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The growing backlash to data centers, and the rising electricity bills that accompany them, has become difficult for politicians to ignore. President Donald Trump is now the latest to address the issue. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump announced what he called a ratepayer protection pledge, for which the White House will tell major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs. We have an old grid, Trump said. It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity thats needed. Under the agreement, tech companies can build their own power plants, which Trump says will protect community electricity prices from going up. In many cases, he added, prices of electricity will go down for the community, and very substantially down. Another empty promise? To climate experts, though, that pledge sounds like another empty promise from the president, just like his campaign vow to reduce Americans utility costs. One of Trumps key campaign promises was to slash Americans energy bills in half within the first year of his presidency. But in reality, electricity bills rose 13% nationally by the end of 2025, according to Climate Power, a climate advocacy organization. That hike hasnt been entirely because of the AI-driven data center boom. Bills rose in part because the Trump administration has canceled clean energy projects like wind and solar and instead made the country more dependent on foreign oil and fossil fuels. Those efforts will only exacerbate the energy costs associated with data centers. Wind and solar power are cheaper than coal and natural gas for utility-scale electricitybut as data centers demand more and more power, the country is building more natural gas power plants. If Trump and Republicans were serious about lowering costs, theyd focus on bringing more made in America clean energy onto the grid, Climate Power senior advisor Jesse Lee said in a statement following the State of the Union. Instead, theyre trying to ban it. Data centers becoming a political issue Trumps ratepayer protection pledge is the latest version of a data center solution that has been growing in popularity. As they face increased backlash, with communities opposing data center projects in their backyards, some tech companies like Anthropic have taken it upon themselves to promise to pay for their increased energy use. Politicians, on both sides of the aisle, are also increasingly calling for fixes. In November 2025, Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race after focusing on rising electricity bills during her campaign. She specifically called out data centers, saying shell make sure they pay their own way and their fair share of their new electricity and transmission needs. More recently, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill this month to stop data centers from driving up energy costs by requiring them to have their own power sources. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just this week went for a more extreme solution, calling for a moratorium on data center construction. Its not clear if these efforts will do anything to stem the rising costs for all the data centers already planned or in the works, thoughwhich would add a total of 93 GW of electricity demand to the grid by 2029. Already in response to that demand, proposals for new natural gas plants are soaring, tripling in 2025 compared to the year prior, according to nonprofit research organization Global Energy Monitor. The U.S. now has the most gas-fired power capacity in development (that includes projects that have been announced as well as those in preconstruction and/or construction), the nonprofit sayswith more than a third of that capacity slated to directly power data centers.
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E-Commerce
Discord, the popular platform for gamers to communicate online, is postponing its controversial age verification policy after receiving swift backlash from users with concerns about their privacy. The global rollout of the system is now delayed to the second half of 2026, Discord’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy wrote in a Tuesday blog post acknowledging that the company missed the mark. Many of you are worried that this is just another big tech company finding new ways to collect your personal data. That were creating a problem to justify invasive solutions, Vishnevskiy wrote. I get that skepticism. Its earned, not just toward us, but toward the entire tech industry. But thats not what were doing. Discord, which says it has more than 200 million active users, will continue to meet specific legal obligations it has for age verification of users, the company said, but the global expansion of age verification will only come after it makes changes to the initial policy it laid out in early February. The company announced earlier this month that it would roll out an age verification policy in March that would include face scanning or requests for an ID upload for users it could not determine were adults. This drew swift ire from users. Many pointed to a recent security breach of a third-party provider Discord worked with that exposed government ID photos of up to 70,000 Discord users. Vishnevskiy referenced the security breach in the blog post, writing that he understood that incident added to users’ skepticism, but he emphasized the company no longer works with that vendor and has rigorous standards for its partners. Every vendor we work with goes through a security and privacy review before integration, he wrote. That includes contractual limits on data use, and strict retention and deletion requirements. Information submitted for age verification is stored only for the minimum time necessary, which in most cases means its deleted immediately. If a vendor doesnt pass, we dont work with them. One of the vendors that didn’t meet the mark was Persona, an identity verification service. Vishnevskiy said Discord ran a limited test with Persona in the United Kingdom only in January. The company was not able to meet Discord’s standard for facial age estimation, Vishnevskiy wrote, which stipulates that the estimation must be performed entirely on-device, meaning your biometric data never leaves your phone. The company distanced itself from Persona after that relationship also became the subject of online criticism. Persona is backed by the venture capital firm Founders Fund, which is run by by Palantir Technologies co-founder Peter Thiel. Thiel and Palantir are often criticized for of the company’s partnerships with the government for surveillance purposes, with Palantir recently inking an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to streamline the process of identifying and deporting people the agency is targeting. The backlash to the original policy and even the revised version came even though Vishnevskiy wrote that for “90%+ of users, nothing changes. Discord is able to proactively determine the ages of the vast majority of users by looking at account-level signals. Those include how long the account has existed, whether there is a payment method on file, the types of servers a user is in and general patterns of account activity, Vishnevskiy wrote. He emphasized the company does not read messages, analyze conversations or look at account content to estimate users ages. For the minority of users whose ages Discord cannot determine, the company is now working to offer more options beyond face scanning and requesting an ID, including credit card verification. The company is going to complete and expand alternative options before rolling out the new system. Users who choose not to verify their age will get to keep their account, servers, friends list, direct messages and voice chat, but will not be able to access age-restricted content or change certain default safety settings designed to protect teens, Vishnevskiy wrote. Discord promised users it will publish a detailed post explaining how its automatic age determination systems work and will document every verification vendor and their practices on its website. Kaitlyn Huamani, AP technology writer
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E-Commerce
Gen Z still believes in true love, even if the pursuit looks a little different from their parents generation. Thats according to a new Tinder x Harris Poll white paper shared exclusively with Fast Company. The survey was conducted online in the U.S. on behalf of Match Group by the Harris Poll from September to October 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 2,500 single adults ages 18 to 79. Some 80% of Gen Z singles said they believe they’ll find true love, and 74% said they believe they’ll get married, compared to 57% and 43% of all singles, respectively. That might surprise some at a time when young people are reportedly having less sex, going out less, and facing more rejectionromantic or otherwisethan ever before. Rather than signaling a romance recession for Gen Z, these trends point to an inflection point in dating culture. Traditional relationship milestones are becoming outdated. Young adults are slowing down their pursuit of finding the one, owning a home, and having kids. For now, Gen Zers are prioritizing micro-commitments over milestones. Previous generations often moved through commitment in a few headline steps: Define the relationship, meet the family, move in, get engaged, Devyn Simone, Tinders resident relationship expert, tells Fast Company. Gen Z still wants the ceremonies eventually, but theyre building proof along the way through everyday behaviors, and a lot of those behaviors show up first online. That might look like being added to Close Friends, sending voice notes, or being introduced to the group chat. The soft launch has become a modern relationship milestone. Of the single Gen Z respondents surveyed by Tinder, 46% who use social media said they soft launch their relationships, while 37% said they hard launch their relationships, compared with 12% and 10% of single social media users over the age of 45. The ultimate green flag For those who have hard launched a relationship on social media, 81% believe its an important sign of commitment. Location sharing is another modern way to hard launch a relationship in the internet age. Whats important to understand is that these arent frivolous internet behaviors, says Simone. Theyre Gen Zs way of making connections tangible and visible while still pacing themselves. Throughout different stagesfrom first date to marriage, and sometimes divorcemany share their relationships candidly online in much the same way they would with a trusted confidant: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ick listsof instant turnoffs that end romantic interestare frequently crowdsourced online. Common offenses include being rude to service staff, or an inability to communicate or handle conflict, with 28% of Gen Z singles strongly agreeing that the ick is based on a lack of emotional competence or social skills, compared to just 17% of older singles. These social and emotional competencies have become more important for Gen Z than traditional compatibility markers like financial success or career achievement, according to Tinder. A boyfriend? In this economy? Gen Z expects romantic partners not only to have the skills to communicate but also the willingness to engage in those conversations. In a Tinder survey cited in the white paper, 56% said honest conversations matter, and those who dont meet the bare minimum are no longer being excused. Cynicism about heterosexual relationships is more widespread than ever. Only 55% of Gen Zers feel ready for romantic relationships right now, and 75% are not in a hurry to find a partner. Context matters. Gen Z is coming of age in a moment defined by economic uncertainty, shifting cultural norms around marriage and children, and a broader redefinition of what adulthood looks like, says Simone. Instead of making sweeping promises about forever, Gen Z tends to ask, Are we aligned right now? Are we building something that feels healthy? Rather than diving headfirst into a rental agreement, marriage, or any other kind of legally binding commitment, small milestones help build trust incrementally, reducing risk for a generation that has watched the social contract disintegrate before their eyes. That doesnt mean Gen Z is turning its back on connection. Quite the opposite: 33% of Gen Zers strongly agree that expanding their social network is important, compared to 20% of older singles. Maybe the real milestones were the friends we made along the way Instead of solely chasing romantic connections, Gen Z is also pursuing mentorship, community, and friendships that may or may not blossom into romance. For many Gen Z daters, connection might begin in group settings, shared interest spaces, or friend-of-a-friend dynamics, says Simone. What they need are tools that reflect how relationships actually unfold today: gradually, socially, and often in community. This has led Tinder and other dating apps to rethink how best to show up for Gen Z users, prioritizing micro-commitments over grand gestures. Tinder has recently introduced more casual modes for Gen Zers to meet each other, including its double-date feature and college mode, creating space for moments of connection without romantic pressure. Sometimes it begins with a follow, a voice note, a shared night out with friends, says Simone. “All these small signals that, over time, add up to something real.” Gen Zers arent giving up on romantic love. Theyre just going steady.
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E-Commerce
The home of the Mona Lisa is getting a new boss. Art historian Christophe Leribault, a veteran museum director, is taking over at the Louvre, shouldering the challenge of getting the worlds largest museum out of crisis after the brazen heist in October of the French crown jewels. French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon announced Wednesday that Leribault is taking over from outgoing Louvre director Laurence des Cars, who resigned Tuesday. The difficulties he inherits are formidable. The daylight robbery among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory exposed alarming security holes at the Paris landmark. The former royal palace has also suffered a broad array of other problems that have presented a picture of a treasured national institution spiraling out of control. They include a burst pipe near the Mona Lisa,” water leaks that damaged priceless books, aging buildings, staff walkouts over overcrowding, understaffing and ticket price hikes for most non-European visitors. Pressure for new leadership deepened in recent weeks when authorities revealed a suspected decade-long ticket fraud operation linked to the museum that investigators say may have cost the Louvre 10 million euros ($11.8 million). Leribault brings a proven track record. He has been running another world-renowned French landmark and tourist attraction, the Versailles Palace, overseeing an annual budget of about 170 million euros ($200 million). The former palace for French royalty west of Paris was the venue for Olympic equestrian sports when Paris hosted the summer games in 2024. Leribault also is a previous head of Paris Orsay Museum. He will be tasked with leading important projects that are crucial for the institutions future,” Bregeon said as she announced Leribaults appointment at the Louvre. They include security and modernization upgrades and the pursuit of a sweeping overhaul plan, branded Louvre New Renaissance,” that President Emmanuel Macron is championing. Unveiled by Macron in January 2025, the renovation, which could take up to a decade, aims to modernize a museum widely seen as overstretched and physically worn down by mass tourism. The plan includes a new entrance near the Seine River to ease pressure on I.M. Peis pyramid, new underground spaces and a dedicated room for the Mona Lisa with timed access all intended to improve crowd flow and reduce the daily crush of visitors that has become a symbol of the Louvres success and its dysfunction. The project is expected to cost about 1.15 billion euros ($1.35 billion) according to a recent report from France’s court of auditors. It will be partly funded by ticket revenue, state support, donations and income from the Louvre branch in Abu Dhabi. Bregeon described Leribault as very solid, trusted and said he’s expected to provide vision” and “calm to the museum. In a statement, the Culture Ministry highlighted his extensive experience at the helm of major institutions” and said Leribault will prioritize strengthening the security and safety of the Louvre’s buildings, its collections and visitors and staff, and restoring a climate of trust. Sylvie Corbet and John Leicester, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
The crypto market got some good news on Wednesday morning, as Circle reported better-than-expected earnings numbers, sending its stock soaring. Circle, a fintech company that issues and regulates stablecoins, among other things, reported fourth-quarter and full fiscal year 2025 earnings early Wednesday, which showed that total revenue grew 77% to $770 million during the fourth quarter, and net income for the quarter increased by $129 million. Adjusted EBITDA also grew 412% during the quarter. For the full year, total revenue grew 64% to $2.7 billion. In response, Circle shares took off, skyrocketing more than 15% during pre-trading. By midday Wednesday, the stock was up over 25%. Notably, the stock is down roughly 14% over the past month, and down 51% over the past six months. So, the positive earnings news offered investors some relief. The fourth quarter marked another step forward in Circles mission to build the infrastructure for an open, programmable internet financial system, said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman at Circle, in a statement included with the earnings release. USDC adoption continued to expand globally as more enterprises, developers, and public institutions integrated digital dollars into real-world payments, treasury, and onchain financial workflows,” Allaire continued. “We saw strong engagement across our platform, meaningful progress toward launching Arc mainnet, continued growth in CPN TPV, and growing momentum for EURC and USYC. With increasing collaboration across traditional finance, fintech, and the public sector, Circle is helping build the infrastructure for a more open and resilient global financial system. The earnings report is also a good signal for the crypto market, which has taken a beating this year. The Nasdaq CME Crypto Index was up nearly 7% midday Wednesday, but remains down almost 30% since the beginning of the year. Another crypto index, the CoinDesk 20, was likewise up over 8%, but down 32% year-to-date. Overall, the crypto market has taken its licks in recent months for several reasons, including de-risking activity by investors, geopolitical concerns, and even changes in the SaaS market, all of which have crypto holders rethinking their positions. However, Circles numbers do indicate that the stablecoin businesswhich differs a bit from other crypto businesses in that stablecoins are backed by fiatcan be profitable.
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E-Commerce