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The internet posts and side projects of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) worker Jordan Wick could give some clues for how Musks efficiency group might attempt to use AI to downsize and retool the government. During the last half of February, Wick, who has a DOGE email account associated with the Executive Office of the President and now is embedded in the General Services Administration (GSA), posted to his GitHub page the code for several tools that appeared to be related to DOGEs work. The page was discovered by political reporter Roger Sollenberger at the end of last month. Wick posted the code for a tool that automatically downloads DMs from Twitter accounts. The code specifies Twitter accounts, which existed only until the social platform rebranded to X in October 2023, suggesting the possibility that the tool could be used to search through the digital past of government employees looking for disagreeable opinions or references. Another tool appeared to be designed for collecting sensitive data from government agency org charts. The tool contained fields for capturing the employees office, a 1-5 satisfaction rating, union status, and whether or not their position is statutorily mandated. Both the Twitter DM and org chart tools could be used to capture and structure data for use in an AI model. One source within the GSA believes the sensitive data collected by the tools could be used in a potential AI federal employee evaluation/firing-bot. Wick has now set his GitHub account to private. (DOGE didnt immediately respond to Fast Companys request for comment on Wicks GitHub posts.) Wicks tools appear to be designed for evaluating and firing more federal employees, but his professional background suggests a deep interest in modernizing government IT systems using AI. After graduating from MIT in 2020 and working at the self-driving car company Waymo, Wick cofounded (with ex-Palantir employee Anthony Jancso) Accelerate SF, which put on hackathons looking for ways to use large language models to improve local government services in San Francisco. In 2024, Accelerate SF renamed itself AccelerateX and began courting federal agency contracts with its own modern OS for government. A recruiting post on X said the company hopes to use AI to reduce expenditures, automate tedious work, and help interpret government policy language. AccelerateX claimed last May that it already had contracts with two of the largest transportation agencies in America, but a search for the companys name in the federal procurement database came up empty. Those contracts could be with local or state governments. (AccelerateX did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment.) One key challenge of using AI tools to streamline the government is that they must be deftly integrated into existing mission-critical systemssome of them old and brittle like the COBOL-coded mainframe systems used to process Social Security payments. Any interruption to those legacy systems could deprive millions of people of benefits they depend on to live. And there are many such systems active in the government.
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For many new mothers, one of the most mysterious and elusive parts of breastfeeding is the latch. While some babies’ mouths manage to automatically make an airtight seal around their mother’s nipple, others can have difficulties, or physical impediments, that make achieving good suction and proper nursing almost impossible. One solution care providers have offered is the nipple shield, a cuplike perforated silicone device that fits on top of a mother’s nipple and areola and improves the way babies make their latch. It’s typically a short-term method for addressing issues ranging from tongue-ties to flat nipples to engorgement. The problem with nipple shieldsand even for those nursing mothers and babies with a textbook latchis that it can be hard for moms to know when milk is actually flowing. [Photo: Munchkin] Baby brand Munchkin is trying to eliminate some of that mystery with the Flow Nipple Shield +, a new baby nutrition device that works like a conventional nipple shield but which also has an innovative extended channel for the milk to flow through, offering mothers a visual confirmation that babies are successfully latched and effectively nursing. Steven B. Dunn, founder and CEO of WHY Brands, Munchkin’s parent company, says the device addresses some of the literal pain points of breastfeeding while aiming at a bigger target. We describe our product as a nipple shield because it helps explain to mom what it is. We’re not selling a product to reduce pain, though it does reduce pain just like another nipple shield. We’re creating and designing a new category, Dunn says. This is a breastfeeding insight tool. [Photo: Munchkin] The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively breastfeeding newborns for the first six months of life, and supports continued breastfeeding for the first two years of life. But according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, only about 60% of babies in the U.S. are still breastfeeding at six months, and only about a quarter of babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months. Part of the shortage is that many mothers think they aren’t able to breastfeed effectively. A 2013 study from Pediatrics found that a perception of insufficient milk supply was the leading reason mothers stopped breastfeeding, despite only 5% of mothers actually having those symptoms. That perception led to 60% of mothers stopping breastfeeding earlier than they wanted to. In the face of these numbers, Munchkin saw an opportunity to give mothers more information about what was actually happening during the breastfeeding process. The innovation of the Flow Nipple Shield + is a unique milk channel that brings milk on a looping path from the nipple to the baby’s mouth, jutting out from the latch zone so that a mother (or other observer) can easily see milk moving through. This channel, the width, and dimensions of it, went through a lot of test and learn, test, and learn, says Dunn. It was probably the most difficult product to manufacture in Munchkin’s 30-year history. The nipple shield’s design has been in development for almost a decade. Munchkin’s design and product teams worked with lactation consultants and engineers to fine-tune the form of the device, and to ensure the milk channel was long enough to provide visual confirmation without making it too hard for babies to get the milk all the way through. They also worked to reduce its overall size. We purposely made the product as thin as possible with food grade silicone to maximize the skin-to-skin contact between mom and baby, Dunn says. [Photo: Munchkin] During product development, Munchkin launched a 12-month clinical trial of the device, to gauge its effectiveness in encouraging more breastfeeding. Among the 301 participants in the trial, more than 93% were still breastfeeding at the six-month mark. Our research shows that if moms get confident, especially in the first month of breastfeeding, they’re much more likely to continue, Dunn says. Available in four sizes, the Flow Nipple Shield + retails for $40 and includes a special syringe for cleaning the surface and the milk channel. The device will be available in the U.S., Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. It’s probably the largest global campaign we’ll ever do, says Diana Barnes, chief brand officer at WHY. But the nature of the product has also posed a problem for its marketing. The best way to explain the product, Barnes says, is to show it being used during breastfeeding, which requires at least partial exposure of a breast. Some vendors have chosen not to show our assets, says Barnes I was actually quite disappointed. That hasn’t stopped the company from pursuing ad placements around the world, including in Times Square. Our goal is to normalize what is the most natural thing to women since the beginning of time, Barnes says. The Flow Nipple Shield + is an attempt to make that natural process less mysterious and frustrating. We do not want to be preachy. We don’t want to push. If mom’s goal is a day, if mom’s goal is a month, or six months, or a year, we want to do whatever we can do to provide insights, Dunn says. This just shows your milk is flowing, your milk is not flowing. It’s a green light or red light. And we think that information is so key for mom making her choices, whatever it’s going to be.
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E-Commerce
Like it or not, public speaking is a big part of any leaders job description, and even heads of state are not immune. President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening (March 4, 2025) for the first time since his second term began. It is technically not a State of the Union speech, but well get into all that and how to watch it live below: A brief history of the State of the Union American presidents are constitutionally mandated to give updates to Congress about the state of the union. The exact number and timing of these progress reports are not specified. In recent history, presidents tend to tackle this duty in late January or early February. George Washington set the precedent of giving a speech to a joint session of Congress and his successor, John Adams, followed his example. Thomas Jefferson broke this tradition and gave his updates via a written report because he didnt want to appear like a monarch. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson revived the in-person speech. In 1923, Calvin Coolidge brought the address to the radio. The first televised address was given by Harry Truman in 1947. Why isn’t tonight’s speech a state of the union? It’s a case of semantics. Because this is the first year of President Trumps second term, this is officially considered a joint address, even though the speech will be similar to a State of the Union. House Speaker Mike Johnson invited Trump via a letter sent in late January. It is expected that next year will be his first official State of the Union. What will Trump talk about? Given Trumps unpredictable nature, truly anything can happen. There are prominent issues that will most likely be covered, one of which involves a possible government shutdown. Federal funding is set to expire on March 14 with no clear plan in place to move forward. On February 27, Trump took to Truth Social and blamed former president Joe Biden for the lack of budget. Additionally, he endorsed a continuing resolution that would fund the government until September. Historically, presidents use their State of the Union or joint address speeches to ask Congress for support in carrying out their political agenda. President Trump does this less frequently than his predecessors. According to Hoffman and Howard, he never made more than 24 requests in his speeches, while the average is 31. Instead, Trump began his second term by issuing a record-breaking number of executive orders, some of which are already being challenged in court. Critics also believe that the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, may be unconstitutional, since Musk was not confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, Trumps quest to cut government spending is also on shaky constitutional grounds, because Congress is supposed to control the purse strings. Other diplomatic issues, such as newly imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada and Trumps Oval Office disagreement with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, might make the cut as well. How can I watch or stream Trump’s speech tonight? The stage is set for an intriguing night of political theater. The speech is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET, but most networks will have some sort of pre-show coverage. (C-SPAN’s coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET.) Those with an over-the-air antenna or traditional cable subscription, you can tune into the network of your choosing. For those who cut the cord, live-TV streaming services that carry TV networks as part of a bundle will have the speech. Those include: Fubo Sling YouTube TV Hulu + Live TV Free live-streaming services from the major TV networks are another easy way to watch the speech if you’re not paying for cable. Those include: NBC News Now ABC News Live CBS News Streaming Network Additionally, NPR will cover the speech on your local station and the NPR app. It will also be broadcasting on YouTube, as will PBS NewsHour, which is also embedded below. Immediately following Trumps address, the Democrats will get their chance to weigh in. Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan will do the honors in English. Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York’s 13th congressional district will respond in Spanish. Representative Lateefah Simon of California’s 12th district, technically a Democrat, is also speaking for the Working Families Party.
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