Spotify Wrapped 2025 is here, and its inspired by mixtapes, DIY aesthetics, and all things pre-internet.
After plenty of anticipation, Wrapped has now debuted for the eleventh year in a row. As public interest in Wrapped has mounted exponentially each yearand other brands have flocked to dupe the formatSpotify has been compelled to continuously up the ante on its own design concept, and this year is no exception. Wrapped 2025 comes with 12 brand new features, each intended to make the experience more personalized than years past.
In the music world (and everywhere else), 2025 has been a year dominated by conversation around the explosion of AI technology. In September, Spotify itself issued new policies around AI-generated music, explaining that while it wont ban AI-generated songs or AI tools, it is focused on removing what it calls AI slop from the platform. At the time, Spotify said it had already removed 75 million spammy AI tracks from the site in just 12 months. Now, it appears Spotify is going full anti-AI in the design of Wrapped.
[Image: Spotify]
If brands are looking to the future or to AI for inspiration, we did the opposite, Payman Kassaie, Spotifys director of brand and creative, said in a press conference ahead of the launch. This year, Wrapped is rooted in the world of mixtape cultureand its a refreshing change from last years Wrapped, which was widely critiqued for embracing AI.
[Image: Spotify]
How Spotify Wrapped became a marketing hit
Since debuting in 2014, Wrapped has become a massive hit for Spotify. In 2023, the campaign drew in more than 225 million monthly active users and increased engagement by 40% year-over-year across 170 markets, according to an earnings report from the company.
And thats not even counting the free marketing that Spotify rakes in annually through the thousands of user-generated, organic posts from Spotifys user base of 700 million, who share their Wrapped results with followers across socials. To meet the hype, Spotify has slowly turned Wrapped into a design-centric extravaganza, debuting an entirely fresh look and feel for the review each year.
Spotify’s 2022 wrapped: “Listening Personality”. [Image: Spotify]
In 2021, the brand introduced Audio Aura, a color analysis of users top musical moods. In 2022, it tried out a zodiac-esque feature called Listening Personality alongside a psychedelic design. And last year, it opted for a techy, glitchy aesthetic to complement a new add-on called Music Evolution, which tracked users musical eras over the course of the year, and an AI-generated podcast feature that narrated users’ listening history (but somehow did not include top album or genre stats). While typically an easy brand win, last year’s launch was broadly panned.
[Image: Spotify]
Spotify Wrapped 2025 embraces a retro aesthetic
To appease those critiques, Spotify appears to be doing a full 180 with this years design. The techy aesthetic has been traded for a look that calls to mind an era when listening to music was a physical processfrom building a mixtape to burning your own CD or even putting together a scrapbook of your favorite artists.
[Image: Spotify]
We looked back at the way people used to share music before Wrapped existed, and that led us to rooting our visual identity this year in the world of mixtape culture, Kassaie said. I may be dating myself a bit here, but if you’ve ever burned a CD for a friend, you know that each one becomes its own little canvas for the creator. That’s kind of the feeling we wanted to captue with this year’s design.”
[Images: Spotify]
Every visual, he added, is made to feel handmade, with cutouts, images, doodles, and various textures lending the platform a DIY quality. The design is grounded in a palette of black and white, with pops of color reserved for key moments like artist images and album covers.
[Image: Spotify]
On the data side, Spotifys team went back to the drawing board to differentiate itself from competitors. This year, it will offer a top album list for the first time ever. In addition, its introducing 12 entirely new data-driven features, including Listening Age, which analyzes the five year span of music that users engaged with more than others in their age group; Wrapped Clubs, which sorts users into one of six clubs based on listening style; and Wrapped Party, which lets groups of friends compare their Wrapped data in a real-time, interactive setting.
[Image: Spotify]
Spotify hasnt entirely forgone AI in this process, either. Listening Archive is an AI-powered feature that spotlights certain days throughout the year, like a users biggest discovery day or most nostalgic day. Still, the overall vibe of Spotify Wrapped 2025 is less a celebration of AI, and more a return to the fundamentals that make sharing music fun.
[Image: Spotify]
Less than five months have passed since American Eagles controversial Sydney Sweeney campaign, which led to accusations ranging from cluelessness to Nazi propaganda.
While the mall mainstay defended the campaign and has escaped relatively unscathed, a new quarterly earnings report shows the success of its sister-brand Aerie is buoying its financial results.
On Tuesday, December 2, apparel retail company American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) shared its third-quarter earnings for fiscal 2025, including $1.36 billion in revenue.
The 6% increase year-over-year (YOY) beat Wall Streets predicted $1.32 billion in revenue, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. The company also reported earnings per share of 53 cents, compared to 44 cents expected.
American Eagles namesake brandand home to the Sydney Sweeney has great jeans advertisementscant claim much responsibility for the jump. Its comparable sales grew by only 1% YOY, while Aeries comparable sales jumped 11% YOY.
“Resurgence in intimates”
Looking at the fiscal year to date, Aerie also reported higher revenue than last year, while the American Eagle brand lagged behind itself YOY.
In an earnings call, president and executive creative director of American Eagle and Aerie, Jennifer Foyle, pointed to a “resurgence in intimates and strength across all of the brands offerings, as key to Aeries success.
Foyle added that the brand has seen an acceleration in demand since the spring.
In October, Aerie made an anti-AI pledge, promising not to use the technology to generate bodies or people in its ads, staying 100% Aerie real.
AEO has raised its fourth-quarter guidance, with CEO Jay Schottenstein sharing that the company had a record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend led by an acceleration in demand across brands and channels and underscored by outstanding growth at Aerie and Offline.
Offline is an activewear brand opened by American Eagle in 2020.
The company now predicts $155 to $160 million in operating income for the fourth quarter, up from $125 to $130 million, and an 8% to 9% increase in comparable sales. Its operating income guidance for the fiscal year also rose, jumping from between $255 and $265 million to $303 to $308 million.
Investors responded with glee to the news. American Eagle shares (NYSE:AEO) rose more than 14% after-hours and into premarket trading on Wednesday. The stock is up more than 21% year to date.
The Trump administration is pausing all immigration applications such as requests for green cards for people from 19 countries banned from travel earlier this year, as part of sweeping immigration changes in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard troops.The changes were outlined in a policy memo posted Tuesday on the website of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency tasked with processing and approving all requests for immigration benefits.The pause puts on hold a wide range of immigration-related decisions such as green card applications or naturalizations for immigrants from those 19 countries that the Trump administration has described as high-risk. It’s up to the agency’s director, Joseph Edlow, on when to lift the pause, the memo said.The administration in June banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access for those from seven others, citing national security concerns.The ban applied to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen while the restricted access applied to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.At the time, no action was taken against immigrants from those countries who were already in the U.S. before the travel ban went into effect.But now the news from USCIS means those people already in the U.S. regardless of when they arrived will come under extra scrutiny.The agency said it would conduct a comprehensive review of all “approved benefit requests” for immigrants who entered the country during the Biden administration.The agency cited the shooting of two National Guard troops by a suspect who is an Afghan national as a reason for the pause and heightened scrutiny for people from those countries. One National Guard soldier was killed and another wounded in the Thanksgiving week shooting near the White House.“In light of identified concerns and the threat to the American people, USCIS has determined that a comprehensive re-review, potential interview, and re-interview of all aliens from high-risk countries of concern who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021 is necessary,” the agency said.The agency said in the Tuesday memo that within 90 days it would create a prioritized list of immigrants for review and if necessary, referral to immigration enforcement or other law enforcement agencies.Since the shooting, the administration has announced a flurry of decisions it was taking to scrutinize immigrants already in the country and those seeking to come to the U.S.Last week, the director of USCIS said in a social media post that his agency would be reexamining green card applications for people from countries “of concern.” But the policy directive Tuesday goes further and lays out in more detail the scope of who will be affected.USCIS also said last week that it was pausing all asylum decisions, and the State Department said it was halting visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort.Days before the shooting, USCIS said in a separate memo that the administration would review the cases of all refugees who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.Critics have said that the Trump administration’s actions have amounted to collective punishment for immigrants.
Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
Chanel’s new showman, Matthieu Blazy, took his designs on the road Tuesday or rather, underground, with a buzzy New York runway show staged on an actual subway platform.The designer, just weeks after his splashy Paris debut for Chanel in October, took over a decommissioned part of Manhattan’s Bowery station for his first Métiers d’Art collection. The annual show, which takes place in a different city each year, celebrates the craftsmanship of the artisans that partner with Chanel.In this case, it was two showsone in the afternoon and one in the evening. And befitting the first Chanel shows in New York since 2018, there were VIPs aplenty: A$AP Rocky, Tilda Swinton, Ayo Edebiri, Rose Byrne, Kristen Stewart, Sofia Coppola, Lupita Nyong’o, Jessie Buckley, Margaret Qualley, Bowen Yang, Jon Bon Jovi, and many others.The location had been a closely held secret. Guests entered via a doorway at 168 Bowery, and at first, it seemed like Chanel had perhaps decorated an event space to resemble a subway station, complete with tiled walls, turnstiles and a newsstand (with its own bespoke newspapers).But down a flight of stairs was the real platform. Guests settled into bleacher seats resembling subway benches. “Stand clear of the closing doors!” came the announcement on the soundtrack, familiar to New Yorkers. Then a train came rolling in, and out of the cars came the models.The show was a marked contrast in vibe with the last Métiers d’Art collection in New York in 2018, when the late designer Karl Lagerfeld took over the Egyptian Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for what felt like a mini-Met Gala, with clothes channeling the luxury of Egyptian royalty.Blazy was inspired not by royalty but by ordinary urban commuters, of different ages and types, coming together in a mashup of styles from different eras, from the 1920s onward.“The New York subway belongs to all,” the designer said in his show notes. “Everyone uses it. There are students and game-changers, statesmen and teenagers. It is a place full of wonderful encounters, a clash of pop archetypes.”His models strolled the platform, some checking for arriving trainsfeigning annoyance at their latenessor leaning against a post as they waited. Their numbers increased until, by the end, there was a virtual rush hour of fashion, with the eclectic soundtrack playing the Happy Days theme song as a finale.Some of these commuters wore classic Chanel suitsperhaps with an “I (Heart) NY” T-shirtand others, tweed coats, flowing black capes or brightly patterned skirts. All were intended to show off the craftsmanship involved.“This felt like breaking the system,” said Stewart, speaking after the afternoon show. “I genuinely had an emotional response to the show. I felt like I just saw so many different versions of a person walking. It wasn’t one woman.”Stewart, like others, had no idea going in what the show’s theme would be, and thought the subway environment felt like “a flurry of fleeting caught moments.”“Like, ‘Where is she going?’ I wanted to go with them,” Stewart said. “I believed in it. All of this is artifice, but when you do a really good impression of the truth, you find your own. This felt real to me.”It was real enough that Chanel had printed its own “newspaper”called La Gazetteto accompany the show, with articles and interviews. An interview with Blazy quoted the designer as saying the collection was inspired partly by the 1931 visit to New York of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.And he sang the praises of the subway.“It’s almost like it’s the vortex of the city,” Blazy said. “It connects everything.”
Jocelyn Noveck, AP National Writer
Many major platforms provide personalized year in review features that highlight how users have spent their time over the past year.
Spotify Wrapped is the most popular of these summaries, but Apple Music, Snapchat, Deezer, and others also offer them.
And now, internet users have a new year-in-review feature to check out this year: YouTube Recap.
Heres what you need to know about the video sites year-in-review and how to access itespecially if you’re looking to kill some time while waiting for Spotify Wrapped 2025 to come out.
What is YouTube Recap?
YouTube Recap is Googles just-announced year-in-review feature for its YouTube platform. The personalized recap displays various metrics about your YouTube viewing habits over the past year.
The Recap feature takes the form of a Story, or YouTube Short.
As YouTube explained in a blog post, Youll get a set of up to 12 different cards that spotlight your top channels, interests, and even the evolution of your viewing habits, or which personality type you fall into based on the videos you loved to watch!
Cards include your top interests, your top channels, and your interests based on video views.
If you listen to a lot of music on YouTube, your YouTube Recap will also display your top artists and top songs from YouTube Music.
One interesting bit of information comes from a disclaimer that the YouTube Recap displays when you view it. That disclaimer reads AI can make mistakes. This suggests that Google is relying on artificial intelligence to curate and assemble YouTube Recap videos.
Discover your YouTube personality
Your YouTube Recap video may also feature a personality card that YouTube says reveals what type of personality you have based on your YouTube watch history.
The full list of possible personalities includes:
The Adventurer: Youre drawn to content that takes you on an exciting journey.
The Challenger: Youre drawn to content that shows competition and rising to the challenge.
The Changemaker: Youre drawn to content that inspires positive change in the world.
The Connector: Youre drawn to content that sparks conversation and builds community.
The Creative Spirit: Youre drawn to content that inspires self-expression.
The Curious Mind: Youre drawn to educational content that helps you understand the world.
The Dreamer: Youre drawn to content that fuels your imagination.
The Philosopher: Youre drawn to content that explores the deeper meaning of things.
The Self-Improver: Youre drawn to content that helps you grow and reach your potential.
The Serenity Seeker: Youre drawn to content that helps you relax and find your inner peace.
The Skill Builder: Youre drawn to content that helps you develop skills.
The Sunshiner: Youre drawn to content that spreads positivity and good vibes.
The Trailblazer: Youre drawn to content thats original and challenges the norm.
The Wonder Seeker: Youre drawn to awe-inspiring content that shows extraordinary skills.
In its blog post, YouTube says the most common personalities are the Connector, the Sunshiner, and the Wonder Seeker. The least common personalities are the Dreamer and the Philosopher, which YouTube says are more elusive and rare personas.
How to access your YouTube Recap 2025 on the web
YouTube provides two ways users can access their YouTube Recap. The first is by using any web browser. To access your YouTube 2025 Recap on the web:
Go to www.youtube.com/recap and make sure you are signed in.
Youll find a Your 2025 Recap is here! banner at the top of the page. Click it.
Your YouTube Recap video will open on the same webpage.
How to access your YouTube Recap 2025 in the YouTube app
You can also access your YouTube Recap directly in the YouTube app on iPhone and Android. Heres how:
Open the YouTube app.
Tap the You tab.
Youll find a Your 2025 Recap is here! banner at the top of the page. Tap it.
Your YouTube Recap video will now open in the YouTube app on your smartphone.
How to share your YouTube Recap video
While people love viewing their year-in-review roundups, many also enjoy sharing them with friends and family.
And YouTube makes it easy to share your YouTube Recap video. The caveat here, however, is that you need to share it from the YouTube app. Sharing of your YouTube Recap video from a web browser does not seem to be supported at this time.
To share your YouTube Recap video:
Open the YouTube app.
Tap the You tab.
Youll find a Your 2025 Recap is here! banner at the top of the page. Tap it.
As the video plays, youll see a Share button at the bottom of the video. Tap it.
From the pop-up menu, select the person or app you want to share a link to your personalized YouTube Recap video with.
YouTube Recap is available now to users in North America. It will roll out to users worldwide this week.
Route 66. The name alone evokes nostalgia for a simpler, freer time in American history, when roadies stopped for a hot dog with ketchup, then drove into ocher sunsets suspended over the Mojave desert.
Ever since it was built in 1926, the Mother Road has gained mythical status, drawing millions of visitors from around the world yearning for a taste of old Americathe one before the interstate highway system favored speed over experience.
For Rhys Martin, who has spent years on the road with his camera, this isn’t what Route 66 is about. Yes, you can travel back in time and get a glimpse of Americana, but the route isn’t fossilized in the past. It’s very much still breathing.
“Route 66 is more than just this 1950s sanitized version of American history,” he says. “It’s diverse, it’s evolving, and I like to say that no matter who you are or where you’re from, somewhere on Route 66, you’ll find your reflection.”
Martin, who manages the Preserve Route 66 program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is part of a group of advocates and preservationists who want to change the narrative around Route 66 from one that paints the road as a mirror into the past to one that reflects the present, where many communities still live and people still work.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
His team’s mission has now culminated in Route 66 Rewind: a browser-based experience that lets users drive across 33 landmarks along the route from their own (virtual) vintage car or motorcycle. You can steer the wheel, pick a radio station, and see how the Midpoint Cafe or the U-Drop Inn looked in previous decades.
[Photo: Kansas Historic Route 66 Association]
The experience was codeveloped by Google Arts & Culture with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is part of a larger storytelling hub that lives on the Google Arts & Culture platform. The team turned archival photographs into videos using Googles AI video generator Veo, composed the radio music using music generation model Lyria, and wrote the radio commentary using Gemini. The result is a sim road trip that uses AI in the best possible way: to direct the narrative back to people, and highlight the human experience that continues to shape the route today.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
Route 66: A corridor of stories
Martin first saw the road through the lens of a camera. Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he’d heard of Route 66, but he knew only the broad strokes. Then one day in 2013, he hopped into his late father’s Mustang and drove to Miami, Oklahoma, to photograph the Coleman Theatrea 1929 vaudeville theater with a facade “so ornate it had no business being in the town of Miami,” he recalls. The surprising discovery had him wondering: What else was on the highway?
Martins curiosity led him on a two-year road trip across Route 66 that grew into a decade-long love affair with the people he met along the way. “Eventually I realized it’s a corridor of stories,” he says.
One of the biggest misconceptions about Route 66 is that the destinations along its route have faded into ghost towns. The construction of the interstate highway system in the 50s and 60s, followed by the decommissioning of the route in 1985, no doubt stripped many of these towns of their purpose. As travel evolved and car speeds got faster, the need for frequent gas stations and motels diminished. The government divested. People left towns.
But not everyone left. In Tulsa, entrepreneurs like Mary Beth Babcock have spent years revitalizing stretches of the road. In 2019, she transformed the historic Pemco gas station into a souvenir shop called Buck Atoms Cosmic Curios, complete with two very on-brand, 20-foot-tall mascots that double as roadside attractions.
That same year, Dutch entrepreneur Sebastiaan de Boorder and his wife, Anna Marie Gonzalez, renovated the 1919 Aztec Motel in Seligman, Arizona, which reopened as the Aztec Motel & Creative Space in 2021. “There is so much development still coming to Route 66, and most of it is mom and pops who’ve always dreamed of having a business on Route 66, Martin says.
[Photo: Arizona Preservation Foundation]
Today, the American dream that once defined Route 66 looks different. Some might say it doesn’t exist at all. But for Martin, it lives on along the Mother Road.
“I agree that the American dream doesn’t quite hit like it used to,” he tells me, “but on Route 66, you still find people who have bought into the cliché that Route 66 means freedom, and they are adding their story to this highway that’s now entering its second century.”
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
AI fills the gaps of archival memory
Route 66 is now approaching its centennial. Next year, various destinations along the route will burst into caravans and car parades to celebrate the route’s legacy. But for the team behind Route 66 Rewind, the goal isn’t just to celebrate the past but to galvanize the next generation.
“Preservation creates,” says Martin, noting that anytime a building is preserved, it activates the connection people had with it while helping young people engage with the conversation. “That’s how you inspire the next generation to add their story to this long history.”
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
With its AI-powered features and fun UX, Route 66 Rewind presented itself as a way to make history exciting for younger people. But when the team sat down to convey said history, they realized they didn’t know how many of these places looked in their heyday, beyond a few archival photographs. AI became a way to fill in what Amit Sood, the founder and director of Google Arts & Culture, calls “the gaps of archival memory.”
The Google team worked with the National Trust team to collect black-and-white photos and written accounts they could use to prompt AI, cross-referencing each output with experts at the Trust.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
The resulting videos act as miniature time capsules of a bygone era. In Collinsville, Illinois, you can follow ketchup bottles stream past on a conveyor belt inside the now-defunct Brooks Foods ketchup factory. In Lebanon, Missouri, you can peek inside the now-closed Munger Moss Motel, its iconic neon sign flickering under a 1960s sun.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
But as Sood points out, these dreamy snapshots inspire you to preserve, too. The hope is that the AI-powered vision of, say, the Threatt Filling Stationthe only Black-owned-and-operated gas station during the Jim Crow erawill pique your interest enough for you to visit the storytelling hub and learn about the craftsmen who are now working to restore the building’s “giraffe-stone” exterior.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
Next year, Route 66 is likely to be designated a National Historic Trail. The designation, which is being championed by members of both the U.S. House and Senate, could help preserve the historic route, boost tourism, and support local economies ahead of the highway’s centennial celebration.
In the meantime, perhaps the AI-powered platform will galvanize tourists both domestically and from abroad to get on the road and see how the myth lives on. “The goal is to keep the car rolling down the street and get more people engaged,” Martin says. “It’s going to be a big party [next year], but that’s definitely not the end. Its the start of the next 100 years.”
Generic store brand groceries can increasingly be found in the pantries, fridges, and freezers of Americans across all income groups. Once designed to communicate value and affordability, a new generation of private labels designed for high earners is driving sales.
Among households earning more than $100,000 a year, 82% say they’ve increased the frequency of buying store-brand groceries “often” or “very often,” according to a report from Alvarez & Marsal Global, a consulting firm.
That’s compared to 74% of households earnings less than $100,000 a year who also say they’ve increased their store-brand grocery purchases.
Grocers have rebranded and grown their portfolio of private label brands over the past several years to cater to consumers pressed by inflation, and it’s paid off as the highest-earning shoppers make up an increasingly large share of the economy. The report attributed the steep increase among the highest-earning Americans to “improvements made in private label products.”
[Photo: Walmart]
Nowhere is this more true than Walmart, the leading grocer since 2019, which launched a new private label called Bettergoods in 2024 that includes products that are plant-based, organic, or gluten-free. These products intentionally cater to the Whole Foods shopper with bright, well-designed packaging. The company reported quarterly revenue of $179.5 billion, up 5.8%, and said high-income households were part of the reason why.
“We continue to benefit from higher-income families choosing to shop with us more often,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on the company’s earnings call late last month.
Upgraded, design-ified generic brands aren’t just boosting high-income shopping, though. The report found 68% of shoppers across all income groups believe store brands offer quality that is as good or better than national brands, and switching to store brands was the No. 1 way shoppers said they cut their grocery bill.
[Photo: Aldi]
Those trends are shaping the industry. Albertson’s says it’s aiming for private labels to eventually account for 30% of its business, Aldi put its name on all its products for the first time, and Amazon debuted a new branded online grocery store with packaging that makes good use of its new font, bright colors, and white space.
With high-income households driving so much spending, industries from airlines to produce are especially catering to the shoppers with high-end products and premium experiences. At the grocery store, though, the success of private labels proves that when it comes to cooking dinner, even the highest-earning among us are looking for a good deal.
Rare earths monopoly. Unrivaled manufacturing supply chains. Free AI models that rival, or surpass, its American counterparts. More research papers and more STEM doctorates than anyone else. If you are reading a lot about these topics lately, you know how Chinas decades-long strategy to become the top global superpowerand the greatest threat to U.S. world dominationis coming to fruition. What you may not be aware of is the other crucial part of Beijings plans; its industrial ramp up to dominate the most crucial resource on the planet: the oceans.
Chinas pursuit of maritime dominance has shifted from a regional ambition to a global reality, driven by a breakneck speed naval expansion that rivals that of the U.S. during World War II. The Asian country has already produced the worlds largest military fleet by ship count (although Washington still dominates in tonnage thanks to its large aircraft carrier groups). Yet Beijings strategy for controlling the Indo-Pacificand beyondrelies on more than just warships; it increasingly depends on gray zone tactics that blur the line between scientific research and military projection. China is systematically deploying dual-use “civilian” assetsfrom oceanographic survey ships to militarized fishing fleetsto map key strategic waterways and assert sovereignty without firing a shot.
This “advancing without attacking” doctrine is now escalating with a new class of megastructures designed to solidify China’s permanent presence in contested waters. While the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) challenges U.S. supremacy with advanced carriers like the Fujian and new nuclear carriers in preparation, Beijing is simultaneously rolling out a parallel infrastructure of floating islands and underwater bases.
[Image: China State Shipbuilding Corporation]
China says that it is built for the blue economythe idea that the oceans are a huge resource still waiting to be untappedwhich is true. But, oh the wonders! These facilities are engineered with military-grade survivability, effectively functioning as forward-operating bases that extend China’s reach far beyond its shores while maintaining a veneer of civilian legitimacy.
The latest entries in this network of assets are deep-sea bases, underwater server farms, and, now, a floating research platform engineered to withstand nuclear blasts. Together, these projects form a connected infrastructure designed for long-term operations, resource extraction, and data processing at sea designed not only to gain scientific and industrial advantages but to expand Beijings footprint in the world’s oceans.
First of its kind
Lets look at these one by one, starting with the most impressive: Detailed in a research paper published earlier this month in the Chinese Journal of Ship Research, the new Deep-Sea All-Weather Resident Floating Research Facility is a 86,000-ton semi-submersible platform described by its developers as a mobile, self-sustaining artificial island.
Contracts with the shipyard that will build itthe China State Shipbuilding Corporationspecify a twin-hull vessel 453 feet long and 279 feet wide, with a main deck rising 148 feet above the waterline, according to the South China Morning Post. It is designed to house 238 people for up to four months without resupply. Its an incredible project with no rival anywhere in the world.
According to Yang Deqing and his team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the facility is built for “all-weather, long-term residency.” Its superstructure contains critical compartments for emergency power, communications, and navigation that are hardened to remain operational after a nuclear explosion.
[Image: China State Shipbuilding Corporation]
The platform is rated to operate in Sea State 7rough seas with waves between 20 feet and 30 feetand to survive typhoons up to Category 17, the highest rating on the Chinese scale. Project leader Lin Zhongqin stated that his team is “racing to complete the design and construction, aiming for operational status by 2028.” The vessel will cruise at approximately 17 miles per hour to conduct deep-sea observations and test mining technologies in areas including the South China Sea.
But perhaps the most impressive thing after its absurdly large size and its towering dual-hull design is the material they invented to make it capable of withstand a nuclear shock wave without the weight of traditional heavy armor.
The engineers designed a “sandwich bulkhead” using a lattice of corrugated metal tubes. These tubes, folded at a precise 21.25-degree angle with walls just 0.02 inches thick, utilize something technically called a “negative Poissons ratio which means that, unlikestandard materials that bulge outward when compressed, this structure contracts inward and densifies, distributing the impact. They claim their simulations showed a 2.4-inch thick panelroughly the width of a smartphoneoutperforming thicker steel plates. Under a simulated nuclear blast pressure of 25.8 psi (177.83 kilopascals), the design reduced maximum structural displacement by 58.53% compared to conventional armor.
An underwater space station
China is also deploying a James Bond-like underwater base located at a depth of roughly 6,560 feet in the South China Sea, which appears to be the first out of many. According to project leader Yin Jianping, of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, the project is a “space station in the sea.” Connected to a fiber-optic network, its pressurized modules are designed to host six scientists for up to a month.
The base will investigate how to extract methane hydrateto help satisfy the countrys ever-growing energy needsand survey deposits of rare earth elements, cobalt, and nickel. It will be supported by the drilling ship Meng Xiang and a network of uncrewed submersibles that will double as a surveillance system for the country.
In parallel, China has deployed its first commercial underwater data center off the coast of Hainan. A 1,433-ton structure submerged 115 feet deep that houses 24 server racks. Project manager Pu Ding points out that they put the entire data cabin in the deep sea because seawater can help cool down the temperature.”
The developers claim this passive cooling can save around 90% of the energy typically used for climate control in land-based centers. A similar test unit near Shanghai will draw power from offshore wind farms, and the company that is building this data center estimates that over 95% of its energy will come from renewable sources. The idea is not new. Microsoft tested it and found out that, indeed, it works great. Surprisingly, the Redmond, Washington company is not working on it anymore and will not scale the idea up.
Which is both sadbecause of the huge energy waste that current server farms represent, which could be greatly reduced by natural coolingand shocking because the U.S. is in the middle of a worldwide war for AI domination with China. The latter is not leaving a stone unturned to win that war, which is precisely what this new floating megastructure is all about. Beijing is not going to stop at making your iPhones, your rare earth magnets, and building the best AIs using the largest army of STEM doctors in the world. China wants to become the biggest maritime superpower toojust like Spain, Britain, and the U.S. in past centuries. And we are witnessing its overture in real time.
Mark Mansons 2016 book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck delivered some hard truths and prescient advice to millions of readers seeking answers. Now hes building an AI-based application to do the same.
At that time, Manson says the self-help field was unrealistic, not very evidence basedjust designed to make you feel good, inspiring him to write a book that offered a more skeptical, realistic, and zero bull shit approach to personal growth and self-help.
Nearly a decade later, Manson says hes seeing the same pattern in the digital world, with millions turning to generic AI platforms for guidance, only to receive unrealistic, potentially harmful advice. Thats what inspired him to team up with serial tech entrepreneur Raj Singhwho most recently sold his AI hotel concierge service GoMomentto create on-demand life coaching app Purpose, which launches this week.
The AI tool offers users life guidance and actionable steps to solve problems, from career to relationships and beyond. It also seeks to challenge, rather than validate users (something many experts have argued many AI platforms do), albeit in a polite, supportive tone. It pairs existing research into cognitive behavioral therapy with data gathered from users upon sign up, and retains conversation history to track patterns over time. According to an internal survey, 41% of early users said the app has been life-changing.
We’ve actually had a number of people tell us that they’ve cried while using it, Manson says. We really tried to build this AI to go deep quickly, to not beat around the bush or do any fake pleasantries.
Fast Company caught up with the author-turned-tech-founder from Los Angeles to talk about the legacy of The Subtle Art, whether were ready to share our deepest thoughts with an app, and why AI is the perfect tool to deliver personalized coaching at scale.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Were you surprised by the success of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck?
The scope of the success caught me off guard. My pie-in-the-sky dream at the time was a million copies, so the fact that its exceeded that so drastically has been a pleasant surprise.
Why do you think it was such a hit?
When I got started in this industry in the early 2010s, self-help was very touchy-feely, very woo-woo. It was, in my opinion, unrealistic, not very evidence basedjust designed to make you feel good. It felt like there was a deep hunger, especially among millennials, for a skeptical, realistic, zero-bullshit approach to personal growth and self-help. That was the inspiration.
Coincidentally a lot of the cultural observations at the timelike about social media and distraction and chronically comparing ourselves to othershave aged really well. I think I identified early on the world we were heading toward.
How has your life changed since?
Financial security is probably the single biggest change, and thats great, but being a very successful author is weird in that the book is the celebrity, not me. Im not getting recognized on the street or anything. Its just a bunch of numbers on emails that youre like wow, thats a large number. Then you go back to your same apartment and hang out with your same friends.
Why transition from author to tech cofounder?
When my career started to blow up, there were opportunities to do seminars and start a coaching business, but I didnt really want to charge somebody $5,000 to spend a weekend in a hotel ballroom with me. Ive been obsessed with this question of, how can we help more people? Like, what does a better version of this industry look like?
One of the problems I identified well before ChatGPT came out is that the stuff that actually works doesnt scale, and the stuff that scales doesnt work. My book was read by millions of people, but a book has to talk in broad principles, and the reader needs to connect the dots for themselves. It might move the needle for some people, but not much. What really works is working with an excellent coach or therapist, which is extremely personalized and requires a major investment of time and energy, so it doesnt scale.
Then ChatGPT came out, and I heard people were asking it big life questions. I tried it myself, and it does okay in terms of some questions, but not others. It felt like there was an opportunity for a properly trained AI to scale that personalization.
How did you meet your cofounder?
At a poker game. After ChatGPT came out, I was meeting with AI companies, but they didnt really get it. And then I sat down next to Raj Singh at a poker game just as he was finishing a sabbatical in 2023, and was independently thinking about doing something with AI and mental health. We started chatting, and it turns out we were thinking about the same question.
What is Purpose all about? What makes it different from generic AI platforms?
Purpose is a personalized AI mentor designed to help you find clarity and direction in your life as soon as possible. One of the biggest issues I see with using ChatGPT for life questions is that its default approach is to validate you. If you complain about your ex-girlfriends, ChatGPT will tell you theyre terrible, and youre a great guy, so just pick yourself up and itll be okay when what you might actually need to hear is like, hey dude, you might be the problem. The goal with Purpose is to build an AI that will challenge your assumptions, poke holes in some of your beliefs, point out blind spots, and help you reconsider how you see your own approach.
The app does take a positive tone, though.
Theres a fine line between flattery and positivity, and its something were trying to calibrate all the time. It changes based on the user, the context, the issue.
Part of our onboarding experience is designed to get an early read of the users personality traits. The AI speaks to people differently based on how agreeable they are. Some people want very direct advice, others want it to be a bit more encouraging and positive, and its something were working on fine tuning all the time.
The entire field of psychology is already in all these LLMs. The value is finding that calibration. ChatGPT is poorly calibrated for it, partly because of the sycophancy, partly because of the lack of personalization, partly because of the poor memory. Were trying to fix those things.
Are people open to receiving that advice from a bot?
When you’re talking to a humaneven a trusted person, like a therapistit’s almost impossible to not worry what that person thinks about you. With AI, I dont care. I dont feel shame: I just say what I feel. And what Ive also found is that when it gives me harsh feedback, I dont feel that social anxiety thats attached to criticism or negative feedback from a person.
What about privacy and security concerns?
Trust is by far the most important thing in this space. We are building Purpose with all the highest security and privacy regulations, like HIAA and GDPR. Conversations are anonymized on each device, so even if somebody puts a gun to my head or Rajs, we cant share your conversations, because we dont have any way to identify individual users. Its also entirely self-fundedwhich is something Raj and I feel very strongly aboutto keep the proper incentives in place and not jeopardize the goal and mission of the product.
Whats next for you personally?
I am going to be strongly involved in Purposes product design, but I do feel like its probably time to write another book. Its been about five years, and I need to get back on that horse.
Did Purpose suggest that?
Not specifically. But it probably would have if I asked.
OpenAI appeared to be closer to pulling the trigger on advertising in ChatGPT in recent days, but a growing threat from Google has forced the company to pause those plans as it gears up for a quickly escalating chatbot fight.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sent a memo to staff on December 1 declaring a “code red” and ordering the company’s primary focus to be on improving ChatGPT. As part of that directive, Altman reportedly said the company would be pushing back work on other projects, including the introduction of advertising to its chatbot.
The about-face came just days after Tibor Blaho, an engineer working on a Chrome extension that offers pre-written prompts for ChatGPT, posted on social media that he had discovered lines of code which heavily referenced ads in a beta version of ChatGPT’s Android app, including mentions of “ads feature,” “search ad,” and “bazaar content.” (That beta has not yet been released to the public.)
Altman has hedged when the topic of ads in ChatGPT has come up previously. While saying he “hates ads” personally, he added at a 2024 Harvard University fireside chat that he was “not totally against them” and stressed, “I’m not saying OpenAI would never consider ads.”
He cushioned those comments, though, by saying “ads plus AI is uniquely unsettling to me. When I think of GPT writing me a response, if I had to go figure out exactly how much was [a sponsor] paying . . . to influence what I’m being shown, I don’t think I would like that very much.”
The discovery of ad code is not conclusive proof that ChatGPT will incorporate advertisements into its chatbot. It’s possible OpenAI is planning to work with other companies to let them personalize ad content on other sites based on ChatGPT usage.
OpenAI did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the ad code.
ChatGPT has become a Goliath in the AI space. In October, Altman disclosed that the chatbot sees 800 million weekly active users, a big jump from the 500 million WAUs it reported at the end of March. It has amassed that sizable user base in just three years.
But as it has grown, so too have competitors. Googles Gemini AI has emerged recently as perhaps the most serious threat to OpenAI’s dominance, outpacing ChatGPT in industry benchmarks. Gemini 3, released last month, also has a huge built-in user base, as the technology was inserted into Google Search as well as a full suite of developer tools.
Altman’s memo indicates the company is feeling the pressure from Gemini and other AI firms, which (like OpenAI) are spending heavily in the race for leadership in the AI space. Altman told his team that work needed to be done on improving personalization for users, increasing speed and reliability, and widening the range of questions that ChatGPT can answer.
Right now, OpenAI generates much of its revenue from partnerships with businesses that use its API model and via paid subscriptions to its most advanced technology. (A free version that is less advanced is available to users who prefer not to pay.)
The company is on track to hit $20 billion in revenue this year. Altman has said he expects that figure to grow to hundreds of billions by 2030.
Even so, the company says it cannot guarantee it will turn a profit within the next five years, given the high cost of computing. In the meantime, it expects to post massive losses, including a projected $74 billion shortfall in 2028.
