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One minute, you’re watching a hilarious or even completely bland YouTube short. The next? You realize you’ve just lost an hour of work time or managed to stay up way too lateagain. Losing track of time when watching shorts is not an uncommon experience. But now, YouTube wants to help you set limits to stay on task, hit the hay, or just, ya’ know, not lose precious hours of your life to Shorts. On Wednesday, the video streaming giant rolled out a new timer feature on its mobile app. When users log on, they can go into their settings and click on “shorts feed limit” to set a timer that will remind them to stop scrolling. Once users hit their time limit, the app will send them a notification letting them know they’ve reached their limit. Of course, it’s not hard to dismiss the timer and keep on watching Shorts. Still, the feature may help to nudge users to get back to work. Shorts are a core part of the YouTube experience, YouTube said in its announcement. Setting a scrolling time limit on the Shorts feed allows for this exploration while helping users be more deliberate about their viewing habits and manage their time effectively. When it comes to setting time limits for scrolling, this isn’t YouTube’s first effort. The company has already had both “Take a Break” and “Bedtime” features in its mobile app settings. And while other social media platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, have since added similar features, YouTube was one of the first streaming platforms to help users put their phones down. Earlier this year, YouTube announced it was doubling down on its bedtime reminder feature for teens, which became automatic in 2023. At the time, Jon-Patrick Allen, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at Rutgers School of Public Health, told Fast Company that users will still have to exercise some self-restraint. It will be effective for a small proportion of people, but the onus is still on the user to turn it off.” Allen added, “These are all cosmetic things that may work for some people, but arent really going to shift user behavior. Either way, the move feels like an invaluable one. According to YouTube internal data, per Sprout Social, last year, YouTube Shorts averaged 70 billion views a day. And it’s not just Gen Alpha and Gen Z who are endlessly watching YouTube hijinx: 25-to-34-year-oldsa combination of both Gen Z and millennialsare the platform’s most diligent viewers. No wonder workers are distracted and groggy.
Category:
E-Commerce
Venture capital powers innovation, yet investment decisions still favor the familiar. From the original design of the industry to the women reshaping its future, the patterns that drive investment may be poised for change. Is venture capital ready for a new outfit? On October 25, 1988, the Womens Business Ownership Act (H.R. 5050) was signed into law, granting women the right to own and operate businesses without a male cosigner. This landmark legislation was a breakthrough for womens economic independence. Yet by that time, generations of deal making had already embedded a pattern of men investing in men. Pattern matching is woven into the fabric of venture capital itself, such that investment in women-led startups has been stagnant at only 2% for more than 15 years, dropping even below that percentage in 2025. Venture capital, founded by men, invests in the familiar. Whether you mark the birth of the industry in 1946 on the East Coast with the establishment of the American Research and Development Corporation, or in 1961 on the West Coast with Davis & Rock and the rise of Silicon Valley, there is one truth: Men invested capital in men for decades before women could even own a business. PATTERN MATCHING AND THE SCIENCE OF RETURNS Fast forward to 2013, and pattern matching had become part of the investors craft. In a New York Times profile, a partner at Y Combinator (YC) described reviewing video interviews with founders applying to the accelerator to identify predictors of failure: When you have to talk yourself into something, its a bad sign. Such rapid assessments may well have relied on pattern matching. With YC partners predominantly male, could this instinct have influenced cohort selection? The stakes are high: In the Winter 2024 batch, YC admitted just 260 companies from more than 27,000 applicationsan acceptance rate under 1%. Based on self-reported data, only 21% of those companies had a woman founder, and just 11% of the founders were women. If decision making in venture capital were driven by data rather than psychology, more women-led startups would be funded. Women-led startups generate more revenue per dollar raised than their male counterparts, and companies with a female founder have outperformed all-male founding teams by 63%. Morgan Stanley estimates that investors lose $4.4 trillion each year by underinvesting in women and people of color. Yet year after year, only about 2% of venture capital dollars flow to women-led startups. DISRUPTING AND UNRAVELING THE PATTERN To address the lack of access to capital, organizations are working on multiple fronts: expanding the pipeline of women entering venture capital, accelerating the career growth of emerging fund managers, and providing mentorship to empower female founders. A systemic issue requires multiple points of disruption to effect a systemic shift. Sourcing is a pivotal leverage point, influencing which founders are included in the consideration set of strategically aligned, high-potential deals. Twenty-eight percent of venture capitalists are women, and many of themanalysts, associates, and principals in male-led firmsare responsible for sourcing startups as part of the deal flow process. What if women sourcing deals were able to more efficiently identify women-led startups aligned with the investment thesis of the venture capital firm, expanding the consideration set and unraveling the threads of pattern matching? Efficiency means moving beyond the familiar networksthe same elite schools, the same geographic hubs, the same social circlesthat reinforce pattern matching. MOVE THE NEEDLE Thank you to the women, and especially the National Association of Women Business Owners, who advocated and lobbied for this landmark legislation. And to the women entrepreneurs and the women invested in them who still persevere, knowing that progress may not be fully realized in their lifetimes. Shannyn A. Smith is founder of The Capital Boutique.
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E-Commerce
Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI and three other entities on Wednesday, alleging their involvement in an industrial-scale, unlawful economy to scrape the comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial gain. Reddit’s lawsuit in a New York federal court takes aim at San Francisco-based Perplexity, maker of an AI chatbot and answer engine that competes with Google, ChatGPT, and others in online search. Also named in the lawsuit are Lithuanian data-scraping company Oxylabs UAB, a web domain called AWMProxy that Reddit describes as a former Russian botnet, and Texas-based startup SerpApi, which lists Perplexity as a customer on its website. It’s the second such lawsuit from Reddit since it sued another major AI company, Anthropic, in June. But the lawsuit filed Wednesday is different in the way that it confronts not just an AI company but the lesser-known services the AI industry relies on to acquire online writings needed to train AI chatbots. Scrapers bypass technological protections to steal data, then sell it to clients hungry for training material. Reddit is a prime target because its one of the largest and most dynamic collections of human conversation ever created, said Ben Lee, Reddits chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday. Perplexity said it has not yet received the lawsuit but will always fight vigorously for users rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge. Our approach remains principled and responsible as we provide factual answers with accurate AI, and we will not tolerate threats against openness and the public interest. SerpApi’s customer success director, Ryan Schafer, said in an email: We strongly disagree with Reddits allegations and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court. Oxylabs didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. AWMProxy could not immediately be reached for comment. Reddit compares the companies it is suing to would-be bank robbers who can’t get into the bank vault, so they break into the armored truck instead. The lawsuit alleges they are evading Reddits own anti-scraping measures while also circumventing Googles controls and scraping Reddit content directly from Googles search engine results.” Lee said that because they’re unable to scrape Reddit directly, they mask their identities, hide their locations, and disguise their web scrapers to steal Reddit content from Google Search. Perplexity is a willing customer of at least one of these scrapers, choosing to buy stolen data rather than enter into a lawful agreement with Reddit itself. Reddit made a similar argument in its lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging that the company ignored Reddit’s appeals to cease using its content. That case was initially filed in California Superior Court but was later moved to federal court and has a hearing scheduled for January. Along with digitized books and news articles, websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language. Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI, and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddits more than 100 million daily users. The licensing deals helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year. Matt O’Brien, AP technology writer
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E-Commerce
General Motors just offered a glimpse into an AI-powered future in which drivers read a book or answer texts while their cars whisk them to their destinations. On Wednesday, the company announced its plans to introduce a suite of advanced software systems into its vehicles, bringing the traditional automaker up to speed on in-vehicle technology. At its GM Forward media event in New York, GM outlined its near-term plans for reimagining cars as intelligent assistants that drive their owners around. The company announced a major update to its driving assistance system that would bring hands-free, eyes-off highway driving to vehicles, starting with the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028. The technology will rely on integrated lidar, radar, and cameras, and a new internal and external turquoise lighting system to signal that the self-driving tech is active. The new eyes-off driving technology will push beyond the limits of GMs existing Super Cruise system, which offers hands-free highway driving but requires a drivers attention. Next year, GM also plans to add Googles Gemini AI into its vehicles, making it possible to talk to your car as naturally as you would to a fellow passenger. Down the road, GM plans to introduce its own AI assistant tied into OnStar, its subscription service that offers safety, security, and navigation features. The company says its future custom AI could be useful for explaining one-pedal driving in your new vehicle, spotting a maintenance issue early, or finding the perfect place for dinner. In a controversial move, GM apparently plans to abandon support for connecting Apple CarPlay and Android Auto through a smartphone in all of its vehicles, pushing an in-house custom infotainment system instead. For potential car buyers already accustomed to phone projection systems, the decision sounds like a nonstarter. On The Verges Decoder podcast, GM chief product officer Sterling Anderson likened the decision to Apple removing the disk drive from its laptopsa strange analogy and a risky bet, considering CarPlays popularity and ease of use. GM also announced plans to debut its own centralized computing platform that will run under the hood in both its gas and electric vehicles. The platform will weave together disparate systems like propulsion, steering, safety, and infotainment, uniting them on a single, high-speed computing core that is set to debut in the 2028 Escalade IQ. In other high-tech investments, GM will expand its program for home energy capture and storage, and integrate more collaborative robots to supplement its human workforce. GMs outlook brightens Looking forward, we believe our investments in advanced technologies, manufacturing, and talent will build on our solid foundation and make GM even more innovative, resilient, and capable of leading through change, GM CEO Mary Barra said in the companys earnings call this week. GMs stock popped on Tuesday, jumping the largest amount in almost six years after the company adjusted its expected annual profits upward. The automaker attributed the positive outlook to new policies meant to lighten the impact of tariffs on U.S. car makers and its own plan to reduce its losses on electric vehicles, which have taken a hit under Trump. With the evolving regulatory framework and the end of federal consumer incentives, it is now clear that near-term EV adoption will be lower than planned, Barra said. That is why we are reassessing our EV capacity and manufacturing footprint. . . . By acting swiftly and decisively to address overcapacity, we expect to reduce EV losses in 2026 and beyond.” In spite of lapsing EV tax credits and an administration steering in the opposite direction, GM still calls electric vehicles its North Star.
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E-Commerce
In todays world, where success is often tied to financial accomplishments, status, and impressive job titles, Warren Buffett offers a refreshing perspective: True success is about the love we share. Yes, love. Buffett once said, Basically, when you get to my age, youll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. Buffetts wisdom gets to the core of what matters, reminding us that, ultimately, lifes real currency is the relationships we nurture that lead to two-way love. Who do you want to have love you? Are you a leader, manager, founder, or CEO with scores of people looking at you for guidance, support, motivation, and leadership? I have news for you: Love, in the right business context, does indeed matter for leadership. Thats the premise for my book, which will be released in March of 2025. The big idea behind the chapters I wrote may challenge your belief system. Lets do a quick thought exercise. When we loosely throw the word “love” around in casual conversation, its perfectly natural to express it regarding certain people, places, and things. Think about it. Its acceptable to profess love for a favorite sports team. I have no problems sharing with others that I love my Los Angeles Dodgers and bleed Dodger blue. Professing love for the college or university we attended is acceptable. Its even perfectly acceptable to proclaim our love for a special pair of jeans we might wear only a few times a year. In the workplace, we may go home and proudly tell our loved ones, I love my job, or I love my coworkers. But leaders arent always comfortable expressing love for a team of people they oversee. They may spend nearly half their waking hours with their employees doing good work to the satisfaction of customers, yet they find it hard to infuse the word love into the business lexicon. To me, that type of thinking is bizarre. For every leader ashamed of or fearful of mixing love with work, I point to 10 others whose leadership behaviors unabashedly demonstrate love for their team, company, customers, culture, and everything they contribute to the world. While Im certainly an idealist, Im far from depicting the workplace in some Utopian, Norman Rockwell-portrait of the perfect corporate life. You must do your part by stretching your thinking to reimagine the possibilities for a more loving, human-centered, and humane workplace that results in profitable outcomes. As a leader, you have the power to create a workplace where love and care are not just words but guiding principles. Let me ask you: What if you saw your colleague, coworker, or direct report as a real person with real hopes, dreams, and fears as crucial as your own? And what if, one day, you decided to connect to the heart of people at work as you would a good friend, as one human being caring for another? This is the power and responsibility of leadership in creating a loving workplace. As you imagine being in this frame of mind, let me ask you another question: How would the dynamics change in the workplace as you encountered new challenges and solved complex business problems with the very folks you are kind to and care about? I believe the workplace and how we conduct business as usual would radically differ. This is especially true if youre in a leadership role, whether youre the shift lead supervisor of five people on the manufacturing floor, the founder of a 50-person startup, or a Fortune 500 company CEO. People also want to experience purpose, growth, and success in their jobs and feel their leaders are doing their best to care for them. Thats the bottom line: People want to feel cared for. But I call it for what it really is. In this age of toxic polarization, finger-pointing, and looking after No. 1, that, right there, is the new measure for your success. As Buffett said, when its all said and done and you reflect on your achievements in life, it would be great if you could confidently say to yourself, Because of my willingness to care for and serve others, and because I put people first, I am loved. Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you’ll never miss a post. Marcel Schwantes This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
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