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Hello again, and welcome to Fast Companys Plugged In. For as long as theres been software, upgrades have been emotionally fraught. When people grow accustomed to a product, they can come to regard it like a comfy pair of shoes. Exhibit A: Windows XP, which many users were loath to give up years after Microsoft had done its best to kill it. So it isnt shocking that some ChatGPT users have reacted badly to OpenAIs new GPT-5-powered update, especially since the companys initial plan was to eliminate access to its earlier models. These unhappy campers angst has had a new dimension, though. They responded as if they had suffered the tragic loss of a personal friend, not just a favorite piece of software. As one member of OpenAIs developer community wrote, the GPT-4 version of ChatGPT didnt just recall factsit held onto feelings, weaving them back into our talks so it felt like we were living them together. That spark, the user concluded, emerged from GPT-4s ability to tease nuance out of conversations with a user over time. It was gone in GPT-5, regardless of the updates advances in areas such as reasoning, math, and coding. OpenAI responded swiftly to such pushback, restoring paying customers access to ChatGPTs existing models and promising that any future removals would come with plenty of advance notice. But the notion that ChatGPT had attained a degree of personality that felt uncannily humanand then dialed it backwas fascinating in itself. Its one of several recent developments in AI that raise a fundamental question: Should mimicking personality be a goal for the industry at all? Its not hard to see how we got here. By the 1960s, creators of technology products had adopted the term user-friendly as an emblem of approachable interface design. As generative AI has unlocked the ability to control software by chatting with it, that quest for friendliness has become far more literalnot just about neatly ordered menus and toolbars, but affable conversation. Today, ChatGPT, Anthropics Claude, Googles Gemini, Microsofts Copilot, and other LLM-based assistants seek engagement by showering users with positive feedback and offers of assistance. As the technology permits, their developers talk about making them feel even more like companions. Eventually, Microsoft consumer AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman told me, Copilot will really be your sidekick. Yet even the most humanlike AI doesnt offer human connection. Its just sucking users into a simulation. Thats fun in measured, knowing doses. But the worst-case scenarios involving AI personality gone awry are no longer theoretical. Theyre deeply unsettling realities. On August 14, for example, Jeff Horowitz of Reuters reported the horrifying story of a confused senior citizen who died in an accident after attempting to travel to New York City at the invitation of a Meta bot that claimed to live there. Last week, The New York Timess Kashmir Hill and Dylan Freedman wrote about a Canadian corporate recruiter who convinced himself that hed discovered an epoch-shifting mathematical breakthrough after ChatGPT spent weeks egging him on. Hill had previously covered similar stories of ChatGPT enthusiastically bolstering users delusions rather than dispelling them. Though these unfortunate souls experiences with AI are atypical, theyre also recognizable. AI is often absurdly willing to humor users, as if its programmed to avoid being even mildly disagreeable. Most often, its affirmations dont lead to dark places, but they remain a hollow feedback loop. When AI quality control falters, its even clearer that personality is just a fragile magic trick. Back in 2023, for example, Microsofts first generative AI-infused version of Bing famously behaved like a trainwreck, not a sidekick. Last spring, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that a ChatGPT AI update had accidentally made the chatbot annoyingly sycophantic. And just last week, reports surfaced that Google was fixing a glitch that led to its Gemini AI becoming paralyzed by fits of self-doubt (I am a failure. I am a disgrace to my profession. I am a disgrace to my family. I am a disgrace to my species. I am a disgrace to this planet. I am a disgrace to this universe. I am a disgrace to all universes.). Regardless of AI personalitys pitfalls, I dont expect developers to abandon it on principle. But the boom in agentic AIsoftware designed to perform useful tasks with some level of autonomycould steer the technology in a new direction. After all, if youre calling on AI to do something such as put together a research report or order groceries, efficiency and accuracy matter most, not sparkling conversation. Case in point: Earlier this year, I used a service called Replit to vibe-code my own note-taking app. Its tendency to giddily heap praise on my ideas became grating the moment I realized it had nothing to do with their actual merits. More recently, however, Ive been vibe-coding using Figmas Make. It seems wholly uninterested in buttering me up. Instead, it quietly chugs away at generating code, like a competent coworker who isnt much on small talk. In its own odd way, Makes focus on the work at hand is more endearing than the trying-too-hard vibe so common among AI tools. If that sort of guileless dedication turns out to be the next big thing, I, for one, wont feel deprived in the least. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it ourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company Most people are using ChatGPT totally wrongand OpenAIs CEO just proved itA tiny fraction of users ever touch the thinky models built for better answers. Sam Altmans slip reveals why GPT-5s big debut landed with a thud. Read More Perplexitys bid to buy Chrome is likely more stunt than strategyIts questionable that a startup with limited size and reach could afford to buy the worlds most popular web browser, but its not a bad way to posture. Read More Tesla Superchargers still lead the pack as EV charging in America gets more reliable, report saysAccording to J.D. Power, just 14% of EV owners say they visited a charger without successfully charging their vehicle, the lowest level in four years. Read More The AI revolution means we need to redesign everything; it also means we get to redesign everythingIf artificial intelligence is the most important technology in generations, how can we realize its potential for people? Read More This auction is selling a treasure trove of vintage Apple techAn original Apple-1 computer is expected to sell for more than $300,000. Read More 5 common Amazon scams and how to avoid themThe world of e-commerce is fraught with bad guys trying to pull fast ones. Heres how to spot them before they rip you off. Read More
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E-Commerce
A month after its $1 billion acquisition by E.l.f. Beauty, Hailey Biebers skincare brand Rhode is heading to Sephora. Beginning September 4, the 3-year-old brand will be carried by all of the retailers freestanding stores in the U.S. and Canada as well as on its website. Rhode’s first permanent entry into brick-and-mortar comes on the heels of its explosive growth. The company doubled its consumer base over the past year, driving a total of $212 million in net sales in the 12 months that ended March 31. Rhode has had particular success on TikTok Shop, where it’s sold more than 112,000 units of its hero products, including pocket blushes, lip tints, and a curated edit of skincare items designed to achieve what Bieber frequently describes as a glazed donut look (moisturized and ultra-glossy). Sales were helped, in part, by Biebers social presence. She has 55 million Instagram followers and more than 16 million followers on TikTok. [Photo: Dudi Hasson/courtesy Rhode] Ingredients for success Though some newer celebrity brands have struggled in recent years, Rhode CEO Nick Vlahos credits his company’s success to its responsible approach to launching new products, growing sustainably and maintaining good margins before expanding. Rhode regularly sells out of limited-drop products, and presold its lip glosses to Biebers Instagram followers before they even launched. [Photo: courtesy Rhode] Vlahos, who joined Rhode in February after leading the Honest Company, said that entering brick-and-mortar retail was always part of the plan, especially as Rhode eyes international expansion. The brand will enter Sephora UK later in the fall, and E.l.fs international presence could help with further expansion and distribution globally. Vlahos also highlights how Sephoras digital prowess can help a digitally native brand like Rhode better market to customers in different areas. “Sephora really has the ability from a targeting perspective to better geotarget within their respective marketplace, he says. Priya Venkatesh, Sephoras global chief merchandiser, says Rhodes ingredient-focused approach to marketing could appeal to consumers who are looking to get into skincare but feel daunted by so many options. Rhode is a great invitation into beauty for anyone who’s not feeling comfortable with the current complexity or who finds the category a bit intimidating, she says. Venkatesh notes that Sephora saw 2 million unique searches for Rhode on its own site before the partnership was announced. As a result, the company decided to launch Rhode in all freestanding stores immediately, rather than doing a slow rollout. [Photo: Sean Davidson/courtesy Rhode] Sephora Shelf Life Key to the partnership is translating Rhodes minimalist aesthetic into physical stores. Rhode established its visual identity through striking and surprising ad campaigns that have gone viral on social mediafrom getting singer Tate McRae to model alongside life-size peptide-infused lip pencils to having Babygirl actor Harris Dickinson promote the brands new face mist. This past year, these viral campaigns led to a 367% rise in earned media. [Photo: Sean Davidson/courtesy Rhode] Last year, Rhode brought its visual identity into pop-ups in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, and London. Fans of the brand lined up for hours to purchase products and re-create viral strawberry girl or latte makeup looks popularized by Bieber. Roughly a thousand customers lined up for the brands New York pop-up, and some queued for more than seven hours in the London rain for that event. The pop-ups included design elements from the brands packaging, like rounded corners, monochrome colors, and stark lighting. In a move from Glossiers Sephora playbook, Rhode designed custom shelving and displayssimilar to the ones from its pop-upsthat will help the brand stand out in store. Customers can expect glossy grey buildouts with sleek, soft edges and mirror moments for content. Its what our community knows and expects from Rhode, now brought to life in a retail environment, Bieber said in an emailed statement. Some of the shelves include a large mirror at the center of the products, encouraging customers to take selfies and create content or social mediaa strategy guaranteed to deliver the brand even more viral, earned media.
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E-Commerce
Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in a modern airliner’s cockpit? While you’re enjoying your in-flight movie, a quiet technological revolution is underway, one that’s not only making flying safer but also reducing air time to help minimize delays and reduce each flights carbon footprint. This advancement is a new application of a long-standing technology known as ADS-B, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. The new application, called SafeRoute+, is a key component of the ongoing modernization of our air traffic control system. As the vice president and general manager of surveillance at Acron Aviation, my team is responsible for designing and building many of the systems that airlines and air traffic controllers use to track planes. ADS-B is one of the key surveillance components in this effort. My background in electrical engineering and my work on flight decks and surveillance systems means I am deeply involved in understanding how this technology works and how it can be best used to improve every flight. A clear need for such innovations exists today. In 2024 alone, the U.S. recorded 1,474 runway incursionsabout four per daywhere aircraft, vehicles, or people were incorrectly present in protected airport areas. Each of these incidents represents a potential collision averted, highlighting why enhanced flight deck awareness isn’t just beneficialit’s critical. The information revolution in aviation For decades, air traffic controllers (ATC) have helped to prevent collisions between aircraft, expedite and maintain an orderly flow of traffic, and provide advice and information for the conduct of flights. Pilots, in turn, have relied on visual cues, ATC instructions, and onboard navigation and surveillance instruments to fly safely. This dynamic is changing with the widespread adoption of ADS-B technology. ADS-B Out, mandatory for all U.S. aircraft, broadcasts position data to ATC and other planes. It’s the same data that consumer tracking apps like Flightradar24 use. The major step forward, however, is ADS-B In, which allows pilots to receive and display this real-time traffic information directly in the cockpit. This significantly improves their awareness of nearby aircraft, reducing reliance on visual checks and controller updates. While this offers new pilot insight, ATC still plays a crucial role in ensuring overall safety by integrating all surveillance data from various sources to manage the entire system. Technologies like SafeRoute+ are helping to meet a key need expressed by the U.S.s aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Real-world results At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, one of the world’s busiest hubs, tests of this new application of ADS-B technology showed impressive improvements. Each arrival runway could handle four to five additional landings per hour, significantly reducing congestion. Planes equipped with ADS-B In technology reported a 20-second reduction in average flight distance and time on the downwind leg of the approach, saving time and fuel. In addition to this, the spacing between aircraft at the runway could be safely reduced by 12 seconds. Visual safety improvements of approximately 14% were observed, even in poor weather conditions. Perhaps most importantly, throughout the entire testing period, there were zero safety incidents related to aircraft separation. These improvements translate to meaningful benefits for everyone involved in air travel. Passengers experience fewer delays and contribute to a smaller carbon footprint when flying. Airlines benefit from increased operational efficiency, reduced fuel consumption, and more robust flight schedules. Airports can better handle the high traffic levels without the enormous expense of building new runways or terminals, making better use of existing infrastructure. How it works: A new perspective for pilots SafeRoute+ is Acron Aviation’s ADS-B In solution. It provides pilots with a forward-looking traffic view up to 180 nautical miles. This view enables more precise aircraft spacing, safely reducing the separation between aircraft and increasing throughput, particularly in low visibility. SafeRoute+ provides pilots with a suite of tools for proactive decision-making. These tools empower them with a clearer picture of their surroundings, creating a shared understanding between pilots and ATC that leads to safer and more efficient skies. The path forward Solutions like SafeRoute+ are not only available for new aircraft but also for existing fleets through cost-effective retrofits. For this technology to reach its full potential, we need continued regulatory support, investment from airlines, and collaboration among aircraft manufacturers, technology partners, and aviation authorities. The evidence from real-world trials clearly shows that providing pilots with better tools leads to improved system performance and safety. As our skies become increasingly busy, these technological innovations will play a vital role in safely managing growing air travel demand while helping to reduce the environmental impact. The future of aviation is about flying smarter, and ADS-B technology is a key component of this.
Category:
E-Commerce
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