Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

A new mandatory safety feature requires Roblox users in the U.S. to submit to facial age estimation via the app to access its chat feature. The online gaming platform announced it was implementing the system to prevent children younger than 16 from communicating with adults. About 42% of Roblox users are younger than 13. But a cursory scroll on eBay found that various listings of age-verified Roblox accounts are available for purchase, some for as little as $2.99. This allows the purchaser to sign in to the account without having to use any ID or facial scan, voiding the new safety feature Roblox has implemented. The description of one listing (since removed) rea…

Put down Wordle. New brain-exercise-for-the-day just dropped. “Can you read 900 words per minute?” a viral post that has been doing the rounds on X, challenges. “Try it.” If you made it to 600 words per minute, that’s more than twice the speed of the average reader. If you made it to 900, congratulations—according to some back-of-the-napkin math, that makes you 278% faster than the national average (which is 238 words per minute). By that same logic, it could take you around 40 seconds to read this 600ish word article. But should it? As one X user pointed out, “this is like brainrot for reading.” Or as Jane Ollis, medical biochemist and founder at AI-pow…

Social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children in Australia since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said. “We stared down everybody who said it couldn’t be done, some of the most powerful and rich companies in the world and their supporters,” communications minister Anika Wells told reporters on Friday. “Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhoods back.” The figures, reported to Australia’s government by 10 social media platforms, were the first to show the scale of the landmark ban since it was enacted in December over fears about…

In today’s rapidly changing work environment, developing trust among team members is crucial for success. Yet, many organizations struggle to foster an atmosphere of collaboration and understanding, often resulting in communication breakdowns, conflicts, and a decrease in productivity. The inability to trust can be the result of misunderstanding, conflicting values, or misjudging others because they trigger us and remind us of a negative situation or experience in our past. Building our emotional intelligence can help us increase our awareness and become less prone to building up barriers to trust. “Trust isn’t built through charisma or authority—it’s built through em…

My grandmother never realized she was practicing a die with zero philosophy. She liked to give generous presents to her children and grandchildren on birthdays, gift-giving occasions—and whenever the mood struck her. I once asked her why she kept her loved ones so well-supplied in gifts, and she remarked, “Why should you be glad I’m dead?” In other words, she didn’t see the point in holding onto the money that would come to her family anyway when she died. By spending her money on us while she was still alive, she enjoyed our delight in her generosity. She saw that as a better use of her money than letting it grow until it became our emotionally uncomfortable inherit…

Remember a couple of years ago when Intel declared that the “age of the AI PC” had arrived? Back at CES 2024, the chip giant was saying that its Core Ultra processors would usher in a new era of personal computing, enabling all kinds of new on-device AI capabilities. As Michelle Johnston Holthaus, then the company’s CEO of products, said in a keynote presentation, AI is “fundamentally transforming, reshaping, and reimagining the PC experience.” Two years later, there’s been a vibe shift. While Intel is still talking about AI, it now believes its PC processors will play more of a supporting role for cloud-based AI tools. At the CES trade show earlier this month…

Curving walls of clay brick and the dappled light of a forest canopy make up the design of the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion, the annual architectural installation that has become one of the field’s most prestigious commissions. This year’s pavilion is being designed by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo of LANZA atelier, a Mexico City-based architecture studio. An annual installation outside the Serpentine art gallery in London’s Kensington Park that is freely open to the public from June through October, the Serpentine Pavilion is high-brow design that’s unusually accessible. Isabel AbascalAlessandro Arienzo Hitting the premise on the nose, LANZA atelier’s desi…

On January 20, Netflix is bringing back the popular talent competition Star Search, with a twist: For the first time in its history, Netflix will let its audience decide the outcome of a show with live voting. However, unlike how shows have done this in the past, audiences won’t have to send text messages or call a special number to make their votes count. Instead, viewers will vote with their TV’s remote control, or right within the Netflix app if they watch the show on their phones. Netflix hopes that this level of simplicity will help to make live programs like Star Search a lot more exciting, and offer its audience a chance to experience shared watercooler moments…

Six years ago, Atari announced ambitious plans to build a gamer-themed hotel in Las Vegas, featuring an e-sports studio and a movie theater. The legacy video game company’s management at the time saw hotels as a way to revitalize the brand’s name, which was largely a nostalgia play. “I love the idea. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” said then-CEO Fred Chesnais. “I always wanted to make an amusement park, and hotels could be the first step.” But now the company tells the Las Vegas Sun that the project has been shelved after “the deal didn’t come to fruition.” It’s the latest in a series of disappointments for Atari’s lodging ambitions. Only one of what th…

Traveling soon? If you’re planning on flying domestically, starting February 1, which is next Sunday, you may have to pay an extra fee at airports across the U.S. if you haven’t yet gotten your TSA-approved Real ID yet or don’t have another compliant form of ID (see list below). The policy, which the Department of Homeland Security launched in May, requires travelers to have an updated Real ID-compliant driver’s license or another approved form of ID in order to pass through airport security checkpoints and board flights. If you are one of the estimated 6% of U.S, travelers that still don’t have a Real ID or another acceptable form of documentation, you may be cha…

Two years ago, the last pay phones were disconnected in Rochester, New York. But a group of volunteers has started bringing a handful of phones back—and making them free to use. Called the GoodPhone Project, the effort is aimed at people who still don’t have reliable access to a mobile phone, including those experiencing homelessness. As pay phones have disappeared, alternatives have been hard to come by. “A lot of community centers, and especially the Monroe County libraries, were being inundated with people asking to use their front desk phones,” says Eric Kunsman, one of the volunteers behind the project. There’s a clear need: The handful of phones tha…

As Italy prepares for the 2026 Winter Olympics, a crucial part of the prep is the manufacturing of artificial snow; the Olympics organizing committee plans to make 2.4 million cubic meters of the stuff. The practice has become more and more common as climate change leads to warmer temperatures and less reliable snow packs. But as climate change worsens, artificial snow won’t even be enough to help certain countries host the Winter Games. By mid-century, the number of countries that could potentially host the Winter Olympic Games could be cut nearly in half, according to a recent study from the University of Waterloo. Currently, the International Olympic Commi…

In my suburban Boston Ulta, I’m sitting with my hand in a little box. I’ve been promised that in roughly 30 minutes I’ll have nails that are shaped, buffed, and painted—not by a human, but by an AI-powered robot. It feels like an episode of The Jetsons come to life, but the truth is that the AI boom has officially entered the physical world. Most of us interact with artificial intelligence through screens—Gemini drafts our emails, ChatGPT summarizes our docs—but behind the scenes, engineers are racing to give AI hands and feet. Robots already pack boxes in warehouses and make guacamole in fast-food kitchens. Soon, they will be washing dishes, taking care of pets, and …

For business partners Victoria Jackson and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, their lives are intermingled with work. As cofounders of 15-month-old bookstore Godmothers in Summerland, California, the pair have built a space that they both longed for: a bookstore perched on a magical slice of Santa Barbara County, outfitted with cozy nooks to read and gather, a cafe, and an events space for author events and workshops. Since its September 2024 opening the space has become a beacon of community, creativity and conversation––what Walsh calls “a beautiful creative cathedral” for everyone from that mom in carpool to Oprah Winfrey. “Godmothers is a great representation of coming up w…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Back in 2023, this single-family home at 19374 Rizzuto St. in Venice, FL (34293 ZIP Code) was purchased for $565,000. By the time the transaction closed, the housing market had already begun to enter a period of cyclical cooling—with Florida seeing a sharper power swing to buyers and some pockets of Southwest Florida moving into what ResiClub considers “correction mode.” By February 2025, the homeowner listed the property above for sale at $519,000. After 4 subsequent price cuts and a brief delisting, the home finally sold in December 2025 for $455,0…

The European Union on Friday accused TikTok of breaching the bloc’s digital rules with “addictive design” features that lead to compulsive use by children, in preliminary charges that strike at the heart of the popular video sharing app’s operating model. EU regulators said their two-year investigation found that TikTok hasn’t done enough to assess how features such as autoplay and infinite scroll could harm the physical and mental health of users, including minors and “vulnerable adults.” The European Commission said it believes TikTok should change the “basic design” of its service. The commission is the EU’s executive arm and enforcer of the 27-nation bloc’s Digital …

We talk constantly about age—in politics, in leadership, in debates about retirement and the future of work. Yet we rarely stop to ask a simple question: What is age, exactly? Most of us rely on a single number, as if people were stamped with a vintage year like bottles of wine. But age is far from a fixed or universal metric. It is multidimensional, deeply unequal, and increasingly misleading when used as a shortcut for ability, potential, or readiness. As people live longer, change careers more often, and experience work in different conditions, understanding what age actually measures is becoming essential for companies trying to build fairer workplaces and adapt t…

The Super Bowl LX ad blitz was a big budget highwire act—from Anthropic’s shot at OpenAI to Lady Gaga’s homage to Mr. Rogers and Dunkin’s nostalgia-fueled celeb fest. Autodesk CMO Dara Treseder breaks down what worked, what didn’t, and what the ads reveal about where marketing is headed next. Treseder also unpacks the business impact of Bad Bunny’s halftime show, and what it signals for the NFL and Apple. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigati…

Need some recipe inspo for dinners this week? Look no further than the latest viral food trend on TikTok: boy kibble. The gym bro’s answer to girl dinner, which gained traction online in 2023 as an artfully arranged snack plate, boy kibble is consumed mainly by men trying to hit their protein goals while keeping calories low. “It’s 8PM and I’m rawdogging some 93/7 ground beef,” one enthusiast posted on TikTok. “We’re not the same.” In an era of strange diets (see meatfluencers scarfing down whole sticks of butter and wellness warriors championing E. coli–riddled raw milk) a meal that consists largely of rice, minced meat, and perhaps a handful of veget…

Ellie Frazier first started posting content three years ago, sharing day-in-the-life vlogs and content tips for fellow creators. As her following grew, she began noticing other creators posting videos with uncannily similar scripts to her own. The clips felt the same. The editing style, identical. In one example, Frazier stretched in front of a window; another creator stretched in front of a window. Frazier chopped vegetables; the other creator chopped an orange. On its own, that might not seem especially striking. But the voiceover script used by the other creator was also almost verbatim Frazier’s words. “There’s a very stark difference between taking inspir…

Could a film industry entirely crafted from AI ever exist? Social media is abuzz with movie scenes made with Seedance 2.0, the latest tech in AI video generation, including everything from a fight scene between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise to an alternate ending for The Lord of the Rings. The tech’s proponents predict AI is the future of movies—but an actual brain behind Hollywood hits, Ben Affleck, is trending for his counterargument: AI may be a powerful tool, but it’s nothing without human creativity. Affleck recently shared his take on AI-generated writing in an appearance on a podcast. As an Oscar-winning screenwriter himself for Good Will Hunting (not to mention…

Too many years ago, I remember slotting a 3.5-inch disk into my PC. With my allowance, I’d bought $5 video game design software from a catalog. And as I looked at the terminal, lost without some familiar GUI . . . my coding efforts died. Game design became an abstract concept even as I became a game journalist—a topic sketched in notebooks, theoretically discussed, critically observed. That was, until I loaded Moonlake AI. With $30 million in funding from investors including Nvidia, AIX, Google’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, and YouTube founder Steve Chen, the 15-person startup founded by two Stanford PhD students dreams of building complete games—from first person shoo…

A new $7.25 billion settlement between Bayer and a group of cancer patients could wrap up a huge wave of lawsuits against the company over allegations that it didn’t warn consumers about cancer risks associated with the weedkiller Roundup. Bayer faces more than 180,000 claims over Roundup, which contains the herbicide glyphosate – the chemical at the center of the controversy. Most of those claims are from people who used the weedkiller, which is sold at any hardware or garden store, at home. The lawsuits have prompted Bayer to pull glyphosate out of many products under the Roundup brand, though glyphosate is still commonly used by farmers and in the agriculture busin…

In December 2025, Andrea Lucas, the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, invited white men to file more sex- and race-based discrimination complaints against their employers. “Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws. Contact the @USEEOC as soon as possible,” she wrote in a post on X. In February 2026, the EEOC began to investigate Nike on what the agency said was suspicion of discrimination against white workers. Both initiatives followed the EEOC’s March 2025 characterization of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts…