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Carnival Cruise Line has announced that it is launching a new dining experience on its ships for people who dont like the long, leisurely evening dinners that cruises are known for. Heres why Carnival is introducing the new option, and what it means for you if youre traveling on a Carnival cruise soon. Whats happened? This week, Carnival announced that it is rolling out a new Express Dining option on more than a dozen of its ships. The cruise giant says that the new dining experience is designed to offer a freshly prepared multi-course dinner experience in under an hour for groups of six guests or fewer. The idea behind Express Dining is that if Carnival offers a faster way to enjoy an evening meal, guests who want to explore the ship’s other entertainment options, like shows or bars, will have more time to do so. Our guests continue to tell us they value greater flexibility in how they spend their time on board, and Express Dining was designed with that in mind, Carnival president Christine Duffy said, announcing the new dining option. Are leisurley dinners going away? If youre one of the many people who find the long, leisurely dinners one of the major appeals of cruises, dont worrythose arent going away. Instead, Carnival will offer guests the choice of Express Dining or the lines traditional dining experience. Those who opt for the new Express Dining service should be aware that, due to the faster service, not all food options from the traditional dining service will be available. Carnival says that while the Express Dining service significantly reduces service time and mirrors much of the main dining experiences offerings, the new service does have a slightly abbreviated selection. What ships is Carnivals new Express Dining service available on? Carnival says the new Express Dining option is now available on the following 15 ships: Carnival Jubilee Carnival Celebration Mardi Gras Carnival Venezia Carnival Firenze Carnival Panorama Carnival Horizon Carnival Sunrise Carnival Vista Carnival Breeze Carnival Radiance Carnival Conquest Carnival Dream Carnival Glory Carnival Freedom Carnival says all ships in Carnivals fleet will offer Express Dining by the end of May. Carnivals stock has faced rough waters in 2026 While Carnival is betting that its guests will likely appreciate the option to sit down to a faster meal, the companys announcement, as expected, seems to have been met with indifference from investors. After all, Carnival has bigger problems than serving food quickly right now. The companys stock price (NYSE: CCL) has declined nearly 22% in the past month, particularly after the outbreak of the war in Iran, which is serving to drive up oil pricesa commodity that Carnivals ships rely on. Higher oil prices mean higher costs for Carnival, and thus fewer profits. As of the time of this writing, CCL shares have now fallen over 19% since the year began. However, over the past 12 months, CCL shares have risen a healthy 29%.
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E-Commerce
OpenAIs first artist in residence is launching a new company that aims to turn your thoughts into actual products. Today, entrepreneur and roboticist Alexander Reben announces Phyzify, a lab using AI tools to rapidly prototype physical objects based on your imagination. There’s a huge gap between idea and [bringing that] thing into existence, says Reben, cofounder of Phyzify. And I really think AI and robotics and quantum computing and all the technology that’s about to come is going to accelerate [closing] that gap [and] make walking across that bridge a lot easier. But what Reben has in mind is far greater than just 3D printing. Hes envisions Phyzify as a platform where AI handles the entire execution of an idea, from potential prompts to multitudes of physical outputs. For example, translating music into paintings that an artist could sell as merch. On top of that, he sees Phyzify handling the backend of the more mundane aspects of product development, from securing domain names to filing patents and trademarks. Phyzify closed a pre-seed round led by Logan Kilpatrick, product lead for Google AI Studio, DeepMind. Kilpatrick was drawn to Phyzify as an investor because he sees 2026 as a huge year for physical AI and generative mediaand he believes Phyzify is at the front of the wave. Alex has a unique ability to bring new ideas at the intersection of AI and Art to life, Kilpatrick said in an email. I saw this first hand working with him at OpenAI, and now I couldnt be more excited to back him as he and the team build the tools and platforms to enable people to bring their ideas to life. Phyzify is a natural evolution of Rebens career that sits at the intersection of advanced technology and creative experimentation. In 2010 at MIT Media Lab, Rebens graduate research focused on social robotics. One of his early creations, Boxie, became the inspiration of the character Baymax in Disneys Big Hero 6. In 2014, Reben became the director of technology and research at Stochastic Labs, a residency program in Berkeley convening minds across tech, art, and science. Hes made headlines for his various AI-based artworks. And in 2024, he was announced as OpenAIs first artist-in-residence, where he spent the better part of the year gaining access to the companys technology to explore how AI systems can participate in artistic practices. And now, Reben wants to push the boundaries of AI and creativity even further with Phyzifybut with a clear intent on keeping humans at the center of it all. Phyzify Cofounders Jake Witzenfeld and Alexander Reben [Photos: courtesy Phyzify] Looking to the future of automation and a lot of the research and papers and things people have been thinking about, it’s still pretty clear that asking the questions, being creative, imagining is something that makes sense for humans to keep doing, Reben says. That’s something that’s very, very hard for an AI to do, if not ultimately impossible. The companys lab is headquartered in a North Carolina factory where theyre primarily working with fabric looms to transform AI-based concepts to physical products. In a virtual demo, I controlled various creative expressions of my webcam feed via a MIDI controller. Apparently there were more than 604 sextillion AI-generated options to choose fromI did not get through all of them. Once I locked in my choice, I could see a live feed of my image being woven on a loom in real-time and the tapestry was sent to my office the next day. This idea of bringing stuff [into] the physical realm needs a starting place, Reben says. Fabric is something that’s quite intriguing given it’s turned into so many different objects as well. So even the post-processing steps after creating a unique piece of fabric is fairly unlimited. As it expands across mediums, Phyzify is collaborating with five creative professionals in fashion, music, food, gaming, and more to help stress test and experiment with various interfaces and physical outputs. There’s an element of exploration right now, says Jake Witzenfeld, cofounder of Phyzify. The platform will be the accumulation of the tools that come out of what we’re doing at the lab. [Photo: Fast Company] Phyzify is implementing an array of creative tools from across the advanced technology landscape, but it’s also building its own tools and systems with the goal of launching a consumer facing product in a year. Eventually, the company hopes to create mass market products, limited edition drops, art pieces, and more. But outside of pushing products, Reben wants Phyzify to push against synthetic capitalism, an economy where the products and the means through which theyre produced are handled entirely by AI without any human involvement. To Reben, machines and AI have mastered how to make things. And humans should decide what’s worth being in the world and why. If we retain control of that, Reben says, and we can help move that forward, I think that’s an important mission to have.
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E-Commerce
Grammarly, the tool meant to assist with spelling, grammar, and in identifying plagiarism, is being sued for a new AI tool called Expert Review. The tool offers editing suggestions from established authors and writersostensibly not a bad ideaexcept that none of those people consented to being involved in the first place. The tool offers real-time writing tips from celebrities like Stephen King and Neil deGrasse Tyson, as well as journalists, like The Markup founder Julia Angwin, who filed the class action lawsuit against Grammarlys parent company Superhuman, after she alleged the tool used her likeness without her permission: have worked for decades honing my skills as a writer and editor, and I am distressed to discover that a tech company is selling an imposter version of my hard-earned expertise, Angwin said in a statement. From photorealistic deepfakes on Sora to scammers using chatbots to swindle users out of money, AI has already been bending reality and using peoples likenesses at worrying speeds. The Grammarly lawsuit shows how professional writers likenesses are also up for grabsin addition to having that same technology threaten their very careers and livelihoods. This is the latest battle in the war over what legal and ethical boundaries AI should not cross. Sorry, not sorry The federal lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York Wednesday, challenges Grammarlys misappropriation of the names and identities of hundreds of journalists, authors, writers, and editors to earn profits for Grammarly and its owner, Superhuman, per court documents reviewed by Fast Company. Angwins lawsuit comes as Superhuman has recently announced plans to phase out Expert Review. Shishir Mehrotra, Superhumans CEO, addressed the decision to remove the tool in a post on LinkedIn on Wednesday: This kind of scrutiny improves our products, and we take it seriously. He continued: As context, the agent was designed to help users discover influential perspectives and scholarship relevant to their work, while also providing meaningful ways for experts to build deeper relationships with their fans. But commenters on the public post, which include a linguistics professor, a New York Times editor, a public library clerk and others in the writing and editing industry, pushed back, arguing the CEOs words dont take real accountability or capture the gravity of the situation. In a statement shared with Fast Company, Mehrotra followed up on his apology, but was dismissive of the lawsuit. We have reviewed the lawsuit, and we believe the legal claims are without merit and will strongly defend against them, he said in the statement. The new identity wars As AI continues to develop at breakneck pace, many workersespecially ones in fields at high risk for automation, like writing and editingthis Grammarly lawsuit brings fresh fears around how workers can protect not just their work, but their identities. And many professionals are taking action. Actor Matthew McConaughey, for example, filed eight trademark applications earlier this year to protect his likeness and voice as AI deepfakes being scarily realistic and accurate. Angwins attorney Peter Romer-Friedman calls the situation a very straightforward legal case, telling Fast Company that various state laws for a long time have provided that it’s unlawful to use a person’s name, whether they’re famous or not, for commercial purposes or gained without their consent. He says that’s exactly what Superhuman did through the Grammarly expert review tool. Regardless of how it plays out, legal and AI experts worry about what the incident means for the future of many industriesand that some workplaces may not be ready. The lawsuit points to a troubling trend, says Vered Zlaikha, partner and Head of Cyber & AI practice at Lipa Meir & Co. In the race to attract users and market share, some AI developers and vendors may be tempted to push legal and ethical boundaries. She also thinks this could be the first of many such legal battles between companies using AI tools, and the workers they affect. We may well see additional lawsuits and class actions brought by various affected parties, including users and individuals referenced or implicated by AI, she notes. Dalit Heldenberg, an AI adoption strategist and advisor, agreed, saying were already seeing it. Disney recently sent a cease-and-desist to Google over AI tools generating its characters, which led Gemini to start blocking those prompts, Heldenberg told Fast Company. It’s a sign that companies are beginning to draw clear boundaries around how AI products can use their intellectual property. In other words, even people or companies who use an AI tool without being aware of its legality may open themselves up to being sued. Fast Company asked Angwins lawyer point blank if the people and organizations who used Expert Review were legally exposed and if the firm planned to pursue legal action against them. I cant speak to that at this time, he replied. Look before you leap into AI Zlaikha advises companies using AI tools to ask questions before jumping in and rolling them out. What contractual protections are in place? she asks, and who bears responsibility in the face of legal action? How does the organization retain control and oversight over how the tool is created and deployed? While larger companies will likely have the resources to adapt to the shifting AI litigation landscape, theyre also more likely to be targets. As Heldenberg put it, When you have millions of users and hundreds of millions in revenue, you’re the first call a plaintiff’s lawyer makes. Smaller companies face a different risk: they often adopt AI tools without fully understanding the legal exposure they might create. As for Angwin, as the lawsuit states, she hopes to stop Grammarly and its owner, Superhuman, from trading on her name and those of hundreds of other journalists, authors, editors, and even lawyers and to stop the companies from attributing words to them that they never uttered. Meanwhile, Superhuman CEO Mehrotra, says there is a better approach to bringing experts onto our platform and we are working on a version that will provide significantly more benefit to both users and experts, he said in the statement to Fast Company.
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E-Commerce
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