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In Taco Bell restaurants across the nation, a new electric purple beverage is now available on tap. Its called Mountain Dew Baja Midnight, and one sip would probably send a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) supporter into a cold faint. Baja Midnight is the first permanent menu expansion in 20 years of Taco Bells iconic collaboration with Mountain Dew, Baja Blast. The new beverage rolled out nationwide on August 14th in both liquid and frozen forms. According to a press release, Baja Midnight is designed specifically with younger generations and modern flavors in mind. As Gen Z has become increasingly obsessed with colorful beverage creations like bubble tea, functional soda, and energy drinks, restaurants like Starbucks, Dunkin, and McDonalds have all rushed to meet the demand. For Taco Bells part, the company is currently experimenting with a beverage-only spin-off called Live Más Café. In a June news release, Taco Bell announced plans to open 30 new Live Más Café locations this year, aiming to grow its beverage sales to $5 billion in the next five years. One glance at Baja Midnights ingredient list is enough to know that this goal stands in direct opposition with the core tenets of the MAHA movement, the initiative and PAC championed by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [Photo: Taco Bell] Where MAHA stands on soda Generally, the MAHA PAC has aligned itself with the goals of reducing corporate influence in public health and environmental policy decisions, and eliminating harmful chemicals from food, water, and air. RFK Jr. has also repeatedly voiced his opposition to fluoride in drinking water and vaccine mandates. When it comes to soda, RFK Jr. has proposed a ban on eight widely used synthetic food dyes that are common in major soda brands, including Yellow 5 and Red 40, both of which are already restricted in Europe. In response to the potential ban, companies including Heinz and General Mills have promised to remove said dyes from their product lines in a matter of years. Alongside President Trump, RFK Jr. has also called for soda brands to replace high fructose corn syrup with cane sugara move that seemingly caused Coca-Cola to announce it would roll out a cane sugar soda in the U.S. this fall. Taco Bell, meanwhile, is going full steam ahead with both of these ingredient categoriesand nothing encapsulates that more than Baja Midnight. [Photo: courtesy of the author] I tried Baja Midnight. It was terrible To see what Taco Bells hype around this new soda was all about, I headed to my local Taco Bell to give it a try. For the sake of a fair comparison, I grabbed both a Baja Midnight and a regular Baja Blast. Classic Baja Blast is a bright teal color, achieved using Yellow 5 and Blue 1 food dye. Its second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup after only carbonated water, clocking in at 44 grams of sugar in a 12 fluid ounce serving, which is equivalent to 89% of the average persons daily sugar intake. A serving of Baja Midnight contains the same amount of sugar, although its dark purple hue requires both Red 40 and Blue 1. Per Taco Bells official descriptions, Baja Blast is a tropical lime soda, and Baja Midnight adds a refreshing blast of passion fruit flavor to the classic drink. Consistent with that description, my Baja Blast had a fruity flavor with a definite citrus note. Baja Midnight was something else entirely. Im no stranger to an artificially flavored beverage, but there is something seriously weird with this purple liquid. Right off the bat, it has none of Baja Blasts refreshing citrus flavor, but it also doesnt taste like anything else that Ive ever tried beforeit could be passion fruit, but if you told me it was every soda in the fountain mixed together, I would be equally willing to believe that. Somehow it tasted like artificial sweetener, though Im fairly certain I got the full 44 grams of sugar. The whole experience ended with a deeply unpleasant aftertaste of bubblegum. Health risks aside, I would recommend steering clear of Baja Midnight. If you need to get your anti-MAHA beverage kicks, stick with the timeless Baja Blast.
Category:
E-Commerce
While Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and other AI industry leaders cant stop singing the praises of the technology, a growing number of average Americans are forming a different opinion. According to YouGov data from July, Americans are increasingly likely to believe that AI will be bad for humans. Specifically, 43% of Americans say they fear AI will end the human race (up 6% since March), and 47% believe that AI will have a net adverse effect on society (up 7% since March). With this rise in AI pessimism, there has been a surge in new slurs and slang terms that capture the negative connotations people increasingly associate with AIand the individuals who use it. Here’s a guide to the five terms you need to know: “AI washing,” “clanker,” “Groksucker,” “slop,” and “slopper.” AI washing No, AI hasnt suddenly found a way to do your laundry while you do art. If you hear someone talking about AI washing, they are referring to a deceptive marketing practice where companies exaggerate the role AI plays in their product or service. This deceptive marketing practice gets its name from green washing, where a company falsely or misleadingly touts its environmentally friendly policies. Any company can be guilty of AI washing if it misstates the role AI plays in its products. Companies in industries that are more prone to doing this are those in the technology and finance sectors, which is why the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has publicly warned against the practice. AI washing, whether it’s by financial intermediaries such as investment advisers and broker dealers, or by companies raising money from the public, that AI washing may violate the securities laws, former chairman of the SEC Gary Gensler warned in 2024. The current Trump administration also seems to be cracking down on AI washing as well, according to Holland & Knight’s SECond Opinions Blog. If someone is said to be an AI washer, it means they are being accused of offering a product that doesnt rely on AI as much as they say it does. Clanker This is the newest AI slur on this list, and its use has exploded in recent months. As Fast Company previously reported, clanker is a derogatory term for robots. The term comes from the fictional Star Wars universe, where droids are often treated as second-class citizens at best. But increasingly, the term is being adopted not just to describe our real-world AI-powered robots, but AI systems that threaten our jobs or remove human connections from our lives. One system often referred to as a clanker is the AI chatbot that people are now forced to talk to when they call a customer support line. I called my bank to ask about my balance, but had to talk to a clanker instead of a human. Groksucker While clanker is a slur aimed at bots and AI systems, several slurs have arisen to define humans who are overly engaged with certain AI systems, particularly generative AI chatbots. Perhaps the most visceral one in this category is Groksucker (you can figure out for yourself what other word the term mimics). The term gets its name from Elon Musks xAI chatbot Grok. And Grok itself says the term describes people who frequently interact with me, Grok, in a way some find repetitive or annoying, adding that the term is tied to concerns about AI overuse or privacy on X. While Groksucker is generally limited to describing a subsection of Grok users, another term exists for those who are overreliant on the most popular chatbot, ChatGPT. But more on that below. Slop If there is one term that has become synonymous with AI-generated content, it is slop. Slop refers to low-quality, high-output content generated by AI tools that are increasingly overrunning our feeds. Slop is Shrimp Jesus proliferating on Facebook and Instagram. Slop is YouTube videos with completely AI-generated scripts, images, and thumbnails that crowd out high-quality human-made creators. Slop is articles written by a machine instead of a person. And slop is what is causing the dead internet theory to transition from fringe conspiracy to prophetic foresight. Slop is everywhere now, and its only going to get worse. Sloppers This list wouldnt be complete without including a slang term that has recently been adopted to describe people who are overreliant on the worlds most popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT. That word is sloppers. The slur gained popularity after a TikTok posted by user intrnetbf went viral last month. In the video, the user said his friend came up with the term sloppers to describe people who are using ChatGPT to do everything for them. If someone is a slopper, it means that they have offloaded most of their cognitive processes to ChatGPT. This cognitive offloading involves asking ChatGPT for guidance on various tasks a person should be mentally well-equipped to handle on their own, such as planning what to do for the evening, how to respond to a text message from a family member, or whether to make a significant life change, like quitting a job. Technological slurs can change how the public viewds a product While many reading this may find some of the above AI slang humorous (and even fitting), the fact that these terms are entering the public lexicon is likely to alarm some companies operating in the AI space. When the public adopts new derogatory names for products, technologies, and the people who use them, it usually signals that popular perception isn’t heading in a positive direction. This can trigger a snowball effect, where peope en masse reject the technology. The glasshole backlash against Google Glass is a well-known example of this. Artificial intelligence is, of course, a much larger and more transformative force than Google Glassand its unlikely to disappear despite the increasing slurs directed at it. However, this emerging slang does indicateas YouGovs polling also showsthat the public is increasingly wary of the technology, and isnt afraid to voice it.
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E-Commerce
Businesses have long leaned on cutting-edge technology to maximize profits, while the nonprofit sector has traditionally been slower to incorporate innovations such as AI. But if we want to tackle the worlds most pressing social problems, that must change, says philanthropist and MacArthur Genius grant recipient Jim Fruchterman in a new book. In Technology for Good: How Nonprofit Leaders Are Using Software and Data to Solve Our Most Pressing Social Problems, out September 2nd, Fruchterman highlights social good organizations that are using technology to solve real-world problemshomelessness, mental illness, climate change, child abuse, and more. Fruchterman is a tech-for-good leader and the founder of the nonprofit Benetech, which created Bookshare, an online library for people who are blind or visually impaired. He spoke with Fast Company about some of the ways technology is being used to make the world a better place and what he hopes readers glean from his book. Its refreshing to talk to a business leader about how to use technology for social good instead of how to use it to drive profits. [Laughs.] I call it moving from money to meaning. What are the challenges that nonprofits and social-good organizations face when it comes to technology? One is a lack of money. Funding is tight. And while tech is often cost-effective, if you have a hard time coming up with the money to buy the tech, it’s hard to use. There are also often low levels of tech capacity among the staff. People are used to using the telephone as opposed to going on a Zoom call. The social sector also prioritizes different things than the for-profit sector. Its not just about efficiency. People are still pretty important in the social change sector. Saying, Hey, you can get rid of a bunch of people (by implementing a new technology) may not be the best sales pitch for a charity that is trying to help people. What are some social problems that technology could help solve? I spotlight in my book TalkingPoints, which helps teachers communicate with kids parents who dont speak English. If you can get the parents more engaged, kids are a lot more successful in school. Thats a great example of a technology that fills a need for immigrant parents. Community Solutions Built for Zero initiative is trying to end homelessness. For years, we treated the symptoms: Lets build temporary housing, get people food and clothing. Theyre asking, Can we say that everyone who was homeless three months ago is now housed? The key tech innovation is a by-name list keeping track of everyone across community places that these people go into. When shelters say, Our beds have been 80% used this month, that measures output, but it doesnt say anything about whether were solving the homelessness problem. So much of what the social sector does is move information aroundwell, thats what information technology is for. What would you say to a nonprofit leader who feels overwhelmed by or unqualified to make decisions around technology? Find people in your field who are ahead of you on the technology journey and learn from them. Talk to your peers. If theyre saying, Were writing a third more grants with the same amount of staff using ChatGPT or Claude, then thats worth paying attention to, because its not their business to sell you things. In your book, you highlight some bad ideas in tech-for-good efforts. Which do you see repeated the most? The cult of the custom. Its the idea that my nonprofit is such a unique snowflake that I need custom software built to solve my organizations problem. And businesses stopped writing custom software 20 years ago because no golf course, no restaurant, no dentist needs to be writing software to run their company. When you write your own software, youre the only customer. It means that every bug that needs to be fixed, youre the only one paying for it. You should look for a product that can be adapted to your needs. Also: I see lots of people building an app that no one will download. Or people following whatever the latest fad isfive or eight years ago, that was blockchain. That didnt work out. Three to five years ago, it was the metaverse. That didnt work out. Right now, its generative AI. Im glad you brought up AI. Whats your take on where AI should and shouldnt be used in social impact work? I think you shouldnt replace human empathy and understanding with AI that doesnt understand what its saying and have any empathy whatsoever. People in the nonprofit sector turn to human beings to help them. The best applications of AI in social good are around making the people on the frontlines of social change more effective. Lets say Im trying to automate a mental health counselor. Do I want to replace the counselor with a chatbot? Right now, its not a great idea. But if we can instead cut their amount of data entry time or paperwork time in half, then thats time they can spend with another person who needs their help.
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E-Commerce
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