An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASAs first medical evacuation.
SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. Their first stop was a hospital for an overnight stay.
Obviously, we took this action (early return) because it was a serious medical condition, NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman said following splashdown. The astronaut in question is fine right now, in good spirits and going through the proper medical checks.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japans Kimiya Yui and Russias Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who developed the health problem last week or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board.
The astronauts emerged from the capsule, one by one, within an hour of splashdown. They were helped onto reclining cots and then whisked away for standard medical checks, waving to the cameras. Isaacman monitored the action from Mission Control in Houston, along with the crew’s families.
NASA decided a few days ago to take the entire crew straight to a San Diego-area hospital following splashdown and even practiced helicopter runs there from the recovery ship. The astronaut in question will receive in-depth medical checks before flying with the rest of the crew back to Houston on Friday, assuming everyone is well enough. Platonovs return to Moscow was unclear.
NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next days spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.
Spacewalk preparations did not lead to the medical situation, Isaacman noted, but for anything else, it would be very premature to draw any conclusions or close any doors at this point. It’s unknown whether the same thing could have happened on Earth, he added.
The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.
Isaacman said it’s too soon to know whether the launch of station reinforcements will take priority over the agency’s first moonshot with astronauts in more than a half-century. The moon rocket moves to the pad this weekend at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, with a fueling test to be conducted by early next month. Until all that is completed, a launch date cannot be confirmed; the earliest the moon flyaround could take off is Feb. 6.
For now, NASA is working in parallel on both missions, with limited overlap of personnel, according to Isaacman.
If it comes down to a point in time to where we have to deconflict between two human spaceflight missions, that is a very good probMARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writerem to have at NASA, he told reporters.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Marcia Dunn, AP aerospace writer
I was born an only child, but now I have a twin. Hes an exact duplicate of medown to my clothing, my home, my facial expressions, and even my voice.
I built him with AI, and I can make him say whatever I want. Hes so convincing that he could fool my own mother.
Heres how I built himand what AI digital twins mean for the future of people.
Deepfake yourself
From the moment generative AI was born, criminals started using it to trick people.
Deepfakes were one of the first widespread uses of the tech. Today, theyre a scourge to celebrities and even everyday teenagers, and a massive problem for anyone interested in the truth.
As criminals were leveraging deepfakes to scam and blackmail people, though, a set of white-hat companies started quietly putting similar digital cloning technologies to use for good.
Want to record a training video for your team, and then change a few words without needing to reshoot the whole thing? Want to turn your 400-page Stranger Things fanfic into an audiobook without spending 10 hours of your life reading it aloud?
Digital cloning tech has you covered. You basically deepfake yourselfcloning your likeness, your voice, or bothand then mobilize your resulting digital twin to create mountains of content just as easily as youd prompt ChatGPT or Claude.
I wanted to try the tech out for myself. So I fired up todays best AI cloning tools and made Digital Toma perfect digital copy of myself.
Hear me out
I decided to start by cloning my voice. A persons voice feels like an especially intimate, personal thing.
Think back on a loved one youve lost. Ill bet you can remember exactly how they sounded. You can probably even remember a specific, impactful conversation you had with them.
Cloning a voicewith all the nuance of accent, speaking style, pitch, and breathis also a tough technical challenge. People are fast to forgive crappy video, chalking up errors or glitchiness in deepfakes to a spotty internet connection or an old webcam. Content creators everywhere produce bad video every day without any help from AI!
A bad AI voice sounds way creepier, though. Its easier to land in the uncanny valley unless every aspect of a voice clone is perfect.
To avoid that fate, I turned to ElevenLabs. The company has been around since 2022 but has exploded in popularity over the last year, with its valuation doubling to more than $6.6 billion.
ElevenLabs excels at handling audioif youve listened to an AI-narrated audiobook, interacted with a speaking character in a video game, or heard sound effects in a TV show or movie, its a good bet youve inadvertently experienced ElevenLabs tech.
To clone my own voice, I shelled out $22 for a Creator account. I then uploaded about 90 minutes of recordings from my YouTube channel to the ElevenLabs interface.
The company says you can create a professional voice clone with as little as 30 minutes of audio. You can even create a basic clone with just 10 seconds of speech. ElevenLabs makes you record a consent clip in order to ensure that youre not trying to deepfake a third party.
In a few hours, my professional voice clone was ready. Using it is shockingly easy. ElevenLabs provides an interface that looks a lot like ChatGPT. You enter what you want your clone to say, press a button, and in seconds, your digital twin voice speaks the exact words you typed out.
I had my digital twin record an audio update about this article for my Fast Company editor. He described it as terrifyingly realistic. Then, I sent a clip to my mom. She responded, It would have fooled me.
In my natural habitat
I was extremely impressed with the voice clone. I could use it right away to spin up an entire AI-generated podcast, prank my friends, or maybe even hack into my bank.
But I didnt just want a voice. I wanted a full Digital Tom that I could bend to my will.
For the next stage in my cloning experiment, I turned to Synthesia. I originally met Synthesias CEO Victor Riparbelli in 2019 at a photo industry event, when his company was a scrappy startup. Today, its worth $4 billion.
Synthesia specializes in creating digital Avatarsessentially video clones of a real person. Just as with ElevenLabs, you can type text into an interface and get back a video of your avatar reading it aloud, complete with realistic facial expressions and lip movement.
I started a Synthesia trial account and set about creating my personal avatar. Synthesia asked for access to my webcam, and then recorded me reading a preset script off the screen for about 10 minutes.
A day later, my avatar was ready. It was a perfect digital clone of my likeness, right down to the shirt I was wearing on the day I made it and my (overly long) winter haircut. It even placed me in my natural habitat: my comfy, cluttered home office.
As with my voice clone, I could type in any text I could imagine, and in about 10 minutes I would receive a video of Digital Tom reading it aloud.
Synthesia even duplicated the minutiae of my presenting style, right down to my smile and tendency to look to the camera every few seconds when reading a script from the screen.
If I recorded a video with Digital Tom for my YouTube channel, Im certain most users would have no idea its a fake.
The value of people
My experiment shows that todays AI cloning technology is extremely impressive. I could easily create mountains of audio content with my clone from ElevenLabs, or create an entire social media channel with my Digital Tom as the star.
The bigger question, though, is why Id want to.
Sure, there are tons of good use cases for working with a digital twin.
Again, Synthesia specializes in creating corporate training videos. Companies can rapidly create specialized teaching materials without renting a studio, hiring a videographer, and shooting countless takes of a talking head in front of a green screen.
They can also edit them by altering a few written wordsfor example, if a product feature changes subtly.
For their part, ElevenLabs does a brisk business in audiobooks and customer service agents. But they also provide helpful services, like creating accessible, read-aloud versions of web pages for visually impaired users.
But my experiment convinced me that there are fewer good reasons to work with your digital twin.
In an internet landscape where anyone can spin up a thousand-page website in a few minutes using Gemini, and compelling videos are a dime a dozen, thanks to Sora, content is cheap. There are not many good ways left for users to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Personality is one of the few remaining ones. People like to follow people. For creators, developing a personal relationship with your audience is the best way to keep them consuming your content, instead of cheaper (and often better) AI alternatives.
Compromising that by shoving an undisclosed digital twin in their face, however convincing it might be, seems like the fastest possible way to ruin that relationship.
People want to hear from the meat-based Thomas Smith, even if the artificial intelligence version never forgets a word or gets interrupted by his chickens mid-video.
I could see using one of ElevenLabs or Synthesias built-in characters to create (fully disclosed) content. But I cant see putting my digital twins to real-world use.
I can see one use for the tech, though. It struck me during my experiment that the best reason to build an AI digital twin isnt to replace your voice or likeness, but to preserve it.
I sometimes lose my voice, and its incredibly disruptive to my content production. If I was ever affected by a vocal disorder and lost it permanently, its nice to know that theres a highly realistic backup sitting on ElevenLabs servers.
Its also cool to think that in 10 yearswhen Im inevitably older and wrinklier than todayI could bring my 2026 Digital Tom back to life. Hed be frozen in time, a perfect replica of my appearance, mannerisms, and environment in this specific moment, recallable for all eternity.
I wont be using Digital Tom to augment my YouTube channel, get into podcasting, or read my kids a bedtime story anytime soon. But theres a strange part of me thats happy hes out there, just in case.
Elon Musks AI chatbot Grok wont be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing in places where that is illegal, according to a statement posted on X.
The announcement late Wednesday followed a global backlash over sexualized images of women and children, including bans and warnings by some governments.
The pushback included an investigation announced Wednesday by the state of California, the U.S.’s most populous, into the proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok that it said was harassing women and girls.
Initially, media queries about the problem drew only the response, legacy media lies.
Musks company, xAI, now says it will geoblock content if it violates laws in a particular place.
We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis, underwear and other revealing attire, it said.
The rule applies to all users, including paid subscribers, who have access to more features.
xAI also has limited image creation or editing to paid subscribers only to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable.
Groks spicy mode had allowed users to create explicit content, leading to a backlash from governments worldwide.
Malaysia and Indonesia took legal action and blocked access to Grok, while authorities in the Philippines said they were working to do the same, possibly within the week. The U.K. and European Union were investigating potential violations of online safety laws.
France and India have also issued warnings, demanding stricter controls. Brazil called for an investigation into Groks misuse.
The British government, which has been one of Grok’s most vociferous critics in recent days, has welcomed the change, while the country’s regulator, Ofcom, said it would carry on with its investigation.
I shall not rest until all social media platforms meet their legal duties and provide a service that is safe and age-appropriate to all users, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged xAI to ensure there is no further harassment of women and girls from Grok’s editing functions.
We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material, he said.
California has passed laws to shield minors from AI-generated sexual imagery of children and require AI chatbot platforms to remind users they arent interacting with a human.
But Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also vetoed a law last year that would have restricted childrens access to AI chatbots.
Elaine Kurtenbach, AP business writer
Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.
Noodles & Company is set to close additional restaurants. In a January 12 press release, Noodles & Company announced plans to close between 30 and 35 restaurants in 2026, with the aim of improving financial health and profitability.
As of December 30, 2025, the fast-casual noodle chain had 340 company-owned restaurants and 83 franchise restaurants. The eatery already reduced its footprint last year, when it closed 42 restaurants (33 were company-owned, and nine were franchise locations).
Decisions like this are made thoughtfully and with a long-term view of the business,” Joe Christina, CEO and president of Noodles & Company, shared in the company press release. “Our fourth quarter results reinforce that when we concentrate our resources on restaurants with the strongest opportunity to perform, Noodles can drive meaningful top-line growth. That performance gives us added confidence as we continue to refine our portfolio in 2026.
These actions are intended to strengthen the overall health of the brand and our financial position, helping to ensure we are well-positioned for profitable growth and long-term value creation for our shareholders, Christina continued.
Retail and restaurant closures are becoming more common
Noodles & Company isnt the only company announcing closures. Unfortunately, its becoming more common.
Last week, the fast-casual salad and wrap chain Salad & Go confirmed it would close 32 locations by January 11. The company shuttered 25 stores in Texas and seven in Oklahoma. As a result, Salad & Go no longer operates restaurants in either state.
Macys has also continued to reduce its footprint. The department store announced it would close 150 underproductive stores by the end of January 2027. In a January 9 news release, Macys confirmed a list of 66 locations set to close, two of which have already closed.
Video game retailer GameStop also plans to shutter more stores early this year. The company has not yet announced how many stores it will close in 2026. But in recent days, customers have taken to social media to share store closure signs. In its third-quarter earnings report on December 9, GameStop shared that it had closed 590 stores in the U.S. in the previous fiscal year.
And after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2025, American Signature is set to permanently close all Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture stores.
Satellite communications networks have proved resilient amid a crackdown.
Amid growing protests and escalating violence in Iran, the countrys government has blocked access to domestic communications systems and imposed a nearly week-long internet blackout.
But Starlink, the satellite internet service run by SpaceX, only uses personal terminals that connect to its constellation, and doesnt rely on any regime-controlled infrastructure. As a result, technology has now become a lifeline, and one of the only ways people in Iran can bring their disturbing reality on the ground to the rest of the world.
The biggest part of the communication [in the country] is being handled by Starlink, Amir Rashidi, the director of internet security and digital rights at the Miaan Group, an organization thats been tracking the communications blackout in Iran, tells Fast Company. Without the Starlink, you won’t see any of these videos, or you won’t receive any news. Indeed, it is still incredibly difficult to ascertain firsthand information from inside Iran. Foreign reporters only have limited access to the country, and phone calls have also been restricted by the government. The full extent of the carnage is unclear, but some officials suspect thousands of people may already be dead.
More may happen with Starlink in Iran in the coming days. SpaceX has now waived the initial Starlink subscription fee for users in Iran, and organizers have been sharing details on how to use the technology, as securely as possible, amid a brutal crackdown. President Donald Trump said earlier this week he plans to communicate with Elon Musk about expanding service in the region.
The Trump Administration is committed to helping to preserve and protect the free flow of information by the most effective means to the people of Iran in the face of the Iranian regimes brutal repression, a State Department spokesperson, declining to share more specifics, told Fast Company on Wednesday. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
The situation is a reminder that, in an emergencyand amid political upheavalinternet access can be a critical tool. Indeed, its easy to view Starlink as a fundamentally authoritarian-proof technology. But satellite internet, like any platform, isnt completely immune from authoritarian intimidation. And while SpaceX is providing a critical service in the moment, the company, and Elon Musk, are private entities whose goals arent guaranteed to align with values of free speech, or even the foreign policy interests of the United States. The fundamental issue is that the interests of Elon Musk are not the interests of the United States, Gordon LaForge, a researcher at the think tank New America, tells Fast Company. Sometimes they might be in alignment, but sometimes they won’t be.
Limited access
Right now, even as protests overtake much of the country, only a small number of Iranians there have access to Starlink terminals, which are generally needed to connect to the countrys constellation of low-Earth satellites. This hardware can be difficult to come by. Iran doesnt have authorized Starlink sellers, which means ordinary people need to find them on the black market, where they’re expensive, as Forbes previously reported several years ago.
Right now, there just arent that many terminals overall, though reports indicate the number has grown recently. As of December 2022, Elon Musk had said there were around 100 terminals in the country. By the end of 2024, there were reportedly about 20,000 Iranian users, and there are possibly tens of thousands more there now, Rashidi says. Still, 90 million people live in Iran, which means most people wont have Starlink anytime soon.
But the Iranian government is also taking active steps to disrupt the service. The Iranian legislature passed a law banning Starlink last year, and people who use it face the risk of going to prison, or, potentially, the death penalty, if theyre accused of using the technology for espionage. Though the Iranian government has, in the past, complained about how easy it is to hide Starlink devicessome hardware can fit in a backpackofficials have also reportedly started scanning the country for signs of terminals, even using drones to hunt for dishes and terminals that might be installed on rooftops.
Starlink might also be susceptible to jamming. The Iranian government appears to have partially interfered with the service, in some places, by jamming the GPS connection that Starlink relies on, and, in effect, reducing Starlinks total capabilities. One Iranian internet access group, in a post on X, said they were able to collaborate with SpaceX on a software update that blunted the impact of this interference.
Notably, these issues dont seem to have taken Starlink completely offline, and Penn State professor Sascha Meinrath, who studies satellite constellation bandwidth, told Fast Company that this method may only work in fairly constrained areas. Rashidi, from the Miaan Group, likened the jamming to a nuisance. It was like a fly sitting on your face or on your nose. You can easily move your hand and push the fly away, he told Fast Company. You feel uncomfortable, but that won’t kill you.
Still, this disruption may foreshadow future attempts by other governments to try to undercut Starlink service, and shows there are ways to undermine the service. Down the line, as SpaceXs commercial infrastructure becomes increasingly enmeshed in U.S. national security and defense systems, theres also an increasing incentive for foreign adversaries to investigate ways to take it down. Researchers in China have already studied ways to jam a service like Starlink with a swarm of drones.
Who benefits?
Starlink often becomes a key communication platform in places experiencing incredible political upheaval, includingmost recentlyin Ukraine, Gaza, and Venezuela. In emergencies, it might even help provide the service. SpaceX provided free terminals to Ukraine, and is providing free Starlink connections in Venezuela until next month. Internet access is critical for people on the ground, but theyre also geopolitical: These deals have further lubricated SpaceXs relationship with the U.S. government, and, today, the company now holds myriad contracts with both civilian and defense agencies. The State Department is even actively promoting the Starlink service globally, particularly in Africa, as ProPublica reported last year.
But while these deals might read through the lens of anti-authoritarianism, or internet freedom, they should primarily be understood as efforts to advance U.S. foreign policy interests, and the interests of SpaceX and Elon Musk, experts tell Fast Company.
Theres always the risk that Musk, or SpaceX leadership, will switch off the service in order to effect a desired political outcome. In one critical example: a few years ago, Musk suddenly ordered the shutdown of the Starlink service in one contested area in Ukraine, leaving troops without communications and disrupting their counteroffensive, according to Reuters reporting last year.
Take Ukraine, where Starlink is indispensable to the Ukrainian military, Gordon LaForge, a senior policy analyst at the liberal think tank New America, tells Fast Company. When Musk threatened to withdraw Starlink, the Pentagon stepped in to pay for the service. And of course Musk personally attains a level of direct geopolitical influence that few other individual businesspersons or private citizens of any sort can achieve.
SpaceX uses geopolitical conflicts to showcase its ability and the indispensability of its services for secure communications, adds Joscha Abel, a researcher based at the University of Tübingen who has written about the service. Tech corporations like SpaceX frequently align themselves with the geostrategic objectives of the U.S. government to earn profitable public contracts and see their technologies embedded in national security and military planning.
In other words, Starlink had been marketed to Ukraine as a liberatory technology that would help them in their fight against Russia, but depending on it ultimately subjected its troops to the political preferences of the companys leadership.
And while Musk has fashioned himself a free speech advocate, he has, in the past, taken steps to silence critics on his social media platform, X. Like many other leaders, he also has business ties in some authoritarian countries, places operating open platforms wont always necessarily suit his business interests. When an essential technological instrument of U.S. policy is in the hands of a private individualand a mercurial one at that, explains LaForge, it increases the risk of policy capture and outcomes that are not in the public interest.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating a salmonella outbreak linked to dietary supplement powder that left 45 people sick and a dozen people hospitalized across the country.
In the wake of the outbreak, New York-based Superfoods, Inc. has issued a voluntary recall of Live it Up-brand Super Greens dietary supplement powder in the original and wild berry flavors. However, the FDA cautions that additional products might join the recall during its investigation.
To determine a source of contamination, FDA is conducting a traceback investigation of products ill people reported consuming before becoming ill and is working with state partners to sample products of concern, the agency stated in its Wednesday, January 14, notice. Additional products may be contaminated, and this advisory will be updated as more information becomes available.
According to the FDA, the salmonella strand has infected 45 people across 21 states between August 22, 2025, and December 30, 2025.
There have been 12 cases of hospitalization and no reported deaths.
Which products are affected?
Superfoods has recalled its Live it Up-brand Super Greens dietary supplement powder in the original and wild berry flavors. The recall includes any products with a best-by date between August 2026 and January 2028.
[Photos: via FDA]
Where was the product sold?
Live it Up-brand Super Greens dietary supplement powder is sold nationwide, primarily through the digital storefronts of Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.
According to an outbreak map published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), outbreaks have been reported in the following states:
Alabama
Connecticut
Delaware
Iowa
Illinois
Kentucky
Massachusetts
Maine
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin
[Screenshot: via CDC]
What should I do if I have this product?
You can either toss or return any of the impacted Super Greens dietary supplement powders youve purchased. You should also thoroughly clean and sanitize anything that the product has touched, such as surfaces in your fridge or containers.
What salmonella symptoms should I look out for?
Did you already consume the supplement powder? If so, there are clear signs of salmonellosis to look out for over the following days. According to the FDA, salmonella can cause abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and fever. In more severe cases, it can bring on additional symptoms including:
Aches
A rash
High fever
Headaches
Lethargy
Blood in the urine or stool
The elderly, children younger than 5, and individuals with a weakened immune system are more likely to have a severe case of salmonellosis.
Typically, a person who consumes food with salmonella and develops an infection will first experience symptoms within 12 to 72 hours. These symptoms usually last between four and seven days.
Contact your doctor if you exhibit any salmonellosis symptoms.
Two data breaches, multiple class action lawsuits, and a removal from the Apple App Store later, the popular and controversial dating safety app Tea for Women is back and launching a new website version of its services today.
Billed as a Yelp for men, Tea was created in 2023 but was relatively unknown until July 2025, when it quickly became a viral sensation and shot to the top of App Store downloadsat one point outranking ChatGPT on the Apple App Store.
Similar to Are We Dating the Same Guy? Facebook groups, Tea offered women what they thought was a secure forum to obtain information and advice on men they had matched with on dating apps.
Women using the platform wanted to ensure that romantic prospects were safe to meet in person and to root out abusers, predators, and cheaters, which Tea allowed them to do through built-in background checks, a sex offender map, and reverse image searches.
Users could also vote on whether a mans behavior was desirable or shady by selecting red or green flag icons under someones post, offering the creator a sort of pulse check that they might otherwise have had to wait for until their next girls’ night out.
But after landing on the publics radar, the app quickly faced backlash and sparked debates about gender divides in dating and mens right to privacy in a digital-first era.
Back-to-back data breaches ensued: Hackers gained access to 72,000 images, including users government IDs and selfies, and over 1 million messages, then posted them to 4chan, an anonymous forum primarily used by men and historically a home to incel culture and hate speech.
[Image: Tea]
Legal fallout and App Store ban
At least 10 potential class action lawsuits followed, alleging that Tea had been negligent in its data practices.
At the time of the hack, Teas privacy policy asserted that users’ selfies were deleted once their profiles had been verified. Images leaked in the breach, however, dated back to 2023, contradicting the apps own privacy policy. (As of August 11, 2025, Teas privacy policy has been updated to state that it retains user data for as long as [a users] account is active as needed to provide [a user] the Services, or where we have an ongoing legitimate business need.”)
In October, the app was removed from Apples App Store for failing to meet standards around privacy, content moderation, and user experience.
On the Google Play Store, where Tea is still available for download, a notable number of negative reviews complain of glitchiness, trouble staying logged in, and a lack of free features.
Some reviewers also reported that they were denied the ability to use the app after submitting a selfie to prove their gender identityTea is a women-only platformalleging that they were rejected for not appearing feminine enough.
New Tea aims to right past wrongs
The launch of Tea 2.0, the new website version of the app, aims to remedy these safety issues and expand access to the platform, according to Jessica Dees, the platform’s head of trust and safety.
Launching our web experience is a strategic move toward platform resilience, allowing us to establish a scalable hub that isnt dependent on a single distribution channel,” Dees wrote in an email to Fast Company.
She added that Tea has brought on experts in the trust and safety field to address community safety specifically.
“This transition provides us with technical flexibility as we implement more robust moderation workflows, Dees wrote. This isnt a choice between a new site and better moderation. It’s about building a long-lasting experience that gives women access to safety, wherever they are.
[Image: Tea]
How will the new Tea be different?
The website will offer users the ability to crowdsource information on a potential date like it did before.
The extra safety features, which cost $14.99 a month, will continue to be available on the mobile version of Tea (still only available to Android users) and will be incorporated into the website in the future, Dees says.
Additionally, Android users can access new features including a virtual speakeasy where users can vote on polls, engage with topic-specific forums, and post anonymous audio messages, as well as an AI-powered dating coach that can analyze and suggest responses to messages with dating app matches.
Dees wrote that Tea is taking concerns about privacy seriously, both from women who may have been impacted by the past data breaches or fear being part of one in the future, as well as men who have voiced anger and concern over posts about them that were not independently verified and may have included false or even defamatoryassertions.
Tea helps women review patterns and potential red flags rather than relying on isolated claims, Dees wrote. By enabling women to exchange real-world insight in a moderated environment, [Tea] helps create earlier awareness, reduce risk, and support safer decision-making, which can be life-saving in a dating landscape where many forms of harm escalate precisely because warning signs are missed or shared too late.
Tea now offers non-users a method to request content removal through its website.
[Image: Tea]
The platform is also partnering with a third-party identity verification service to eliminate any friction for women who had issues gaining access to Tea by submitting a selfie, which was previously required during the account creation process.
Dees did not provide specific examples of what information users will be required to submit.
Users are given a range of options regarding the information they provide when creating an account, and the information they choose to provide is evaluated using a variety of techniques before they are granted access to the platform, Dees wrote.
Fans want more Tea
The announcement of Teas return has been met with excitement. Although Dees declined to share the size of the websites VIP waitlist, it has a massive existing fanbase to rely oneven after the breaches.
The app surpassed six million downloads before it was removed from the App Store, and according to Dees, an in-app poll that garnered 34,000 responses found that 73% of users felt Tea had made dating a safer experience for them.
Thank God, one commenter wrote of the platforms return. [T]his app saves lives when the legal system fails to protect us!!
For most people, leaving Apple after two decades would mean stepping away from sleek design and obsessive detail. For Xander Soren, it simply meant translating those principles into a different medium and bottling them.
During his 20-plus years at Apple, Soren helped shape some of the companys most culture-defining products and creative tools. He was the original product manager for iTunes, worked on the launch of the iPod, led the development of GarageBand, and oversaw features like iPhone ringtones that became ubiquitous parts of Apples ecosystem.
His career spanned Apples rebirth into a design-led powerhouse, a period in which he absorbed the philosophy of simplicity, emotional resonance, and uncompromising craft that defined the companys second act.
Soren is now the mind behind a radical wine venture years in the making, developing a high-end Pinot Noir crafted specifically to pair with Japanese cuisine.
After decades spent building products at Silicon Valley speed, he chose to pursue a more contemplative set of passions such as wine, Japanese culture, and Japanese food, while building a business that is deliberately small, design forward, and personal.
He produces just 600 to 800 cases per vintage, sometimes fewer than 100 cases of a single wine. It is a boutique operation with a big vision, rooted not in scale but in intention.
A Lifelong Connection to Apple and Japan
Ask Soren where this all began and he traces it back to two childhood obsessions, the Mac and Japan.
My Apple journey probably started as a kid. I had the original Mac in 1984 that I was totally obsessed with. I was an Apple fan boy as a kid, and I followed the company . . . and I really was drawn to a lot of things with Japanese culture.
When he eventually joined Apple, that thread only deepened.
When I came to Apple, Steve [Jobs] had just been back as CEO for a little over three years . . . the first job I had was the iTunes product manager, the original iTunes product manager. So talk about throwing into the deep end . . . My first project that I worked on was the original iPod launch, which wound up changing the company.
At Apple, Soren was steeped in design-first thinking. Now, it is inseparable from his winemaking.
[Photo: Conan Morimoto/courtesy Xander Soren Wines]
A Pinot Noir Built for the Japanese Table
Sorens wines are crafted from conception to blending to shine with Japanese cuisine.
He focuses on cooler appellations, especially the Santa Rita Hills, where unique terroir produces fruit capable of Burgundy-level nuance. He sources from historic sites including La Encantada, Sanford & Benedict, Sierra Mar, and Olivet Lane, as well as Yuki Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, owned by Japanese producer Akiko Freeman.
Why Pinot? I think I agree with a lot of the sommelier and chef community, where people feel the Pinot Noir is one of the most versatile food pairing wines,” Soren says.
Santa Rita Hills fruit, in particular, clicked. They always say it has a saline sea spray, Nori, umami . . . flavors, he says, flavors tailor-made for sukiyaki, wagyu, tempura, or even raw tuna. You can drink Pinot Noir with raw tuna.
The wines are deliberately high acid, bright, lower in alcohol, and built with balance in mind, attributes essential for delicate, complex dishes.
Minimal Intervention, Maximum Precision
Sorens winemaker is Shalini Sekhar, a rising star who has earned 2015’s Winemaker of the Year (San Francisco International Wine Competition) and the San Francisco Chronicles 2019 Winemaker to Watch.
Her résumé spans Williams Selyem, Stags Leap, her own Ottavino label, and a portfolio of boutique producers.
At Xander Soren Wines, Sekhar leads a nonintrusive, labor-intensive approach. Not only vineyard blocks but individual clones are fermented and aged separately in carefully selected French oak before final blending. Production is small because the process demands it.
Soren describes their partnership this way: I consider myself more of a creative director and then Shalini is this masterful, award-winning winemaker.”
Blending is their meeting point. We both of us sit down, we try a whole bunch of different blends. It’s always done blind. [We ask] what do you think, A versus B?
Design as Experience: Boxes, Logos, and the Apple Touch
Soren’s Apple design background is unmistakable the moment you unbox a bottle of Xander Soren wine. The packaging is deliberately minimalist, tactile, and engineered to create a moment of anticipation, much like peeling back the lid of a new Mac or iPhone.
It started with wanting the unboxing experience to be something very special . . . made out of this beautiful but simple cardboard, which I felt like was more eco-friendly, Soren says.
[Photo: courtesy Xander Soren Wines]
The idea for the packaging crystallized when he encountered a sake package he found almost impossibly elegant, with clean lines, restrained materials, and boxes that opened with gentle friction to reveal their contents with quiet ceremony.
It felt Japanese in its simplicity, but also familiar in a way he could not place. When he tracked down the designers, he got his answer.
They told me, very coincidentally, that the sake box that I fell in love with was inspired by the original iPhone packaging. So it kind of felt like this full circle thing.
For Soren, the connection was not just aesthetic. Both Apple and traditional Japanese design value containers that elevate the object inside rather than distract from it. His wine pakaging follows the same logic, using understated materials, intentional geometry, and nothing extraneous. The experience begins before the cork is pulled.
And that attention to micro-details is central to his brand. Small, little, tiny things are important,” he says.
The box, like the wine, is not meant to shout. It is designed to reveal itself slowly through weight, texture, proportion, and subtle precision that reflects both Sorens Apple lineage and his reverence for Japanese craft.
After decades building software at breathtaking velocity, Soren had to adjust to a new rhythm when it came to wine. When shifting something like the vineyard a wine is made from or adjusting the blend, We won’t really know the impact of that decision for four or five years, he explains. A bit slower than an iPod launch.
That patience guides his small scale. The brand currently makes around 800 cases of wine each year.
A Logo of Symbolism and Storytelling
Sorens logo blends Japanese symbolism with deeply personal references. Inspired by the traditional Kamon crests used by Samurai families, the mark embraces simplicity and iconic geometry.
[Image: courtesy Xander Soren Wines]
At its center sits an X-shaped Phacelia wildflower, chosen for its four petals that echo his own name, while the circular form subtly nods to elements of music, evoking the look of a speaker, a reel-to-reel tape, or even vintage vinyl inserts.
His father, industrial designer Leon Soren, contributed a final touch by breaking the top edge of the outer ring to mimic the silhouette of a Japanese temple roof. The result is a layered emblem meant to unfold slowly, rewarding close study and reflecting the Japanese appreciation for small, intentional details that reveal themselves over time.
Silicon Valleys Quiet Migration Into Wine
Soren is not the first tech veteran to trade circuits for cellars. Silicon Valley has a long, often understated history of executives who eventually find their way into vineyards.
One of the earliest and most influential examples is Oracle cofounder Bob Miner, whose family transformed rugged hillside land in Napa into Oakville Ranch, now considered one of the valleys most respected mountain estates.
Miners approach was a precursor to todays tech-to-wine ethos, centered on small-lot production, meticulous farming, and a belief that great wine begins with great design in the vineyard.
Former Intel executive Dave House followed a similar path with House Family Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where he built a boutique operation focused on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
His shift from high-performance computing to high-elevation viticulture mirrors a familiar pattern among tech leaders seeking a more tactile, craft-driven second act.
Even the tech worlds biggest names have dipped into wine. Tesla’s Elon Musk previously owned Ellison Vineyards in Napa, although he never developed it into a consumer-facing label. Jeff Bezos of Amazon owns a sprawling estate in Napas Atlas Peak AVA, an ultra-premium site whose wines are not released under a public brand.
Both illustrate the tech sectors fascination with wine, which often becomes an alternate industry where engineering instincts meet agricultural patience.
Soren admits that he still thinks like a product designer, even if the products now grow on vines. In tech, momentum is everything. In wine, momentum is measured in rains, ripeness, and the passing of seasons.
Soren seems content with that reversal. Its not the speed that matters anymore, but the satisfaction of work that unfolds on its own clock.
Yesterday, customers of Verizon Communications across the country picked up their phones only to discover that they had no service.
Calls, texts, and the internet simply didnt work. Verizon now says the underlying issue has been resolved. But just what caused it, and will Verizon compensate customers for the outage? Heres what you need to know.
What happened?
On Wednesday, a little after noon ET, customers around the country began taking to social media to report that they had lost Verizon service on their phones. Calls and texts could not be made or received, and internet access was nonexistent.
Many iPhone owners on Verizons network saw the SOS icon in their menu bar, meaning no network was available, and any communication was limited to satellite connectivity.
Over the course of a few hours, Verizon posted several social media messages saying it was aware of the issue and had teams working on the ground to fix it. But it wasnt until around 10 p.m. ET that Verizon said the issue had been fixed.
The outage has been resolved, Verizon said in a post on X. If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network.
What caused the outage?
Right now, Verizon hasnt disclosed what exactly caused its network to go down for so many hours. Fast Company has reached out to the company for comment.
What is known is that many Verizon users on social media who have multiple phones on Verizons network reported that not all of their phones lost service yesterday. Many customers have reported that only their phones with Verizon eSIMs lost service, while their phones with physical Verizon SIMs remained active.
However, there is so far no evidence that the disruption was directly linked to eSIMs or that only eSIM users were affected.
The massive outage also comes just a few months after Verizon conducted the largest layoffs in its history. In November, the company announced it would begin laying off 13,000 workers. In a memo to staff at the time, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said the layoffs were needed to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.
It is unknown whether the workforce reductions had any impact on Verizons outage or the companys ability to resolve it in a timely manner.
Will customers be compensated?
Verizons outage lasted about 10 hours, severely straining peoples ability to work and communicate for a significant period, leading to understandable outrage from its customers.
In a post on X, Verizon said that account credits will be provided to those customers affected and that customers will be contacted directly.
However, it has not provided more details about the compensation, including how much the credits will be worth and whether they will be automatic or if customers will need to apply for them. We’ve asked the company for additional details and will update this story if we hear back.
Free donuts and snarky competitors
To every problem, there is usually some kind of silver lining. Or, in this case, sugary lining.
As the Verizon outage quickly became the thing that everyone on social media was talking about yesterday, donut giant Krispy Kreme decided to get in on the action by announcing it was giving away free donuts due to the outage.
SOS got you down?” the company posted on its Instagram account. We can hear you now the post went on, in a reference to Verizons famous Can you hear me now? slogan.
The donut chain then announced customers could come by between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. yesterday for a free original glazed donut, because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on.
And it wasnt just Krispy Kreme getting in on the Verizon outage action. Verizons competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile, decided to jump in on the free-donut action and leave their own snarky comments on Krispy Kremes post.
T-Mobile members out here texting everybody they know,” the official T-Mobile account commented in response to the free donut offer.
As for AT&T, the companys official IG account commented, Def not us this time, we’ll sit this one out and enjoy the donuts, alluding to its own nationwide outage, which occurred in February 2024.
How has Verizon’s stock reacted to the outage?
The incident has not seemed to impact the company’s stock price (NYSE: VZ). Shares rose more than 2% yesterday and were roughly flat on Thursday in premarket trading.
As the September evening inched along, the line of residents waiting their turn for the microphone held steady. Filing down the auditorium aisles at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, they were armed with questions about a new gas plant slated for their community.
Sitting quietly in the audience was John Dudash. For decades, hes lived in Homer City, a southwestern Pennsylvania town that was once home to the largest coal-fired power plant in the state. The plant, which shares its name with the town, closed nearly three years ago after years of financial distress.
Dudash, 89, has lived in the shadow of its smokestackssaid to be the tallest in the country before they were demolishedfor much of his life. At its peak, the Homer City power plant employed hundreds of people and could deploy about 2 gigawatts of energy, enough to power 2 million homes.
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It was also a major source of air pollution, spewing sulfur dioxide and mercury, both of which pose serious health risks. Today, Dudash wonders if the pollution might have exacerbated the lung issues that claimed his wifes life six years ago.
The proposed gas plant, expected to be up and running in 2027, will replace the old coal-fired power station, but with more than double the energy output4.5 gigawatts of energy. The new plant also will have the potential to emit 17.5 million tons of planet-heating greenhouse gasses per year, the equivalent of putting millions of cars on the road.
And it will serve a new purpose: Rather than primarily sending electrons to the regional grid to power homes or businesses, the new power plant will exist mainly to feed data centers planned on the site.
As the hearing wore on that September night, Dudash, a conservationist, did not stand to speak; instead, he sat quietly, taking mental notes. The next morning, he emailed two staffers at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
First of all, the project will not be stopped, he began, with resignation. He went on to offer a few caveatsamong them, advice about air monitoring.
His letter reached the agency alongside more than 550 comments on a key air permit for the proposed plant, a testament to the projects complexity. After the permit was approved November 18, Dudashs prediction began to look remarkably accuratethough the Homer City plant still has about a dozen additional permits awaiting approval before the project can be completed, including one that would impact several acres of wetlands and hundreds of feet of a local stream.
Though it is among many energy sites popping up to power the artificial intelligence boom across Pennsylvania, the Homer City facility is unique for its size, its advertised economic potentialthe owners have promised the project will generate more than 10,000 construction-related jobsand for its likely environmental impact. It has earned the backing of President Donald Trump, who called it the largest plant of its kind in the world, a distinction its owners could not verify. There was a buzz in town in late October when Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, visited, though it was unclear what drew him to Homer City.
I dont really trust the people who are coming in to build and run the place, Dudash said. I do not agree with the artificial intelligence portion of it.
Theyre going to have to sacrifice the environment for these jobs, he added. In Appalachia, weve been doing that for years.
When the old plant sputtered to a close in 2023, it left the surrounding communitywhich was built on the local abundance of coalin search of an economic lifeline. Now the data center boom sweeping the country brings promise of such a rebirth for communities like Homer City, though this promise is one that some experts say may be less than billed. And, it comes with risks.
The new power plant will be much larger than its predecessor and is permitted to emit more than twice as much of some pollutants as its predecessor did. The data center, or centers, it powers would also consume a tremendous amount of waterperhaps more than its host townships can spare, some fear.
A mural adorns the Disobedient Spirits distillery building on Main Street in Homer City, Pennsylvania. [Photo: Audrey Carleton]
Artificial intelligence requires vast amounts of electricity and has the potential to offer a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry. Though some in the community are sanguine about the promise of jobs, experts say the reality for many living around data centers may fall short. Some are left wondering exactly who the new plant is forthem or some faraway tech companies.
The Homer City project is far from alone in its emergence: The nonprofit Fractracker has identified 39 planned data centers in the works across Pennsylvania. Tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon are moving in, alongside others intrigued by the states rich legacy of power production, deep naural gas reserves and generous subsidies. In July, Republican Senator Dave McCormick, from eastern Pennsylvania, held a conference in Pittsburgh during which companies announced more than $90 billion in data center investments and related energy infrastructure.
This tech boom largely has bipartisan support, including from Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who said at a June press conference that he is committed to ensuring the future of AI runs right through Pennsylvania. Legislators in Harrisburg, meanwhile, are introducing bills that would both spur the burgeoning industry and give it guardrails.
The extent to which the Homer City facilitys owners have lobbied for supportive legislation is not clear. The companys lobbying registration with the Pennsylvania Department of State goes back only to January 2025. It has, however, spent at the local level. In November, for instance, the company gave a community nonprofit $25,000 for a holiday food drive. It also urged state utility regulators, who are drafting a policy on data centers, to issue one that does not saddle data centers with costs that might push them out of state.
Meanwhile, communities are pushing back and the environmental nonprofit Food & Water Watch recently called for a nationwide moratorium on new data center construction. More than 200 other groups later joined them in making such a plea to Congress. On the ground in Homer City, a coalition of neighbors have formed Concerned Residents of Western Pennsylvania to oppose the project.
The Homer City proposal is the brainchild of the same private equity owners that closed the plant in 2023after years of financial difficulty and two bankruptcies. Two firms own close to 90% of the plant, with New York City-based Knighthead Capital Management holding the vast majority of that. Its part of a wave of private equity investment in the data center industry. In March, the owners, operating under an LLC called Homer City Redevelopment, toppled the plants signature smokestacks. A few weeks later, they announced that the plant would reopen with a data center customer, or suite of customers, to be announced as soon as 2026.
Critics fear the new plant will require a lot more water than its predecessor. The supercomputers that data centers house whirr away around the clock, and need to be routinely cooled down. Some data center companies have introduced recycled water into their systems. Homer City Redevelopment has not said if their data center clients will be among them.
In 2014, U.S. data centers used 21.2 billion liters of water, enough to fill nearly 9,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. That number tripled by 2023, with the vast majority of the water consumed by hyperscale, or large, facilities like Homer City. In states like Colorado, where water use has, for decades, been meticulously planned and negotiated, data centers are threatening to strain such finely tuned systems.
Dudash, the longtime Homer City resident, is concerned about a similar fate. Im not sure how theyre going to handle the water, he told Capital & Main after the September hearing.
The power plant has, since 1968, been allotted an uncapped amount of water from Two Lick Reservoir, a 5-billion-gallon, dammed-off portion of a creek that the plants former owners built explicitly for its use.
The power plant shares the water with a utility that serves two local communitiesIndiana borough and the broader White Townshipas part of a 1988 drought management plan to prevent and respond to catastrophic weather conditions. The borough of Homer City gets its water from Yellow Creek, a tributary of Two Lick Creek, which serves the reservoir and picks up the slack in the event of a drought.
Should the Two Lick Creek Reservoir be emptied, [the water utility] would not be able to provide sufficient water to protect public health and safety in their service area, the drought management plan reads.
The Two Lick Reservoir in Indiana County [Photo: Audrey Carleton]
In 1985, the delicate system between Two Lick and Yellow Creek was strained when the then-Homer City plant drew so much water from the reservoir that it led to a drought. Had a significant rainfall not occurred . . . the reservoir may have faced total depletion, the drought management plan reads.
A report from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection shows that the water utility drawing from Two Lick has, in recent years, routinely used nearly half its allotted amount. But critics fear that allocation could be at risk once a data center opens and starts drawing water.
Robin Gorman, a spokesperson for Homer City Redevelopment, told Capital & Main that it plans to leave cooling and water-use decisions to its data center clients, making it unclear how much water will be needed to keep all the computers running, or where that water would come from.
Rob Nymick, Hoer Citys former borough manager, who serves as manager of the Central Indiana County Water Authority, told Capital & Main that he is confident local municipalities can share water resources with the planned gas plant. But the data centers could be a different story.
I do know that data centers do require a tremendous amount of water, Nymick said. Thats something we probably cannot provide.
Nymick said that community officials are operating with limited knowledge, and that during the handful of meetings they have held with Homer City Redevelopment, The only thing that they wanted to discuss is the actual power plant.
Eric Barker, who grew up in Homer City, attended the September hearing with restrained optimism. The power plant was a source of pride and is a source of pride for the community, he said. Theres not too many large employers in Indiana County, he added.
But he found little comfort at the September hearing.
The Department of Environmental Protection seemed woefully, woefully, comically underprepared, Barker said, citing a response he received to a question about the types of pollutants that would increase under the new Homer City proposal, compared to what was emitted by the old plant. Barker was told the agency would look into it and get back to him.
Some questions and concerns were raised at the public meeting regarding the plan approval about matters beyond the limited scope of the meeting, said Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson Tom Decker in a statement. Interested parties are encouraged to look to the DEPs extensive website, including its community page dedicated to the Homer City project, for resources addressing such questions and concerns.
Despite the questions that followed, the department, on the whole, signaled satisfaction with the Homer City plants air permit application at the hearing. Whats being proposed is what we consider state-of-the-art emission controls, said Dave Balog, environmental engineering manager at the departments northwest regional office.
Environmental nonprofits Citizens for Pennsylvanias Future, Clean Air Council, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice countered in a 44-page comment on a draft of the key air permit that the application does not incorporate the best tools for mitigating pollutants such as ammonia, which is known to cause respiratory issues and other health risks. The Department of Environmental Protection agreed with Homer City Redevelopments analyses of its best available technology, and the permit was granted.
* * *
As Homer Citys smokestacks imploded and fell to the ground last March, leaving only a gray cloud, Dudash wondered what particulates might be in the dusty mix. While there were rumors in town that asbestos might be among them, the Department of Environmental Protection told Capital & Main that the site was inspected for the substance before it was demolished and none was found.
Still, coal dust, fly ash, and silica particulates are all possible during such implosions, an agency representative said. In the months since, residents have complained of repeated blasts from the site rattling their houses. As of January, the blasts occurred daily.
But the particulates that drift from the old plant during the blasts may pale in comparison to the carbon dioxide emissions the new power plant is predicted to release. The key air permit the Department of Environmental Protection issued to the facility allows it to release up to 17.5 million tons of the heat-trapping gas, like carbon dioxide, per yearthe equivalent of putting 3.6 million gas-powered vehicles on the road annually. In 2010, according to federal data, the plant emitted just over 11 million tons of greenhouse gasses. In 2023, when it was operating at a fraction of its capacity, it emitted 1.3 million.
In their comment to regulators, the nonprofit environmental groups said that the carbon dioxide emissions would be triple those of any polluting facility in the state, representing 6% of Pennsylvanias total emissions. The new plant will emit sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, two classes of respiratory irritants, but at rates lower than the old plant. The nonprofit Clean Air Council condemned regulators issuance of the air permit, calling it a death sentence. Along with PennFuture and the Sierra Club, the Council appealed the permit in December.
The owners said the emissions from the new plant will result in a 35% to 40% reduction in carbon dioxide compared to the old plant, but the calculation does not account for the new plants larger size. Instead, it is per-megawatt hour, meaning per unit of energy generated. Natural gas is less emissions-intensive than coal when burned, but because the Homer City plant will generate more than double the energy of its predecessor, its overall emissions profile is expected to be higher.
As the state grapples with extreme weather events such as flooding due to global warming, locking in carbon emissions is the wrong direction to go, the environmental nonprofits argue. On an annual basis, the plant will be permitted to emit hundreds of tons of respiratory irritants like particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, and dozens of tons of formaldehyde, a carcinogen. It will also emit health-harming compounds like toluene, xylene, and ethylbenzene.
Additional emissions are likely to come from the natural gas drilling that will be required to power the site.
In 2024, Nymick told Capital & Main that the borough was struggling to find a new economic engine. Were fighting for our survival, he said at the time. Data center industry advocates contend that the data center gold rush will be a boon for communities like Homer City, where boarded-up storefronts line the main street.
For every one job in a data center, six jobs are supported elsewhere in the economy, said Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group, at a hearing in the state Capitol in October.
The municipal offices of Homer City Borough [Photo: Audrey Carleton]
Sean OLeary, senior researcher at the nonprofit think tank the Ohio River Valley Institute, said the reality isnt that rosy. The average data center employs as few as 0 people and as many as 110, per his own calculations based in part on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The computers inside them can generally run on their own with limited maintenance.
Even in a rural county like Indiana, OLeary said, One hundred is a rounding error. It just doesnt matter. It doesnt matter if theyre paid $200,000 a year. Its not enough to make a significant change in the status of the local economy.
In a recent report on the data center boom in natural gas economies in Appalachia, OLeary said gas-powered data centers represent the combination of three non-labor-intensive industriesfracking, power plants and data centers. Stacking [them] on top of each other does not alter the underlying dynamic which ties them together.
Ron Airhart, a former coal miner and executive assistant to the secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, is more optimistic about the economic potential of the new Homer City facility.
Still, he concedes that it will never be what the old plant was. Yes, building a gas fired power plant is going to create a lot of construction jobs, theres no doubt about that, he said. But once its done, how many actual employees are you going to have working there?
He quickly added, But, Im glad they are doing something with the old power plant there.
Gorman told Capital & Main that Homer City Redevelopment and its construction partner, Kiewit, are planning to hire from local unions and building trades. They foresee 10,000 construction jobs. They also anticipate the site will create 1,000 direct and indirect permanent jobs, including those hired at the facility itself and those brought aboard for supportive positions, such as suppliers.
From start to finish, the Homer City Energy Campus will be developed in partnership with skilled local craftsmen and will bring quality, good-paying jobs back to the Homer City community, Gorman said.
OLeary said the jobs numbers such as those projected by the Data Center Coalition are inflated, similar to the employment projections made before the fracking boom in rural Appalachia. He said such projections are a detriment to communities, in part because taxpayers shoulder the cost of subsidies to attract the industry to the state, such as a sales and use tax exemption for data centers that Pennsylvania codified in 2021. Shapiro has estimated that the credit will expand to about $50 million per year for the next five years.
Local residents are also burdened with rising utility bills. The surging demand for electricity is straining the regions power supplies, increasing what utilities pay for electricity. New power plants coming onto the grid must install transmission equipment, the costs of which they share with consumers. These economic factors, in sum, could outweigh the benefits of the new jobs the data center creates, OLeary said.
Earlier this year, the grid operator for the region that encompasses Pennsylvania, PJM, saw electricity prices surge by roughly 1,000% from two years ago. Some of that cost is expected to be passed on to customers.
We have a problem, and that problem is real, and it is exponential electricity load growth causing exponential price increases for consumers, said Patrick Cicero, former consumer advocate for the state of Pennsylvania and now an attorney for the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, at the October hearing in Harrisburg.
In the context of Grandma versus Google, Cicero said, referring to older residents faced with high bills, Grandma should win every day. That should be the policy statement of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Federal and state lawmakers are still determining how and whether to regulate the additional costs that data centers pass onto consumers, including for fees associated with transmission throughout the grid. A bill that would create such a process while establishing renewable energy mandates for data centers is now being weighed by Pennsylvania representatives.
Dennis Wamsted, energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, predicts such costs add complications for data centers, and has argued that their demand as a whole is overblown. Supply chain delays spurred by surging demand for turbines, including those that Homer City will be using, could also create additional costs and lag times, he said.
If there is an AI bubble and it bursts, he said, you would have built all this capacity that wasnt needed.
Homer Citys owners said the plant is better positioned than others in the industry since it isnt starting from scratch.
Much of the critical infrastructure for the project is already in place from the legacy Homer City coal plant, including transmission lines connected to the PJM and NYISO power grids, substations and water access, Gorman, the spokesperson, said.
Communities on the front lines of these projects would be the first hurt by a project that fails to materialize.
But in Homer City, its clear that theres an appetite for the promise of a new, job-producing industry, regardless of hurdles.
At the September hearing, many in the crowd wore neon shirts with union logosa signal of the regions fierce pride in its industrial past, and deep thirst for an economic boon. After an evening peppered with skepticism over the plant, Shawn Steffee, a business agent at the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, stepped to the microphone.
Everybody speaking about jobs, he cried, there will be jobs, and there will be local jobs.
As he walked away, the room filled with applausethe loudest of the night.
By Audrey Carleton
