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A blood test for more than 50 types of cancer could significantly boost early detection and speed up diagnosis, according to a new study. Made by U.S. pharmaceutical company Grail, the Galleri test aims to find fragments of DNA in a persons blood that can indicate the presence of a cancerous tumor. Among the cancers that the test can detect, many have no current screening programs. The PATHFINDER 2 study included more than 36,000 people aged 50 and older who had no cancer symptoms. In participants who were followed for more than a year, the test caught some 40.4% of cancer cases. For those who got a positive result on the Galleri test, 61.6% of them went on to be diagnosed with canceran improvement over previous trials of the test. The results were presented on Saturday at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Berlin, and have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Boosting cancer diagnosis In the study, the Galleri test, when combined with already existing screening for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers, yielded a more than seven-fold increase in the cancer detection rate, according to Grails president Josh Ofman in a press release. Galleri also detected many cancers which dont have standard screening tests, including notoriously hard to diagnose forms of the disease, such as ovarian and pancreatic cancer. More than half (53.5%) of the cancers detected by the test were stage I or II, according to Grail. And the test was also able to predict the origin of the cancer accurately 92% of the time, according to the study. Promising results Grail says the blood test could save lives through early detection. The companys president of biopharma, Sir Harpal Kumar, told the BBC that the results were compelling. “The vast majority of people who die from cancer do so because we find their cancers too late, he said. But other experts cautioned that more research is needed before the test is ready for primetime, Sky News and the BBC reported, with one expert telling the BBC more work would be required to “avoid overdiagnosing cancers that may have caused harm.” The test is currently being trialed in England in 140,000 people, with results expected next year, according to the BBC.
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The Australian government has begun a public education campaign with tips on how to wean children off social media ahead of a world-first national 16-year age limit taking effect in December. Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Friday that information on her agency’s website, esafety.gov.au, explained the new laws and how to navigate them. Starting Dec. 10, platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube could be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) if they dont take reasonable steps to prevent Australians younger than 16 from holding accounts. Messages raising awareness will also be shared starting Sunday across digital channels, television, radio and billboards. We want children to have childhoods. We want parents to have peace of mind and we want young peopleyoung Australiansto have three more years to learn who they are before platforms assume who they are, Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters, referring to the current de facto 13-year age limit for social media accounts based on U.S. privacy legislation. How are Australians reacting to the ban? The Australian age restrictions have already proved polarizing, with some experts warning the changes will harm as well as protect children. More than 140 Australian and international academics signed an open letter to the government last year opposing a social media age limit as too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively. Despite that warning, the laws passed with resounding support last year. The platforms had a year to figure out how to comply without foolproof technology available to verify ages. Inman Grant said the social media age restriction would be a very monumental event for a lot of young people. Teens given checklists to prepare Her agency offered checklists and conversation starters about ways to make the transition, such as following an online influencer through a website rather than a social media account, she said. How do we start weaning them from social media now so it isnt a shock on Dec. 10? How do we help them download their archives and their memories and how do we make sure that theyre in touch with friends and are aware of mental health support if theyre feeling down when theyre not tethered to their phones over the holiday period? she added. The agency’s teen “get ready” checklist includes suggestions such as “map your digital world” and to take practical steps like finding other ways to follow their favorite influencers online or scheduling regular phone calls with their friends. The entire list is as follows: Understand what’s changing and why Workout which accounts you’ll lose Map your digital world Explore other ways to connect and belong Build your community Protect your digital memories Avoid last-minute stress Find support Will other countries follow Australia’s lead? Australias move is being watched closely by countries that share concerns about social media impacts on young children. Denmarks Ambassador to Australia Ingrid Dahl-Madsen said her government would use its current presidency of the Council of the European Union to push the agenda of protecting children from social media harms. This is something that is a global challenge and we are all looking at how we can manage it best and we are looking to Australia and we will be looking at what Australia does, Dahl-Madsen told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in Melbourne on Monday. Its so important that Australia and Demark and the EUwe share lessons, we compare experiences and we can push forward hopefully practical progress on this, she added. It was about “protecting our children in this digital world that is increasingly complicated.” The Danish government last week proposed legislating an age limit of 15. But Dahl-Madsen said Denmark would consider letting parents exempt their children who were 13-14. Australia has no similar exemption. By Rod McGuirk, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Meta is rolling out a new Facebook feature that the company says will help users share more photosbut which could also be used to help train its AI. The opt-in feature allows Facebooks AI to access your phone’s camera roll in order to find photos it finds “shareworthy,” and to suggest edits using its AI tools. Users can then decide if they want to share the images or not. “With your permission and the help of AI, our new feature enables Facebook to automatically surface hidden gems those memorable moments that get lost among screenshots, receipts, and random snaps and edit them to save or share,” Meta said in its announcement explaining the new feature on Friday. The platform will also suggest fun edits for users to share. The new feature has been rolled out in the US and Canada, and Meta aims to roll it out in additional countries soon. What are users opting into? Metas latest feature announcement says that for users who opt in, the feature makes photo sharing suggestions that “are private to you,” and that nothing will be shared unless you agree. Meta also said Facebook won’t “use media from your camera roll to improve AI at Metaunless you use its AI to edit or upload the photos. Fast Company reached out to Meta for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication. Meta already gathers Facebook user data to train its AI. In a 2023 announcement, Meta said it could use any user data shared on Facebook or Instagram to train its AI. “Generative AI models take a large amount of data to effectively train, so a combination of sources are used for training, including information thats publicly available online, licensed data and information from Metas products and services,” the company said at the time. “Publicly shared posts from Instagram and Facebook including photos and text were part of the data used to train the generative AI models underlying the features.” Metas terms also state that “your interactions with AI features can be used to train AI models. Examples include messages to AI chats, questions you ask and images you ask Meta AI to imagine for you.” This is also not the first time Meta has asked users permission to look at their camera rolls. In June, Facebook began asking users for access to their phones camera roll to automatically suggest AI-edited versions of their photos, including images they had not posted for public viewing. Users who wanted to use the feature were prompted to opt-in to “cloud processing,” allowing Facebook access to their camera roll, as well as opting in to Meta’s Terms of Service, which includes agreeing to allow its AI to “retain and use that information to provide more personalized Outputs.” At the time, Meta told The Verge that it was not currently using those photos to train its AI models. Fast Company has previously written about how hard Meta has made it for Instagram users to opt out of AI training. Users who want to opt out have to answer a series of questions and explain why they don’t want the app to use their data. Requests are then subject to a review process, which suggests the company can decide whether to honor the request. Meta noted in its Friday announcement that users can manage or disable the new AI photo feature at any time in Facebook’s camera roll settings.
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Your pantry, your portfolio, even your flight plans all made headlines this week. The FDA turned everyones favorite spice into a hazard warning, while the worlds wealthiest got a new credit card that skips the whole Social Security number thing. Washingtons still stuck in neutralthough a few lucky borrowers are finally seeing their student loans disappearand airports are feeling the fallout. Meanwhile, Bitcoins on a downward spiral, golds having a moment, and the housing markets math still doesnt add up no matter how many times you punch the calculator. Retailers, at least, seem to be thriving in chaos. Walmart doubled down on AI, cutting a deal with OpenAI so shoppers can chat their way through checkout, then followed up with plans to blanket its supply chain in smart sensors. Over in the cultural corner, major news outlets refused to play ball with the Pentagons new press rules, and the Boy Scoutsnow Scouting Americarolled out merit badges in AI and cybersecurity. If that sounds like a lot, it is. The throughline? Whether its your cinnamon or your shopping list, everything familiar is getting rewired in real time. Here’s a look at what made headlines this week. FDA widens ground cinnamon warning over elevated lead The FDA expanded its list of ground cinnamon products to avoid, citing testing that found elevated lead levels and urging consumers to discard affected items. Sixteen products now sit on the list, spanning multiple distributors and retailers with specific lots and best-by dates. No illnesses are confirmed, but the agency warns long-term exposure can harm childrens development, and the list has grown through multiple updates since July 2024. A premium no-SSN card takes aim at AmEx Platinums turf Fintech startup Karta unveiled a $300-annual-fee premium card for affluent non-residents with U.S. assetsno Social Security number required. Perks mirror marquee travel cards (lounges, events, protections), and the product is managed via WhatsApp with AI-assisted service. Backed by $5.4 million in seed funding and 22 banking partners, Karta is targeting customers hit by steep foreign card fees and the wind-down of AmExs International Dollar Card. IBR student-loan forgiveness resumes for eligible borrowers Notices are landing in inboxes for borrowers on the Income-Based Repayment student loan plans whove hit 20- or 25-year payment thresholds. The move restarts discharges paused in July amid systems updates and litigation fallout. Its not a new programjust the promised IBR relief catching upso borrowers should keep paying until they receive official confirmation. Scouting America adds AI and cybersecurity merit badges Scouting America introduced new badges covering machine learning basics, prompt communication, deepfake awareness, and cybersecurity concepts this week. The goal is to marry traditional be prepared ethos with digital-age fluency. Its also a retention play as membership has fallen from historic peaks, with newer badges designed to meet kids where they liveonline. Flight delays mount as shutdown enters week three A mix of bad weather and shutdown-related staffing strain produced tens of thousands of flight delays across the long weekend. Trade groups say flying remains safe, but chokepoints at Northeast hubs added to traveler frustration. With Congress still gridlocked, operational unpredictability remains the near-term baseline. Bitcoin swoons while gold shines After notching an all-time high earlier this month, Bitcoin slid to a four-month low this week as investors rotated toward gold. Macro jittersfrom tariffs talk to the federal shutdownpressed risk appetite. The move highlights cryptos evolving safe-haven narrative: sometimes it benefits from stress, sometimes the old haven still wins. Zillow: Unrealistic rate cuts needed for affordability Back-of-the-envelope modeling suggests the average 30-year mortgage would need to drop to ~4.43% to make a median home affordable to a median-income buyer (assuming 20% down). In several coastal markets, even 0% rates wouldnt fix the math given taxes, insurance, and upkeep. Zillows takeaway: dont bank on ratesor pricesbailing out budgets soon. Walmart to enable ChatGPT checkout with OpenAI Walmart announced an agentic commerce tie-up so shoppers can purchase via natural language directly in ChatGPT. The integration leans on OpenAIs Instant Checkout and Agentic Commerce Protocol, pitching fewer clicks and more personalization. Investors liked the direction of travel, framing it as an on-ramp to AI-assisted shopping at mass scale. Major outlets reject Pentagon press rules Major news outlets including The New York Times, AP, and Fox News have said they wont sign the Defense Departments new required policy governing access and information requests, leading them to leave the Penagon this week. Newsrooms argue the rules impact routine reporting and set a troubling precedent; the government says theyre common-sense procedures. The standoff raises practical questions about credentialing and transparency. Walmart rolls out ambient IoT sensors across supply chain In a parallel modernization push, Walmart plans millions of battery-free sensors on pallets to track inventory across 4,600 stores and 40+ distribution centers, expanding nationwide in 2026. The data will feed Walmarts AI systems to improve accuracy, cold-chain compliance, and on-shelf availability. Its a scale bet that visibility equals veloctyand profit.
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E-Commerce
Youve probably heard of House of Highlightseven if youre not a sports fan, its hard to miss, whether on YouTube or scrolling through your social feeds. What started as a college dorm Instagram account has grown over 11 years into the #1 sports media brand on the platform, boasting 100 million followers and billions of monthly views. Today, House of Highlights is a multi-platform sports media powerhouse, producing creator-led content and original series that rival traditional TV. Drew Muller, vice president and general manager at House of Highlights, spoke with Yasmin Gagne and Joshua Christensen on the Most Innovative Companies podcast about growth strategies, creator partnerships, and how the company balances viral moments with long-form storytelling. How did House of Highlights start? [The genesis of the project came from] a guy named Omar Raja in his college dorm room. The idea was: “I’m not seeing the highlights that I want on the platforms where I’m spending time.” Seems like kind of table stakes now that you see the proliferation of highlights basically everywhere you look on social media. But back then it really was a novel idea. And the Bleacher Report leadership at the time [. . .] led the acquisition of bringing in this Instagram account into the sports world and saying, “this account is doing something interestingit’s speaking with young people, it’s overperforming in ways that seem to not map to what typical sports companies are doing.” [It was ultimately a credit to Bleacher Report] who let House of Highlights incubate as a startup within the larger company, allowing it space to grow and preserve its unique voice. From there, the idea was: let’s figure out if we can make this into a multi-platform media company that can stand on its own and be incremental to what Bleacher Report was already doing. So how do we make this differentiated and give fans a reason to want to follow both accounts? How do you make sure House of Highlights keeps its own voice and identity? A lot of it maps down to a steadfast commitment to voice and clarity of who we are and who we’re not. A lot of it is due to the organizational structure where House of Highlights is able to maintain operational and strategy independence. We have our own go-to-market strategy, we have our own assets and content strategy and logos and identities and even fonts. But it does take a day-in and day-out focus to balance the two, because we do eat from the same pool of sports rights and sometimes resources. You moved from Instagram highlights to hour-long programming. What were the conversations like around developing long-form content? When we first started to make original content, it was almost out of necessity creator-led. We were a small scrappy team, and in many instances we couldn’t afford to pay huge athletes. There were creators that were starting to blow up on Instagram and YouTube, but were nowhere near the scale we’re talking about today. We were able to form big partnerships with creators that are now household names [like] Supreme Dreams, and Mark Phillips. All of it tied back to sports, youth culture, and putting an entertaining lens on what it is to be a sports fan or to experience sports with your friends in a group chat. The most value that we’ve gotten from building habitual long-form viewership is making sure that an hour or two-hour-long video has a clear path to short form [because] we have massive amounts of short-form expertise and scale, and people are expecting that from us. How has House of Highlights approach to creator deals evolved? [When looking at the creators growth chart, we want to be] where they’re starting to take off, but before they get to the point where they’re a household name and they’re the cream of the crop, not to say we don’t still want to work with them at that point, but typically that’s when they’re getting overpaid by some of the legacy companies. [We] built a lot of the formats that have been replicated by many of the big leagues and some of the big media companies. [Creators] know they’re not just showing up for an appearance fee or to check a box. We’re trying to build special content together and special franchises and IP that can scale. House of Highlights, as weve discussed, is publishing across multiple platforms. How do you approach content programming across those platforms that all reward different types of content and cadence? [On YouTube], you’re going to see full game recaps for folks that maybe aren’t in the cable bundle and aren’t watching two- to three-hour gamesthey typically come to House of Highlights YouTube for a 10- to 15-minute recap of that game. On TikTok, because of how the For You Page operates, you can publish more, and those videos will find their homes without taking up all of someone’s feed. On Instagram, if someone follows House of Highlights and we’re publishing a hundred times a day, it will feel like that in your feed. Under-34 sports fans are watching less and less live cable sports events[so how] can we build an appointment viewing experience for that fandom? From an advertising perspective, obviously that is super valuable, and it’s increasingly hard to reach that audience at scale. Whats next for House of Highlights? We’ve got three events left in our Creator League season. We’ve got a basketball knockout five on five, and then a championship series. That’ll carry us through the end of November. Based on the numbers that we’re seeing, we’re excited about what the championship could look like. And then honestly, the growth of our Fans versus Haters series and where that overarching brand can go in terms of debate style content for a younger audience. [At the end of the day, a lot of it] comes down to our focus on YouTube and how we’re making House of Highlights a broadcast channel.
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E-Commerce
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