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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Googles AI Studio and Labs let you experiment for free with new AI tools. I love the way these digital sandboxeslike the one from Hugging Facelet you try out creative new uses of AI. You can dabble around then download and share what you make, without having to master a complex new platform. Read on for a few Google AI experiments to try. All are free, fast, and easy to use. 1. Transform an image Upload a photo and use Geminis AI Studio Image Generation to transform it with prompts. Iterate on your original image until you get a version you like. The model understands natural language, so you dont have to master prompt lingo. 2. Generate an AI voice conversation AI-generated voices are increasingly hard to distinguish from human ones. If youre surprised, try Generate Speech in the AI Studio or Googles NotebookLM. How to use Generate Speech in Googles AI Studio Paste in text, either for a narration or a conversation between two people Open the settings tab to pick from 30 AI voices. Each is labeled with a characteristice.g. upbeat, gravelly, or mature. Click run to generate the conversation. Optionally adjust the playback speed. Download the file if you want to keep it, or paste in different text to try again. Example: a silly 90-sec chat between two violinists I scripted with Gemini and rendered quickly with this Generate Speech tool. Use case: Make a narration track for an instructional video. ElevenLabs has a better professional model for this, but AI Studios is free, easy and quick. Alternatives Googles Gemini AI app can also now generate audio overviews from files you upload, if youre on a paid plan. Googles free NotebookLM has a new mobile app, and now lets you generate an audio conversation in any of 50 languages. Unlike Generate Speech in AI Studio, NotebookLM audio overviews summarize your material, they dont perform words as written. Why NotebookLM is so useful. Googles Illuminate lets you generate, listen to, share, and download AI conversations about research papers and famous books. Heres an audio chat about David Copperfield, for example. A bit dry to listen to, but still useful. 3. Make a gif Try Magical Gif Maker, one of 20 showcase apps in the Build section of AI Studio. Try making a moving visual featuring the name of your publication, group, or event. I experimented with kinetic text and word art. Also worth trying in the Build AI Studio: Flashcard maker, Video to Learning App & Maps Planner. Alternative: You can also make a static image with Googles Imagen 3 or the new Imagen 4. Write a short prompt and select your preferred aspect ratio. So far I still prefer Ideogram (why I like it) and ChatGPTs new image engine. 4. Generate a short video Googles Veo 2 and Flow let you generate free short video clips almost instantly with a prompt. Create a clip to add vibrancy or humor to a presentation, or a visual metaphor to help you explain something. Here are 25 other quick ideas for how you might use little AI-generated video scenes. How to create a video clip with Veo 2 Pick a length (5 to 8 seconds) and select horizontal or vertical orientation Write a prompt & optionally upload a photo to suggest a visual direction Example: Take a look at a parakeet photo I started with and the 5-second video I generated from the photo with Veo 2. Tip: Convert short video clips into gifs for free with Ezgif or Giphy. Unlike vido files, gifs are easy to share and auto-play in an email or presentation. Whats next: Remarkably lifelike clips made with Googles newer Veo 3 model went viral this week. These AI-generated visualswith soundare only available on the $250/month(!) plan for now, so try Veo 2 for free. 5. Explain things with lots of tiny cats This playful mini app creates short, step-by-step visual guides using charming cat illustrations to explain any concept, from how a violin works to the concept behind the matrix. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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E-Commerce
In the last 12 months, Target has publicly walked back its long-held DEI commitments, faced a weeks-long boycott from customers, and become one of several corporations that diminished its annual support for NYC Pride. But when June 1 rolled around, the company still trotted out its annual collection of Pride-inspired, rainbow-adorned merchand, for a number of reasons, its not landing well with queer customers. This years collection includes a series of apparel printed with slogans like Authentically Me and Glowing with Pride, rainbow-hued cat and dog doys, and, oddly enough, a couple of Pride-themed collectible bird figurines. Since the merch debuted, customers have been quick to notice an issue: Several of the items labels are printed with lorem ipsum filler copy. Targets pathetic 2025 Pride collection has arrived, one Reddit post on the subject reads. According to a spokesperson, Target is aware of the error, which it says originated with a vendor, and is working to address the issue. But for many customers, this labeling oversight feels like both a symptom and a symbol of larger issues at Target. For years, the company has turned Pride Month into a full-on branding extravaganza, releasing entire collections in stores and showing up as a sponsor at Pride parades across the country. In a series of events starting in 2023, though, Target has capitulated to rising conservative pressure, dialing back its Pride merch, ending its DEI commitments, and, this year, retreating from Pride parade sponsorship. Taken together, these factors make Targets 2025 Pride collection feel, at best, like a desperate bid to save face, and, at worst, like an attempt to cash in on a community that its too afraid to support outside of store walls. Targets retreat from Pride Target first launched pride products in 2015, and largely continued to expand its Pride-based inventory in the years following, openly doubling down on its support for the queer community during a bout of transphobic backlash in 2017. However, starting in 2023, the brands approach to Pride has been in flux. In May of 2023, CEO Brian Cornell told Fortunes Leadership Next podcast that the companys DEI efforts had fueled much of our growth over the last nine years. Mere weeks later, though, Target removed some items from its annual Pride collection after receiving an influx of conservative pushback, and even threats to its employees, over the items. The waters have been increasingly muddy for Targets Pride efforts ever since. In 2024, the company scaled back its Pride Month sections from all stores to only select locations and online. Then, this January, as companies across the country stepped back from DEI initiatives under the Trump administration, Target announced a series of its own concessions. The brand shared it was concluding certain goals and initiatives tied to racial equity in hiring, no longer participating in external surveys from the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign, and renaming its supplier diversity team to supplier engagement, shifting its focus away from explicitly courting brands with diverse ownership. To many loyal customers, this announcement felt like a betrayal, especially given that Target had previously been more vocal than its corporate peers on DEI initiativesand that the company has profited annually on Pride Month. This sparked a boycott of the brand that caused foot traffic to drop and share prices to plummet. In the aftermath, the Twin Cities pride parade announced that it would no longer accept Target as a sponsor. And, according to NYC Pride spokesperson Kevin Kilbride, Target was one of several brands that either backed out, reduced its contribution, or asked for its involvement to go unpublicized in the event. Targets retreat from Pride is part of a larger trend this year of corporations choosing not to renew their sponsorshipa pattern thats left many queer consumers wondering if corporate support was always just rainbow washing, or an attempt to signal affinity with LGBTQ+ customers merely to profit off of them. The [queer] community has been completely abandoned by a number of major companies, across a lot of brand categories, Joanna Schwartz, a professor at Georgia College & State University with a specialty in LGBTQ+ marketing, told Fast Company in May. The current prevailing wind is out of a far more conservative place, and companies are trying not to make anyone mad, but the companies that were really trying to make an easy buck off of the community were the first ones to leave. ‘Now they’re trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity’ Now that Pride Month has officially arrived, Target is left in a sticky situation. The company is attempting to walk a tightrope between avoiding a conservative outcry for its Pride merch while also striving not to alienate LGBTQ+ customers (who, according to a 2023 study by the investment adviser LGBT Capital, hold an estimated $3.9 trillion in global purchasing power). This year, Targets Pride collection looks fairly similar to last years and is, once again, only available in some locations. In a statement to Fast Company, a spokesperson shared, weare absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyoneour team members, our guests, our supply partners, and the more than 2,000 communities were proud to serve. As we have for many years, we will continue to mark Pride Month by offering an assortment of celebratory products, hosting internal programming to support our incredible team, and sponsoring local events in neighborhoods across the country. Regardless of its intentions, Targets Pride merch is coming off decidedly hollow for queer customers this year, given its backtracking from the community at large. Whenever its time to profit off Pride, Target rolls out the rainbows, one X user wrote. But when it comes time to actually stand with the queer community? Crickets. Your Pride merch means nothing without a spine. On Reddit, users under a post regarding the unfinished lorem ipsum tags expressed discomfort with parts of the collection. One of the items is a moving truck figurine decked out in the lesbian flag and the phrase “Move N,” a reference to the concept of U-Hauling. Per Urban Dictionary, the slang term pokes fun at the stereotype of the speedy act of moving in together after a brief courtship between lesbians. One commenter called the figurine insulting AF. Others pointed out the lack of any reference to the trans or nonbinary communities. Still others were generally frustrated with the companys unreliable support. Gay folks never asked for Target to sell cheap low quality merch with rainbows splattered all over it, one user commented. All we asked for was to be treated fairly and allowed to live our lives. They made this shit to get our business. Now they’re trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity.
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E-Commerce
Just south of Mount Fuji, on a modest 176-acre site once occupied by Toyotas Higashi-Fuji automotive factory, a groundbreaking urban experiment is underway. Launched in 2024, Phase 1 was completed last year and houses 360 residents, most of them Toyota employees and their families, as well as some researchers and retirees. It will ultimately be home to some 2,000 residents. The name “Woven City” symbolizes both the citys interwoven road networks and Toyotas historical roots in the textile industry, capturing the fusion of mobility, digital infrastructure, and human interaction. Woven City is neither a typical planned community nor a smart city in the usual sense of the term. It was deliberately launched to as an urban operating systema real world living laboratory ordesigned to learn and refine itself through real-world data and resident feedback. [Photo: Toyota] Kaizen in city form Woven City can be seen as an extension of Toyotas pioneering philosophy of continuous improvement or kaizen that sees workers as the source of true innovation. As the city comes to replace the industrial corporation as the fundamental platform for the knowledge age, Woven City empowers residents to actively shape and build their community. At its core is the premise that residents are not passive users of pre-designed systems but active co-creators of emerging ones. Woven City explicitly includes diverse demographic groups such as families, retirees, engineers, and researchers, ensuring feedback reflects a broad range of lived experiences, making the city more relevant and effective as an urban prototype. To support this co-creation, Toyota built extensive feedback mechanisms into Woven Citys designtraditional ones, like participatory design workshops, behavioral surveys, and resident advisory panels, and sophisticated digital technologies that track behaviors. Activities ranging from strolling through public plazas to residents usage of pop-up kiosks provide continuous data which is used to improve systems and services. As Toyota moves from Software Defined Vehicles to the broader strategic concept of comprehensive mobility, Woven City provides a prototype of a Software Defined City. Additionally, Woven City extensively employs Internet of Things (or IoT) devices and digital twin technology, enabling urban planners to proactively simulate urban scenarios and optimize systems such as energy, waste, water, and lighting before deploying them in the real world [Photo: Toyota] An autonomous vehicle testing ground Toyota has integrated diverse corporate partners into Woven City’s collaborative framework. Daikin, for example, tests adaptive air-quality solutions within residential units. UCC Japan operates mobile cafés to enhance community interaction. DyDo and Nissin pilot nutrition kiosks that monitor and respond dynamically to consumer preferences, gaining insights into how people interact with these systems in real-time settings. The citys buildings are primarily constructed from sustainable, carbon-neutral wood and topped with photovoltaic solar panels. Critical infrastructure, including electricity, water, and internet cables, is installed underground to enhance safety and aesthetic appeal. The citys infrastructure enables testing autonomous driving and other innovations that are difficult to try out in traditional urban settings. It integrates above ground and underground systems, These systems are continuously optimized based congestion. Pedestrian and cycling promenades are configured as linear parks, and flank lanes that are dedicated to low-speed autonomous shuttles. e-Palette shuttles provide accessible transportation, deliver goods, and offer mobile retail, supported by sensors and communication systems to manage traffic flows. Amenities like pop-up cafés and pocket parks are introduced when data indicates declining foot traffic, enhancing street-level vitality. [Photo: Toyota] A city beneath the city Underground, an extensive network of tunnels facilitates discreet and efficient delivery and waste management via autonomous vehicles and robots. This underground tunnel system connects the citys 14 buildings through approximately 25,000 square meters of subterranean tunnels. Autonomous delivery robots can do their work without having to deal with changing weather conditions, significantly enhancing efficiency and maintaining pedestrian-friendly streets. Interestingly, for the worlds leading automotive company, privately-owned gasoline-powered vehicles are prohibited, reflecting the citys sustainability commitment. Central to Woven Citys sustainable infrastructure is a decentralized hydrogen microgrid, supported by rooftop solar panels, stationary fuel cells, and replaceable hydrogen cartridges for vehicles and residences. This portable hydrogen cartridge system provides enough to power typical household appliances for several hours. These cartridges are relatively light and are designed to be portable and easily replaced, supporting decentralized and resilient power systems. When elderly residents had difficulty using this system, it was quickly redesigned to include assisted lifts and to work with voice-command technologies. Whn it was noticed that elderly residents had difficult using this system, kiosks were redesigned to use voice-command technologies to activate assisted lifts to make handling easier for them. A dense array of sensors monitors everything from pedestrian flows, energy consumption, and environmental conditions, and to usage patterns in public spaces. This data enables planners to test scenarios, adjust shuttle schedules, and reconfigure public spaces based on actual usage patterns and surveys, recalibrating street lighting, for example, to improve nighttime vibrancy. [Photo: Toyota] What can we learn from Woven City? Ultimately, Woven Citys transformative approach can be distilled into three fundamental principles: Start small, iterate fast: Validate ideas through limited real-world trials before scalingtreating the city not as a finished plan, but as a continuous experiment. Continuous real-time feedback: Urban technologies and systems that use resident input to quickly and continuously adapt how the city works. Empowered residents: Engage residents not as passive users, but as active co-creators whose lived experiences shape and refine urban systems in real time Taken together, these three principles reflect the core notion that cities are dynamic learning systems that must continually adapt based on residents’ behaviors and feedback. As a self-described urban prototype, Woven Citys approach offers useful insights for communities of all shapes and sizesfrom new cities from scratch to existing downtowns and suburbs. Toyota intends to extend successful innovations from Woven City to urban areas around the globe. [Photo: Toyota] Many new tech-driven citieslike Googles Sidewalk Labs, California Forever, and Saudi Arabias NEOMhave stumbled by aiming too big, overspending, following rigid plans, and overlooking community input. Woven City demonstrates a smarter path: start small, involve residents from day one, and stay flexible. By treating the city as an ongoing experiment, Woven City continuously evolves based on real-time feedback from its residents. This bottom-up approach drives genuine innovation and builds trust in ways top-down projects rarely achieve. Downtowns today face significant challenges, as the shift to remote work reduces commuting, increases office vacancies, and cuts transit ridership. Woven Citys real-time feedback methods can help businesses, planners, and policymakers reimagine a better future for downtowns. Real-time data can pinpoint which office buildings should transition into housing, mixed-use spaces, or entertainment venues. Monitoring technologies can also help guide transit improvementsoptimizing bus routes, subway lines, and redesigning streets to better support pedestrians and cyclists. This approach can accelerate the transformation of downtown areas from single-purpose business districts into vibrant, connected, and diverse neighborhoods. [Photo: Toyota] Suburbs, historically built as bedroom communities, are also experiencing profound changes. With the rise of remote work, more people seek to integrate their work and home lives. Woven City provides a useful template with its emphasis on mixed-use development, flexible infrastructure, and reduced reliance on cars. Its approach can help suburbs transform car-dominated infrastructure by incorporating linear parks, increasing green spaces, promoting walkability and cycling, and efficiently managing delivery vehicles. Its approach can also help suburbs learn how to more strategically array offices, coworking spaces, retail, and recreational facilities; and create more vibrant main streets and town centers. Woven Citys flexible building technologies could be a model for adapting traditional single-family homes into more versatile live-work environments. Woven City updates Jane Jacobs’ fundamental insights for our high tech age. Unlike so many other smart city efforts, it shows how new technologies can help cities evolve and learn from the day-to-day knowledge and activities of the people who inhabit and use them.
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E-Commerce
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