Ford launched its “Power Promise” initiative in October that included a free home electric vehicle charger with installation for new EV buyers. The promotion was initially scheduled to end on January 2nd, but now Ford is extending it into the first few months of 2025.

Starting today, Ford says its Power Promise promotion will run through March 31st, 2025, giving US customers who buy a new model year 2024 or 2025 Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, or E-Transit more time to take advantage of the perks. Those include the complementary home charger with “standard” installation, 24/7 customer support for charging questions, and complimentary roadside assistance.

The Ford Power Promise extension comes following a “best ever” quarter for EV sales at the automaker, according to Ford spokesperson Susannah Evans.

Ford Mustang Mach-E sales were up 27 percent to 51,745 units for 2024 compared to the previous year, while the F-150 Lightning was up 39 percent to 33,510, and the E-Transit was up 64 percent to 12,610. The Mustang Mach-E hit a record fourth quarter with 16,119 sold and is the second-best electric SUV in sales in the US after the Tesla Model Y, according to Ford. The company sold 97,865 pure electric vehicles in 2024 — still short of GM, which delivered 114,400 for the year.

Ford’s Model e retail director, Stacey Ferreira shared on LinkedIn that customers have reported high satisfaction in the program, which includes an 11-day average timeframe from quote to install. Ferreira says that approximately 85 percent of the complimentary home charger installations were considered “standard installations,” meaning no additional out-of-pocket costs were necessary.

As promised, I’ve got a special mailbag issue this week. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. Like last year, I picked a handful that hit some of the themes I plan to continue covering in 2025.

On to your questions…

I’m really concerned / worried / curious about the near-term future. Between now and 10 years from now, I think it is very clear AI will be replacing many job functions. What are we all going to do?

The leaders at the AI labs say that, yes, there will be job loss, but that doesn’t mean catastrophe. The optimistic take is that humans are creative and will invent new jobs, like they always have when technology changes things. At the moment, there’s also a macro belief among the CEOs driving a lot of the spending on infrastructure for AI that its impact will be deflationary and lead to GDP growth.

Job displacement will still be painful, of course. Sam Altman and others believe that some form of universal basic income will be necessary to offset the economic impacts of AGI. Altman has his other startup, Tools for Humanity, already scanning eyeballs and distributing cryptocurrency. But I think it’s way too early to be seriously concerned. As Altman himself recently...

Read the full story at The Verge.

A screenshot that seems to suggest billionaire Elon Musk is cosplaying superfan “Adrian Dittmann” — showing X account permissions beyond that of an ordinary user — is almost certainly fake, a source at X tells The Verge.

The source, who claims no knowledge of Dittmann’s identity, says an image posted to 4chan’s /pol/ board doesn’t reflect an actual interface available to people who work for X. The screenshot was posted by a user who identifies themselves as Adrian Dittmann, showing a post from Musk’s X page. In that screenshot, the X interface includes non-standard links to an “Admin Portal” and a “Bans” page, hinting that the user has special privileges on the site. But the source says neither of these options exist for X employees logged into their accounts. In fact, X employees would see the same interface as other users, with the potential exception of new features currently being trialed for wide release.

Another source familiar with X’s operations confirmed to The Verge that the screenshot isn’t consistent with what employees see.

This suggests that other elements of the screenshot, like an analytics link that only appears for the author of a post, were also deliberate fabrications, seeded as hints that Musk is secretly Dittmann. The hints were picked up overnight, where they spread on social media alongside other posts made by the 4chan user — mostly ones lauding Musk and defending his X policies amid infighting with other conservatives over immigration.

It’s not clear who posted the screenshots. “Adrian Dittmann” is a longtime X user, and his Musk fandom and vocal similarities have led to long-standing rumors that he’s secretly none other than Musk himself. (Musk has cosplayed his son on the site, so it’s not that far-fetched an assertion.) User Mag’s Taylor Lorenz has noted that Dittmann benefits tremendously from the speculation that they’re Musk, and it’s possible the doctored screenshots are Dittmann leaning into that. The 4chan posts could also be from an unrelated impersonator, though, playing up the idea of Musk as a desperate forum poster. (I guess we can’t rule out that Musk, impersonating Dittmann, added fake elements to an actual screenshot of his X account? But I’m ranking that theory low on the list.)

None of this conclusively disproves a link between Musk and Dittmann, of course. But if Musk isn’t spending his precious free hours on a sockpuppet account, that gives him more time for cozying up to President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, attempting to swing Germany’s upcoming election in favor of the far-right AfD party, and playing Diablo IV.

Update 1:40PM ET: Added confirmation from a second source.

It’s easy to lose small stuff like laptop chargers when you’re constantly on the go, which is why Twelve South’s PlugBug is handy. It’s a USB-C wall charger that Apple users can keep tabs of via the Find My App, and it’s currently down to its best price yet. Normally $69.99, right now you can buy the 50-watt version for $55.99 at Amazon and Best Buy. The 120-watt PlugBug is also on sale for $97.99 ($22 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is one of its better prices to date.

The 50-watt wall charger features a pair of USB-C ports, so you can choose to slow-charge a laptop or simultaneously power up your smartphone and tablet. If you require faster charging, the 120-watt might be the better option and comes with four USB-C ports. But the PlugBug’s real standout feature, as mentioned, is its support for Apple’s extensive Find My App feature, which allows you to keep tabs of the charger via your iPhone, iPad or Mac. And conveniently, the charger can beep for easier tracking.

As a nice bonus, the PlugBug is also useful when you’re not using it to charge your devices. After all, it’s essentially a location tracker, so you can use it to keeps tab of your bag, suitcase, or wherever else you may have stored it.

Some more ways to save

• Bose’s SoundLink Max has returned to its all-time low price of $299 ($100 off) at Amazon and Best Buy (for My Best Buy Plus and Total members). The Bluetooth speaker offers powerful, room-filling sound along with a 3.5-millimeter aux input for lossless listening. It’s rated IP67 for dust and water resistance, and offers up to 20 hours of battery life on a single charge, rendering it a top-notch portable Bluetooth speaker, great for any occasion. Read our review.
• The latest version of Samsung’s 55-inch The Frame TV is on sale for $867.99 ($630 off) at Woot until January 10th, which matches its best price to date. Samsung’s The Frame can easily pass for home decor, thanks to an anti-glare matte OLED screen that displays artwork as well as photos when idle. Yet it’s also a good 4K TV, with a new energy-saving feature that drops its speedy 120Hz refresh rate to 60hz while displaying art.
• If you’re on the market for an excellent handheld vacuum, the Black & Decker Furbuster is on sale for $67.98 ($32 off) at Amazon, which is its second-best price to date. The 20-watt cordless vacuum does a good job of sucking up dirt as well as fur and is portable, so you can use it as a car vacuum. It also features a long, extendable crevice tool, allowing you to easily clean hard-to-reach spaces.

A day after a Cybertruck exploded in the Trump Hotel valet area, law enforcement officials released more details on the progress of their investigation, including the coroner’s confirmation that the driver was a US Army soldier named Matthew Livelsberger, who died by suicide of a self-inflicted gunshot just before the explosives in the truck’s bed detonated.

“I’m comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately thereafter,” said Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “I’m not giving it any other labels.” McMahill also noted that police haven’t investigated the suspect’s phones or laptops yet, or identified a possible motive.

Separately, the Denver Gazette reported on text messages Livelsberger sent after renting the truck on December 28th, with videos of the vehicle and boasts about its “ungodly” speed. The New York Post cited an unnamed source saying he left his home in Colorado the day after Christmas after an argument with his wife. The Independent contacted Livelsberger’s uncle, who described him to the paper as someone who “loved the Army” and “loved Trump.”

Image: LMVPD

During the briefing, law enforcement officials displayed surveillance video of the truck once it arrived in Las Vegas on the morning of January 1st and a map of its eight stops at Tesla charging stations over three days. They also said that people from Tesla were coming to assist in the investigation, including possibly recovering video from the truck’s built-in cameras.

Image: LVMPD

While the sheriff said investigators had received information about the charging stops from Elon Musk, they are also looking to see who else may have been charging at the same time to possibly find video captured by those vehicles.

Like the F-150 Lightning used hours earlier in an apparent act of terrorism by driving into a crowd in New Orleans, Livelsberger rented the 2024 Cybertruck via the Turo app.

Turo said on Friday, “We do not believe these two individuals would have been flagged by anyone – including law enforcement.” However, “as an immediate next step while we wait for law enforcement to conclude their investigations, we’re consulting with national security and counterterrorism experts to learn more about how we can get even better and play our part in helping prevent anything like this from happening ever again,” writes CEO Andre Haddad.

It has also been reported that both men spent time at the same military base and served in different areas of Afghanistan in 2009. However, the sheriff said that while they’re not prepared to “rule in or rule out anything at this point,” there’s no evidence at this time of a connection between them or a link between the incidents.

The truck was transported to the department’s fleet services area for further inspection, and the investigators have reported finding the subject’s iPhone, identification, and two firearms that had been purchased two days earlier. The explosive components found inside the truck consisted of consumer-grade fireworks, mortars, and aerial shells, as well as fuel enhancers and the kinds of explosive targets that can be purchased at sporting goods stores, according to Kenneth Cooper, the ATF assistant special agent in charge.

JMGO’s N3 Ultra Max projector simplifies setup with a motorized gimbal that handles alignment automatically. Once positioned in a room, you can change where it’s projecting using its motion-sensing wireless remote. The all-in-one projector will handle the rest of the fine-tuning, including focus, optical zoom, and keystone adjustments to ensure the image is level and perfectly aligned.

Although the 4K N3 Ultra Max debuted in China late last year, JMGO is announcing a new version for the global market at CES that includes improved software, Google TV, and native Netflix support. The company expects it to be available globally, including in the US, sometime in the fourth quarter of 2025, but pricing details haven’t been finalized yet.

Image: JMGO

The N3 Ultra Max joins a growing line of gimbal-mounted projectors from JMGO but is one of the first from the company to feature motorized movements. To increase the projector’s range of motion, JMGO relocated its two HDMI and other I/O ports to the gimbal’s base. However, since the base rotates 360 degrees, there’s still a risk of tangling or the projector’s movements being limited if cables aren’t long enough.

In addition to automated movements, the projector uses a camera and 3D distance sensors to detect and avoid projecting over obstacles on a wall such as artwork or light switches. That will help eliminate visual distractions but could also result in a smaller image depending on how cluttered a wall is.

Image: JMGO

Using a triple laser system, the N3 Ultra Max outputs around 4,000 ISO lumens of brightness, but JMGO says the projector’s performance hasn’t been verified by a third party yet. That’s enough brightness to project an image up to 180 inches in size, the company says, and it will potentially allow the projector to be used in the daytime in a room with ambient light with a smaller image size.

A few months before the first Cybertrucks were delivered to customers, Tesla CEO Elon Musk got on a call with investors and said he wanted to “temper expectations” about the polarizing vehicle.

“It’s a great product, but financially, it will take, I don’t know, a year to 18 months before it is a significant positive cash flow contributor,” Musk said in the October 2023 call. But, ever the showman, Musk couldn’t resist injecting some hype.

“The demand is off the charts,” he said. “We have over 1 million people who have reserved the car.”

But more than a year later, that demand appears to have dried up.

Yesterday, Tesla reported its fourth quarter production and delivery numbers for 2024, giving us as close to a complete picture of the Cybertruck’s first full year of sales as we’re going to get. Tesla doesn’t break out Cybertruck numbers specifically, instead lumping them in with its two older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, as “other models.”

Tesla said it produced 94,105 vehicles in that category in 2024, of which 85,133 were delivered to customers. Kevin Roberts, director of economic and market intelligence at CarGurus, estimates that between 35,000–50,000 of those “other models” sold over the course of the year were Cybertrucks.

“How you view the Cybertruck depends on what your expectations going in were,” Roberts tells me. “If you thought it was going to be a large volume vehicle, a la Ford F-150 competitor, it hasn’t become a large volume competitor. But if you compare it to, say, a lifestyle pickup or the Ford F-150 Lightning, I think it’s done pretty well.”

And yet, the Cybertruck did not meaningfully contribute to Tesla’s growth in 2024, as evidenced by the fact that the company reported its first year-over-year sales decline in over a decade.

Musk claimed that over 1 million people reserved a Cybertruck, and so far, that has not resulted in 1 million Cybertrucks on the road. To be sure, it’s still early days for the angular EV, and it could still prove to be a success. But Tesla lowered the deposit reservation to $100, after initially asking for $1,000, which likely boosted reservations among people who probably weren’t going to end up buying one.

And then there was the rocky rollout: the viral videos of a Cybertruck getting stuck in snow or sand; the numerous recalls (seven since its launch in December 2023), including one related to a faulty accelerator pedal; and Musk’s emergence as a stalwart supporter of Donald Trump and a purveyor of racist, rightwing conspiracies.

Even still, the Cybertruck seemed to come out of the gate strong. It was America’s best-selling electric truck in Q2 of 2024, the third-best-selling EV in the country in Q3, and the best-selling vehicle costing over $100,000 in the first half of the year.

In July, it almost matched combined sales of all other electric trucks on the market, including the Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer EV, and Chevy Silverado EV. But some analysts suggested that Tesla may have been filling a backlog of older orders at the time, which would suggest that the sales numbers weren’t related to increased demand.

But as the year went on, evidence emerged that the Cybertruck may have already passed its peak. There were anecdotal reports of Cybertrucks piling up on used car lots. Tesla Cybertruck factory workers in Austin were told to stay home for three days in December.

Meanwhile, dozens of limited edition Foundation Series Cybertrucks, the first version of the truck to go on sale, were piling up in the automaker’s inventory, leading Tesla to reportedly start buffing the badging off so they could be sold as regular models. And the price of a used Cybertruck keeps dropping: $104,300 on average on December 30th, down from $107,800 the month before, according to CarGurus.

“What’s going on with used Cybertrucks and we can see the number of days those vehicles have been sitting on lots has been going up,” Roberts says. “And the average price of used Cybertrucks has been trending down.”

A brand-new Cybertruck is still very, very expensive: leasing starts at around $900 a month, while someone interested in buying an all-wheel drive base model would be expected to drop at least $90,000.

Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge

And while the Cybertruck just recently qualified for the federal EV tax credit of $7,500, that benefit is likely to be short-lived, as Trump is expected to kill the credit — with Musk’s backing. Musk still has a few more months to make good on his claim from 2023 that the Cybertruck will be a “significant cash flow contributor” within 18 months — but the outlook looks grim.

Tesla could have followed up the enormously successful Model Y with an even more affordable EV, which is what a lot of analysts and investors were expecting. But instead, Musk introduced a highly polarizing, questionably made, lifestyle vehicle that will likely never sell as many units as its predecessors.

“Tesla has had a big volume hit, the Model Y is in the top five selling vehicles in the US,” Roberts says. “So they can get those big volume vehicles. The Cybertruck just hasn’t been that. And it’s going to face some headwinds in 2025 that could make it a challenge for it to get to that kind of volume status.”

If you missed The Wild Robot in the madness of last year’s holiday season, Universal’s about to make it a little easier to catch the animated sci-fi adventure on both the big and small screens.

The Wild Robot has been available to purchase physically on DVD / Blu-ray and on digital platforms like Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video for some time now. But today, Universal announced that, following the film’s upcoming theatrical rerelease on January 17th, it will also be available to stream for Peacock subscribers starting on January 24th. The news comes after The Wild Robot’s successful initial box office run that saw it rake in an impressive $324.3 million worldwide and secure a number of awards from various film critics groups.

The theatrical rerelease feels a lot like Universal’s way of priming the public to be thinking more about The Wild Robot as we march deeper into awards season, but it’s also going to give folks more options to experience one of 2024’s best films.

In September 2023, Meta made a big deal of its new AI chatbots that used celebrities’ likeness: everyone from Kendall Jenner to MrBeast leased themselves out to embody AI characters on Instagram and Facebook. The celebrity-based bots were killed off last summer after less than a year, but users have recently been finding a handful of other, entirely fake bot profiles still floating around — and the reaction is not good.

There’s “Jane Austen,” a “cynical novelist and storyteller”; “Liv,” whose bio claims she is a “proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller”; and “Carter,” who promises to give users relationship advice. All are labeled as “AI managed by Meta” and the profiles date back to when the initial announcement was made. But the more than a dozen AI characters have apparently not been very popular: each has just a few thousand followers, with their posts getting just a few likes and comments.

That is, until the last week or so. After a wave of coverage in outlets like Rolling Stone and posts circulating on social media, the bot accounts are just now being noticed, and the reaction is confusion, frustration, and anger.

“What the fuck does an AI know about dating?????”...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Rumors that viral Elon Musk fanboy Adrian Dittmann is actually a fake online persona used by Musk himself have been reignited following fresh evidence linking the pair. Internet sleuths are pointing to a string of recent activity from Dittmann’s X account and alleged 4Chan posts that feature unexplained X admin permissions and similarities with Musk’s voice and mannerisms.

On Wednesday, a 4chan user identifying themself as Adrian Dittmann posted a screenshot of a post from Musk that displayed interface options that suggest he’s not an ordinary user. (4chan doesn’t use formal accounts, and you’re basically anonymous, but users can adopt unique identifiers that serve a similar purpose, demonstrating the same author is behind multiple posts.) A navigation at the bottom right of the image includes links for “switch account,” “bans,” and “admin portal.” Another link to view the full post engagements can also be seen under the image Musk published — something that’s only visible to the user who created the post.

However, a source at X told The Verge that the “bans” and “admin portal” options seen in the screenshot don’t reflect an actual interface available to people who work for X. Employees would typically see the same interface as other users, with the potential exception of new features currently being trialed for wide release.

The posts from the user identified as Adrian Dittmann, which were made on 4chan’s far-right /pol/ board, have since been deleted.

Additional speculation that Musk is masquerading as Dittmann comes from an X Spaces call hosted by right-wing influencer Laura Loomer on December 29th. After Dittmann joined the call, other X users noted that the account sounded eerily similar to Musk. Similarities between their speech patterns have been raised before following Dittmann’s previous X Spaces appearances, including several instances where he refers to Musk in first person, and another where Musk and Dittmann interacted directly to dispel the rumors.

Dittmann’s parasocial behavior and diehard support of Musk have fueled rumors that the persona is actually the Tesla CEO for over a year. Musk’s daughter has backed the speculation on several occasions. While Dittmann has previously denied being Musk during an appearance on Infowars, the X account, which Journalist Taylor Lorenz notes is eligible for X’s monetization program, has since leaned into the speculation after attracting thousands of followers.

The 4Chan posts were made following Musk in-fighting with hardline anti-immigration Republicans over H-1B visa crackdowns. The fight led to Musk lashing out at his opponents on X, who accused him of demonetizing or suspending them. Dittmann has popped up during this saga to make peace between factions, and his posts on 4chan are, unsurprisingly, defenses of Musk’s moderation on X.

There’s currently no conclusive evidence that confirms Musk behind the Dittmann account on X that frequently responds to his own posts and defends his actions. It wouldn’t be the first time that Musk has used a weird burner account, having previously roleplayed as one of his own children to test X posts. If he isn’t Dittmann, then there’s a real Adrian Dittmann out there praising Musk for being “an amazing father” who gets “lots of sex.”

Update, January 3rd: The story was updated to add details from an X employee who calls the screenshot a fake.

Apple Fitness Plus is getting a fresh makeover in the Strava app. The two companies just announced they’re collaborating to revamp how Fitness Plus integrates with the popular fitness community, which includes more detailed workout summaries, Strava athletes appearing in Fitness Plus content, and a free three-month trial to the service for Strava subscribers.

Starting today, you’ll be able to see a thumbnail of the Fitness Plus workout and information like episode number, music genre, trainer, metrics, and achievements. While mostly a design update, this brings Fitness Plus more in line with other Strava integrations from services like Peloton and Ladder.

Technically, Apple Watch users have been able to import their workouts into Strava from the get-go. However, that integration has been limited with bare-bones workout summaries. While you could see the activity type, calories burned, and basic heart rate metrics, there wasn’t any information about the class or instructor. (As you can see from this screenshot, you’d be hard-pressed to know that my New Year’s Day yoga workout was even a Fitness Plus class.)

The Fitness Plus and Strava integration goes in both directions. For starters, new and existing Strava subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia will get a free three-month trial of Fitness Plus regardless of whether they have an Apple Watch. (You do, however, need an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV to access the service.) Popular Strava athletes will also feature as guests in Fitness Plus workouts. That includes a strength workout with runner Hellah Sidibe on January 13th and a treadmill workout with Kayla Jeter.

So far, Apple has only offered free Fitness Plus trials with the purchase of a new Apple gadget. And while the service regularly features well-known athletes as guest hosts in its programming, it’s never sourced those guests from a third-party fitness community.

Sidibe, for example, may not be quite as famous as two-time Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety (who recently hosted a Fitness Plus series). However, if you’re into running and on social media, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Sidibe’s seven-year daily run streak and penchant for running with four smartwatches.

“Over the past 10 years, we’ve hugely admired what Strava has done to impact the fitness space, especially around community,” says Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of fitness technologies, acknowledging that Apple doesn’t often partake in this sort of collaboration.

Blahnik says working with Strava also presents a new opportunity for Fitness Plus’ reach. When the service first launched, there was an emphasis on making sure it was inclusive, motivating, and accessible for people of all levels. And in those early days, it often felt like Fitness Plus was like a fitness starter pack for the average person who might need a little encouragement — something The Verge pointed out in its initial review. That’s not exactly the typical Strava user.

“They don’t need us for motivation! They’re already self motivated,” says Blahnik. Instead, for seasoned athletes, Blahnik is pitching Fitness Plus as a supplemental resource for cross-training and discovering new activity types.

“Maybe they’re taking up running for the first time, and they want to make sure that they don’t get injured, and they need to do the yoga and the strength,” adds Zipporah Allen, Strava’s chief business officer.

Both Allen and Blahnik also note that the collaboration isn’t a one-and-done type of deal, hinting that the integration could evolve further down the road. While both demurred on providing specifics, Blahnik noted the companies “have bold ambitions for what [they] might be able to do down the road in terms of sharing.” (Asked if perhaps one day you could tap on a Fitness Plus class a Strava friend took and immediately be taken to that workout on your phone, Blahnik said they’d keep that in mind.)

In the short term, it’s a beneficial move for both companies. Strava recently angered users by changing the terms of its API for third-party apps, leaving some disgruntled users questioning the value of a Strava subscription. A free three-month trial to Apple Fitness Plus could appease some of those users. Strava has long been a de facto fitness data hub for dedicated athletes, giving Fitness Plus easy access to long-term athletes who aren’t likely to quit their New Year’s resolutions.

Anthropic has made a deal to settle parts of a copyright infringement lawsuit ​​brought against the maker of the Claude AI model for allegedly distributing protected song lyrics. The agreement was signed off by US District Judge Eumi Lee on Thursday, requiring Anthropic to apply existing guardrails in the training of future AI models and to establish a procedure for music publishers to intervene when copyright infringement is suspected.

In October 2023, several music publishers including Universal Music Group, ABKCO, Concord Music Group, and Greg Nelson Music filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Anthropic for allegedly training its AI system on lyrics from at least 500 protected songs. According to the complaint, when Claude was prompted for the lyrics to songs like Beyoncé’s “Halo,” Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” and “Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5, the chatbot provided responses “that contain all or significant portions of those lyrics.”

While the music publishers acknowledged that platforms like Genius already distribute lyrics online, they noted that those sites pay a licensing fee to use the protected works. Anthropic “intentionally removed or altered copyright management information” from the impacted songs when ingesting data found on those sites to train its AI models, according to the lawsuit filing.

Under the agreement signed by Anthropic on Thursday, the AI company says it will maintain the guardrails it has already implemented that aim to prevent its AI models from infringing on copyrighted content. Anthropic will also apply its existing guardrails to any future AI systems it develops. Music publishers and Anthropic will work together in “good faith” to resolve any instances where the guardrails are deemed ineffective, with the court ready to settle any disputes.

Claude “isn’t designed to be used for copyright infringement, and we have numerous processes in place designed to prevent such infringement,” Anthropic said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Our decision to enter into this stipulation is consistent with those priorities. We continue to look forward to showing that, consistent with existing copyright law, using potentially copyrighted material in the training of generative AI models is a quintessential fair use.”

The music publishers behind the original complaint have requested a preliminary injunction to bar Anthropic from training future models on their protected song lyrics, with the court expected to issue a ruling in the coming months.

LG is coming to CES with two all-in-one “lifestyle projectors” which means they’re gong to look great when off, but not necessarily provide the best picture for the money when on. Both run on webOS with plenty of support for your favorite streaming apps.

The PF600U is three devices in one, combing a simple full HD projector with a Bluetooth speaker and standing floor lamp. It weighs 16 pounds 8 ounces (7.5kg) and features two speakers of unknown spectitude, as well as an LED lamp capable of nine colors and five brightness levels.

Image: LG

The projector swivels on a 110-degree tilting head with an automatic screen adjustment function that should make it quick and easy to fine tune the projected image as you move the lamp around the room. Just note that it’s only capable of producing 300 ANSI lumens of brightness which means that 1920 x 1080 image won’t look very good unless viewed in blackout conditions.

Image: LG

The CineBeam S (model PU615U) is a remarkably small (4.3 x 6.3 x 6.3 inches / 110 x 160 x 160mm) ultra-short throw projector that can sit just inches from the wall — or better yet, an Ambient Light Rejection (ALR) screen — and still produce a giant 4K image from its laser (RGB) light source. It has integrated stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support. And while it can produce a slightly brighter 500 ANSI lumen image, it’s still going to look washed out if it has to fight with any ambient lighting in the room.

LG isn’t announcing anything useful like pricing or release dates or countries of availability. Presumably the company wants to keep everyone on their toes when these are demonstrated publicly for the first time in Las Vegas, starting next week.

It seems like Nvidia might be about to reveal its RTX 50 series GPUs, and now Nvidia itself is teasing that the new graphics cards are nearly here. As spotted by VideoCardz, a video for Nvidia’s upcoming LAN party includes brief look at a shadowy PC that will be given as a prize, and if you brighten up the image, the GPU in the computer appears to be one that’s a new design.

See for yourself — I’ve included an image of the shadowed version at the top of this post, but here’s our take at tweaking the image to reveal what’s hidden:

Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

I’ll admit I am not an expert in GPU designs, but VideoCardz says the design is “unfamiliar” and that an RTX 5080 or 5070 Ti could be “among possible candidates” of what’s being shown.

Leaks last month from Zotac and Acer indicated that Nvidia may reveal as many as five RTX 50 series GPUs very soon, including an RTX 5090, an RTX 5080, and an 5070 Ti. VideoCardz also reported today on a leak of an RTX 5080 from MSI featuring 16GB of GDDR7 memory.

And Nvidia isn’t being particularly secretive about the potentially imminent launch of the RTX 50-series GPUs. The LAN party, which runs from January 4th through 6th, is called the “GeForce LAN 50”, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to deliver a CES keynote on January 6th at 9:30PM ET.

Five electric vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis now qualify for the US’s $7,500 EV tax credit, Electrek reports. The new models include popular vehicles like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover SUV and Kia EV9 three-row family hauler. Now, 25 EVs and plug-in hybrids across 10 brands qualify for the credit.

The Biden Administration’s EV tax credit rules mandate building vehicles in North America for eligibility and include additional requirements for sourcing battery components. In 2022, Hyundai and Kia threatened to take legal action against Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act after it expanded the available credits but left the EVs they were building in Korea ineligible for them.

Now that Hyundai has opened up a $7.6 billion EV manufacturing plant in Georgia to produce the NACS-equipped 2025 Ioniq 5 and the upcoming Ioniq 9 three-row SUV, its vehicles are eligible.

Screenshot: The Verge

However, Hyundai and Kia might lose the benefit if the upcoming Trump administration makes drastic changes. The President-elect vowed during his campaign to eliminate the EV incentives on “day one,” though American automakers have pleaded to let it live.

But unless Congress votes to eliminate the program, Hyundai and Kia buyers could still get the incentive for the 2025 tax year or take advantage of it through a lease. The New York Times recently reported that Trump could try to take other actions without Congress by eliminating the credit for leases or taking down websites with information about the program.

Samsung’s smart fridges will soon be able to identify when you’re running low on something and add items to your Instacart app so you can order what you need from the grocery delivery service right from your fridge.

Today, Samsung announced a multiyear partnership with Instacart that will let you shop for groceries from the screen on your Samsung Bespoke fridge — the 32-inch one or the one with the new 9-inch screen the company is debuting at CES this month.

According to the press release, the tech uses Samsung Vision AI food recognition technology to identify what you have in your fridge and determine what you’re running low on. Then, using Instacart’s product matching API, it suggests items from the service you might need and lets you order them from the fridge.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The service uses “AI Vision Inside” on Samsung’s fridges, which leverages a camera above the fridge door to see when you put items into your fridge as well as when you take them out. It also has cameras inside to keep an eye on what you have in there, although it can’t see items in the refrigerator door bins or freezer.

Samsung says the locally-based AI can recognize “up to” 37 food items including fresh fruits and vegetables. You can also manually input details of other items to your food list on the Samsung Food app on the fridge or on your phone.

While you can currently use Samsung Food to create a shopping list you can send to Instacart, this new feature should make that experience simpler and more automated. It should also automatically update your food list when you purchase items from the shopping list. And, when you make a recipe you've saved to the Samsung Food app, it can automatically remove items you’ve used from the food list and add then to the shopping list, working hand-in-hand with the AI-powered cameras to keep your fridge stocked.

However, how well this will all actually work in practice remains to be seen.

Funnily enough, the Instacart app used to be on Samsung’s smart fridges; although it wasn’t integrated with the device’s cameras in this way, it was just a standalone app. It also mysteriously vanished earlier this year, along with a number of other apps — at least from my 2019 model.

Samsung says the Instacart integration will come later this year via a firmware update to models with the AI Vision Inside, which arrived last year.

Meta is shaking up its policy team ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, with global policy head Nick Clegg stepping down after seven years at the company. He’ll be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and Meta’s current vice president of policy.

In a post on Facebook, Clegg says it’s the “right time” for him to leave Meta, adding that he’ll spend the next few months “handing over the reins” to Kaplan. “Joel is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time — ideally placed to shape the company’s strategy as societal and political expectations around technology continue to evolve,” Clegg says.

Kaplan served as the White House deputy chief of staff during George W. Bush’s administration and joined Meta in 2011. He drew some controversy in 2018 when he supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during a Senate hearing about sexual assault allegations, which reportedly angered some employees. Kaplan also recently joined Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance at the New York Stock Exchange.

Despite butting heads with Trump in the past, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has attempted to flatter the President-elect in recent months, with M...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Federal net neutrality rules, which briefly came back from the dead under the Biden administration, have been struck down by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The three-judge panel ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not have the authority to impose net neutrality rules on internet service providers (ISPs). The FCC sought to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act in order to impose policies meant to prevent them from discriminating against different internet traffic, like by slowing speeds or blocking content.

But the judges disagreed with the agency’s interpretation of how ISPs could be classified and were emboldened by the recent downfall of Chevron deference, a legal doctrine that instructed courts to defer to regulatory agencies in many cases. After the Supreme Court did away with that principle in 2024, courts became more free to favor their own interpretations over the judgment of expert agencies. Net neutrality was immediately seen as a prime target to be struck down without Chevron. While the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld previous iterations of net neutrality, the Sixth Circuit judges note that it relied on Chevron to do so. “Unlike past challenges that the D.C. Circuit considered under Chevron, we no longer afford deference to the FCC’s reading of the statute,” they write.

“We acknowledge that the workings of the Internet are complicated and dynamic, and that the FCC has significant expertise in overseeing ‘this technical and complex area,’” the ruling says, citing an earlier decision. After the fall of Chevron, it continues, “that ‘capability,’ if you will, cannot be used to overwrite the plain meaning of the statute.”

This left the judges free to wax philosophical about phrases like “offering of a capability” and “information services,” finely parsing the distinction between those and more heavily regulated telecommunications services. “The existence of a fact or a thought in one’s mind is not ‘information’ like 0s and 1s used by computers,” one part of the ruling reads. It asserts that “speaking reduces a thought to sound, and writing reduces a thought to text ... during a phone call, one creates audio information by speaking, which the telephone service transmits to an interlocutor, who responds in turn,” but “crucially, the telephone service merely transmits that which a speaker creates; it does not access information.”

Net neutrality was already in danger, even before this ruling came out — in a suit filed against the FCC by broadband industry associations. The appeals court had already blocked the net neutrality rules from taking effect. During oral arguments in October, the three Republican-appointed judges prodded attorneys about the correct interpretation of the Communications Act and about deference to agency expertise. With President-elect Donald Trump — under whom net neutrality was previously repealed — due to take office in mere weeks, this could be the last we hear about the attempt to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers for a while.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called on lawmakers to take up the mantle of creating rules to safeguard the open internet. “Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” she says in a statement. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.”

Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the agency once he assumes office, issued a lengthy statement calling the ruling “a good win for the country.” He calls net neutrality rules an attempt by the Biden administration to “expand the government’s control over every feature of the Internet ecosystem” and says the push for the rules was a waste of time. While he’s pleased with the ruling, he adds, “The work to unwind the Biden Administration’s regulatory overreach will continue.”

Former FCC Chair Ajit Pai, who led the movement to repeal the rule during the first Trump administration, took a victory lap on X. “For a decade, I’ve argued that so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations are unlawful (not to mention pointless),” he wrote. “Today, the Sixth Circuit held exactly that.”

The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages government buildings, just announced a major nuclear energy contract. The announcement comes on the heels of several big tech companies making a flurry of nuclear energy deals last year.

The 10-year, $840 million contract is for 10 million megawatt-hours of electricity, which the GSA says is the equivalent of what’s needed for more than 1 million homes annually. The agency awarded the contract to Constellation, which operates the nation’s largest nuclear fleet, and recently announced an agreement with Microsoft to restart a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island. Nuclear energy makes up a significant portion of the GSA deal, about 4 million megawatt-hours, according to Constellation spokesperson Paul Adams.

Silicon Valley is increasingly turning to nuclear energy to satiate rising electricity demand from AI data centers. The federal government is the nation’s single largest energy consumer, making this contract a big boon to the nuclear industry.

“Frustratingly ... nuclear energy was excluded from many corporate and government sustainable energy procurements. Not anymore. This agreement is another powerful example of how things have changed,” Joe Dominguez, Constellation president and CEO, said in a press release. “The United States government joins Microsoft and other entities to support continued investment in reliable nuclear energy that will allow Constellation to relicense and extend the lives of these critical assets.”

Constellation says it generates 10 percent of the nation’s carbon pollution-free energy. A majority of its output is nuclear energy, but it also produces hydro, wind, and solar power. It also generates electricity from gas-fired power plants, although the company has set a goal of reaching 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040 compared to close to 90 percent today.

Constellation and the GSA declined to answer questions about how much of the electricity included in the contract will come from each source aside from nuclear power plants. Altogether, it’s the biggest energy procurement contract the GSA has signed in its history.

“This historic procurement locks in a cost-competitive, reliable supply of nuclear energy,” GSA administrator Robin Carnahan said in a press release. “We’re demonstrating how the federal government can join major corporate clean energy buyers in spurring new nuclear energy capacity and ensuring a reliable, affordable supply of clean energy for everyone.”

The contract will allow Constellation to extend licenses for existing nuclear power plants as well as “invest in new equipment and technology” that should result in 135 megawatts of additional capacity. The GSA agreed to purchase 2.4 million megawatt-hours of electricity from that added capacity over 10 years. Outside of GSA buildings, the deal also extends to 13 other agencies, including the departments of Veterans Affairs and Transportation as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the National Park Service, the Social Security Administration, and the US Mint.

The GSA is framing the contract as a way to lock in more affordable prices as data centers drive up electricity demand and increase competition for limited clean energy sources:

In the face of uncertainty over future electricity prices and increasing electricity demand from data centers and AI facilities, for instance, this contract provides federal agencies with budgetary stability and protections from future price increases by keeping their electricity costs fixed for 10 years, while also continuing to bolster the domestic nuclear industry.

Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have all inked splashy nuclear energy deals over the past year. In September of last year, Microsoft and Constellation announced a plan to restart a shuttered reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst nuclear energy accident in US history.

The Biden administration has also made nuclear energy a key part of its plan to transition the US away from fossil fuels to energy sources that don’t cause climate change. Last October, the Department of Energy announced a $1.52 billion loan to help restart a retired nuclear generating station in Covert Township, Michigan. And while President-elect Donald Trump plans to undo progress made toward clean energy, the Trump campaign agenda included efforts to “support nuclear energy production.”

Incase, the brand that took over Microsoft’s accessories line, has revealed a compact ergonomic keyboard designed by the company. With a price of $119.99, the wireless keyboard features a split, contoured design, a cushioned palm rest, and a dedicated Copilot button.

The keyboard also comes with “ultra-responsive” scissor keys with 1.3mm travel, meaning you won’t have to press down very far when typing. You can connect up to three devices to the keyboard via Bluetooth, and it’s powered by two AAA batteries that Incase says will last up to 36 months.

Image: Incase

After Microsoft discontinued its non-Surface line of mice, keyboards, and other PC accessories in 2023, Incase partnered with the tech giant to bring back its designs while using the same components and supply chain as Microsoft.

Though this Incase ergonomic keyboard is nearly as expensive as the $129.99 Logitech Ergo K860, it’s still much cheaper than higher-end ergonomic options, like the Nuio Flow and ZSA Voyager, both of which cost $365.

Incase says it will release the keyboard in “early 2025.” The company has several other Microsoft-designed accessories planned as well, but it currently only has two mice and a Bluetooth keyboard available for purchase on its website.