YouTuber MrBeast made a brief cameo in the new music video for Mariah Carey’s song Type Dangerous, but it was a font that got more screen time.
The video is divided into seven acts named after different would-be paramours, like “Mr. Player,” “Mr. Danger,” and “Mr. Beast,” and each act is introduced with red, all-caps text set in Aviano Serif Black, a squat, geometric typeface with short, sharp serifs that was vertically lengthened by 130% for the video.
If it seems familiar, that’s because it looks a lot like the typography Carey has used throughout her career, starting with her 1990 self-titled debut album cover. But look closely at the serifs, and you’ll notice it’s not the exact same font.
[Images: Columbia Records, Macmillan Publishing]
Many artists switch up the typefaces they use to reflect an albums theme. Carey, though, has stuck to similar typefaces throughout her discography, which dates back 35 years.
Friz Quadrata
Carey’s primary typeface of choice is Friz Quadrata, an award-winning serif by type designer Ernst Friz released in 1966 that’s also used in the logos for Law & Order and Dr Pepper. Used consistently throughout her career and on best-selling albums like Daydream, Music Box, and The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey’s name written in all-caps has over time become as much a part of her brand as her high heels, dresses, and wind machines. Carey also has a monogrammed version of just an M and C. The logo mark is to divas what the Rolling Stones’s tongue and lips logo is to rock bands.
[Screenshot: Gamma/YouTube]
Though eagle-eyed viewers will notice differences in the letterform for letters like M and R, the customized, heightened Aviano Serif Black looks like a spitting image of Friz Quadrata in the “Type Dangerous” video, which was directed by Joseph Kahn (the director behind hit videos like Britney Spears’s “Toxic” and Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood”). Like a brand refresh you don’t even notice happened, the font choice gives Carey’s video a new bespoke typeface that still looks familiar and classic.
Field Notes cofounders Aaron Draplin and Jim Coudal have convened to ostensibly talk about their cult-fave memo book brand. But Draplinthe gregarious, hilarious Portland proprietor of Draplin Design Co.just wrapped up jury duty. And almost 10 minutes into our conversation, hes regaling us with courtroom sketches he made during the trial. (Of course, I had to figure out some way to exploit it for creative purposes.)
Such freewheeling is just part and parcel of knowing Draplin, but Coudal has a knack for seamlessly and seemingly effortlessly steering the conversation back to the subject at hand. It underscores a point: Without Draplin, there would be no Field Notes. And without Coudal, there would definitely be no Field Notes.
What Jim brought to the table is that he had the light bulb where he saw what this thing could be, Draplin says. Jims, like, reputable and stuff. People always say, well, youre half of the thingyeah, but I would have killed it because I might have gone to the next goofy little thing.
Jim Coudal and Aaron Draplin [Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
Today, 20 years and more than 10 million sold notebooks later, what began as a casual side project with no real expectation has yielded a cult product that is in 2,000 stores worldwide, has a robust direct-to-consumer membership program, and, Coudal says, just came off its best year for sales and revenue. And 2025 is on pace, he adds, with hopes to surpass it.
It all goes back to Coudals light bulband, of course, Draplins before it. He had been drawing all his life and learned bookmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. When Draplin left the Midwest for the West Coast in 1993, he began collecting memo books that agriculture companies historically gave out as promos, and was taken with their lineage and practical design. He decided to make some of his own notebooks in 2005, and the pragmatism and charm of those promosthe vernacular type treatments, layouts, voicefound their way into Field Notes DNA. He hand-printed 200 notebooks on a desktop Gocco and later invested $2,000 into a first run of 2,000 notebooks with FIELD NOTES printed on the cover in Futura. His goal? To give them out to friends. And one of those friends along the way happened to be Coudal, of Coudal Partners, the measured mind to Draplins mad scientist.
[Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
He just said, There’s something here, Draplin recalls.
Coudals team made a website. On the day it went live, they made 13 modest sales via PayPal. But that was okayagain, he and Draplin both had their own gigs, and Coudal says Field Notes wasnt a priority for either of them.
But, Before you know it, there’s media attention . . . and we’re seeing real numbers, Draplin says.
According to Coudal: One by one we fired all our clients because this Field Notes thing was getting bigger and taking up more of our timeand it was a lot more fun than making work we were proud of for people we didn’t particularly like.
Stanley Donwood, Is a River Alive? [Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
THE FIELD NOTES FORMULA
When the pair formally launched the brand, Coudal says projects at his studio had three mandates: They had to make money, as the team had mortgages and kids to put through school; they had to be something the team would be proud of; and they had to be able to learn something new from it. Field Notes checked the boxes.
Draplins goals were more straightforward. He says he was making a buck for every grand the agency he worked for did. The mid-aughts were the dawn of the modern maker movement, and there was an opportunity to craft your own future. He did just that with a concrete design system for the brands signature notebooks from the get-go.
There’s never been a piece of type on any Field Notes material that wasn’t Futura or Century Schoolbook, two beautiful, hardworking American fonts, Coudal says. Other assets like the highly structured copy on the inside covers, as well as the logo placement on the front, were likewise sacrosanct. We can do different printing techniques, and we can do different-size notebooks, and we do a lot of things. But we don’t mess with what made Field Notes Field Notes.
[Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
They sold the 3.5-by-5.5-inch 48-page books in packs of three, and the business grew slowlybut steadily. And as it grew, Coudal says, it became easier: he more notebooks you make, the cheaper each one becomes because youre buying in bulk. When they began scaling up their print runs, they were able to get the price down to a couple dollars per book, and sell the three-packs for $13 to 15which got them into stores. (Today, you can find them everywhere from indies to Barnes & Noble.)
One critical moment came in February 2010, when J. Crew featured Field Notes in its catalog, alongside the retailers other personal favorites from our design heroes. There was a Timex watch, Ray-Bans, Sperry shoesand out of fucking nowhere, Field Notes, Coudal says. And when that happened, a lot changed for us.
Coudal says it gave the brand instant credibilityafter all, if it was good enough for J. Crew, it was good enough for your store. In time, friends began sending him screenshots of Field Notes in TV shows; he and Draplin would see people jotting notes in them in bars and elsewhere; on the design web, they became an obsession. By 2014, there was even a subreddit dedicated to them titled FieldNuts.
Meanwhile, Draplin dropped into a New York store where the notebooks were arranged amongst $600 sweaters and $800 jeans. And the proprietor told him he could be selling the notebooks for $29.95 or $40which is something he would not do.
That’s my favorite partthis stuff is accessible, right? Draplin notes.
[Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
SUBSCRIPTION STRATEGY
In 2009, Field Notes launched a set of color variants, and does a new installment every quarter, which subscribers can get annually for $120. They are up to 67 editions. And over the years, the program has grown to include elaborate series like the brands popular National Parks books, celebrations of spaceflight and letterpress, and dozens more themes.
Coudal says the first few print runs were around 1,500 packs eachbut they have grown to the 30,000-to-60,000 range today. He adds that aside from a couple very strange years around COVID, gross revenue and DTC sales (which account for about 50% of the business) have increased almost every year since 2009.
Rocky Mountain National Park by Rory Kurtz, Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Chris Turnham, Yellowstone National Park by Brave the Woods [Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
The thing about the subscription model is, first of all, people are paying us now for a product we haven’t made yet, Coudal says. That’s really good for cash flow for a small company. But more important than that, having these four projects every year that people are funding ahead of time gives us a really great way to make a relationship with our customers and our retailers.
Each one also fulfills Coudals third tenet for projectshe has an opportunity to explore an entirely new subject through the work.
Emmy Star Brown, Flora [Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
THE DRAPLIN FACTOR
Of course, as Field Notes has risen in notoriety over the years, Draplin has been on a parallel path. He embodies the brand at design conferences like Adobe MAX and in his merch pop-ups, where he is treated like a rock star.
I ask about the impact of Draplins industry celebrity, and Coudal jumps in.
I can answer that because Aaron’s going to be humble about it. I think it’s made a lot of difference. I think that Aaron has brought a lot of people to the brand, and he’s also like our gospel preacher out on the road, telling the storythe gospel of Field Notes.
Before the brand had an advertising budget, Coudal says that was critical. And for Draplin, those talks arent to simply shill. It’s a reminder: You can go make your own stuff, too, he says.
With Draplin on the West Coast, Field Notes core team of around 10 is anchored in Chicago. While Draplin says he used to be far more involved in the day-to-day around seven years ago, these days he regards his role as a bit of a mercenary. He drops in with ideas; Coudal will, say, assign him to go make something weird. Hes also pissed the team off, on occasion, by going rogue with an idea.
[Photo: courtesy Field Notes]
Ultimately, I’m along for the ride at that point, because there’s a den mother watching over us, Draplin says. Asa result of being removed from the daily routine, he adds, I get to experience the buzz of what the customer gets. Which is, in all likelihood, a valuable temp check.
A sample of Aaron Draplin’s collection of vintage farmer’s memo books. Explore the digitized collection here. [Screenshot: courtesy Field Notes, Eric Lovejoy, Leigh McKolay and Joe Dawson Jr. (site credits)]
Aaron’s wisdom and inspiration are a constant good thing for the brand,” Coudal says. “And while he’s not checking the layouts anymore, he’s certainly a big part of the general direction that the ship sails.
Looking to the future, Coudal says his goals are straightforward enough: Generate more interest, tell interesting stories, get wider distribution.
Draplin, meanwhile, still seems a bit incredulous that the company exists in the first place. The biggest, funnest part about this thingnumber one, we didn’t lose any money. Isn’t that cool? I would have been okay if we did, he says. But, This can exist. This happened. [Weve done] it for almost 20 years. It’s fucking amazing. I’ll tell you what . . . it exceeded my dreams.
In 1995, Benjamin Santer was the lead author on a chapter of the second Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that would alter climate science forever. In a culmination of more than a year of meticulous research, the chapter came to a groundbreaking conclusionconfirming an international scientific consensus that humans were having a discernible impact on the climate.
The pushback was immediate and immense. Lobbyist groups erroneously accused Santer of removing discussion of scientific uncertainty in the report. Frederick Seitz, former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a founding member of the environmental skeptic conservative think tank the George C. Marshall Institute, published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal claiming, I have never witnessed a more disturbing corruption of the peer-review process. Despite being backed up by the climate science community, Santer underwent congressional hearings, personal threats, and calls for his dismissal at his lab.
Despite the pushback, Santer has continued to do groundbreaking research identifying human fingerprints in many different observed climate variables and received a number of awards for his work, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1998.
Santer recently spoke to Fast Company about the threats the second Trump administration poses to the future of climate science and shared advice for the next generation of scientists entering a contentious time. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
How does the current state of climate research compare to other peaks and valleys you have seen over your career?
I think this is the deepest valley that I’ve ever been in in my entire scientific career. It feels different from anything else that I’ve encountered, and I encountered some pretty deep valleys after publication of the discernible human influence finding in the 1995 IPCC report. But this is different because it’s so targeted.
The intent of the administration is to destroy, to tear down a capability to do basic science, to understand how and why the world around us is changing, to understand the inequities of climate change, to invest in low-carbon energy sources and support the development of low-carbon energy.
All of these things have happened in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, and so much destruction has impacted not only our long-term futuresin academia, in research, the grants that will be available for us, the opportunities at universitybut also the leadership of this country and science and technology.
And of course, not only in climate science and green energy, but also increasingly in health, the development of novel vaccines, the development of cancer drugs, all of that is imperiled. To turn away from those challenges as this administration is doing makes no sense whatsoever.
What are some of the concrete steps this administration is taking to reduce climate protections?
It’s been a full-court press, I would say: not only the illegal termination of probationary employees, tens of thousands of them across agencies like NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], and NASA, but the changing of language [around climate change].
This willful ignorance seems very reminiscent of COVID under the first Trump administration. You may recall that President Trump argued that COVID was no worse than the seasonal flu. He seemed intent on downplaying any danger to the U.S. public that might interfere with the economy.
Why do I mention that? Because it’s the same deal with climate change. If you pretend it doesn’t exist, then you can go on with business as usual, Drill baby, drill, all that kind of stuff. And that’s what’s happening. The administration is pretending that human-caused climate change isn’t happening, and everything’s fine, when it isn’t.
In addition to the firings, in addition to the censorship, againas has been widely reportedaccess to data is reducing. [For example,] because of some of the firings at NOAA, there aren’t scientists to launch weather balloons. At a number of locations, weather balloons are critically important. They make measurements of temperature and moisture, and those measurements are ingested by weather forecast models.
They help the weather forecast models to know something about the current state of the atmosphere and the surface of the ocean, and that information is extremely important in making a reliable weather forecast. Because of the firings, we’re losing some of the weather balloon information that flows into weather forecasts.
So all of this taken together, when you take a step back and look at it, is an effort to keep the public ignorant about the reality and seriousness of climate change.
Do you think that there’s any possibility that other countries might be able to step in to fill the gaps the U.S. is creating?
I hope that there are folks in space agencies like the European Space Agency, the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center), and in Japan and China, who understand the seriousness of the threat to the continuity of these records. These aren’t records that just the U.S. uses.
The entire world uses these estimates of global-scale changes in the atmosphere, the ocean, the land surface for evaluating climate models, for doing fingerprint research, for improving our basic understanding of the atmospheric and ocean general circulation. And the U.S. has been a leader in this Earth observation enterprise and in making these datasets available to the international community. Now all of that work is imperiled, so the hope is that there are indeed folks who are contingency-planning in other countries who are trying to figure out, well, what do we do?
But if these satellites go away, the unfortunate thing is that it takes time, right? You can’t just launch a satellite and do this gap-filling very quickly. The development of new satellites and the launching of new satellites is the stuff of years, not the stuff of months.
It also would mean a huge financial investment in gap-filling, in the ocean, and in the satellite measurements of temperature, moisture, winds, you name it. So it is concerning. Hopefully there are those in Congress who will push back against the president’s budget request for NASA and will recognize that if the U.S hands off the baton of leadership in Earth observation to other countries, it will be difficult to flip a switch and restart.
In part because they will lose hundreds, perhaps thousands of good people who have no prospect of employment given what’s happened with NSF [National Science Foundation] grants and firings and cuts to NOAA and NASA. If you lose that expertise, then even with a change of the administration, it’s difficult to restart.
This is why it’s so critically important for folks to use their voices and speak publicly about the harms caused by this willful ignorance, and I’m going to try continuing to do that as long as I possibly can. Scientists don’t have the hippocratic oath that doctors do, but we should. If you see that harm to the stability of climate and to present and future generations is being caused, then, in my opinion, you have a moral and ethical responsibility as a climate scientist to speak out against that.
Do you have any advice for young people looking to get into the sustainability world in this tumultuous time?
Keep plugging away. If you’re passionate about the science, if it’s part of your identity, find a way to do it. I can’t imagine not doing research. It’s part of who I am. It’s part of what I think about when I get up in the morning.
For anyone who is really concerned about the kind of world in which they and their loved ones will grow up, find a way of continuing to [work on climate research and advocacy], even if it’s only in your spare time and you have to have a different day job.
Science has to find a way of continuing. It’s a harsh world out there now with a lot of powerful people wanting to fundamentally change the scientific enterprise in the United States and remove consideration of inequities in our society causing unequal impacts of climate change. Science has to find a way of continuing, of living, of tackling the big questions of the day, irrespective of whether the administration likes or does not like the answer.
A TV ad for Twix has been banned in the UK after an industry standards group said it promoted unsafe driving. The commercial “Two is More Than One” shows a driver in vintage sedan being followed on a remote road; to lose his pursuer, he swerves off the highway and into a ravine. The man lands safely upside down on top a right-side-up clone version of him and his car, and togetherwith Twix in handthey ride off into the desert as the sun sets.
The ad is an absurd play on the double candy bars Twix is known for, but for regulators for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an independent advertising regulator in the UK that polices ads standards, the ad went too far. In a ruling Wednesday, the ASA said the ad encourages “dangerous driving” and banned it from airing again in its current iteration.
Absurdity and fantasy are favorite ways for advertisers to sell products from candy to perfume, and Mars Wrigley argued their Twix ad had “a cinematic presentation” and was set “in a separate world that was absurd, fantastical and removed from reality.” Rather than encourage unsafe driving, the company argued the ad used imaginative storytelling, absurd elements, and Hollywood style to convey the message of the campaign, according to the ruling. Further, the company noted that Twix is known for playful, humorous advertising, like “Ideologies,” the 2012 ad that pitted the left vs. right Twix against each other.
The ASA didn’t dispute that the ad had a cinematic feel, but they had a problem with the emphasis on a chase and speed, and ultimately the group believed the spot broke ad standards against encouraging irresponsible driving. The ASA has enforced the rule before, including in 2015 against Honda.
“We considered the emphasis on a chase, and the speed inherent to that, and the driving maneuvers featured would be dangerous and irresponsible if emulated in real life on a public highway,” the ruling says. “Because we considered the driving depicted in the ads condoned unsafe driving, that appeared likely to breach the legal requirements of the Highway Code, we concluded the ads were irresponsible.”
The ad no longer appears on the Twix UK YouTube page, though third-party accounts uploaded it for the curious, and truth be told, it’s a whole lot more interesting now that it’s banned. For a candy brand that caters to the young and young at heart, making a humorous commercial that’s too dangerous for TV might just be a badge of honor.
Rally racing is a distinctly wild sport, with small cars barreling down dirt tracks in the woods, kicking up gravel as they skid around tight curves.
Subaru is a distinctly practical brand, known for dependable all-wheel drive vehicles.
So it might come as a surprise to some that Subaru, owned by 68-year-old Japanese transportation giant Subaru Corporation (market cap: $12.7 billion), has been placing bets on rally racing, a gritty but emerging corner of the motorsport world that its been supporting for around thirty years. But theres a long-term strategy involved, and its now paying off. Subarus rally racing program offers a unique opportunity to build community around its brand and attract buyers in a key age segment: between 18 and 34 years old.
[Photo: Matt Stryker/Subaru]
Subarus rally racing lead
Over the past three decades, Subaru has invested millions to participate in the American Rally Association (the company declines to say how many). The ARAa younger, feistier sibling of Europes World Rally Championship, which Subaru has participated in since the 1970shosts more than 20 rallies per year, with the backing of the United States Auto Club. Since 2017, Subaru has been a main sponsor of the ARA national championship series.
[Photo: Matt Stryker/Subaru]
Subaru has also proven to be a fierce competitor, with its drivers winning 18 of the last 24 ARA championships, including nine straight years from 2011 to 2019. Subaru has essentially become the brand face of American rally car culture. At the annual Oregon Trail Rally in May, fans in Subaru Outbacks, Forester, and Crosstrek SUVs lined the spectator areas where enthusiasts watched their favorite teams spin by. They lined up to get autographs from and photos with Subarus two main driversBrandon Semenuk and Travis Pastranaboth celebrities on the circuit.
[Photo: Matt Stryker/Subaru]
You think Subaru, you think rally. Theres a strong bond between the brand and the sport, says Subaru rally racing driver and freeriding X-Games medalist Semenuk, who sees potential for the rally racing to grow as big as it is in Europe (and particularly Scandinavia). We have amazing roads [in the U.S.] and theres no reason why America couldnt host a top tier championship.
If it does, Subaru will already have pole position, and a key opportunity for wider brand positioning, too.
How Subaru vehicles fit the rally mold
Not every company has a motorsports division, says James Tate, who leads that department at Subaru. But I think it will be important to have differentiators as cars become more homogenous.
[Photo: Trevor Lyden/Subaru]
Tate is overseeing the companys participation in eight ARA races and a regional event this year. He wont disclose the companys annual motorsport expenditures, but its never cheap, he says wryly. Costs include transport trailers, engineers, mechanics, branded swag and clothing for the race team, and travel.
And of course there are the vehicles themselves: Semenuks car alone racks up a bill in the neighborhood of $500,000 or so, while Pastranas rally carwhich is closer to a mainstream WRX that anyone can buy off a dealer lotstill costs about $150,000 to build.
[Photo: Trevor Lyden/Subaru]
Yet this direct line, between a performance-built rally car and a regular vehicle that a customer can buy off a lot, functions as another sort of differentiator for the brand. Subars four-door compact car, the WRX, is as close to a competitive rally vehicle as one can get without buying an actual rally car. Its right there in the nameWRX stands for World Rally eXperimental. The model has all-wheel drive, turbocharged engine, and compact shape.
The association with rally racing is an important part of the niche car brands identity. Subaru represents just 4.1% of the car sales market in America, according to Cox Automotive, with 667,726 new vehicles sold in 2024. (For comparison, rival Toyota, which owns 20% of Subaru, sold 2.3 million cars last year.) Yet this focus on performance may be giving the brand an edge.Consumer Reports ranked Subaru its number one brand for 2025 and number one for new car reliability.
As of this past April, the automaker reported that had seen sales increases for a consecutive 33 months, and a 16.6% year over year sales increase for the month of March. Even as the company navigates Trumps yo-yo tariff policy, with certain models (including the Forester and WRX) manufactured largely in Japan, Subaru is continuing to focus on what it does best, including its unique boxer engine that gives its vehicles a lower center of gravity and a planted feel both on and off road. Several models are getting facelifts for 2025 that include track-focused details, according to Edmunds, and the brand filed for 24 patents in 2024 that could apply to new trims and vehicles.
[Photo: Trevor Lyden/Subaru]
Star power on the rally circuit
Lance Smith, the president of Vermont SportsCar, has been helping Subaru build its rally cars for decades. He sees this moment in rally racing as a potential turning point for the sport and carmakers alike. After all, Smith posits, those kids who played video game Forza 10 years ago are reaching an age when they can now buy the cars they loved to e-drive. In Japan, Subaru has been cultivating this young market with branded Forza cars for at least a decade.
[Photo: Matt Stryker/Subaru]
In December of last year, the ARA inked a multiyear deal with Smith to lead RallyForward, an entity tasked with promoting rally racing in America. Hes hoping to build this sport into a sustainable business ecosystem in America that will support corporate partners, sponsors, organizers, teams, and drivers, like Subarus high-wattage duo.
Pastrana got his start in motocross and brings his X Games medal-winning motorcycle racing fame to the rally scene. Hes a modern-day Evel Knievel, Tate muses. Hes really valuable and brings unlimited energy to the fans.
[Photo: Trevor Lyden/Subaru]
With Semenuk, Pastrana, and their codrivers Keaton Williams and Rhianon Gelsomino representing the brand in a very personal way, Subaru is able to forge a closer connection to rally racing fans. Sure, Lincoln can hire Matthew McConaughey to drive its vehicles on commercials and Harrison Ford can show up for Jeep, but Subaru has got daredevils careering through the woods at high speeds that average more than 70+ miles per hour, real athletes who are accessible to real life young people.
As those fans think about the next car theyre going to buy, the association is already planted in their heads. And that, Subaru hopes, will result in even better years ahead.
Duolingo isnt just a cute green owl, its a masterclass in psychology, gamification, and habit-building. In this video, we break down the hidden tactics Duolingo uses to keep you coming back. From streaks and notifications to clever sound design and reward systems, you’ll discover how this app turns language learning into something you can’t stop engaging with. Whether you’re a language nerd or just curious how apps keep you hooked, this explainer will open your eyes.
Like it or not, artificial intelligence has become part of daily life. Many devicesincluding electric razors and toothbrusheshave become AI-powered, using machine learning algorithms to track how a person uses the device, how the device is working in real time, and provide feedback. From asking questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot to monitoring a daily fitness routine with a smartwatch, many people use an AI system or tool every day.
While AI tools and technologies can make life easier, they also raise important questions about data privacy. These systems often collect large amounts of data, sometimes without people even realizing their data is being collected. The information can then be used to identify personal habits and preferences, and even predict future behaviors by drawing inferences from the aggregated data.
As an assistant professor of cybersecurity at West Virginia University, I study how emerging technologies and various types of AI systems manage personal data and how we can build more secure, privacy-preserving systems for the future.
Generative AI software uses large amounts of training data to create new content such as text or images. Predictive AI uses data to forecast outcomes based on past behavior, such as how likely you are to hit your daily step goal, or what movies you may want to watch. Both types can be used to gather information about you.
How AI tools collect data
Generative AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini collect all the information users type into a chat box. Every question, response and prompt that users enter is recorded, stored, and analyzed to improve the AI model.
OpenAIs privacy policy informs users that we may use content you provide us to improve our Services, for example to train the models that power ChatGPT. Even though OpenAI allows you to opt out of content use for model training, it still collects and retains your personal data. Although some companies promise that they anonymize this data, meaning they store it without naming the person who provided it, there is always a risk of data being reidentified.
Predictive AI
Beyond generative AI assistants, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok continuously gather data on their users to train predictive AI models. Every post, photo, video, like, share, and comment, including the amount of time people spend looking at each of these, is collected as data points that are used to build digital data profiles for each person who uses the service.
The profiles can be used to refine the social media platforms AI recommender systems. They can also be sold to data brokers, who sell a persons data to other companies to, for instance, help develop targeted advertisements that align with that persons interests.
Many social media companies also track users across websites and applications by putting cookies and embedded tracking pixels on their computers. Cookies are small files that store information about who you are and what you clicked on while browsing a website.
One of the most common uses of cookies is in digital shopping carts: When you place an item in your cart, leave the website and return later, the item will still be in your cart because the cookie stored that information. Tracking pixels are invisible images or snippets of code embedded in websites that notify companies of your activity when you visit their page. This helps them track your behavior across the internet.
This is why users often see or hear advertisements that are related to their browsing and shopping habits on many of the unrelated websites they browse, and even when they are using different devices, including computers, phones, and smart speakers. One study found that some websites can store over 300 tracking cookies on your computer or mobile phone.
Data privacy controlsand limitations
Like generative AI platforms, social media platforms offer privacy settings and opt-outs, but these give people limited control over how their personal data is aggregated and monetized. As media theorist Douglas Rushkoff argued in 2011, if the service is free, you are the product.
Many tools that include AI dont require a person to take any direct action for the tool to collect data about that person. Smart devices such as home speakers, fitness trackers, and watches continually gather information through biometric sensors, voice recognition, and location tracking. Smart home speakers continually listen for the command to activate or wake up the device. As the device is listening for this word, it picks up all the conversations happening around it, even though it does not seem to be active.
Some companies claim that voice data is only stored when the wake wordwhat you say to wake up the deviceis detected. However, people have raised concerns about accidental recordings, especially because these devices are often connected to cloud services, which allow voice data to be stored, synced, and shared across multiple devices such as your phone, smart speaker and tablet.
If the company allows, its also possible for this data to be accessed by third parties, such as advertisers, data analytic firms, or a law enforcement agency with a warrant.
Privacy rollbacks
This potential for third-party access also applies to smartwatches and fitness trackers, which monitor health metrics and user activity patterns. Companies that produce wearable fitness devices are not considered covered entities and so are not bound by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). This means that they are legally allowed to sell health- and location-related data collected from their users.
Concerns about HIPAA data arose in 2018, when Strava, a fitness company released a global heat map of users exercise routes. In doing so, it accidentally revealed sensitive military locations across the globe through highlighting the exercise routes of military personnel.
The Trump administration has tapped Palantir, a company that specializes in using AI for data analytics, to collate and analyze data about Americans. Meanwhile, Palantir has announced a partnership with a company that runs self-checkout systems.
Such partnerships can expand corporate and government reach into everyday consumer behavior. This one could be used to create detailed personal profiles on Americans by linking their consumer habits with other personal data. This raises concerns about increased surveillance and loss of anonymity. It could allow citizens to be tracked and analyzed across multiple aspects of their lives without their knowledge or consent.
Some smart device companies are also rolling back privacy protections instead of strengthening them. Amazon recently announced that starting on March 28, all voice recordings from Amazon Echo devices would be sent to Amazons cloud by default, and users will no longer have the option to turn this function off. This is different from previous settings, which allowed users to limit private data collection.
Changes like these raise concerns about how much control consumers have over their own data when using smart devices. Many privacy experts consider cloud storage of voice recordings a form of data collection, especially when used to improve algorithms or build user profiles, which has implications for data privacy laws designed to protect online privacy.
Implications for data privacy
All of this brings up serious privacy concerns for people and governments on how AI tools collect, store, use, and transmit data. The biggest concern is transparency. People dont know what data is being collected, how the data is being used, and who has access to that data.
Companies tend to use complicated privacy policies filled with technical jargon to make it difficult for people to understand the terms of a service that they agree to. People also tend not to read terms of service documents. One study found that people averaged 73 seconds reading a terms of service document that had an average read time of 29 to 32 minutes.
Data collected by AI tools may initially reside with a company that you trust, but can easily be sold and given to a company that you dont trust.
AI tools, the companies in charge of them and the companies that have access to the data they collect can also be subject to cyberattacks and data breaches that can reveal sensitive personal information. These attacks can by carried out by cybercriminals who are in it for the money, or by so-called advanced persistent threats, which are typically nation or state-sponsored attackers who gain access to networks and systems and remain there undetected, collecting information and personal data to eventually cause disruption or harm.
While laws and regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act aim to safeguard user data, AI development and use have often outpaced the legislative process. The laws are still catching up on AI and data privacy. For now, you should assume any AI-powered device or platform is collecting data on your inputs, behaviors, and patterns.
Using AI tools
Although AI tools collect peoples data, and the way this accumulation of data affects peoples data privacy is concerning, the tools can also be useful. AI-powered applications can streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks and provide valuable insights.
But its crucial to approach these tools with awareness and caution.
When using a generative AI platform that gives you answers to questions you type in a prompt, dont include any personally identifiable information, including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, or home addresses. At the workplace, dont include trade secrets or classified information. In general, dont put anything into a prompt that you wouldnt feel comfortable revealing to the public or seeing on a billboard. Remember, once you hit enter on the prompt, youve lost control of that information.
Remember that devices which are turned on are always listeningeven if theyre asleep. If you use smart home or embedded devices, turn them off when you need to have a private conversation. A device thats asleep looks inactive, but it is still powered on and listening for a wake word or signal. Unplugging a device or removing its batteries is a good way of making sure the device is truly off.
Finally, be aware of the terms of service and data collection policies of the devices and platforms that you are using. You might be surprised by what youve already agreed to.
This article is part of a series on data privacy that explores who collects your data, what and how they collect, who sells and buys your data, what they all do with it, and what you can do about it.
Christopher Ramezan is an assistant professor of cybersecurity at West Virginia University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Eli Lilly announced on Monday it will soon make the two highest-doses of its popular weight-loss drug Zepbound available for self-paying customers on its website.
Starting in August, 12.5-milligram and 15-milligram single doses will be added to the company’s website, effectively making all Zepbound doses available for $499 a month or less.
Unlike the pen form sold at pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS, the drug will be available in vial form through its LillyDirect self-pay pharmacy, which will require patients to draw their own shots into a syringe rather than have them prefilled.
The drug will be available to eligible adults with obesity and a valid prescription regardless of insurance coverage. Health care providers and doctors can start prescribing the higher doses on July 7, according to Lilly.
Zepbound is an injectable prescription medicine belonging to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists that were originally developed for type 2 diabetes, and they may also help to treat adults with obesity and weight-related medical issues.
“Obesity is a serious, chronic disease, and access to obesity medications should be treated with the same urgency as other chronic conditions,” said Rhonda Pacheco, group vice president of U.S. Cardiometabolic Health at Lilly, in the press release. “Lilly was the first company to offer a self-pay solution for an FDA-approved obesity medication, and we continue to work to expand coverage for Zepbound. In the meantime, the availability of the two highest-dose Zepbound vials gives providers and patients another important treatment option.”
While the weight-loss drugs are popular with consumers, they’re not so much with insurance companies, who don’t always widely cover the drugs. This led Lily, and rival Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy, to start offering their own self-pay options.
The company first rolled out its self-pay, single-dose vials last summer in an effort to meet high consumer demand.
Shares in Lilly (NYSE: LLY) were trading down by less than 2% at the market’s close on Monday.
Eli Lily: By the numbers
In Eli Lily’s latest round of earnings for the first quarter of 2025, which ended March 31, the company showed a mixed performance and reported a net income of $2.76 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of $3.34, with revenue guidance between $58 billion and $61 billion. The drugmaker has a market capitalization of $724.99 billion, as of this writing.
The company is slated to report Q2 earnings in early August.
At Home, the big-box home decor and furnishings brand, is the most recent in a series of home goods stores, including Big Lots and True Value, to file for bankruptcy in recent months. Today, the company announced that it is seeking Chapter 11 protection after tariff-related costs, inflation, and reduced foot traffic have taken a bite out of sales.
The company, which is owned by Hellman & Friedman and operates 260 stores across the U.S., has entered an agreement with its lenders thats intended to help eliminate the companys $2 billion in debt while providing $200 million in new funding to keep the brand afloat during the restructuring process.
CEO Brad Weston said in a press release that At Home is operating against a rapidly evolving trade environment as we navigate the impact of tariffs and that the changes are intended to help the company compete in a more volatile marketplace.
At Homes financial woes come on the back of closures for several similar brands. In 2024, the discount retailer Big Lots also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and planned to close all of its 800 locations before it was ultimately purchased and kept afloat by a new owner (though at a much smaller scale). And this May, the beloved arts-and-crafts retailer Joanns closed its doors permanently after a drawn-out bankruptcy process. Now, At Home will be the latest home goods retailer to attempt to keep its doors open as it navigates the bankruptcy process.
26 stores expected to close
Currently, At Home employs over 7,000 workers across 40 states. According to a bankruptcy court filing, the brand has struggled over the past several years due to reduced foot traffic in stores, heightened competition from comparable and off-price retailers offering substantial discounts, and a disparity between inventory and customer demand. Over the last year, At Home has already closed six stores, but it reports that several remaining stores are still operating at suboptimal performance levels.
To turn things around, At Home reported that it will begin by transitioning ownership of the company to its lenders, who are shouldering more than 95% of its debt. The restructuring is also expected to result in several store closures. Per the filing: Ultimately, the Debtors management team and advisors determined that it is appropriate to commence closings of 26 underperforming brick-and-mortar stores, with the potential to close additional underperforming stores in the future.
The 26 stores are expected to be sold and vacated by September 30, 2025. Here are the stores that are expected to close:
750 Newhall Dr., San Jose, CA
2505 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA
2200 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA
3795 E Foothills Blvd., Pasadena, CA
1982 E 20th St., Chico, CA
26532 Towne Center Dr., Suites A-B, Foothill Ranch, CA
2900 N. Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA
8320 Delta Shores Circle S., Sacramento, CA
14585 Biscayne Blvd., North Miami, FL
5203 W. War Memorial Dr., Peoria, IL
13180 S. Cicero Ave., Crestwood, IL
300 Providence Highway, Dedham, MA
571 Boston Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA
2820 Hwy. 63, South Rochester, MN
905 S 24th St. W., Billings, MT
1361 NJ-35, Middletown Township, NJ
461 Route 10, East Ledgewood, NJ
301 Nassau Park Blvd., Princeton, NJ
6135 Junction Blvd., Rego Park, NY
300 Baychester Ave., Bronx, NY
720 Clairton Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA
8300 Sudley Rd., Manassas, VA
19460 Compass Creek Pkwy., Leesburg, VA
1001 E Sunset Dr., Bellingham, WA
2530 Rudkin Rd., Yakima, WA
3201 North Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa, WI
At Home, the big-box home decor and furnishings brand, is the most recent in a series of home goods stores, including Big Lots and True Value, to file for bankruptcy in recent months. Today, the company announced that it is seeking Chapter 11 protection after tariff-related costs, inflation, and reduced foot traffic have taken a bite out of sales.
The company, which is owned by Hellman & Friedman and operates 260 stores across the U.S., has entered an agreement with its lenders thats intended to help eliminate the companys $2 billion in debt while providing $200 million in new funding to keep the brand afloat during the restructuring process.
CEO Brad Weston said in a press release that At Home is operating against a rapidly evolving trade environment as we navigate the impact of tariffs and that the changes are intended to help the company compete in a more volatile marketplace.
At Homes financial woes come on the back of closures for several similar brands. In 2024, the discount retailer Big Lots also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and planned to close all of its 800 locations before it was ultimately purchased and kept afloat by a new owner (though at a much smaller scale). And this May, the beloved arts-and-crafts retailer Joanns closed its doors permanently after a drawn-out bankruptcy process. Now, At Home will be the latest home goods retailer to attempt to keep its doors open as it navigates the bankruptcy process.
26 stores expected to close
Currently, At Home employs over 7,000 workers across 40 states. According to a bankruptcy court filing, the brand has struggled over the past several years due to reduced foot traffic in stores, heightened competition from comparable and off-price retailers offering substantial discounts, and a disparity between inventory and customer demand. Over the last year, At Home has already closed six stores, but it reports that several remaining stores are still operating at suboptimal performance levels.
To turn things around, At Home reported that it will begin by transitioning ownership of the company to its lenders, who are shouldering more than 95% of its debt. The restructuring is also expected to result in several store closures. Per the filing: Ultimately, the Debtors management team and advisors determined that it is appropriate to commence closings of 26 underperforming brick-and-mortar stores, with the potential to close additional underperforming stores in the future.
The 26 stores are expected to be sold and vacated by September 30, 2025. Here are the stores that are expected to close:
750 Newhall Dr., San Jose, CA
2505 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA
2200 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA
3795 E Foothills Blvd., Pasadena, CA
1982 E 20th St., Chico, CA
26532 Towne Center Dr., Suites A-B, Foothill Ranch, CA
2900 N. Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA
8320 Delta Shores Circle S., Sacramento, CA
14585 Biscayne Blvd., North Miami, FL
5203 W. War Memorial Dr., Peoria, IL
13180 S. Cicero Ave., Crestwood, IL
300 Providence Highway, Dedham, MA
571 Boston Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA
2820 Hwy. 63, South Rochester, MN
905 S 24th St. W., Billings, MT
1361 NJ-35, Middletown Township, NJ
461 Route 10, East Ledgewood, NJ
301 Nassau Park Blvd., Princeton, NJ
6135 Junction Blvd., Rego Park, NY
300 Baychester Ave., Bronx, NY
720 Clairton Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA
8300 Sudley Rd., Manassas, VA
19460 Compass Creek Pkwy., Leesburg, VA
1001 E Sunset Dr., Bellingham, WA
2530 Rudkin Rd., Yakima, WA
3201 North Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa, WI
