Artificial intelligence is joining the list of big and complex global challenges that world leaders and diplomats will tackle at this week’s annual high-level United Nations meetup.Since the AI boom kicked off with ChatGPT’s debut about three years ago, the technology’s breathtaking capabilities have amazed the world. Tech companies have raced to develop better AI systems even as experts warn of its risks, including existential threats like engineered pandemics, large-scale misinformation or rogue AIs running out of control, and call for safeguards.The U.N.’s adoption of a new governance architecture is the latest and biggest effort to rein in AI. Previous multilateral efforts, including three AI summits organized by Britain, South Korea and France, have resulted only in non-binding pledges.Last month, the General Assembly adopted a resolution to set up two key bodies on AI a global forum and an independent scientific panel of experts in a milestone move to shepherd global governance efforts for the technology.On Wednesday, a U.N. Security Council meeting will convene an open debate on the issue. Among the questions to be addressed: How can the Council help ensure the responsible application of AI to comply with international law and support peace processes and conflict prevention?And on Thursday, as part of the body’s annual meeting, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres will hold a meeting to launch the forum, called the Global Dialogue on AI Governance.It’s a venue for governments and “stakeholders” to discuss international cooperation and share ideas and solutions. It’s scheduled to meet formally in Geneva next year and in New York in 2027.Meanwhile, recruitment is expected to get underway to find 40 experts for the scientific panel, including two co-chairs, one from a developed country and one from a developing nation. The panel has drawn comparisons with the U.N.’s climate change panel and its flagship annual COP meeting.The new bodies represent “a symbolic triumph.” They are “by far the world’s most globally inclusive approach to governing AI,” Isabella Wilkinson, a research fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House, wrote in a blog post.“But in practice, the new mechanisms look like they will be mostly powerless,” she added. Among the possible issues is whether the U.N.’s lumbering administration is able to regulate a fast-moving technology like AI.Ahead of the meeting, a group of influential experts called for governments to agree on so-called red lines for AI to take effect by the end of next year, saying that the technology needs “minimum guardrails” designed to prevent the “most urgent and unacceptable risks.”The group, including senior employees at ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Google’s AI research lab DeepMind and chatbot maker Anthropic, wants governments to sign an internationally binding agreement on AI. They point out that the world has previously agreed on treaties banning nuclear testing and biological weapons and protecting the high seas.“The idea is very simple,” said one of the backers, Stuart Russell, a computer science professor and director of University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Human Compatible AI. “As we do with medicines and nuclear power stations, we can require developers to prove safety as a condition of market access.”Russell suggested that U.N. governance could resemble the workings of another U.N.-affiliated body, the International Civil Aviation Organization, which coordinates with safety regulators across different countries and makes sure they’re all working off the same page.And rather than laying out a set of rules that are set in stone, diplomats could draw up a “framework convention” that’s flexible enough to be updated to reflect AI’s latest advances, he said.
Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will start phasing out paper tax refund checks on Tuesday, September 30.
This change stems from an executive order issued on March 25, directing the secretary of the Treasury to cease issuing paper checks for all Federal disbursements inclusive of intragovernmental payments, benefits payments, vendor payments, and tax refunds.
The order made exemptions for cases such as people who dont have access to electronic payment systems.
Why is this change being made?
In an update on Tuesday, IRS laid out three core benefits of the change: protecting taxpayers, speeding up refunds, and cutting costs.
To start, the government body claims that paper checks have a 16-times higher likelihood of being stolen, altered, lost, or delayed compared to an electronic option.
As for speed, the IRS claims that people who file electronically and choose direct deposit should receive their refunds in under three weeks. In contrast, it can take over six weeks to receive a refund in the mail.
As for the last point, the revenue service simply states that not using paper checks saves them money.
What do I need to do?
Chances are, this switch won’t affect you. The IRS reports having issued 93.5 million tax refunds to individuals during the 2025 season, but that only 7% of people received their refund in the mail.
However, if you do get paper check refunds, you will eventually need to provide the IRS with banking details. In its update on Tuesday, the IRS urged taxpayers to “act now” and make sure they know their banking details. It further said that taxpayers without bank accounts should consider opening one.
If you don’t have a bank account, you will still have the option to use prepaid debit cards or digital wallets to receive your refund.
Still, critics claim that the executive order has been rushed and could harm taxpayers.
The IRS and Treasury need to better understand why these 5 million taxpayers opt for paper checks before attempting to move them to alternative payment systems, Kathleen Bryant, a policy adviser at the Tax Law Center at NYU, wrote. Many of these taxpayers likely do not have bank accounts or face other barriers to sending or receiving payments electronically.
September 30 will also bring an end to paper checks for Social Security beneficiaries, a move that has further caused many unhappy responses, along with calls for providing the elderly with greater help in setting up and managing electronic bank accounts.
The exact details on how and when to update your information are coming.
The IRS will publish detailed guidance for 2025 tax returns before the 2026 filing season begins. Until further notice, taxpayers should continue using existing forms and procedures, including those filing their 2024 returns on extension of a due date prior to December 31, 2025.
If youve ever tried to end your Amazon Prime subscription, you may have found yourself embroiled in a disorienting multistep process that felt more like a choose-your-own-adventure than a simple cancellation.
The Federal Trade Commission is now taking Amazon to court over that cumbersome user journey, alleging that it was by design. The FTC claims that Amazon spent years knowingly trapping its customers in an endless Prime subscriptionmaking cancellation so confusing that, per the agency, Amazon named the process the Iliad Flow after Homers 16,000-line epic poem.
The FTCs lawsuit, which was first filed in 2023, alleges that Amazon tricked more than 40 million customers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions. It lays out in painstaking detail how Amazon knowingly used dark patterns, user interface tactics designed to dupe or confuse users, including its Iliad Flow, to coerce enrollment in Prime without their consent and to make it especially difficult to cancel Prime subscriptions.
As the trial kicks off, we take a deep dive into the Iliad Flow scheme at the center of the lawsuit, and how Amazon has capitalized off of similar dark patterns in the past.
The Amazon case as potential precedent
Dark patterns have become typical industry practice as major retailers and Big Tech companies use them to boost their bottom lines, according to David Carroll, a professor at the Parsons School of Design in New York who studies dark patterns and user data protection. But Carroll suggests the Amazon trial could set a new precedent. The FTCs challenge is one of the broadest attempts to fight back against dark patterns that hes ever seen, and it could have major ripple effects for how other companies design their user interface.
Amazon is a unique sort of monopoly, so it has the ability to get away with the most egregious forms of dark patterns, which then sets the standard for the rest of the industry. Because if Amazon does it, why can’t we? Carroll says.
[Screenshot: FTC.gov]
The FTCs updated court filing details exactly how some of those dark patterns functioned for Amazon between 2016 and 2023. For non-Prime customers, it explains, the company has a history of offering multiple Prime upsells before the final transaction. One page included a blue link near the bottom left of the screen, which in 2018 read No thanks, I do not want fast, free shipping, and in February 2020 read No thanks, I do not want fast, FREE delivery. This language is an example of what Carroll calls confirmshaming, or guilt-tripping designed to tug on users emotions.
[Screenshot: FTC.gov]
Amazons dark pattern pice de résistance was the Iliad Flow, the Prime-cancellation process that the FTC says Amazon changed in 2023 after the agency applied “substantial pressure to the company. Per a Business Insider report in June 2023, multiple leaked internal documents showed that the cancellation process was dubbed Iliad by Amazon, and revealed that at some point in 2017 the Iliad Flow led to a 14% drop in Prime cancellations as fewer members navigated to the final cancellation page. Much like its namesake poem, the Iliad Flow involved a winding, complicated journey filled with frustrating stops and befuddling detours.
The convoluted journey indicates clearly how the flow represents a business-first rather than a user-first approach. Prime subscribers are some of Amazons most valuable assets. Its estimated that Prime subscribers, who tend to buy more on the site than the average user, number somewhere close to 200 million. In 2024, those subscriptions netted Amazon $4 million.
That means Amazon has a lot of incentive to keep Prime subscribers aroundand, Carroll explains, its intricate network of dark patterns is an example of using extensive A/B testing to engineer a system designed to keep customers trapped in its web.
Business-first dark patterns
To cancel via the Iliad Flow (which the FTC referenced in its official report Primes Four-Page, Six-Click, Fifteen-Option Iliad Flow) a consumer had to first locate it, which Amazon made difficult.” Things only got more confusing from there.
A users first trial was to make it through the initial cancellation page. Here, they were directed to look back at their previous Prime purchases and encouraged to click hyperlinks to services like Prime Video through calls to action like “Start shopping todays deals!” At the bottom of the page, they would be presented with three otions: Remind Me Later, Keep My Benefits, and Continue to Cancel. Every option except Continue to Cancel would boot users out of their intended flow and take them back to square one.
[Screenshot: FTC.gov]
Those who chose Continue to Cancel were funneled on to page two, where they were presented with discounted pricing options and exclusive offers before once again seeing the same three-button prompt. And, like on the first page, Continue to Cancel was the only option that executed the user’s original intention.
On the third page of the Iliad Flow, Amazon showed consumers five different options, only the last of which, “End Now,” actually canceled the users Prime membership. Any of the other four buttons immediately ejected them from their intended process.
When you go through this, you see how, not only is the Amazon ‘Iliad Flow’ designed to achieve its effect of preventing the unsubscription and to uphold the original nonconsensual enrollment, but the company internally knows that what it’s doing is, as the FTC says, injuring customers, Carroll says. Yet, he adds, theres so much incentive for them to continue the practice.
[Screenshot: FTC.gov]
How the FTC challenge to Iliad Flow could change e-comm
Dark patterns like the Iliad Flow help Amazon bring new Prime customers in and keep them around as long as possible. In many ways, Amazons success has served as the blueprint for other online retailers to design their own dark-pattern webs. The FTCs current challenge could show the broader retail climate that dark patterns are no longer going unnoticed.
The FTCs model as a regulatory system is to make examples of companies to dissuade other companies. The whole idea is, punish one so that the others also start behaving better, Carrol says. Because Amazon is such a massive target, I think we can’t underestimate the potential downstream effects.
If the FTC wins this current case, Carroll says, it may send a message to smaller companies that theres legitimacy to the consumer protection argument around dark patterns. It could even show that what Carroll describes as internal discussions being diabolical about designing dark patterns are, quite simply, bad for business.
After a contentious week for free speech and Hollywood, Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to the air last nightwell, at least in many regions across the United States.
ABC affiliate stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group refused to air the show, and President Trump has railed against the late-night comedians return.
But this hasnt stopped ABCs owner Disneywhich received much criticism for pulling Jimmy Kimmel from the air last weekfrom posting Kimmels returning opening monologue for all to see. Heres what you need to know and how you can watch Kimmels opening monologue in full.
Dozens of ABC stations chose not to air Kimmel
Despite Jimmy Kimmel returning to the public airwaves last night, Americans who live in regions whose local ABC affiliates are owned by Nexstar Media Group or Sinclair didnt get the chance to watch the shows return live TV broadcast.
Thats because Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group, which combined own around 70 ABC stations, refused to air the show.
In a statement, Sinclair announced ahead of time that it wouldnt be airing the return last night, while noting that Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the shows potential return.
Nexstar issued its own statement ahead of Kimmel’s return, stating that it stands by its decision to preempt the show pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.
The decision by Sinclair and Nexstar not to run Kimmel’s return meant that millions of Americans never had the chance to watch the late-night show hosts return to the small screen live.
Yet while this may have disheartened many Americans who live in those ABC affiliate areas, at least one American was likely happy with Sinclair and Nexstars decision: the president.
Trump threatens ABC as Kimmel returns
Last night, President Trump, as could be expected, let his thoughts be known about Disney and ABC choosing to let Kimmel back on the air.
I cant believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back, the president posted on his Truth Social social media network. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there.
Trump continued: Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, whos not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.
But the president didnt stop there. He went on to claim that Kimmel is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.
I think were going to test ABC out on this, the president continued. Lets see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.
How to watch Jimmy Kimmels return opening monologue
The presidents displeasure hasnt stopped ABC or Disney from sharing Kimmels return far and wide.
The companies have now posted the opening monologue from last nights show on the official Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube channel, allowing anyone who could not watch the show last night to watch the hosts commentary.
In the clip, Kimmel addresses issues ranging from the death of Charlie Kirk to free speech in America.
As of early Wednesday, the clip had almost 7 million views and more than 51,000 comments, including from many YouTube users who said the show had been blocked by their local TV station. Many others claimed to be watching the clip from overseas.
You can watch Kimmels opening monologue here. The clip is also embedded directly below.
Aldi is finally putting its name on its products. The grocer, which runs nearly 3,200 stores in the U.S., tells Fast Company that it’s launching its first-ever namesake brand and putting its name on the front of its private-label product packaging for the first time.
It’s no small task: More than 90% of Aldi’s products are private label.
Generic brands have found new life as customers have traded down from national brands to cheaper private labels to beat inflation. In 2024, retailers sold a record $270 billion worth of private-label products in the U.S., according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association. For Aldi, though, private-label brands don’t just represent a growing slice of the pie, they’re the whole pie.
[Image: courtesy Aldi]
“Private label is the core of what we do,” says Scott Patton, Aldis chief commercial officer. “I’m not going to say we invented it; I would say we’ve perfected it.”
While the grocer has seen a 7.1% year-over-year increase in store traffic this year, it also has a problem: Too many customers who bought Aldi private brands didn’t know those brands were exclusive to the chain.
“The overall sentiment was, on average, customers didn’t know that was an Aldi brand,” says Kristy Reitz, the grocer’s director of brand and design. “Now if they shop us a little less frequently, they think they can find that brand elsewhere, and in fact it’s a private-label brand to Aldi.”
[Image: courtesy Aldi]
Aldi turned to multiple creative partners to handle the job, including Favorite Child, Pearlfisher, Contrast, Equator, and Sun Strategy. The goal was to make the packaging recognizable, but it also needed to be flexible.
“If every package shows up in this very tight design system and in the exact same way, it would look kind of boring,” Reitz says. “It would be harder to shop.”
[Image: courtesy Aldi]
The company’s new portfolio of private-label packaging includes “an ALDI original” endorsement that will appear on the front for brands like Simply Nature and Specially Selected, while some brands will be replaced with the Aldi name, the company says.
Aldi’s competitors have already responded to the rise of private labeling by upgrading their generic packaging, like Target’s Up&Up and CVS’s Well Market. Walmart launched Bettergoods, an altogether new private-label brand, to expand its retail reach.
[Image: courtesy Aldi]
Aldi says its packaging overhaul wasn’t done as a response to that trend, or in response to litigation, like the suit filed by Mondelez International in May, which accused the grocery chain of ripping off its packaging for legacy brands like Oreo and Chips Ahoy.
“This has actually been a project we’ve been working on for a couple of years,” Reitz says.
But it does represent a concerning development for the company’s competitors. By finally putting its name on its own product packaging, Aldi is making the most of its advantage as a private-label grocer at a moment when customers are more interested than ever in shopping generic.
As more candidates seek out neurodivergent employers, theyre struggling to find truly inclusive, accessible work environments.
Google searches for neurodivergent jobs those that accommodate workers with conditions like ADHD, autism, dyslexia or Tourettes increased 13% in July, as those candidates often struggle with traditional hiring processes and in traditional work environments.
And yet: It is estimated that one in five Americans has learning and/or attention issues; a 2023 survey found that 53%of Gen Z identified as neurodivergent. According to a survey of 900 neurodivergent American employees by career platform Zety, 93% say traditional hiring practices work against them. Plus, nearly half admit to masking their symptoms in the workplace. Fifty-one percent have been subjected to insensitive comments.
With 93% experiencing burnout due to unmet needs, and 88% saying they feel they must work harder than their neurotypical peers to be seen as equally competent, the data suggests theres still work to be done, says Zety career expert Toni Frana. It demonstrates the importance of having a conversation. What else can we do? How can we take stronger steps in the direction of accommodating neurodivergent employees?
For example, comfort with eye contact might be a little bit different for somebody who is neurodivergent, she says. That doesnt mean they cant complete the responsibilities and do the job really well. It just means theres a difference in how they respond to people, and its important that [hiring managers and employers] understand that.
This discussion has become prevalent in the workforce in recent years, and inclusive job postings have increased as awareness has grown, but theres still a long way to go. According to a recent survey of 1,000 US-based hiring managers by resume writing and career advisor platform Resume Genius, just 39% say their company currently offers formal mental health and neurodivergent training.
Mental health benefits benefit all employees, because if your team members are getting the help they need, then the machine can work more smoothly, and it creates a culture of dignity and support, says Resume Genius career expert Nathan Soto.
It’s getting better, but it’s not sufficient.
The disclosure conundrum
According to the Zety survey, 66% of respondents disclose their neurodivergence during the hiring process, and 61% share it with their managers and coworkers once on the job. But the decision to disclose is rarely straightforward. The Resume Genius survey revealed that 86% of hiring managers self-report that such disclosures either would not affect, or would even positively affect the candidates chances. In fact, just 8% said it would raise performance concerns.
However, only about 22% say its common for candidates to bring up mental health benefits in job interviews, like access to counselling, mental health days, and flexible work arrangements. Candidate comfort also seems tied to the hiring managers age.
We found 37% of Gen Z hiring managers said it is common for people to ask about this, but 47% of baby boomers, and almost the same proportion of Gen X hiring managers, said that they’ve never had any candidates ask about mental health benefits in job interviews, Soto says. Its absolutely a possibility that candidates are self-censoring, based on the perceived age of the hiring manager.
Soto adds that while most organizations will advertise an inclusive workplace, it can be difficult for candidates to establish which are taking the right steps, and which are just checking the box.
If you ask anybody in a management position or C-suite, Do you offer mental health training or neurodivergent mental health benefits for your employees? The correct answer is obviously yes, he says. But, what that looks like in practice could vary widely, or it could just be non-existent.
Creating a more welcoming workplace
With few universal standards and measurements available, employers need to determine for themselves what qualifies as sufficient accommodations. And candidates are often left to evaluate employers inclusivity policies independently. That can mean scanning job listings for specific references to neurodivergence, checking LinkedIn for relevant posts by company managers and executives, and talking with existing employees about the work environment.
One of the key problems is that managers will ask employees how theyre doing, and when they receive a very honest response from someone that is neurodivergent or struggling with mental health problems, they don’t know how to deal with it, says Emily Banks, the founder and CEO of neurodivergent employment resource Enna Global. So even knowing how to have that equitable, honest and inclusive conversations with employees can be a challenge.
At minimum, Banks says American employers should educate managers about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which outlines their legal responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations. It also bars them from discriminating against employees diagnosed with mental disabilities. Banks adds that without special accommodations, neurodivergent candidates and employees face challenges across their professional lives: from high-pressure recruitment and interview practices to loud and distracting open office setups.
Its absolutely vital for employers to measure the data at every point of the recruitment and employee life cycle, she says. You should know whether neurodivergent people are making it to interview, if they’re making it to offer, if they are leaving within six months or a year, to determine whether youve got attraction or retention issues with the neurodivergent community.
Banks adds that taking the necessary steps to better accommodate neurodiverse candidates offers measurable benefits to organizations, making teams more innovative, creative, and profitable.
Having a neurodiverse workforce is better for everybody, she says. Fifteen to 20% of the entire population is neurodivergent. Many are just not diagnosed yet, so you already have a lot of neurodivergent people working with you you just might not know it yet.
Some good news on the employment front: Job seekers are getting hired in a shorter period of time while sending fewer applications compared to earlier this year, according to the latest findings from ZipRecruiter, which looked at 1,500 new hires.
The job search company’s latest quarterly survey of U.S. workers who started their job within the last six months suggests Americans are getting more comfortable with the uncertainty in today’s job market. Also, they are more likely to remain at their current positions (tending toward so-called job hugging), leading new employees to take a “more cautious and strategic approach to their career moves.”
“Todays new hires are coming in ready to stay put,” ZipRecruiter labor economist Nicole Bachaud said.
The data on new hires is especially relevant because they are often the first people in the job market to experience changes in recruiting and employment offers.
As job and wage growth have slowed, new hires face more competition and fewer opportunities to transition to “bigger and better” roles than their peers did over the past few years.
As a result, new hires are taking their time to find jobs that meet their long-term needsfrom flexibility to culture to better benefitsbefore hunkering down in new positions.
Another interesting finding: 54.4% of new hires stopped their job search after they landed a new roleup from 48.1% last quarter. (ZipRecruiter surveys new hires during the second month of every quarter and compares results accordingly.)
At the same time, new hires aren’t changing jobs as fast as they used to: 51.6% moved only once in the past two years, up from 42.7%; while 45.9% plan to remain in their current role for at least three years, up from 44.1%.
Workers, especially women, are redefining career expectations
“Workers are redefining their career expectations to adapt to todays economic realities,” Sam DeMase, a ZipRecruiter career expert, explained. “They are prioritizing flexibility and fit, and holding out for the right role.”
For women, this can mean prioritizing culture and job security over pay.
While the gender wage gap has narrowed slightly in recent years, it still remains very real. One contributing reason is that women are more willing than men to accept lower pay in a new role. The survey found nearly 30% accepted a lower salary compared with 18.6% of mena significantly wider gap than the previous quarter.
A further look at the data showed that for many women who accepted lower pay, the trade-off was intentional, as their goal was a job with a healthier culture, less stress, and real flexibility. The survey found 24% of women were more likely to accept offers for better company culture (compared to 13.6% of men); 20.4% of women for reduced stress (compared to 13% of men), and 34.6% of women for a flexible schedule (compared to 27.7% of men).
The conclusion: For many women, their day-to-day experience at work and the ability to control their time can matter as much as their paycheck.
Not surprisingly, the data found men value compensation and opportunity more than women, with 56.2% of men citing pay (compared to 50.6% of women) as the reason for accepting a role, and 21.5% of men citing career advancement (compared to 16.5% of women).
More job opportunities for healthcare workers
Healthcare industry workers in personal care, nonprofits, and domestic services continue to have more options than workers in some other fields.
“Healthcare jobs remain the hottest sector despite industry-wide hiring slowdowns, with public health roles leading growth as authorities navigate rapid policy changes,” Bachaud told Fast Company.
Looking ahead to the busy holiday season, Bachaud forecasts accelerated hiring in the transportation sector and for retail, as businesses prepare for peak demand.
“With falling interest rates to boost business activity and consumer spending, she added, all eyes are on whether tariff-driven price increases will derail the anticipated economic recovery.
As many dating apps have been losing users and reshaping their strategies, Hinge has emerged as a brand to beat.
In the second quarter of this year, Bumble’s paying user base was down 8.7% year over year and revenue dropped 7.6%. Tinder, which is owned by Hinge parent company Match Group, has lost 1.2 million paid users since the beginning of 2024 and saw revenues drop 4.6% in Q2 2025. Meanwhile Hinge notched a 25% year-over-year increase in revenue and 18% growth in paying users for the quarter.
The secret, according to cofounder and CEO Justin McLeod, speaking at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, are two principles that have guided the company since its early daysand one that is emerging alongside broader use of AI. They are:
Prioritize the free experience
Long before Cory Doctorow coined the term enshittification in 2022 to describe the process by which once-useful online platforms slowly get less user-friendly as they attempt to improve their bottom line, daters on apps had experienced it firsthand. Many apps have added monetization strategies that seem at odds with the goal of connecting singles: They push users to paid versions by degrading the free experience.
McLeod said Hinge is different because it actually wants to live up to its “designed to be deleted” tagline.
It is absolutely in our best interest to keep the free product experience very good, because if its not, users will start leaving, McLeod said. And the primary value for a dating app is the other people who are on the product. No one will continue to pay if there arent lots of people on the app who are happy and satisfied using it.”
Hinge is also selling premium tools, including the ability to filter potential dates based on things like height and political preferences, plus features like Roses (which users can send to express extra interest) and Boosts (which allow someone’s profile to be seen by more people for a limited amount of time). The trick, McLeod said, is being strategic by charging for features that aren’t necessary but that nevertheless improve the experience for people who are willing to pay for them.
What we charge for is basically things that we cant give away for free, things that are valuable because theyre scarce, he said. If you had unlimited Roses, then they wouldnt mean anything. If everyone is showing up more [via profile Boosts], nobody is showing up.
Build for underserved users
One of the newer features McLeod outlined is Match Note, which was built with LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent users in mind. Launched in February, it allows users to disclose certain information with matches before chattingdetails that some might not want to put in a public profile, such as their gender identity or communication style. Its a way for them to avoid hard, awkward conversation with every single person after you match, McLeod said, noting that Hinge worked with organizations TransTech Social and Disability:IN.
It was designed for [these groups] but weve actually found that single parents use it, people with STIs use it, McLeod said. All kinds of different people will use this feature, which just increases the general usability and accessibility of the app for everybody.
Make AI features useful
Though McLeod noted that machine learning has underpinned Hinges algorithm since it launched, he said the company has more recently been using generative AI strategically to improve users’ profiles and how they communicate with others.
The new Prompt Feedback feature encourages users to answer profile prompts more fully, preventing short answers that might be unhelpful to potential matches. It doesnt necessarily cut generationally, McLeod explained. But certainly some people, especially in the realm of social media, have atrophied social skills and need a bit more help showing up and connecting with other people.
He said Hinge also uses generative AI to help users choose the best photos, and it employs AI for a feature called Are you sure? that double-checks with a user before sending a message that might not be well-received. There are a lot of what we call accidental bad actors, who aren’t quite contextually aware of what’s an inappropriate thing to send at this stage in the conversation, he said. We can help nudge them in the right direction.
McLeod said that down the road he sees AI leading to much more personalized matches: Three to five years from nowsooner, honestlyit will feel relatively arcane that you had to go through hundreds of profiles in order to get out on a date.
Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, declared, “Clear communication is necessary to management success.” The paradigmatic virtues of clarity and completeness have long guided how we define successful business communication. This traditional insistence on precision and transparency is pervasive, guiding our endeavors to craft effective messages.
However, as we peel back the layers of this deeply entrenched notion, it becomes apparent that both our personal and professional endeavors often benefit from a more nuanced approach. Ambiguity, often stigmatized as a hallmark of miscommunication and inefficiency, can actually serve as a strategic tool. Below, we unpack the value of strategic ambiguity and explore when and how it can be deployed effectively.
The Value of Clarity and Completeness
At the heart of business communication lie the principles of clarity and completenessa commitment to the accurate and clear transmission of all relevant information. These are encapsulated in and taught through common tools like the MECE (mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive) principle or the Minto pyramid method, which breaks a central message into a clear and complete hierarchy of reasons and assumptions. The aim of such tools is to provide clarity through logically structuring all relevant ideas and information.
In many instances this approach to communication is indeed desirable. Imagine a corporate memo detailing a change in organizational structure. An ambiguous or incomplete message could lead to confusion, unchecked speculation, suspicion or misaligned efforts and would certainly reduce operational effectiveness. Or, envision a one-on-one circumstance such as performance review where important future changes are needed. If the requested change is unclear or the goal amorphous, desired actions and ultimately retention might be in jeopardy. In these cases, clarity and completeness of what needs changing and why would be essential to effective implementation.
The Utility of Ambiguity
Striving for clarity and completeness is not always appropriate, however. For example, it might inadvertently signal finality and inflexibility when the situation calls for exploration. Or it might lead to bluntness and offense in dealing with sensitive subjects. Purposeful ambiguity can serve as a useful tool in many sticky communication situations.
What, then, is the difference between productive and unproductive ambiguity? When and how should deliberate ambiguity be deployed to obtain the best communication outcomes?
Probing and Exploring
Ambiguity can be used to encourage engagement, dialogue, and collaboration. In situations like negotiating or initiating partnerships, avoiding stating proposals too clearly may signal finality and inflexibility when it can be more productive to ask questions, tell stories, or suggest multiple possibilities.
For example, if you are trying to determine your bosss risk tolerance for an innovative idea you have, you might tell a story about another organization implementing a similar idea to gauge her reaction rather than directly asserting your desired course of action.
Unlocking Opportunities
Ambiguity can act as a catalyst for collaborative uncovering of opportunities and innovation. It provides a fertile ground for multiple interpretations and thus inviting exploration and encouraging creative suggestions.
Consider a brainstorming session where a leader initiates ideation by simply posing open-ended questions without defining a clear goal. The ambiguity invites more ingenuity as a productive path to eventual focus and clarity.
Face-Saving and Flexibility
In scenarios where building and preserving relationships and saving face are crucial, ambiguity can help. Nothing is more corrosive to collaboration and innovation than inducing fear or defensiveness by striking sensitive topics with the precision of a missile, especially when the topic is incidental to the purpose of the communication. Nuanced communication can nurture potential hurt feelings and maintain psychological safety.
For example, when giving a superior constructive feedback, the reception and effect may be multiplied if it is combined with positive feedback, if details are sufficient to communicate the point but dont go so far as precipitating a defensive reaction, or if only selective aspects are put forth. An appropriate level of ambiguity maximizes the possibility of the message being embraced, demonstrates goodwill, preserves the working relationship, and increases the probability that best efforts will be applied.
Implying Commitment without Taking a Stance
Any number of situations exist where we are asked to take a position that might put us at a disadvantage. In such situations, deploying ambiguity can fulfill the requirement to respond and can validate the other parties intent while leaving possibilities open.
Making statements like This is an important issue does not clearly delineate a stance, but can signal receipt of the message or respect for the question. Similarly, telling a prospect interested in a currently unplanned product feature would be very useful implies that the feature will be considered without committing to it.
When ambiguity can help
Here are some examples of specific situations where using ambiguity strategically could be helpful.
1 Negotiations: Ambiguity can prevent deadlock or the premature convergence on a suboptimal outcome, allowing negotiators to explore a broader range of acceptable outcomes. This facilitates a more flexible and adaptable approach to reaching a more mutually beneficial agreement.
2 Marketing: In marketing luxury goods, strategic ambiguity can create an aspirational allure, emphasizing associations and aesthetics over concrete details. A Dior perfume advertisement might, for example, focus on the elegance and prestige conveyed by the product, rather than its chemical composition or price.
3 Intervening in Complex Systems: For processes that are too intricate to detail completely, ambiguity can help focus attention on essential aspects while granting flexibility in execution. For example, in a luxury hotels customer service protocol, specifying core principles of hospitality may be more effective than detailing every conceivable scenario, creating an unwieldy standard operating procedure, which is impossible to operationalize.
4 Inspiring others: To inspire and motivate, sometimes the exact steps are less important than the overall vision and values. A recruit might be more drawn to a companys aspirational, more vague goals rather than specific tactical details. Directionality over specificity allows recipients to more easily hear what they want to find in the message.
The toolkit
The tools of strategic ambiguity are as varied as the purposes for which they can be deployed. Leveraging the advantages of ambiguity involves mastering som of the following specific techniques.
1 Metaphors, Similes, & Analogies: Convey ideas abstractly by comparison with other situations.Example: Our current financial situation is akin to a battle.
2 Selective Detailing: Choose details that imply your point of view without declaring it in detail.Example: Say, “The room is warm,” rather than requesting the window be open.
3 Reframing: Use higher-level abstractions to focus on broader connections.Example: A specific question about why something is so expensive is reframed as a question about value.
4 Word Choice & Phrasing: Employ strategic word choices to imply, suggest, or cushion.Example: This course of action is certified.
5 Open-Ended Questions: Foster directed dialogue and exploration.Example: What are the criteria for success?
6 Scenarios: Scenario planning can illustrate potential outcomes hypothetically, without commitment.Example: Referencing cases that align with your goal.
Deciding when and how to be ambiguous
As with all high-stakes, strategic communication, we must consider the goal and context to help craft effective messages. In defining our messages, we must think about what we want our audience to know, feel, and do. Further, we need to consider how they will feel about our discussion topic and its associations. In situations where these might invite concern, confusion, or consternation, making our message more ambiguous might invite better acceptance and engagement.
Additionally, all communication occurs in a social context that defines what is accepted and expected. We must consider these norms along with the spoken and unspoken rules around clarity. For example, in the midst of a surgery or when flying an airplane, there is an expectation of clear, concise communication between professionals that outweighs some of the negative repercussions of communicating in such a direct manner.
Ethics must be considered
While ambiguity can be advantageous, it bears ethical implications. Purposeful ambiguity should not be wielded to mislead or deceive but rather to foster mutually beneficial outcomes. Each communication situation needs to net out the benefit versus potential optics of being ambiguous. While potentially more demanding, this vetting will allow for better socio-emotional and task outcomes.
In our pursuit of effective communication, strategic ambiguity offers a valuable dimension to business communication. It can foster flexibility, nurture creativity, and manage relational dynamics, sometimes achieving what unerring clarity and comprehensiveness cannot. By embracing ambiguity judiciously, business leaders and communicators create better paths to eventual clarity and beneficial outcomes
When you think of podcasting, you probably picture chart-topping celebrities and shows from major publishersnames like The Joe Rogan Experience, Armchair Expert, Call Her Daddy, MeidasTouch, and others. But heres the reality: Its the smaller, independent creators who dominate the podcast world.
The vast majority of the approximately 435,000 actively publishing podcasts are independentscreators operating outside the umbrella of major media companiesand they play a huge role in the industrys ability to maintain its freshness and authenticity.
Theyre also important to strengthening the financial foundation of the entire podcasting market. Thats because, for the advertisers that drive podcastings growth, indies are not just plentifultheyre powerful. Their hosts excel in fostering loyal, highly engaged communities built on trust and direct connection. In an era when consumers crave authenticity and can be wary of larger media companies, indie podcasters offer a unique bridge between brands and audiences. Because of this, they’ve become essential partners in any serious audio strategy.
The mediums recent shift to video threatens to undermine all of that. Not only are the additional demands of video production potentially a larger burden to independents, but if podcast advertisers shift their budgets to video, they risk defunding indie podcasts that arent moving in that direction. Without funding from ads, many indie podcasts will suffer, hurting the entire market in the process.
Why indies matter
Its important to remember that independence is central to the culture of podcasting. The idea has always been that podcasting had a low barrier to entry, meaning that anyone with a point of view could start one. This not only resulted in a huge range of podcasts covering a variety of niche subjectsallowing listeners to curate according to their own interestsbut also a built-in authenticity, creating a deep connection between creators and listeners.
This intimate relationship, still enjoyed by independent podcasts, has always delivered value for advertisers. Our research shows that not only do indie podcasts feature more and longer host-read adspodcastings most effective advertising formatbut theyre 37% more likely to hit their performance targets when compared with those on larger network podcasts. And indies tend to offer more creative options, and their ads are about 50% more likely to continue to deliver advertisers impressions for months, or even indefinitely, after the initial insertion.
By comparison, podcasts from major media companies face bureaucracy that can slow down creative decision-making and lead to safer, less innovative content. They also operate under brand safety mandates and scale requirements that can restrict experimentation. Infrastructural and perception barriers limit the agility and authenticity that independent podcasters exercise freely, rapidly adapting content, collaborating personally with advertisers, and taking creative risks that resonate deeply with engaged niche audiences.
The right balance
Yes, independent podcasters may have smaller, niche audiences, limiting the broad reach needed for large-scale awareness campaigns. And they may lack business infrastructure and legal expertise, complicating outreach, contracts, media and analytics operations, or compliance. Thats why its important for podcasting media plans to include a mix of major and independent titles in order to earn the benefits (and offset the weaknesses) of both.
Instead, many advertisers are forfeiting potential earnings by allowing indies to get left behind; podcast advertising revenue continues to concentrate among top-ranked shows, with the top 500 receiving nearly half of all ad spend. And as podcasting shifts to video, that imbalance may get worse.
Brands know that major podcast networks bring scale, consistency, and reach. Its often an easily executed media buy. But a good media plan requires balance, especially if the goal is to preserve the independent spirit that has made podcasting such a powerful medium. Both in ROI and cultural impact, indie podcasts are worth protecting, and brands must invest accordingly.
