With Netflix now streaming original podcasts and Apple announcing a category-leading video experience on its app this spring, the meaning of the word “podcast” has grown increasingly diffuse.
It was much easier to pin down during the mediums mid-aughts infancy. Back then, a podcast was simply asynchronous talk radiothe natural next step after moving from terrestrial radio, to satellite platforms like SiriusXM, to a new and purely digital format that could be downloaded and consumed on demand.
In the years since, the definition has vastly expanded. Essentially, any form of episodic audio or video content that involves people speaking into microphones can now be considered a podcast. Weve drifted so far away from the original context and definition of the word that perhaps its time for semantics to catch up.
The consumption is moving more and more toward video-based podcasts, says Jonathan Miller, a former Fox digital media and NBA executive and current CEO of Integrated Media Co. At some point, there needs to be a new name. But it’s not going to happen easily.
Pivoting to video
Originally coined in early 2004 by British journalist Ben Hammersley, the word “podcast” was an ingenious turn of phrase at the time. The punny portmanteau succinctly describes the then-emergent format of a broadcast that emanates from ones iPod.
The only problem? That title assumed a world in which iPods hung around for the long haul, rather than entering obsolescence just three years later with the invention of the iPhone. (The iPod ultimately remained in circulation for another 15 years, until Apple ceased manufacturing them in 2022.)
Anyone on the younger end of the prime podcasting demographic of 18 to 34 years old has likely never used an iPod, and might regard one with the same anthropological curiosity they would a VCR or rotary phone.
If the podcasts outdated nominal inspiration werent enough reason for a rebrand, though, the popularity of video may be what cinches it.
As more and more podcasters have started putting their shows on camera, YouTube has become the top podcast platform in the U.S., with over 1 billion active users logging on for them each month.
Meanwhile, Apples audio-only app loses a little more of its market share every year, going from 15.7% of monthly podcast listeners preference in 2022 to 11.3% in 2025.
Perhaps the companys forthcoming video experience will help Apple regain some of that groundif Netflix and its competitors all inevitably throwing their hats in the ring doesnt erode that number further.
But if a podcast is no longer something audiences hear but watch, is it even the same medium?
“What were witnessing isnt a departure from podcastingits an evolution, says Matt Sandler, general manager of creator services at Amazon. The content itself has evolved from interviews into ensemble conversations, documentary-style storytelling, live experiences, and hybrid shows that blur the lines between what weve traditionally seen on social [media], podcasts, and TV. As a result, podcasts have naturally moved from audio-only experiences to screens.
As popular as the video format is getting, not everyone sees it as a full industry takeover. I don’t see a pivot to video but an addition, says Adam Curry, the former MTV VJ whose early adoption of podcasting earned him the nickname “The Podfather.”
Of course, the addition of video to an audio format has always been disruptive, to say the least.
The revolution will not be podcasted
Before it became known as television, one of the inventions developers, Charles Francis Jenkins, dubbed it “radiovision.” There must have been very little doubt among the public about which technology TV was intended to replace.
The introduction of TV solved the problem of how boring and undynamic it must have been to gather ones family around a radio and listen to Fibber McGee and Molly on a Thursday night. It created a dazzling new galaxy of programming possibilities that revolutionized show business, and just about every other kind of business.
TV obviously didnt kill radio, but it drastically diminished radios appeal and quickly supplanted it as the top option for home entertainment.
Among the reasons radio has flourished well beyond TVs invention is because people also wanted to be entertained outside the home. It turned out there were many situations where the dynamism of a visual component proved unnecessarywhile driving, working, or shoveling snow, for instance.
The main distinction between the rise of video podcasts and the rise of television is that, unlike the medium that TV disrupted, podcasts were originally made precisely for such moments of divided attention. People mostly consume them while their eyes are focused elsewhere.
In fact, according to a YouGov survey from 2023, the topmost popular podcast-consuming situations are while doing chores, commuting, or working out.
I want something I can listen to like an audiobook when Im driving, riding the subway, or walking in the park, says Dave Winer, a software developer, writer, and pioneering podcaster.
Though its technically possible to watch a long-form podcast while doing all those things, its not exactly practical.
Still, the medium is now in a weird straddling moment in which many podcasters have not yet figured out for which of their audiences senses theyre primarily creating content.
Its now quite common for the hosts of a podcast to pantomime actions, make faces and hand gestures, or employ some other visual aid that provokes an in-studio laugh, followed by a reflexive explanation to our listeners about what just happened on-screen.
Will they eventually stop explaining? Or will they instead stop playing to the camera?
Either way, it might be helpful to know that not as many people may be watching podcasts as it seems. According to Triton Digitals annual podcasting report, only 7% of audiences exclusively watch their favorite podcasts, while 13% exclusively listen to them, and the remaining 80% now alternate between the two options.
These results hint at an epidemic of video podcasts playing inside listeners jean pockets as they go about their business.
Maybe not for long, though.
Whats in a name?
Whichever way people prefer to onsume video podcasts, the popularity of these shows has big business implications.
As the recent cancellations of both Kelly Clarksons and Sherri Shepherds TV talk shows indicate, podcasts are coming for daytime TV. Theyre also coming for the ailing late-night TV industry, and any other talky TV format that could technically be made with a tiny crew and no union involvement. (After launching without union coverage and incurring some blowback, Netflixs The Pete Davidson Show has since signed with SAG-AFTRA.)
Talk television is set to become a derivative of video podcasting, Integrated Media’s Miller says.
Fewer traditional talk show options will inevitably mean more video podcasts with high-wattage guests, like Amy Poehlers Good Hang and Matt Rogers and Bowen Yangs Las Culturistas. That means more people will likely start consuming their podcasts on smart TVs while curled up on the couch with a second screen.
In a scenario where that mode of consuming podcasts becomes more dominant, the word podcast will feel even more dissonant than it does now.
Part of the reason any medium needs a definitive name is to quantify audience consumption for advertisers. As an industry, video podcasts are now roughly at the point where streaming series were at about a decade ago, when it was still common to call them TV shows.
Nielsen Media Research struggled to adjust its language when TV moved to streaming, and remains stuck in a swamp of acronyms like SVOD (subscription video on demand), OTT (over-the-top), and CTV (connected TV) content.
Keeping the podcast label would cleanly delineate shows like the Kelce brothers New Heights and Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy for the remaining years of linear television.
But if the word were to be replaced, what would we start calling podcasts instead?
We might call it social media TV, says Henry Jenkins, a media studies professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The format is a longer and mostly unedited discussion compared to whats possible via broadcasting. Its consumed asynchronously. Both of these overlap with podcasts as we have understood them.”
But with video, the medium is now yet another step removed from that original meaning, adds Jenkins. “What I like about social media TV is that it conveys the hybrid nature of this new format. I much prefer understanding it as something new than to allow it to define what podcasting becomes.
Miller thinks a potential linguistic change might be simpler, though. What a podcast really refers to is a unit of somethingone pod is one episode, he says. So maybe, at the end of the day, they simply become known as episodes.
Just because video podcasts have become the dominant commercial format, thoughto the point of possibly redefining the mediumdoesnt mean the original format is on its way out.
If podcasting becomes video, and audio podcasting disappears . . . we’ll just boot up podcasting again with a different name, Winer says.
But dont be surprised if the word sticks around as the industry evolves around it. We still use paper clip icons to attach a file, and a floppy disc icon to save something, Curry notes.
Similarly, theres a reason why iPhones still have the word phone in them, even though making phone calls is now among the devices more marginal functions. Sometimes, words continue to survive long after the idea that inspired them becomes redundant.
One such word, which originally referred to sowing seeds by scattering them over a wide area, is “broadcast.”
A new hotline is inviting Americans to congratulate the U.S. womens hockey team after its historic Olympic gold medal winand its already flooded with messages.
Launched yesterday by the PR firm Jennifer Bett Communications in collaboration with Cosmopolitan, the gold medal hotline allows fans to leave voicemails celebrating Team USA. The number, 1-833-SHE-WON1, has received 278 messages since opening yesterday afternoon, many from girls and women who say the team inspired them.
“This hotline is essentially a giant, collective thank you from fans everywhere,” Jennifer Meyer, founder of Jennifer Bett Communications, tells Fast Company. “We want to remind them that they are seen, they are celebrated, and they have the full support of a country that is incredibly proud of them.”
And the messages themselves reflect that outpouring of gratitude.
“You guys are what I wanted to be when I grew up, but they didn’t let girls play hockey back then. I am bursting with pride over what you’ve done. Congratulations, one message went.
Another said: Boys in my class always make fun of me for playing hockey and sometimes make me think I should quit, but you guys just rebuilt my confidence on and off the ice.
The hotline comes after the U.S. womens team defeated Canada on Sunday to secure its third Winter Olympics gold medaland its first since 2018though the victory was partly overshadowed by a viral video from the mens teams locker room later that day. In the clip, President Donald Trump congratulated the mens team over video call and invited them to the State of the Union and the White House, adding he was also going to have to bring the womens team and that if he didnt, hed probably be impeached. Players could be heard laughing, a reaction that drew accusations of misogyny online. All but five members of the USA mens ice hockey team later visited the Oval Office on Tuesday, while a USA Hockey spokesperson said the womens team also received an invitation but declined.
New Jersey Devils player Jack Hughes, who scored the winner for the U.S., addressed the backlash. People are so negative out there and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing, he told the Daily Mail. Everything is so political. Were athletes.
Others were quick to point out that partying with FBI director Kash Patel and celebrating a historic win by attending the State of the Union is, in fact, what makes sports political.
Companies want to hire workers with artificial intelligence skills, but don’t want to pay the premium. Those are the findings from a new report from Payscale, a leading online provider of data on salaries and compensation.
Payscale’s 2026 Compensation Best Practices Report finds that while 60% of companies mention AI as part of their job descriptions, only 55% are willing to shell out extra money for those skills in the form of higher salaries, bonuses or even equity in the company.
Why? Well, according to the report, there are a few reasons for the discrepancy, including the impact of a tight job market on hiring, coming at a time when businesses are also tightening their budgets.
In fact, 51% of the businesses surveyed say their biggest challenge in the current economic landscape is balancing employee pay expectations with budget constraints. It could be that while companies want to pay more, they just don’t have the cash.
So, how much are jobs paying? The report finds the median base pay increase in 2026 is only 3.5%.
Job hugging trend continues in workplace
Another reason for lower-than-desired salaries is “job hugging“the current trend where employees are staying longer in their positions and choosing not to leave their jobs.
Only about 8% of U.S. workers are actually voluntarily quitting, the report finds. And those positions take about 30 days to fill, signaling “reduced churn” and less urgency on the part of companies to compete aggressively for talent.
According to the report, 40% of the organizations surveyed say they have indeed experienced “job hugging” in 2025, with 15% agreeing that it inhibits business growth.
With confidence in finding a new job at an all-time low among workers, and “workers hold[ing] onto their jobs for dear lifeit’s no wonder AI skills aren’t boosting salaries across the board.
How AI is transforming the job market
While 59% of the human resource leaders and compensation teams that Payscale surveyed say they are not replacing employees with AI now or in the future, 30% already areor are considering it for the future.
Construction, business services, technology (including software), and healthcare are the leading industries already replacing workers with AI, according to the report.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard University amid a campus review of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the university announced Wednesday.
Summers, who has been on leave since November and whose name appeared hundreds of times in newly released Epstein files, will leave at the end of the school year, according to a statement from Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton.
Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time, Newton said.
In a statement, Summers said it was a difficult decision and expressed gratitude to the students and colleagues he worked with over 50 years.
Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues, Summers said.
Summers served as treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and went on to lead Harvard as president for five years starting in 2001.
Its the latest fallout from the Justice Departments recent release of millions of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and his longtime confidant and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Resignations have rippled across the academic, legal, and business communities.
In Britain, former Prince Andrew and ex-diplomat Peter Mandelson were arrested because of their connections to Epstein and Maxwell.
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The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Collin Binkley, AP education writer
At a time of broken climate pledges and an economy-wide bearhug of automation and artificial intelligence, the dominant themes of the recently announced 2026 National Design Awardsclimate action, sustainability, dedication to craftare a refreshing reset.
Rewarding innovation and impact among U.S.-based designers, the awards are both an honor and a pulse check on the state of design. This year’s group of winners represent a diverse group of practitioners and firms exploring ways that work in design and the arts can counteract environmental catastrophe and re-center the human hand in shaping the future.
Honorees include the indigenous underpinnings in the textiles of fashion designer Josh Tafoya, the cross-border ecological and social research outposts of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, and the environmentally sensitive museum design of architecture firm Frida Escobedo Studio. Other winners were selected for works pushing the boundaries of fields from digital cartography to ecological restoration.
Josh Tafoya, Ranchero La Bruja [Photo: Courtesy of Josh Tafoya/Cooper Hewitt]
Launched in 2000 by the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, the awards honor designers across design disciplines from architecture to digital design to interior design. Despite the awards program being created as a project of the White House Millennium Council, this year’s honorees zag away from the trendlines of current national politics.
Two standout honorees include Mattaforma, a New York City-based architecture and research studio focusing on mass-timber and sustainable building materials, and Berea College Student Craft, a hands-on experiential design and craft program that dates back to 1893.
Mattaforma, Parkview Mountain House [Photo: Courtesy of Lauren Kerr/Cooper Hewitt]
The 2026 jury was chaired by Aric Chen, director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, and also included Liz Danzico, vice president of design at Microsoft AI, Henk Ovink, executive director and founding commissioner for the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Berea College Student Craft, Squibble Broom [Photo: Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt]
Here’s the full list of categories and winners:
Architecture: Frida Escobedo Studio
Climate Action: UCSD Community Stations by Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman
Communication Design: Thought Matter
Design Visionary: Robert Earl Paige
Digital Design: Laura Kurgan
Emerging Designer: Mattaforma
Fashion Design: Josh Tafoya
Interior Design: Charlap Hyman & Herrero
Landscape Architecture: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects
Product Design: Berea College Student Craft
Next week, a rare celestial event will take to the skies. On March 3, amateur astronomers will get to witness a blood moon and a worm moon all at once.
According to Space.com, a blood moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse, as the Earth passes directly between the Sun and Moon and casts a shadow across the moon’s surface. The moon appears red due to the way the Earth’s atmosphere filters sunlight. “This effect, known as Rayleigh scattering, is the same reason that the sky takes on magnificent shades of red and orange around sunset,” the site explains.
While different seasons often bring exciting astrological events, this one is exceptionally rare. According to NASA, a blood moon can only occur during the full moon phase. But the blood moon also coincides with March’s full worm moon, named for the time of year when the Earth begins to thaw (which the worms appreciate).
When can I see the blood moon?
The eclipse, which will be visible across most of the U.S., is set to begin at 3:33 a.m. EST on March 3. The eclipse won’t begin to enter totality until around 6:04 a.m. EST, reaching its “greatest point at 6:33 a.m. ET, just minutes before the Full Moon peak,” explains Almanac.com.
Do I need to wear protective glasses?
Luckily, you won’t need any special equipment to view the event. It’s safe to look directly at a lunar eclipse (unlike a solar eclipse, which you need to wear protective eyewear to safely view, minus during complete totality). Still, NASA says that, if you want an even better view, binoculars are a good idea.
“For a more dramatic observing experience, seek a dark environment away from bright lights. Binoculars or a telescope can also enhance your view,” it explains.
What other celestial events are coming up?
After the dramatic show next week, the event will not take place again until New Years Eve 20282029. That means, if you’re hoping to catch the show, you better make sure you’re looking up. Especially because constellations may appear brighter, too, as the moon’s light is dimmed.
But another exciting astrological event will take place just days later. Space.com says on March 8, a “conjunction” of Venus and Saturn will appear in the sky. While the planets are, in fact, very far apart, as Venus “passes one degree to the upper right of Saturn,” they’ll appear closer than ever from Earth.
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.
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.
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
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
