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President Donald Trump lashed out on Thursday against Elon Musk, saying he was “disappointed” by the billionaire’s public opposition to the sweeping tax-cut and spending bill that is at the heart of Trump’s agenda. “Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “He said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m, I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.” Trump also asserted that Musk’s days of blistering attacks on the bill were motivated by the proposed elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles. Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, has said he opposes the bill because it will increase federal deficits. Trump suggested that Musk, who received a praise-filled sendoff from Trump last week after overseeing his federal bureaucracy cost-cutting campaign, was upset because he missed working for Trump. “He’s not the first,” Trump said. “People leave my administration . . . then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.” As Trump was speaking, Musk wrote on X, “Slim Beautiful Bill for the win,” a reference to the bill’s official title, the “Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Musk followed that up with another post, saying he was fine with the cuts to electric vehicle credits as long as Republicans removed what he called a “mountain of disgusting pork” in wasteful spending from the bill. Musk came into the government with brash plans to cut $2 trillion out of the federal budget. He left last week having achieved far less than that, having cut about half of 1% of total spending. Musk has been a powerful Trump ally, spending nearly $300 billion to boost Republicans in the 2024 election and then overseeing Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. His work eliminating thousands of federal jobs and cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid and other programs caused disruption across federal agencies while prompting widespread protests at Tesla outlets in the U.S. and Europe. Shares of Tesla extended losses after Trump’s criticism of Musk. The stock was lately down nearly 6%; it was off by 3% before Trump spoke. Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw, writing by Joseph Ax, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Travelers from 12 countries in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East woke up Thursday to news they were being barred from entering the U.S., while others, from 7 additional countries, including Venezuela, learned their visa programs were being cancelled. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that effectively bans travel from “foreign nationals” in more than a dozen countries from entering the U.S. citing “national security” concerns. Slated to go into effect on Monday, June 9, the restrictions revisit and expand a previous ban from Trump’s first term. Like many of his executive orders, it is expected to be challenged in court, and comes as part of this administration’s relentless anti-immigration agenda. Here’s what to know about this latest travel ban. What countries are on the travel ban list? The ban fully restricts the entry of individuals from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also partially restricts the entry of travelers from an additional 7 nations: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Why did Trump ban travel to the U.S. from those 12 countries? The administration said the ban was needed to ensure these foreign governments would comply with Trump’s immigration policies, and the president made his decision based on a State Department report, according to The Washington Post. The order said the restrictions were meant to “encourage foreign governments to improve their information-sharing and identity-management protocols and practices.” According to the administration, the banned countries had high rates of people who had overstayed their visas, had poor passport security vetting procedures, and had country-specific risk factors. However, the ban does include exemptions: for law abiding permanent residents, existing visa holders and those from certain visa categories, and those who serve U.S interests, per the Post.
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E-Commerce
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 here. AI Slop summer is here AI image and video generation tools have gone mainstream, with millions creating content and using them on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. Social networks such as Facebook and Pinterest are also seeing a surge in AI-generated posts. Meta is actively promoting this trend, as AI content is easy to produce and often drives higher engagement, creating more opportunities to sell ads. Much of the AI-generated content is what critics call AI sloplow-quality material often produced by low-wage workers in developing countries aiming to harvest clicks on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. This content frequently spreads further via messaging apps like WhatsApp and is often political in nature. One growing genre features right-wing fantasy videos portraying acts of revenge or defiance by MAGA figures such as Donald Trump or Pam Bondi. These are typically just still images with overlaid textclearly fictional. (Left-leaning versions exist too, though they more often rely on real footage, such as Jamie Raskin or Jasmine Crockett dismantling Republican talking points in Congress.) AI-generated content is also increasingly surfacing in search results, often pushing aside higher-quality human-created material. E-commerce platforms like Amazon are flooded with AI-generated product descriptions, user reviews, and even entire books. Some news organizations have started publishing AI-written articles, especially in sports and news roundupsmany riddled with inaccuracies. Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer unintentionally ran book list inserts featuring AI-generated descriptions of books that dont actually exist. Right now, much of the AI-generated content online can still be distinguished from genuinely human-made material. Take, for example, a viral AI video from April that depicted overweight U.S. factory workers (a satire of Trumps tariff policies). It looked fairly realistic but still gave off that unmistakable generated vibe. Still, the line is blurring fast. Consider the recent viral clip of an Australian woman trying to pass airport security with her service kangaroo. It racked up over a million likes before it was revealed to be AI-generated. Some viewers saw through itmany did not. The video proved that with a semi-plausible premise and decent AI tools, the boundary between real and fake can dissolve entirely. Its not hard to see where this is going. Googles new Veo 3 video generation tool is a case in point: The sample videos are alarmingly realistic. Time recently showed how these tools can create convincing deepfakes of political riots and election fraud. AI-generated content has been advancing for years, but we may have arrived at a moment where even videoonce the hardest medium to fakecan no longer be trusted. With more powerful tools and social platforms eager to boost engagement, were likely heading toward a web saturated with AI-generated content. And when anything can be fake, everything becomes suspect. Are we ready for the zero-trust internet? Reddit sues Anthropic over AI training data The social platform Reddit says the AI company Anthropic has used content created by Reddit users to train AI models in ways that violate its policies. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a San Francisco court, Reddit accused Anthropic of using users posts without permission, causing harm to the platform. AI companies rely heavily on information stores like Reddit to train the large language models that power popular chatbots such as ChatGPT and Anthropics Claude. Reddit is seen as a particularly valuable resource because it holds millions of human-to-human conversations across thousands of topics, spanning the past two decades. The conversations are not only valuable for their content, but for how authentically they reflect the way people write and speak. No wonder Reddit cofounder and CEO Steve Huffman calls it the most human place on the internet. And content licensing for AI training is a big and growing business for the platform. Reddits shares on the New York Stock Exchange finished the day up more than 7% after news of the lawsuit broke Wednesday. The company has already formed content licensing agreements with Google and OpenAI (Sam Altman is a major shareholder in Reddit). Its possible that the lawsuit was filed after Reddit and Anthropic failed to come to terms on a content licensing agreement. Reddit certainly isn’t the first content company to sue a well-funded AI lab for alleged misuse of data. OpenAI, Perplexity, Google, and others have all been the target of legal actions related to training data. Many of these cases center on the question of whether or not data thats publicly available on the internet falls under the fair use safe harbor of the Copyright Act, rendering it fair game for AI training. Trumps foreign student ban: a master class in the art of the self-own Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the U.S. will begin revoking visas for visiting Chinese students, including those in “critical fields, and will tighten visa requirements for future applicants. The Trump administration repeatedly claims it wants America to win the global AI race, while being openly hostile to the very brains that could help the U.S. achieve that goal. Research from the National Foundation for American Policy shows that two-thirds (66%) of U.S.-based AI startups have immigrant cofounders, and 55% of billion-dollar startups were founded or cofounded by immigrants. Meanwhile, other countries are rolling out the red carpet. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology offered guaranteed admission to any Harvard international student. Germany and Ireland are courting current and prospective Harvard students. China, too. As AI impacts talent needs, foreign students will be needed to fill demand. Because AI coding assistants are significantly increasing the productivity of individual engineers, big tech companies are investing less in entry-level programmers (and more in GPUs and data centers). CEO Satya Nadella says 20% to 30% of Microsoft code is now AI-generated, and that he expects that rate to grow to 95% by 2030. Tech companies will likely need people with PhDs or other graduate-level degrees to fill more specialized roles such as those responsible for training and steering AI models. And that talent pool isnt big enough. International graduate students with advanced technical skills are more valuable than ever. The Administration is signaling a retreat from the global competition for AI talent. More AI coverage from Fast Company: With its Samsung deal, Perplexity could be headed to the big leagues Jeffrey Katzenberg bets big on AI video ads with his investment in Creatify How to use AI to find your next job Music giants begin negotiating AI licensing rights for labels and artists 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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Nintendo is not known for existing on the bleeding edge of technology. In fact, most of its 21st-century success has been built around the opposite of that idea; the Wii and DS were both much less powerful than their competition, yet each proved to be more popular with a mainstream audience. The hybrid Switch, meanwhile, was impressive for a handheld machine when it was released, but when hooked up to a TV it was soundly outgunned by the PlayStation 4let alone the 5. On paper, the Switch 2 doesnt do much to change that. Its still a less capable console than the PS5, even though its coming out more than four years later. But now that its finally in my hands, Im struck by how up-to-date it feels. The gaming landscape has changed since the original Switch, with the handheld market growing in size and diversityand you could make a case that on some levels, Nintendo now has the most advanced hardware. Functionality and pragmatism The Switch 2 is a fascinating system for Nintendo, mostly because its so straightforward. This is the first time Nintendo has ever straight-up released a Console 2, let alone one so similar to its predecessor. Its an exercise in functionality and pragmatism, with nips and tucks across the board. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/multicore_logo.jpg","headline":"Multicore","description":"Multicore is about technology hardware and design. It's written from Tokyo by Sam Byford. To learn more visit multicore.blog","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.multicore.blog","colorTheme":"salmon","redirectUrl":""}} The new Joy-Con controllers look similar to before but are an immediate improvement from the second you hold them. The curvier design is much more comfortable, and the way they snap onto the system magnetically is a lot less fussy; they also feel more securely attached. Time will tell if the analog sticks prove more durable, but for now the extra size and throw is appreciated. [Photo: Nintendo] Point of contention The screen will be a point of contention. Its a 7.9-inch 120Hz 1080p LCD panel with support for VRR and HDR, which is an upgrade in most respects except for the LCD part. Nintendo did go out of its way to release an OLED version of the original Switch, so the return to a conventionally backlit LCD panel does feel like a step back in terms of contrast. On the other hand, its actually a pretty great LCD for what it is. The HDR support was never going to compare with a high-end TV with local dimming, but games like Mario Kart World clearly show how Nintendo is making the most of the wider color gamut. I would compare the experience to watching HDR movies on a good LCD tablet like an iPad Air. Its streets ahead of the screens in the original Switch or the Steam Deck. Yes, I would have preferred an OLED panel. But the boosts here to size, resolution, and refresh rate are real, and there isnt really another gaming device out there with a directly comparable display. Advanced graphics The Switch 2 has, of course, been in the works for a long time, and thats reflected in the silicon that powers it. We know that the Nvidia-designed system-on-chip is manufactured by Samsung on its somewhat outdated 8nm process, the same technology behind Nvidias RTX 3000-series GPUs. In a video released this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the Switch 2s SoC is unlike anything weve built before and has the most advanced graphics ever in a mobile device. I have a feeling Apple might take issue with that claim, but it was likely true when Nintendo and Nvidia started collaborating on the console. More to the point, the Switch 2 will obviously shred an iPhone in practice. Ive enjoyed playing the occasional ambitious ports to Apples platforms as a technical exercise, like Death Stranding and Resident Evil 4, but its hard to imagine the iPhone 16 Pro ever getting a better version of Cyberpunk 2077 than the Switch 2 version I just spent a couple of hours with. Its a hugely impressive port that runs at 40fps in its performance mode while looking dramatically sharper than the PC version on my Steam Deck. The Switch 2 is less powerful than competing home consoles, of course, but its the overall package that impresses. Although the screen size has increased, this is still a relatively thin and light device that turns in excellent performance compared to much bulkier PC-based handhelds. Its the payoff for Nintendo going all-in on ARM-based hardware nearly a decade ago.The biggest trade-off is the battery life; you shouldnt expect more than two to three hours of endurance when playing demanding games. But thats comparable to a lot of PC handhelds, and Nintendo and Nvidia will likely be able to eke out more efficiency in future models by switching to a newer manufacturing process. TV connection Even when connected to a TV, the Switch 2 feels like a modern system, with its 4K UI and snappy loading times thanks to the faster flash storage. Its a huge quality upgrade on its predecessor, which was stuck with 720p menus and a torturously slow online store. Of course, that original Switch also felt quite advanced for the time upon its launch. It was based around Nvidias Tegra X1 chip, which failed to get much traction in tablets but turned out to be a great fit for a handheld gaming device. It had the advantage of a brand new form factor and the ability to run games that no one had ever imagined could be taken on the go. But as a portable machine it was clunky, and as a home console there was a much bigger gap between it and its competitors. Occasional miracle ports like The Witcher 3 or Doom Eternal aside, the Switch generally made do with a separate library of software. These days, though, developers are used to scaling games down to less capable machines, whether its the Steam Deck, the PS4, or the Xbox Series S. The Switch 2 will have a better shot at running a lot of the software that comes to high-end hardware. It still isnt going to be the platform of choice for hardcore gaming enthusiastsno handheld ever will. But I do think its the first Nintendo system that feels like a refine device at the top of its class on day one. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/multicore_logo.jpg","headline":"Multicore","description":"Multicore is about technology hardware and design. It's written from Tokyo by Sam Byford. To learn more visit multicore.blog","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.multicore.blog","colorTheme":"salmon","redirectUrl":""}}
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After nine long years, McDonalds has finally announced the revival of the Snack Wrap, one of its most belovedand most copieddiscontinued menu items. To herald the wraps return, the brand made an entire digital archive dedicated to documenting fans fervor for the Snack Wrap. The wrap returns after a number of other fast food chains, including Burger King, Wendys, Chic-fil-A, and, most recently, Popeyes, have made their own dupes of the item in its absence. McDonalds’ attempt to reclaim its Snack Wrap dominance comes as the company continues to face difficult financial headwinds; reporting its second consecutive quarter of sales declines in its first-quarter financial report on May 1. Now, the company is betting on fans Snack Wrap nostalgia to score a boost this summer. [Photo: McDonald’s] On McDonalds’ official website, a cryptic official statement from Joe Erlinger, McDonalds USA president, simply reads, Its back. Accompanying the statement, though, is the link to a website called the Snack Wrap Files thats a wealth of Snack Wrap-based information. Per the site, the Snack Wrap will be made with McDonalds’ McCrispy Strips in two flavors: ranch or spicy. It will be available as a combo meal and, at last, it has secured a spot as a permanent menu item. The Snack Wrap Files also serves another purpose: The site, which has a simple, early web vibe, is an archive dedicated to all of the times that McDonalds fans have yearned for the Snack Wrap since 2016. [Screenshot: McDonald’s] It’s back. According to its FAQ section, the Snack Wrap Files was created to highlight the bond fans have with the Snack Wrap. The Snack Wrap was phased out nationally in 2016, but it never left fans hearts, the website reads. From countless social media posts to full-fledged petitions, they never gave up on their favorite menu item. Theyre the ones who inspired us to make its return to the menu happen. And McDonalds is dedicated to spinning that return into a dramatic, full-blown campaign. Currently, there are 10 folders on the Snack Wrap Files site, three of which are unlocked for public viewing. A countdown at the top of the page marks the time remaining before the other seven files are unlocked. In the Media Materials folder, users can find official photos of the new Snack Wrap and FAQs about its return. Under BTS, they can take a peek behind the curtain at McDonalds’ creative team poring over Snack Wrap ad materials. But The Fandom folder is where the site really shines. [Screenshot: McDonald’s] Within this section, the McDonalds team has compiled a highlight reel of fans most fervent pleas for the Snack Wraps return. Some are on the tamer side, like an email that reads, Is it true youre bringing back the Snack Wrap??!! I will be so excited!!!!!! and another sharing, In fact I am 13 weeks pregnant and my biggest craving is something I cant have. I am due July 14th, 2025. Will snack wraps be back before then? Please just give me a hint. Others take a more desperate tone. Where is the snack wrap. You guys promised me 2025, it is 2025. I do not see the snack wrap. Please get back to me, this is an important matter, reads one inquiry. When the snack wraps are dropped Im going to do a challenge where I try and eat 1,000 in a calendar year, another says. If I record myself and post it on tik tok or something will you give me a reward? [Screenshot: McDonald’s] One emailer resorted to a direct threat: I hope youre not playing with our emotions because I swear to god the people of the US will riot if you pull the rug from underneath us! Whew. In three days, 23 hours, and 40 minutes (at the time of this writing), the Snack Wrap File’ cryptic “Reaction Clips,” “Merch Concepts,” “Internal Emails,” “Promo Codes,” “Playlist,” “Voice Note,” and “Credits” folders will be unlocked.
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E-Commerce
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