Foran succeeds Ron Sargent, who has been Kroger’s interim leader since former CEO Rodney McMullen resigned last March. McMullen had been Kroger’s CEO since 2014 and was also the company’s chairman. Kroger said he resigned after an investigation into his personal conduct, which was unrelated to the business but violated its ethics policy. Sargent will continue to serve as Krogers chairman to ensure a smooth leadership transition. Greg is a highly respected operator who knows how to run large-scale retail businesses, strengthen store execution and lead high-performing teams, Sargent said in a statement. His leadership style, focus on the customer, commitment to associates, and disciplined approach to execution are the perfect fit for Kroger.” Foran, a New Zealand native, most recently served as CEO of Air New Zealand, where he also improved digital capabilities, led negotiations with the airline’s union and guided it through the pandemic. Kroger, based in Cincinnati, has 2,731 stores operating under various brands, including Ralphs, King Soopers, Smith’s and Fred Meyer. It has 409,000 employees. By Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
Category:
E-Commerce