2024 Fast 55: Winners Prove Growth, Customer Service Entwined

Enlarge / Wegovy is an injectable prescription weight-loss medicine that has helped people with obesity. (credit: Getty | Michael Siluk) The US Food and Drug Administration has approved two injectable versions of the blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drug, semaglutide (Wegovy and Ozempic). Both come in pre-filled pens with pre-set doses, clear instructions, and information about overdoses.

Shotgun Willie’s is getting some competition in the late-night Glendale scene. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday for a 10-acre entertainment district in the municipality surrounded by Denver, the final variation of a project Glendale has been planning for more than a decade. “It’s been a long time coming,” said City Manager Chuck Line, who assumed that role last year but was deputy city manager for two decades before that. The project, expected to cost $150 million, is being developed by Denver-based Central Street Capital, a family office founded by health care entrepreneur Rob Salazar.

Enlarge / Boeing's Strainer spacecraft is seen docked at the International Space Station in this picture taken July 3. (credit: NASA) The astronauts who rode Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station last month still don't know when they will return to Earth. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been in space for 51 days, six weeks longer than originally planned, as engineers on the groundwork through problems with Starliner's propulsion system. The problems are twofold.

Enlarge / One day, using pixellated fonts and images to represent that something is a video game will not be a trope. Today is not that day. SAG-AFTRA has called for a strike of all its members working in video games, with the union demanding that its next contract not allow "companies to abuse AI to the detriment of our members." The strike mirrors similar actions taken by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) last year, which, while also broader in scope than just AI, were similarly focused on concerns about AI-generated work product and the use of member work to train AI. "Frankly, it’s stunning that these video game studios haven’t learned anything from the lessons of last year—that our members can and will stand up and demand fair and equitable treatment with respect to A.

Enlarge / The Cadillac V-Series. R is one of General Motors' factory-backed racing programs. (credit: James Moy Photography/Getty Images) It is hard to escape the feeling that a few too many businesses are jumping on the AI hype train because it's hype-y, rather than because AI offers an underlying benefit to their operation.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino) Internet service providers are eager to get money from a $42.45 billion government fund, but are trying to convince the Biden administration to drop demands that Internet service providers offer broadband service for as little as $30 a month to people with low incomes. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program was created by a US law that requires Internet providers receiving federal funds to offer at least one "low-cost broadband service option for eligible subscribers." The Biden administration says it is merely enforcing that legal requirement, but a July 23 letter sent by over 30 broadband industry trade groups claims that the administration is illegally regulating broadband prices. The fund is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).