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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. Im Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, Im focusing on the increasing pressure on the AI industrys wunderkind, OpenAI. I also look at the change in AI leadership at Apple, and at the music industrys new cooperation with AI music generation apps. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @thesullivan. Is OpenAI still the king? The AI industry has always been very competitive, and its getting even more so. A relatively small group of AI labs are slugging it out to release the smartest models, and, by extension, the smartest chatbots. Ever since OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot three years ago, the upstart company has been seen as the leader, but that status has been called into serious question by Googles new Gemini 3 Pro model (and the Gemini app).ChatGPT has grown quickly. The official number is 800 million weekly active users. Googles number is 650 million monthly active users for the Gemini chatbot. So, apples and oranges. SimilarWeb provides a somewhat better comparison, saying that Geminis share of web traffic grew from 5.7% a year ago to more than 15% today. Meanwhile, ChatGPTs 87% share a year ago shrunk to 71.3% today. OpenAI is feeling the pressure from Gemini (and probably from Anthropics new Claude Opus 4.5 model). CEO Sam Altman sent a memo to staff Monday declaring a “code red” effort to improve ChatGPT, according to The Information and other outlets. The effort includes reducing investments in enhancing the health information available on ChatGPT, as well as reducing work on the shopping experience, and the advertising that could go around that. “Our focus now is to keep making ChatGPT more capable, continue growing, and expand access around the worldwhile making it feel even more intuitive and personal,” ChatGPT product lead Nick Turley tweeted Monday. In a wider sense, OpenAI is losing billions, and spending billions, a fact that must make its investors both nervous and curious. Leaked documents and analyst estimates show OpenAI will lose between $9 billion and $11 billion in 2025 (spending roughly $22 billion while bringing in about $13 billion in revenue). The company recently told investors that its spending through 2029 could rise to $115 billion. Altman has said his company, partners, and investors will commit as much as $1.4 trillion to infrastructure (chips, data centers, etc.) in the next eight years. OpenAI is an aggregator, as the analyst Ben Thompson points out. The fact that its willing to de-emphasize its shopping and advertising experiences, which are potential revenue generators, shows that its still in the mode of growing users, and not yet in the mode of growing revenue. And the way that aggregators (like Facebook) grow is by becoming more things to more people in order to maximize attention and engagement on its platform, regardless of whether the users are paid subscribers. In the aggregator model, actually monetizing all those eyeballs comes later. The confidence in that model, which requires constant growth toward a critical mass of users, has afforded OpenAI a certain swagger, and even a cavalier attitude about making returns for its investors. One of those investors, Altimeter Capitals Brad Gerstner, asked Sam Altman during an October podcast (12:30 mark) how he explains to the markets spending more than a trillion on infrastructure when his company is operating deep in the red. Altman was exasperated. Brad, if you want to sell your shares, Ill find you a buyer, he said. I just . . . enough. But it’s no longer clear that OpenAI has the best models and the go-to chatbot. Setting aside the shopping and advertising work, OpenAI is right to reassign its talent to work on new models and new skills for ChatGPT. This also might mean taking talent off fun projects like the Sora app, which seems far afield from the mission of making ChatGPT the highest performing chatbot available. On the other hand, things can change very quickly in the AI world. Reports say OpenAI is already set to release a new reasoning model codenamed Garlic that will overtake Gemini 3 on a number of key benchmarks. Well see if Garlic gets a better reception than GPT-5. Apple must keep publishing AI research under Subramanya This week Apple announced that its AI boss, John Giannandrea, will be leaving the company. Giannandrea had been a successful AI leader at Google, but his name is linked to Apples failure to seize on generative AI to improve its Siri voice assistant and make the iPhone and other iDevices smarter and more personalized. Hell be handing the reins to another Google vet, Amar Subramanya, who once led engineering on Googles Gemini chatbot, and is stepping down after seven years on the job. Apples stock price got a slight boost on the news, as some investors saw Apple signaling a new urgency to bring AI to its devices. Subramanyas remit will be restoring Apple to some kind of parity with its peers in developing AI models and applying them in meaningful ways. As Mark Zuckerberg can attest, achieving that goal will depend on recruiting and retaining top-shelf AI researchers. Giannandreas AI/ML group saw a lot of churn and lost a number of top shelf researchers to Meta and others, including Ruoming Pang and Robby Walker. One reason for this was the groups habit of investing time and labor in technical approaches to problems only to see them scrapped. Another was the slow pace of developing and releasing new AI features for products like Siri. Another problem is publishing. Apple is famously secretive about its R&D in all areas of the company. The company likes to talk about customer-facing products, and dislikes talking publicly about the technology that makes them work. AI researchers arent OK with that. They want to publish their research. They want the exposure and influence that can bring within an ultra-competitive industry. When Giannandrea came to Apple, the company began allowing its AI talent to publish more of their researchto the extent they could do so without revealing trade secrets. Apple now has a Apple Machine Learning Research web page that lists published papers, technical reports, and conference submissions. It will be crucial that Subramanya keeps this practice going, or expands it. Otherwis Apple risks losing key researchers to competitors. Record Labels are having their iTunes moment with AI The Music Industry has stopped suingAI music generation appsinstead, its making deals with them: The three major record labels have now signed licensing agreements with AI music startups. Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment have made licensing deals with an AI music startup called Klay Vision. The agreements grant Klay Vision permission to train its music generation models on music catalogs owned by the labels, replacing previous models that relied on scraped or unauthorized data. AI-generated music is getting more popular. An AI-generated song using a simulation of a real human country singers voice recently hit number one on the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales ranking. Suno, another AI music company that previously faced lawsuits from major labels, has signed what it calls a “first-of-its-kind partnership” with Warner Music. The deal moves the company toward licensed, artist-opt-in AI models. The moment feels similar to the record labels decision in the early 2000s to sell digital music on Apples iTunes platform. The labels saw CD sales tank as consumers downloaded free MP3s from sites like Napster and Limewire. More AI coverage from Fast Company: The Trump administration keeps taking stakes in chipmakers it may come back to haunt them Will chatbots ever be funny? Why these comedians arent worried about an AI takeover, yet Can your AI adapt to multiple cultures? 10 ways I use AI to be a better journalist 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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From reality TV to fashion and beauty and everywhere in between, youve unmistakably heard of Kim Kardashian. Critics may talk, but theres no denying shes one of the most influential and accomplished women of our timewith a net worth of $1.7 billion. And shes still expanding. Now, after building a multibillion-dollar empire, Kardashian is taking on a new role: instructor. Her new MasterClass, The New Rules of Business: The Ten Kimmandments with Kim Kardashian, launches today. Master them and youll create marketing that commands attention and build businesses that will scale,” Kardashian says. The tenets cover a range of 10 lessons, but Kimmandment #8Know Your Worth. Then Add Tax.stands out as one of the most misunderstood. While it often gets reduced to monetary value, Kardashian stresses its about more than that. Its really about understanding the value you bring that no one else can and protecting that value, she explains. Experiences early in my career taught me that if you dont set your own standard first, you cant grow a brand or business. Thats why its so important for anyone just startingknowing your value is the foundation for everything else. When Fast Company asked what inspired the Kimmandments, Kardashian pointed to her own unconventional career path. [Photo: MasterClass] Her foray into entrepreneurship came long before Keeping Up With the Kardashians. At 16, Kardashian had her first work experience as an aspiring closet organizer. [I got the job] not because I had to, but because I wanted independence and I really wanted to earn my own money, she explains. Not long after, she ran a thriving eBay business flipping designer pieces, and even operated a successful closet-organizing venture for both celebrities and everyday clients. Over time, her visibility became her advantage. In 2017, Kardashian launched KKW Beauty, now partly owned by Coty. Building on that momentum, in 2019 she cofounded SKIMS with Jens Gredetoday valued at $5 billion. I never had a traditional business background, so everything I know came from learning on the job,” says Kardashian. “I noticed that I kept coming back to the same principles. They were guiding every decision I made.” When the MasterClass team and I started talking, I realized these werent just habitsthey were my rules,” she adds. “Theyve helped me build my brands, stay focused, and stay resilient. I want to give the tools that have worked for me throughout my career so far. By the end of the class, Kardashian wants students to walk away with more than just tactics. I want members to take away a mindset: Stay resilient, trust your instincts, and keep building even when others doubt you,” she shares. “Youll face setbacks, criticism, and moments where you feel stuckbut those are just part of the process.”
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Adidas defeated an appeal on Wednesday by U.S. shareholders who said the footwear and apparel maker fraudulently concealed antisemitic and other improper behavior by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, before its partnership with the rapper and fashion designer imploded in 2022. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Adidas did not mislead shareholders in its annual reports by saying improper behavior by partners from the entertainment industry could have a negative spill-over effect on business. “A reasonable investor would know that a partnership with a celebrity partner like Ye would come with inherent risks relating to improper behavior,” a three-judge panel said. The panel also found no intent to defraud, and said Adidas’ disclosure “presents the hypothetical risk as the negative effect of improper behavior, not the improper behavior itself.” Lawyers for the lead plaintiff HLSA-ILA Funds, which serve maritime workers in southeast Virginia, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Adidas did not immediately respond to similar requests. Ye was not a defendant. Shareholders in the proposed class action said they lost money because Adidas’ stock price fell after antisemitic rants led the German company to sever ties with Ye in October 2022, ending a nine-year partnership that in 2021 generated about 1.5 billion euros ($1.75 billion) of sales. The shareholders said Adidas continued the partnership despite being “fully aware” since at least 2018 that Ye routinely made improper comments to its employees and employees at his Yeezy design shop. Adidas began selling leftover Yeezy sneakers in May 2023, pledging to donate some proceeds to groups combating antisemitism, and finished late last year. The company’s sales in North America fell 2% in 2024, “solely due to significantly lower Yeezy sales,” Adidas said in March. Wednesday’s decision upheld an August 2024 dismissal by a federal judge in Portland, Oregon, where Adidas’ North American headquarters are located. Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
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Theres a very common question asked of people working in space exploration: Why explore space when we have so many problems on Earth? From Wi-Fi, to satellite images of real estate, to matters of national security, much of our daily lives has been made possible by policy changes in the 1990s that permitted the deployment of low-Earth-orbit satellites. But the tangible benefits to space exploration may not always be obvious, according to Jack Kilray, director of government relations for The Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing space science and exploration. What we discover in space invariably helps life on Earth, Kilray said at last months World Changing Ideas Summit, cohosted by Fast Company and Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. These investments in fundamental researchalthough maybe you don’t see those direct comparisons to your life immediatelyhave these knock-on effects for decades after you make that initial discovery and revolutionize the economy, national security, and just our fundamental understanding of the cosmos. And space has evolved to become a critical infrastructure, said Rich Cooper, vice president of strategic communications for the Space Foundation, a nonprofit advocating for space education and exploration. More than 90 countries now have active space operations, and hundreds of companies are operating business interests in spacewhich is why policy efforts must focus on balancing the needs of these various interests, he added. Dealing with space traffic and litter In space, one of the biggest policy challenges right now is managing all of the traffic. Finding the place for a satellite or other instrument, so it doesn’t impact any other operations, is literally threading quite the needle, Cooper said. The policies about how to deal with space litter have improvedgovernments and companies are now required to have a plan in place to prevent the creation of more orbital debris, though more work is still required. Countries as well as companies are looking to be much, much more responsible, but we still have other players that need to be far more responsible than they’ve been, Cooper said. The next era of human exploration Finally, policies must adapt amid the race thats underway to send humans to the moon once again, and eventually to Mars. The good news is that this next era of space exploration is likely to unite people around the globe, Kilray said. It’s no longer just a flags-and-footprints approach, but a sustainable approach to whether it be lunar exploration with crew or scientific exploration of the outer planets or the building of the next great observatory to image habitable worlds around other star systemslike that’s all within our grasp as a species, which is truly amazing, Kilray said. We couldn’t have imagined what was possible today 60 years ago.
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When the British designer Fred Rigby released his first furniture collection in 2021, he knew from the outset he would prioritize a U.S. audiencea bigger market with more sales opportunities, he says. Rigby designs and manufactures elegantly crafted furniture in the Oxfordshire countryside, and has built strong relationships with interior designer clients in cities like New York, L.A. and Miami. For a few years, things went according to plan. As his studio grew, 6070% of sales came from the U.S. market. Then in 2025, all of that changed. “We had a healthy-looking pipeline, but when the tariffs came in, we just saw more and more projects disappear, says Rigby. Since October 14, upholstered furniture imported to the U.S.such as sofas and armchairshas been subject to a 25% tariff, which is due to rise to 30% on January 1, 2026. In reality, trade deals with specific countries affect this final number. For instance, tariffs on all imports from EU countries are capped at 15%; for the U.K., its 10%; for Brazil, its 50%. Different elements of a furniture item can even be subject to varying tariffs based on their country of origin. These changes and uncertainties have rattled the furniture world, including foreign furniture makers with significant U.S. markets like Rigby and U.S.-based interior designers sourcing global furniture. Even domestic furniture brands, who often rely on international materials, are taking a hit. Delaware-headquartered American Signature, parent company of furnishings retailers American Signature Furniture and Value City, filed for bankruptcy in November, citing the economic impacts of tariffs. The great reshoring USITC data shows that most furniture imported to the U.S. comes from China and Vietnam, largely representing the mass of the market with quick-shipped, budget pieces. For higher-end, design-forward interiors projects, the picture is a little different, with many pieces coming from heritage and prestige European furniture brands. Europe offers a level of uniqueness and legacy techniques that are hard to replicate, says New York-based interior designer Clive Lonstein, who sources roughly 20% of the furniture used in his studios projects internationally. These pieces will remain important to his practice, he says, as they add depth and individuality to each project. Nevertheless, in the wake of tariffs, he has also begun looking to domestic vendors and artisans. [There is] incredible design talent and craftsmanship here in the States, he says. [Photo: William Jess Laird/courtesy Clive Lonstein] Recentering the focus on American production is a driving vision of the U.S. tariffs, and many of the large, well-known furniture companiesboth domestic and internationalare already making moves in that direction. Swedish brand Ikea, which currently manufactures about 15% of products that it sells in the U.S. domestically, has said it would increase U.S. production. In the meantime, it concedes, tariffs will result in price adjustmentsmade more urgent by its recently reported plunge in profits. American brand RH, meanwhile, which imports most of its products, has reportedly started moving more manufacturing to its existing U.S. operations in North Carolina, a national and historic hub of furniture making. [Photo: William Jess Laird/courtesy Clive Lonstein] Reshoring comes with its own challenges, however: U.S. labor is often more expensive, it can be harder to find enough skilled workers, the infrastructure is not yet there to match production levels achieved internationally, and many materials still need to be imported. Even with the tariffs, it might be cheaper for consumers and clients to buy imported furniture. Smaller brand, bigger problems Although many large brands are waiting to see how things play out, smaller-scale furniture makers are already feeling the impact. [Photo: Austin Leis/courtesy Soft Witness] Soft Witness, a furniture and interior design studio based between New York and Florence, Italy, has earned a reputation for its craft-focused, architecturally informed aesthetic. Its furniture pieces are manufactured in Italy and often shipped over to the U.S. To maintain sales and commissions at competitive pricing, founder Whitney Krieger has been taking the hit financiallypaying tariffs and not passing that cost on to her customers. For her, this means potentially forgoing profits, or even taking a loss. [Photo: Neige Thebault/courtesy Soft Witness] While the impact has prompted Krieger to consider producing her works in the U.S., where 90% of her sales are, she has yet to be convinced this will move the needle much, as it doubles a lot of work. Ultimately, she feels committed to collaborating with the artisans in Italy she has built a relationship with. Larger furniture brands, however, often have the funds or mechanisms to absorb the subsequent costs of tariffs or manufacturing relocation, without necessarily passing on the bulk of that cost to consumers. [Photo: Erik Whlström/courtesy Hem] Hem, a popular, young Swedish furniture brandappealing for its contemporary, playful take on Scandinavian minimalismmanufactures its products in Europe, but has focused sales on the U.S. market from the outset. As such, it established an incorporated limited company in the U.S. [Photo: Kasia Bobula/courtesy Hem] This has significantly lessened the impact of the current tariffs, as instead of exporting to clients at retail price, Hem exports to its own entity at product cost, resulting in lower tariff bills that the brand largely absorbs. Weve raised prices a little bit, but not a lotabout 5%, says Petrus Palmér, Hems founder. The most significant impact, he says, has been the noise and insecurity. Its confusing enough for business owners, he says, but worse for consumers. I understand completely if they stop buying. Trickle down effects The business outcomes of furniture producers and the interior designers who buy their products is deeply intertwined. For interior designers relying on furniture imports, including from Europe, the day-to-day reality of their business has become much more complex, even while the vision and ambitions remain the same. [Photo: Nicole Franzen/courtesy Vellum Studio] Los Angeles and New York-based Vellum Studio, for instance, does not intend on abandoning foreign products in its high-end residential interior projects. International pieces are part of our design, says founder Ronit Lee. We do not believe in forgoing these as each piece is a lifelong investment [for the client]. [Photo: Nicole Franzen/courtesy Vellum Studio] Prices for certain purchases from abroad have increased, but Lee is transparent with her clients about the changing costs and importing challenges. If possible, she prioritizes furniture that has already been imported to the U.S. by big brands or vintage furniture dealers, and is now being sold domestically. But this is a now dwindling supply. [Photo: Yoshihiro Makino/courtesy 22RE] For L.A. architecture and design studio 22RE, most of the furniture it specifies for projects is vintagean approach that draws on a fundamentally global narrative. So much of 20th-century designespecially modernismcame from global conversation and cross-cultural making, says founder Dean Levin. European design in particular, he says, remains a huge part of the language of modern interiorsnot just visually, but culturally. The tariffs have made sourcing rare international finds harder and often not financially realistic, he says. They threaten that global exchange and make some of the most defining pieces of design history less accessible. [Photo: Yoshihiro Makino/courtesy 22RE]
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