While AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini can be helpful, they’re also potential privacy minefields.
Most AI assistants save a complete record of your conversations, making them easily visible to anyone with access to your devices. Those conversations are also stored online, often indefinitely, so they could be exposed due to bugs or security breaches. In some cases, AI providers can even send your chats along to human reviewers.
All of this should give you pause, especially if you plan to share your innermost thoughts with AI tools or use them to process personal information. To better protect your privacy, consider making some tweaks to your settings, using private conversation modes, or even turning to AI assistants that protect your privacy by default.
[Screengrab: ChatGPT]
To help make sense of the options, I looked through all the privacy settings and policies of every major AI assistant. Here’s what you need to know about what they do with your data, and what you can do about it:
ChatGPT
By default: ChatGPT uses your data to train AI, and warns that its training data may incidentally include personal information.”Can humans review your chats? OpenAI’s ChatGPT FAQ says it may “review conversations to improve its systems.Can you disable AI training? Yes. Go to Settings > Data controls > Improve the model for everyone.Is there a private chat mode? Yes. Click “Turn on temporary chat” in the top-right corner to keep a chat out of your history and avoid having it used to train AI.Can you share chats with others? Yes, by generating a shareable link. (OpenAI launched, then removed, a feature that let search engines index shared chats.)Are your chats used for targeted ads? OpenAI’s privacy policy says it does not sell or share personal data for contextual behavioral advertising, doesn’t process data for targeted ads, and doesn’t process sensitive personal data to infer characteristics about consumers.How long does it keep your data? Up to 30 days for temporary and deleted chats, though even some of those may be kept longer for “security and legal obligations.” All other data is stored indefinitely.
Google Gemini
By default: Gemini uses your data to train AI.Can humans review your chats? Yes. Google says not to enter “any data you wouldnt want a reviewer to see.” Once a reviewer sees your data, Google keeps it for up to three yearseven if you delete your chat history.Can you disable AI training? Yes. Go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini, click the “Turn off” drop-down menu, then select either “Turn off” or “Turn off and delete activity.”Is there a private chat mode? No, but turning Gemini Apps Activity off will hide your chat history from the sidebar. (Note, however, that re-enabling it without deleting past data will bring your history back.)Can you share chats with others? Yes, by generating a shareable link.Are your chats used for targeted ads? Google says it doesn’t use Gemini chats to show you ads, but the company’s privacy policy allows for it. Google says it will communicate any changes it makes to this policy.How long does it keep your data? Indefinitely, unless you turn on auto-deletion in Gemini Apps Activity.
Anthropic Claude
By default: Anthropic doesn’t use conversations to train AI unless you report them manually or opt in to testing new features.Can humans review your chats? No, though Anthropic reviews conversations flagged as violating its usage policies.Can you disable AI training? Not applicable.Is there a private chat mode? No. You must delete past conversations manually to hide them from your history.Can you share chats with others? Yes, by generating a shareable link.Are your chats used for targeted ads? Anthropic doesn’t use conversations for targeted ads.How long does it keep your data? Up to two years, or seven years for prompts flagged for trust and safety violations.
Microsoft Copilot
By default: Microsoft uses your data to train AI.Can humans review your chats? Yes. Microsoft’s privacy policy says it uses “both automated and manual (human) methods of processing” personal data.Can you disable AI training? Yes, though the option is buried. Click your profile image > your name > Privacy and disable “Model training on text.”Is there a private chat mode? No. You must delete chats one by one or clear your history from Microsoft’s account page.Can you share chats with others? Yes, by generating a shareable link. Note that shared links can’t be unshared without deleting the chat.Are your chats used for targeted ads? Microsoft uses your data for targeted ads and has discussed integrating ads with AI. You can disable this by clicking your profile image > your name > Privacy and disabling “Personalization and memory.” A separate link disables all personalized ads for your Microsoft account.How long does it keep your data? Data is stored for 18 months, unless you delete it manually.
xAI Grok
By default: Uses your data to train AI.Can humans review your chats? Yes. Grok’s FAQ says a “limited number of authorized personnel” may review conversations for quality or safety.Can you disable AI training? Yes. Click your profile image and go to Settings > Data Controls, then disable “Improve the Model.”Is there a private chat mode? Click the “Private” button at the top right to keep a chat out of your history and avoid having it used to train AI.Can you share chats with others? Yes, by generating a shareable link. Note that shared links can’t be unshared without deleting the chat.Are your chats used for targeted ads? Grok’s privacy policy says it does not sell or share information for targeted ad purposes.How long does it keep your data? Private Chats and even deleted conversations are stored for 30 days. All other data is stored indefinitely.
Meta AI
By default: Uses your data to train AI.Can humans review your chats? Yes. Meta’s privacy policy says it uses manual review to “understand and enable creation” of AI content.Can you disable AI training? Not directly. U.S. users can fill out this form. Users in the EU and U.K. can exercise their right to object.Is there a private chat mode? No.Can you share chats with others? Yes. Shared links automatically appear in a public feed and can show up in other Meta apps as well.Are your chats used for targeted ads? Meta’s privacy policy says it targets ads based on the information it collects, including interactions with AI.How long does it keep your data? Indefinitely.
Perplexity
By default: Uses your data to train AI.Can humans review your chats? Perplexity’s privacy policy does not mention human review.Can you disable AI training? Yes. Go to Account > Preferences and disable “AI data retention.”Is there a private chat mode? Yes. Click your profile icon, then select “Incognito” under your account name.Can you share chats with others? Yes, by generating a shareable link.Are your chats used for targeted ads? Yes. Perplexity says it may share your information with third-party advertising partners and may collect from other sources (for instance, data brokers) to improve its ad targeting.How long does it keep your data? Until you delete your account.
Duck.AI
By default: Duck.AI doesn’t use your data to train AI, thanks to deals with major providers.Can humans review your chats? No.Can you disable AI training? Not applicable.Is there a private chat mode? No. You must delete previous chats individually or all at once through the sidebar.Can you share chats with others? No.Are your chats used for targeted ads? No.How long does it keep your data? Model providers keep anonymized data for up to 30 days, unless needed for legal or safety reasons.
Proton Lumo
By default: Proton Lumo doesn’t use your data to train AI.Can humans review your chats? No.Can you disable AI training? Not applicable.Is there a private chat mode? Yes. Click the glasses icon at the top right.Can you share chats with others? No.Are your chats used for targeted ads? No.How long does it keep your data? Proton does not store logs of your chats.
Jeffrey LeFrancois, executive director of the Meatpacking District Management Association, the neighborhoods business improvement district, has a mantra about urban life. If the city’s not changing, the city’s not healthy, he says as he strolls down the 14th Street Promenade, the name for two pedestrianized blocks of the crosstown street that the BID inaugurated in June.
Taking the place of parked cars are five curbside decks, each measuring around 18 feet long, furnished with public seating; tall trees in weathered steel planters that bookend loading zones; and granite boulders that pinch the roadway into two lanes. LeFrancois crosses the street from deck to deck in order to show me the ideological shift that these interventions represent: pedestrians rule the road.
Elsewhere in the Meatpacking Districtroughly eight square blocks bounded by 14th street to the north, Gansevoort street to the south, Hudson street to the East, and Hudson River Park to the westthere is ample evidence of the power shift that has been taking place on the streets: lots of seating streets with colorful murals on the pavement, and landscaping that offers a leafy buffer between busy thoroughfares and bustling plazas where people are drinking coffee, taking phone calls, and meeting friends.
[Photo: BrakeThrough Media]
The neighborhood is unrecognizable from 30 years ago, when delivery trucks for slaughterhouses rumbled down the road, carcasses hung from loading dock awnings, and it was the center of queer nightlife.
While its high-end retail, influencer-filled restaurants, and luxury condos are the most visible elements of the Meatpacking District’s transformation into a mixed-use shopping and culture destination, its pedestrianized streets and public spaces have steadily become the most powerful. And the most ambitious.
The district bills itself as the first pedestrian-priority neighborhood in New York City and has been among the most ambitious in adopting experimental streetscape ideas. The neighborhood today proves that prioritizing walkability and deemphasizing driving is a winning formula for a balanced public realm and offers an example of what could be achieved elsewhere in the city when the right forces align.
[Photo: BrakeThrough Media]
Designing a Pedestrian Priority District
The Meatpackings European-style pedestrian turn is a response to new development in and around the area that has increased the volume of foot traffic tremendously. Not to match that on our streets is a missed opportunity, LeFrancois says.
The Whitney Museum opened in 2015 and now sees one million visitors annually, up from 300,000 to 350,000 guests per year when it was on Madison Avenue. Little Island, which opened in 2021, attracts 1.5 million visitors a year. Then 2023 saw the opening of Gansevoort Peninsula, a 5.5-acre expansion to Hudson River Park, and Pier 57, a market hall with a popular rooftop park. These destinations joined the High Line, which opened in 2009 and now receives eight million visitors a year.
Jeffrey LeFrancois, Executive Director of the Meatpacking District Management Association, welcomes attendees to the unveiling of Gansevoort Landing on Sept. 28, 2023. [Photo: BrakeThrough Media]
Not only is the Meatpacking District a destination in and of itself, its also a space people walk through on their way from the subway to these new public spaces on the west side. And the BID wants to entice these walkers to lingerand spend a few bucks while theyre at it.
It’s all about flow, porosity, and access, Le Francois says of the heart of the strategy. We see that as a major driver for why people want to be here . . . It’s not just a one-off visit that we want to have happen; we want to make sure people are thinking about their return as well.
This philosophy has driven incremental streetscape improvements that began as temporary tactical measures before becoming permanent fixtures. This included leveraging the Bloomberg-era plaza program to reclaim traffic lanes along Ninth Avenue for public space, a process that began with barricades before leading to a $28 million capital project that was completed in 2019.
In collaboration with DOT and the landscape architecture firm Ken Smith Workshop, the BID widened sidewalks, installed 40 movable planters that measured 10-by-5 feet each, furnished plazas with hundreds of chairs and dozens of tables, and integrated smooth granite slab bike paths down the center of the cobblestone street.
[Photo: BrakeThrough Media]
Then, in late spring of 2020, after becoming one of the first neighborhoods to participate in the citys Open Streets program, the District began studying how it could become a true pedestrian-priority neighborhood.
LeFrancois and his team had already been thinking about how to build off of the successful plaza program but the pandemic, and the sudden citywide interest in rethinking public space through programs like open streets and outdoor dining provided the flash point, the water in the hot pan to allow it to happen, he says.
All of this culminated in the 2022 Western Gateway Public Realm Action Plan. Developed by the design firm WXY and TYLin, the plan identified opportunities to rightsize the neighborhoods infrastructure for the wide array uses it now sees: pedestrians, buses, cyclists, delivery vehicles, taxis and ride-sharing, and personal cars.
David Vega-Barachowitz, an associate principal at WXY, says that as New York City districts like the Meatpacking transition from industrial use to a mixture of uses, infrastructure plans have privileged patterns of movement that are out of date or misaligned with policy priorities, but also ossified this very autocentric perspective on how we think about streets. While land use and movement patterns have changed, streets havent kept pace.
The Public Realm Action Plans suggestions included building a new crosswalk where Gansevoort Street meets the West Side Highway; pedestrianizing east-west streets in the neighborhood; making 10th Avenue, which remains the most industrial of the neighborhoods streets and serves as a back-of-house, more pleasant to walk down; and untangling the intersection between 14th street and 10th Avenue since its a major crossing to Hudson River Park.
[Photo: Meatpacking BID/Cherry Orchard]
Its rethinking the right of way in a more comprehensive way, says Lian Farhi, a senior associate and director of urban planning and design at TYLin.
Many of these projects have been completed or are underway. In late 2023, the new crossing across the West Side Highway at Gansevoort Street opened as did Gansevoort Landing, a pedestrianized portion of 10th avenue between the Whitney Museum and the new crossing.
We call it a landing because it’s on the edge of the West Side highway, LeFrancois says. It’s not the most appealing place to spend time and sit and have a cup of coffee, but when you leave the museum and you see this nice little respite with seating, maybe you’re going to open your map for five minutes then figure out where to go. People will utilize weird spaces if you give them the chance to do so.
And this emphasis on a good experience works. Claire Weisz, a founding partner of WXY, frequently visits outdoor events in the neighborhood and notices similar conversations happening.
I literally overhear people saying, I come here now because nothing like this in the city, she says. And very rarely do they say, because there’s no cars, right? But they’re implying it in the way they say it . . . Meatpacking is just such a great poster for why you should consider not letting cars just do whatever they want in any district. It was really brave of them.
[Photo: Meatpacking BID/BrakeThrough Media]
A Cohesive Neighborhood Vision
To redesign the neighborhood, the BID works step by step, tackling small projects one by one so that the whole will be radically transformative, LeFrancois says. And now the district is at a point where pedestrians can experience the result.
Its an approach that has involved figuring out which city policies and programs it can leverage, then working closely with the myriad stakeholders in the neighborhoodbusinesses, cultural institutions, community boards, preservation groups, city council offices, developersand aligning them on a vision.
It helps that its an attractive one. In 2022, Street Plans and TYLin developed a tactical materials catalog for streetscape improvements. The biggest question for us was how do we create pedestrian spaces that respond to the city and to the material fabric of the neighborhood? says Veronica Rivas Plaza, a senior project designer at Street Plans.
[Photo: BrakeThrough Media]
These landscape elements reference the neighborhoods architecture and historythink durable natural materials with an industrial finish like steel wood, and stoneand help beautify and unify the interventions, from temporary installations all the way to permanent fixtures.
To wit: the blackened steel, wood decks, and lounge chairs that comprise installations within the 14th Street Promenade, custom built by the Nordic outdoor furniture maker Vestre, nod to the High Lines language.
The BID looked to three DOT programs to develop the promenade. The Curb Management Action Plan, a 2023 initiative to diversify how NYC allocates space on the curb, informed the redistribution of space. Because the BID wanted to keep the seating areas public, it worked with DOT to designate portions of the curb lanes on 14th street as plazas.
[Photo: Meatpacking BID/BrakeThrough Media]
This framework will allow them to do more with the space, such as programming concessions and enabling year-round outdoor seating. This policy lever is a notable difference between BIDs roadway installation and other street furniture; Dining Out NYC and Street Seats are seasonal.
The team referenced outdoor dining guidelines to determine a few key features for the parklet design, including aligning the deck flush with the curb for accessibility, leaving room beneath it for stormwater to flow unobstructed, and specifying removable decking.
But there are a few key departures, porous perimeters so pedestrians can access them from the street sidea subtle detail that encourages mid-block crossingand seating options that vary from parklet to parklet. We follow guidelines, but we also break them a little, Rivas Plaza says.
Visitors to the 14th Street Promenade will notice that the experience within each parklet is different. Street Plans furnished an installation underneath a tree with lounge chairs thinking that tired shoppers might want to kick their feet up in the shade, while another parklet closer to the stairs leading to the High Line riffs on stools at a bar thinking that folks who are entering or exiting just need a quick landing spot while they figure out their next move.
[Photo: Meatpacking BID/BrakeThrough Media]
Other parklets have tiered benches interspersed with planters that offer privacy while another features a dining tablea great spot to bring lunch from food trucks down the block. We wanted to see different kinds of seating because within New York City we have a very strict palette, Rivas Plaza says. We have foldable tables and chairs, which are great, but how do we make spaces that allow us to do different activities?
That said, the overarching mantra of the streetscape is comfort. Shes seen people sit on the granite boulders that separate the new pedestrian zone from traffic, which signals to her that the design is successful since people feel safe and welcome to hang out.
[Photo: Meatpacking BID/BrakeThrough Media]
Compared to the rest of the city, the Meatpacking District has fewer traffic collisions, and these experience-driven elements extend an invitation to feel at ease. Its like an outdoor living space, Rivas Plaza says.
High-quality design has helped to convince more businesses in Meatpacking to want these features on their blocks. Washington Street, for example, was reluctant to receive public realm improvements. That changed after the BID temporarily relocated the planters in 9th Avenue in order to make room for the Great Elephant Migration sculpture installation.
We love being flexible, the idea to stand something up, see if it works, and if it doesnt explore how we can change it, LeFrancois says. Over the next few weeks and months, hell closely observe how visitors to the District use the parklets and make changes accordingly. Eventually, he hopes to build a beer garden under the High Line.
[Photo: Meatpacking BID/BrakeThrough Media]
Can This Work Expand Across the City?
The Meatpacking District is rare in that it has a powerful, active, and well-funded BID that is able to build coalitions necessary to avance streetscape improvementsand has been doing so for more than a decade. Through high-quality design, extensive engagement with stakeholders, and an interest in experimenting and iterating, it shows what is possible when there is the rare alignment of progressive ideas, political will, and budget.
But this work is expensive. LeFrancois says that the BIDs FY 26 operating budget is about $4.4 million ($3.6 million of which comes from a special assessment levied on property owners) and just over one third of that goes to operations and the public realm, which includes landscaping, pedestrian management, and sanitation. Plaza activation and programming revenue also helps pay for public realm improvements, which is not included in that figure.
[Photo: BrakeThrough Media]
The BID paid for the planning, design, and construction of the promenade, which came to nearly $1 milliona sum that is out of reach for most neighborhoods, even those with BIDs. According to LeFrancois, the Meatpacking is considered medium sized compared to the 77 other BIDs in New York.
Meanwhile, the geography of the neighborhood lends itself to pedestrianization work. Its off to the side relative to the rest of the city and has busier streets, like the West Side Highway and 9th Avenue, around its perimeter but none that slice through its centera physical condition that makes plazas easier to build.
Additionally, its narrow one-way streets dont align with the grid and they are often paved in cobblestone, a bumpy material that encourages slower driving and that pedestrians enjoy for its charm. When it wants to fully pedestrianize the neighborhood for special events, the BID only has to close four intersections to car traffic.
Plus, the 14th Street Busway, which limits traffic on the crosstown street between 3rd and 9th Avenues, has also encouraged more pedestrianization. Last week, the agency announced a public-private partnership with the Meatpacking and Union Square BIDs to pedestrianize more of 14th Street, bringing the philosophy of their neighborhood-focused work to a whole corridor. And recently, it expanded the groups that can partner with them beyond BIDs through its Public Space Equity Program.
[Photo: Meatpacking BID/BrakeThrough Media]
The success of pedestrianization programs in the neighborhood has helped DOT understand how collaboration with private organizations can help encourage more public realm improvements. Recently, it expanded the groups that can partner with them beyond BIDs through its Public Space Equity Program.
To Vega-Barachowitz, a crucial element of the public realm work is reorienting the conversation about rebalancing streets from one about business to one about experience.
It sets a paradigm and provides a cue to other places that this is more than just about creating space for restaurants to have overflow, he says. It’s about creating more space for pedestrians and for people to sun themselves on a wooden deck in one of the most beautiful places in New York City.
The 14th Street Promenade arrives at a thrilling moment for the city, as congestion pricing has led to a mass decline in traffic. With fewer cars on the street, what comes next? The big messaging here is you sometimes just need some pilot programs going into effect and learn from them, Farhi says.
Watching the side of a mountain get blown to bits in the new documentary Architecton, the shock is not just from the explosion but also from the quotidian end result of such brutal force.
The film by director Victor Kossakovsky shows the industrialized violence involved in creating concrete, the most widely used building material in the world, tracing it backward from building to mountain source.
[Image: courtesy A24]
Released in U.S. theaters on August 1 by A24, Architecton is a mostly dialogue-free film that documents the often-unseen production chain of concrete. It turns the process of creating concretethe quarries, rock crushers, conveyor belts, and glowing furnacesinto spectacle. But it’s a spectacle with a high cost.
Kossakovskys dazzling shots have almost no measurable scale or frame of reference. They are reminiscent of the classic 1982 documentary Koyaanisqatsi or the photography of Edward Burtynsky. Like those works, Architecton uses its stunning visuals to comment on humanity’s remaking of the planet, revealing what it takes to create the modern world we inhabit.
A short-term solution
The scenes in Architecton that show the slow transformation from mountain to rock to concrete are counterbalanced with shots of buildings made of raw stone. Roman-era marble columns and rustic stone buildings in centuries-old villages serve as Kossakovsky’s rebuttal to the modern way of building with concrete.
Typical concrete buildings can last less than a hundred years. Kossakovsky calls them ordinary and ugly. “We have a history of architecture [dating back] thousands of years. We can open a book and say that’s a beautiful building. Why don’t we put it in our city?” Instead, he says, “We build strange rectangles from cement.”
Kossakovsky says the film was inspired by the Alexander Column in the main square of his hometown, St. Petersburg, Russia. Made from a solid, monolithic piece of red granite measuring more than 83 feet and weighing 600 tons, the column was erected in the 1830s in a feat of human engineering.
The filmmaker says he asked architects around the world why we don’t build things this way anymore, and walked away disillusioned by their focus on speed, economy, and subservience to the will of developers. One architect, Italian designer Michele De Lucchi, stood out.
A member of the famous Memphis design group of the 1980s, De Lucchi is a proponent of building with stone, and he plays a kind of starring role in Architecton, which features him having a stone circle built into the ground of his backyard and visiting massive stone megaliths from ancient history.
[Image: courtesy A24]
An unsustainable cycle
Architecton presents stone building as one solution, but the main focus for Kossakovsky is the problem: heavily polluting, energy intensive, and short-lived concrete. “The two biggest poisons of our time are sugar and concrete, in my opinion,” Kossakovsky says.
To underline the problems he sees with concrete, Kossakovsky’s film shows cities around the world where concrete apartment blocks have been turned to ruins, from earthquake epicenters to war zones. The film opens with a long sequence of aerial footage in bombed-out cities across Ukraine, including one devastating pan showing the side of an apartment building ripped open, exposing floor after floor of bisected living rooms.
Concrete is not the perpetrator of this particular brand of war crime, but Kossakovsky’s film hammers the idea that buildings made from concrete simply aren’t able to withstand the ravages of time. Tearing down these buildings after a few decades only to rebuild them for another few decades, the film argues, is part of the reason the climate has gotten so out of whack.
[Image: courtesy A24]
One poignant scene shows caravans of trucks hauling the wreckage of demolished buildings into a dump site that sits immediately adjacent to a mountain being quarried for the raw materials that will be used to rebuild. The cycle is not sustainable.
But concrete is cheap to build with, and Kossakovsky says that’s what keeps the cycle in motion. “For whom is it cheap? For us it’s cheap. For our grandsons it’s expensive, because our grandsons will demolish it and build again,” Kossakovsky says.
Building from stone, he argues, may cost more up front but will last for generations, and create a deeper connection between buildings and the people who inhabit them. The impact on the Earth will be less violent than what’s required to build the world with concrete. “If you build something from stone,” Kossakovsky says, “you only demolish the mountain once.”
Since its founding in 2004, the trampoline-based indoor play space Sky Zone has turned the idea of going into a room and jumping around into a thriving business. Through franchising, the company has expanded to more than 200 locations and has more than 40 million visitors per year.
But recently, executives at the company have been hearing from parents that while the jumping, bouncing, and inevitable falling is great for energy-filled kids and adolescents, it’s all a bit of a hazard for the youngest children. “Something that kept popping up was parents of the littlest of our Sky Zone jumpers being a little uncomfortable at times in our parks,” says Caitlin Shufelt, SkyZone’s former head of strategy.
Sometimes trampoline parks like Sky Zone can be more than uncomfortable. Thousands of injuries have been reported at trampoline parks, from bumps and bruises to broken bones and brain injuries. Some personal injury law firms even specialize in trampoline park accidents. Sky Zone does have safety regulations, including minimum weight requirements, for its attractions, but accidents happen.
This got Sky Zone’s leadership thinking about how to better serve the toddlers who might not be ready to ricochet off an angled trampoline or do a backflip into the Foam Zone. That led the company to create Cloudbound, a new indoor playspace for children 6 and under. A spinoff company now led by Shufelt, Cloudbound will open its first two locations later this year.
There appears to be room for growth in the indoor playspace market. A report from Allied Market Research estimated the global market for trampoline parks at about $885 million in 2023, and growing to $1.5 billion by 2035. Family entertainment centers are expected to be a $100 billion market by 2032.
Focusing on providing open, unstructured play that’s developmentally appropriate for very young children, Cloudbound’s playspace is a whimsical jungle gym with spaces and structures that small children can crawl through, climb up, and slide down. Shufelt calls it “a playground crossed with a children’s museum.”
To come up with the design approach, Sky Zone’s team worked with museum and experience designers JRA Design, part of the entertainment-focused design group RWS Global. Together they developed a concept and theme that imagines children playing up in the sky.
[Rendering: Cloudbound]
The playscape has four zones, each with elements that will be accessible to children across the 6-and-under age range. The first area is referred to as Rising Above the Clouds, where children enter the cloud theme through a hot air balloon. There’s also a climbable treehouse, a “weather zone” featuring sensory experiences like a wind wall, and an obstacle course they call the Castle in the Sky. The space will have no trampolines.
The overall design aesthetic is clean, pastel, and modern, which Shufelt says is an intentional difference from the more activity-centric indoor playspaces on the market. It’s also a design choice that aims to appeal to an often overlooked customer base: parents.
“Between snack times, nap times, and temperamental little kids, parents are looking for an option that they can spontaneously drop into, and then also not feel miserable while they’re there, with chaos, wall-to-wall older kids jumping around, and a vomit of primary colors on the walls,” Shufelt says.
Cloudbound’s design prioritizes safety, sightlines, and crowd control, and augments the parent experience with a café and abundant seating both inside the play area and on its edges. The space includes party rooms, nursing rooms, family restrooms, a quiet room, and stroller parking.
Cloudbound’s playspace makes up about 60% of the space. Rather than segregating activities by age range, Cloudbound differentiates its offerings by four developmental stages, each of which may be reached at different ages, depending on the child. Shufelt refers to the stages as crawlers, walkers, little climbers, and confident climbers. “As long as they have the physical ability to do it, they can,” she says. “It’s safe for any age.”
This approach was developed in consultation with Jennifer Jipson, a professor of child development and psychology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who advises companies like Nick Jr., Fisher-Price, and Magna-Tiles. “We have to trust children and families to kind of find their own path in those settings. If an area feels overwhelming or unsafe, they’re going to gravitate towards a different area,” Jipson says. “It doesn’t have to be the designers who regulate that.”
Cloudbound’s design is intended to create opportunities for children to play and explore while pushing their own limits. The sky theme is a layer on top of the physical play elements, rather than a set storyline or sequence children must follow. “It’s a very hard thing to be intentionally unstructured,” Jipson says. “With younger kids, I think it’s very, very important to think about subtle behind-the-scenes guidance, so that it’s guided, playful learning in a way where the guidance isn’t suffocating.”
The first two Cloudbound playspace locations are now under construction, in New Rochelle, New York, and Washington D.C., and should open this fall or winter. Two other projects have signed leases, but the company isn’t yet revealing their locations. Like Sky Zone, the plan is to refine the model and then franchise the Cloudbound concept across the country. Pricing hasn’t yet been finalized, but will likely run on a monthly membership.
Shufelt says the hope is that Cloudbound becomes a place families with young children come to again and again, instead of just as a one-off for a birthday party. “Novelty grabs attention but familiarity drives skill progression. The more comfortable a child feels in a certain setting, the further they’ll push themselves,” she says. “We’ve designed Cloudbound to be inviting for all developmental maturities and stages.”
McDonald’s ended its drive-thru-only all-drinks-and-snacks store concept CosMc’s in May after less than two years, but the experiment wasn’t a waste of time.
McDonald’s announced that later this summer, it’s rolling out a selection of CosMc’s drinks with names like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and Sprite Lunar Splash to 500 McDonald’s locations in Colorado, Wisconsin, and other states, with a plan to eventually take them worldwide.
“This first test in the U.S. market is a big step in our global direction,” McDonald’s beverage category lead Charlie Newberger said in a statement.
[Image: McDonald’s]
CosMc’s launched as a concept restaurant in 2023 with just five locations between Illinois and Texas. The sub-brand was a play for Gen Z consumers and an attempt to get McDonald’s’ foot in the door of the speciality beverage category.
Gen Z customers are “turning to cold, flavorful drinks as a go-to treat,” McDonald’s chief customer experience and marketing officer of McDonalds USA said in a statement, and with a menu packed with sugary frappés, fruity energy drink, iced teas, and lemonades, CosMc’s was designed to lure consumers away from chains like Starbucks, Dutch Bros., and Black Rock Coffee Bar for their drink fix. Taco Bell followed last year with Live Más Café, its own speciality drink store.
[Image: McDonald’s]
CosMc’s is one of many new store concepts that quick-service restaurants have experimented with in recent years. As the industry has adapted to changing consumer habits, chains have opened mobile-only locations and spin-off brands like KFC’s Saucy.
While these concepts haven’t all taken off, like Starbuck’s no-seating pickup stores, which the company announced it will phase out by next year, they have provided chains with valuable insights they can fold into the main brand.
McDonald’s won’t be opening any new CosMc’s locations, but it doesn’t have to. After demonstrating proof of concept for its menu of speciality drinks, the company is prepared to take the bestsellers to hundreds of existing stores before scaling it even further. CosMc’s was a test case, not a failure.
The question of what people need from their leaders has many answers. However, recent Gallup research found that respondents from 52 countries were asked to list three words describing what positive leaders add to their daily life, hope emerged as the primary need, cited by 56% of respondents. Trust followed at a distant second with 33% while compassion (7%) and stability (4%) lagged far behind.
According to the research, followers are significantly more likely to say they need to see hope in those who lead organizations (64%) than among other leaders who might work within the same organization, e.g., managers (59%) and colleagues (58%). In other words, the more senior a leader is within an organization, the more followers look to them for hope and inspiration.
At first, the results were somewhat surprising to Jim Harter, Gallups chief scientist of workplace management and well-being, who thought stability might have led the list. However, once he started digging into the answers and the discussion points in the survey, hope made sense after all.
I think that it’s hard to have a sense of stability if you can’t see the future. And I think that’s why hope is so foundational, he says. During the last recession, he was doing research about how people felt about their standard of living. The people who felt that they had a leader who encouraged their development had a much more positive view of their standard of living and their future, he says. When people have a concept of where they’re headed, that’s part of hope.
Hope is active, not passive
Perhaps predictably, Lindsay Recknell says she wasnt at all surprised at this research. The self-named expert in hope and host of the Hope Motivates Action podcast, Recknell consults with businesses about the power of hope in the workplace and how to cultivate it.
Recknell says that while hope has many meanings depending on context, she focuses on the hope theory, which was developed by the late C.R. Rick Snyder, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas.
Recknell describes hope theory is a formula that defines hope as goals (what we want to achieve or have happen) plus agency thinking (our motivation or the intrinsic why for doing something), plus pathways thinking (our ability to overcome obstacles to the outcome we want). She finds defining hope in this way is particularly useful and effective during periods of uncertainty.
A leader can go to their team member and say, Stuff is really hard right now. Let’s focus on what we can control. Well, what can we control? You can control your goals, your desires, your dreams, the things that you want to work on, that you want to take action toward. All of a sudden, when somebody has something to look forward to that’s already kicking off the hope cycle, that’s already kicking off this idea of creating a future better than today, she says.
Organizational psychologist Aymee Coget, author of Happiness for Humankind Playbook: Sustainable Happiness in 5 Steps, says the absence of any of those three components can lead to hopelessness. The leader’s job is to create all three, and the person needs to have goals that they’re aware of and they buy into that are realistic for them, she says. They have to have a pathway.
Cultivating hope
Harter says that the research unveiled other leadership actions and behaviors that are linked to hope in the workplace. One item we ask about leaders that I think links really strongly to hope is whether people feel that their leader makes them feel enthusiastic about the future, he says.
Part of that is helping people understand what their role is and helping them set and understand tangible and realistic goals that will help their situations change. Another aspect is to help them connect to the purpose in their work.
To have hope, people need resources to do the workthat’s the agency partand they need a larger purpose to connect their work to. People find purpose in many different ways, but I would argue it’s a basic human need, he says.
Recknell also makes a distinction between hope and optimism, saying that, while hopeful people and optimistic people both look toward a time when things will get better, hopeful people put in the work to make that happen. Harter echoes that sentiment.
Hope isn’t just telling people things are going to be great, it’s helping them see how they can be great and how they can be in tough times, how they can be a part of defining the future instead of being victimized by the present, he says.
At the Ben & Jerrys factory in St. Albans, Vermont, thousands of gallons of ice cream waste are now being turned into biogas, creating energy for the states electric grid.
When factory workers start to produce a new flavor and switch the machinery from, say, Cherry Garcia to Chunky Monkey, they have to push all the leftover ice cream out of the pipes and rinse them with water so that the flavors dont intermingle. That creates a lot of waste that cant be sent to wastewater treatment plants.
Previously, hundreds of tanker trucks would haul that ice cream waste away from the factory. But now, that waste travels right from Ben & Jerrys through an underground pipe to a facility outfitted with anaerobic digesters.
[Photo: PurposeEnergy]
Anaerobic digesters function like an artificial gut, says Eric Fitch, CEO of PurposeEnergy, a biogas developer that partnered with Ben & Jerrys to build the new St. Albans facility. Bacteria in the digesters eat organic waste and then release a combination of methane and carbon dioxide. That biogas functions like fossil fuel-derived natural gas, and can even fit into existing natural gas pipelines.
PurposeEnergy and Ben & Jerrys have had a long relationship; PurposeEnergy also has a facility in South Burlington, Vermont, where Ben & Jerrys used to truck some of its ice cream waste. (Back in 2020, Vermont banned food waste from going to landfills, where it can create methane emissions.) The two companies began working on the St. Albans facility back in 2021, figuring out a feedstock agreement. Construction for the plant began in 2023, and its now sending electricity to the Vermont grid.
Though the two companies partnered on the facility, and a pipeline directly connects Ben & Jerrys to the anaerobic digesters, ice cream waste isnt the only feedstock being turned into biogas. The PurposeEnergy facility also gets organic waste from a few nearby breweries and other sources, and is permitted to handle 50,000 gallons of organic waste a day. Currently, Ben & Jerrys contributes some 6,000 gallons a day from its ice cream operations.
[Photo: PurposeEnergy]
With all of that organic waste, PurposeEnergy can produce about a megawatt of electricity for Vermonts grid, enough to power 1,300 homes.
Now that the ice cream waste can travel by pipe to become biogas, Ben & Jerrys can also make 600 fewer truck journeys a year, reducing the company’s carbon emissions. The biogas plant also reduces phosphorus pollution. Food waste is full of phosphorus, which can run off into the environment and cause issues like algae blooms.
The PurposeEnergy facility binds that phosphorus with iron, creating iron phosphate, which can be used as a fertilizer that won’t run off in the rain. The PurposeEnergy plant also recovers thermal energy from its operations to heat the digesters.
Biogas is considered renewable because it doesnt take any carbon out of the ground like fossil fuels do. Instead, that carbon came from the atmosphere. Some plant, through photosynthesis, absorbed that carbon, and then either that plant ended up as waste, like it might at a brewery, or it was eaten by an animal and converted into, say, milk that went to an ice cream factory and ended up as waste, Fitch says.
When that biogas is burned, the carbon goes back into the atmosphere, but it doesnt increase the amount of carbon in the atmosphere since it came from there in the first place, Fitch says; its just part of the carbon cycle.
But some environmental experts caution that biogas reinforces our dependence on fossil fuels. They also say that renewable natural gas made with organic waste, can still come with a lot of the same environmental hazards of fossil fuel gas, like methane leaks from pipelinesand delays the transition away from power production that doesn’t involve burning any gas at all.
Proponents argue that biogas can play a role in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. And because it is equivalent to natural gas, it fits into the current system. We can take renewable natural gas and we can put it in the same natural gas infrastructure that’s going to homes and businesses all over the country, all over the world, Fitch says. We don’t have to install any new kind of distribution system.
Feeling comfortable enough at work to speak your mind can undoubtedly make for a pleasant work environment. But today many employees are biting their tongues at the office, especially when it comes to their political leanings.
According to a recent My Perfect Resume survey of 1,000 U.S. employees, in today’s fraught political climate free speech is hard to come by at work. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of employees say they feel the need to exercise caution around how they communicate with their employer and their workmates. Largely, they are worried about backlash over their political views: 68% say they don’t talk about politics.
This fear stands to reason: 43% of U.S. employees say they have either witnessed or personally experienced discrimination over political viewpoints. Likewise, employees whose politics don’t align with their companies’ feel they have to smile and nod: 41% said they felt pressured to agree with a “workplace stance” on social and political views to avoid blowback. Over half (56%) say that cancel culture has destroyed open dialogue.
On the surface, it might look like were having more open conversations at workbut beneath that is a culture of fear and self-silencing, said Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at MyPerfectResume. Employees are being told they can speak up, but theyre also reading the roomand staying quiet.
While there’s always been an old school belief that religion and politics should only be brought up in good company, in recent years cooperations have become more vocal on political matters. One study found that partisan speech from companies rose sharply from from 2012, with a major shift starting in late 2017, when political tweets from corporations doubled.
Politically vocal companies may be appreciated by some consumers who want to know where to spend their dollars and what brands to boycott. However, the vast majority of people wants businesses to stay quiet on politics. According to a 2024 Axios Harris poll, less than four in 10 U.S. adults (38%) believe businesses should take public stancesa decline of 10 points since two years earlier.
Still, in the current political climate, it may be more important than ever to seek out employment at a company whose values align with your own.
Ditch the commute and embrace the pajama pants-powered productivity of remote work. Plenty of fantastic tech companies are not only offering remote positions but are also highly regarded by their employees.
Ive scoured the job boards and employee reviews to bring you eight that are actively hiring for hundreds of remote roles right now. Judging from their Glassdoor ratings, these outfits are borderline-beloved by the folks who work at them.
If you’re on the hunt for a flexible work setup at a company where people genuinely enjoy their jobs, this list is for you.
Rula (Glassdoor Rating: 4.6)
Rula is a behavioral health technology company on a mission to make high-quality mental healthcare accessible to everyone. It builds tools and services that empower therapists and streamline the process for individuals seeking support. Employees rave about Rula’s mission-driven culture and commitment to employee well-being.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (12) | Glassdoor
CoinTracker (Glassdoor Rating: 4.6)
CoinTracker is a platform for cryptocurrency tax compliance and portfolio tracking, providing users with a way to manage their crypto finances. Employees at CoinTracker appreciate the challenging and engaging work, as well as the company’s supportive and forward-thinking culture.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (16) | Glassdoor
Cresta (Glassdoor Rating: 4.5)
Cresta uses AI to help customer service teams. Their real-time intelligence platform guides agents and improves customer interactions. Cresta is known for its cutting-edge technology and a company culture that values innovation and customer success.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (12) | Glassdoor
Oscilar (Glassdoor Rating: 4.4)
Oscilar provides AI-powered credit risk management solutions for financial institutions to help lenders make faster and more informed decisions. Oscilar is praised for its innovative technology and a work environment that encourages learning and collaboration.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (14) | Glassdoor
Mercury (Glassdoor Rating: 4.2)
Mercury is a banking platform that offers FDIC-insured bank accounts, virtual cards, and more. It focuses on providing a seamless and intuitive financial experience for businesses. Mercury is known for its customer-centric approach and a company culture that values innovation and teamwork.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (42) | Glassdoor
Airbnb (Glassdoor Rating: 4.2)
Airbnb . . . well, you know what Airbnb is, right? It revolutionized the travel industry by connecting travelers with homeowners around the world. Employees at Airbnb often cite the company’s mission to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, as well as the opportunities for impact and growth.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (135) | Glassdoor
Dynatrace (Glassdoor Rating: 4.1)
Dynatrace provides an all-in-one observability platform that combines AI-powered analytics and automation. It helps organizations ensure their digital performance and deliver exceptional user experiences. Dynatrace fosters a culture of innovation and offers ample opportunities for professional growth.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (35) | Glassdoor
Headway (Glassdoor Rating: 4.0)
Headway is building a new mental healthcare system that makes it easier for people to find and afford quality therapy. They partner with therapists and insurance companies to create a more accessible and streamlined experience. Headway employees are passionate about the company’s mission and appreciate the supportive and collaborative work environment.
Links: Careers page | Open positions (56) | Glassdoor
The Trump administration has announced sweeping tariffsranging from 10% to 41%on goods from nearly 70 countries, set to take effect for most on August 7. Many technology products, including semiconductors, electronics, and AI-related hardware, are among the items affected.
Global trade is no longer dominated by a single superpower, as influence is increasingly distributed across several key regions. These tariffs are forcing countries to rewire their trade, capital, and strategic priorities,” says Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, an independent financial advisory and asset management organization. “The world is moving toward multiple centers of economic power and influence.”
So how will Trumps trade war impact the tech sector?
1. Semiconductors
Two of the trade partners targeted by Trumps tariffsTaiwan and the EUcould significantly impact semiconductor prices while the U.S. works to fully onshore AI chip production. The EU faces a 15% tariff on items including pharmaceuticals, cars, and semiconductors. Taiwan, which produces over 90% of the worlds high-tech chips, is hit with a 20% rate. These increases are expected to drive up already-high prices for GPUs and other chips.
China, notably, is absent from the most recent high-tariff list due to ongoing negotiations. However, its preexisting 30% tariff, in place since mid-May, remains. This poses a problem since China controls about 95% of the global supply of key minerals like gallium and germaniumboth vital to semiconductor manufacturing.
2. Smartphones
China is a major supplier of smartphones to the U.S., including many of Apples iPhone factories. But months of uncertainty due to the ongoing trade conflict have prompted manufacturers to shift supply chains away from China.
India has recently emerged as a leading smartphone supplier to the U.S., overtaking China just last week. It now accounts for around 44% of U.S. smartphone imports, up from just 13% a year earlier. However, that momentum faces a setback as Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on India.
Vietnam, another key playerespecially for Samsung smartphone productionis also affected, now facing a 20% tariff under the new rules.
3. Laptops and tablets
Large volumes of tech hardware, including laptops and tablets, will be affected by the new tariffs. Earlier this year, the Consumer Technology Association warned that such tariffs could reduce purchases in this category by up to 68%. While that projection was based on tariff rates exceeding 100%, even smaller increases are likely to dampen demand by raising consumer prices.
PC manufacturers typically source from China, Vietnam, or Mexico. Mexico has received a 90-day extension to negotiate a dealan outcome that could prove pivotal for the sector.
4. Games consoles
About 86% of U.S. video game consoles are imported from China, making the industry highly vulnerable to any fallout from U.S.-China trade negotiations. Vietnam, another major hub, is now subject to a 20% tariff, which could further inflate console prices.
Nintendo and Sony also import some console components from Japan, but with Japan facing a relatively lower 15% tariff, the impact there may be somewhat less severe.
