Sharing this solar generator’s batteries with a 3-in-1 solar fridge, freezer, and ice-making combo is a good idea that might get better.

Solar generators and battery-powered fridges are highly desirable additions to vans, boats, cabins, and sheds, or anywhere power and refrigeration is needed off the grid. Both are meant to be portable by necessity but suffer from the same issue: weight.

Bluetti just started shipping its SwapSolar kit that pairs an AC180T solar generator with its MultiCooler, a 3-in-1 solar-powered fridge, freezer, and ice maker. What makes this kit interesting is that the MultiCooler and AC180T devices can share the same B70 LFP batteries, which can be charged inside either device when plugged into your car’s 12V socket, a standard power outlet, or solar panels.

This modular approach has some other interesting benefits, too:

• Divide these heavy devices into multiple components for easier transport.
• Worry less about charging batteries or buying bigger ones by getting as many B70 batteries as you need to cover your average roadtrip, workday, or home blackout.
• Repair or replace just the battery or the unit it powers should something go wrong or upgrades become available.

Building a modular ecosystem of products around small interchangeable batteries has already seen success by makers of handheld power tools. Bluetti is expanding the concept to devices needed for extended off-grid living, with more SwapSolar products coming.

Great, but first we need to see if the devices shipping today can independently justify the total price of the $2,000 SwapSolar kit.

Editor’s note: When this review was finished, we went back to take one last photo and discovered that the MultiCooler would not turn on for reasons explained below. We are therefore withholding its score until Bluetti can assure us it’s not a widespread defect.

The SwapSolar B70 battery at the heart of these systems holds 716.8Wh of energy and is built using LFP chemistry. LFP — short for lithium iron phosphate — batteries last longer, are safer, and work in a wider range of operating temperatures than the smaller and lighter NMC-based batteries they’re rapidly replacing. The B70 should hold 80 percent of its original charging capacity, even after 3,000 cycles.

Bluetti will sell you as many B70 batteries as you’d like, but right now, they only work with the AC180T solar generator and MultiCooler. The AC180T can be powered by one or two batteries, while the MultiCooler fits only one.

MultiCooler

The 3-in-1 MultiCooler (model F045D) refrigerator, freezer, and ice maker is very similar to the EcoFlow Glacier I reviewed last year. However, the MultiCooler lacks EcoFlow’s dual-zone feature that lets you divide the main compartment into both a freezer and fridge that can run simultaneously. That could be a deal-breaker for some. On the other hand, Bluetti’s MultiCooler runs longer on battery and is usually a little quieter.

Noise is a critical factor for any device that runs all night within earshot of your bed in an RV, cabin, or boat. Bluetti’s MultiCooler is thankfully nearly silent until the compressor kicks in. Then it gets about as loud as a home theater projector, or about 35dB in my testing, as it cools the unit down. Cooling is relatively slow, however. Even with the refrigeration mode set to Max in the Bluetti app, it took 23 minutes to go from room temperature to 6 degrees Celsius / 43 degrees Fahrenheit and then another 17 minutes to reach -10C / 14F. That’s slower, but quieter, than the EcoFlow Glacier.

Bluetti consistently reported a lower temperature than my own trusty thermometer during testing. For example, my thermometer placed inside the unit read -8C / 17.6F when the app and MultiCooler display read -10C / 14F, and when the MultiCooler said it was 3C / 37.4F, the thermometer read 5C / 41F. At least it was consistently inconsistent, which is something I can work around.

The unit goes almost completely silent once it hits your defined temperature set in the app or on the physical display, interrupted by a few bubbles and scratches now and again that likely won’t be too annoying for most people. The compressor runs for about 10 minutes at around 33dB, followed by 20- to 40-minute gaps of near silence in my testing. It turns on with what sounds like five distinct clicks of a mechanical button and turns off with a slight rattle that’s noticeable when empty (the lightweight food baskets inside the fridge shake).

Ice making is a much noisier affair, as you’d expect, and occurs in its own dedicated compartment — not in the freezer. The first batch of ice takes about 23 minutes as the MultiCooler produces a loud 48dB from a distance of one meter. The noise is constant and only stops about one minute before the ice drops into the bucket. Each batch thereafter is just as loud but only takes about 12 minutes. You can select between small or large ice, which yields a sheet of two dozen small (or less small) hollow cubes. It can produce ice continuously until the one-liter water reservoir is empty — that’s about 100 cubes. In my testing, the ice was about half melted after being left in the closed bucket for six hours.

One quirk of making ice is that Bluetti stops cooling the main compartment to do it. That should be fine in all but the hottest environments, so long as the lid is left closed. To test the quality of the insulation, I turned off the MultiCooler that had been operating for a day at -10C / 14F while half full of frozen food. According to the app, it measured -8C / 17.6F after one hour, -6C / 21.2 F after two hours, and -5C / 23F after three hours. It was still at 1C / 34F some 14 hours later.

Battery life is very good. In Max refrigeration mode, I was able to bring the temperature down to -10C / 14F, make four batches of ice, and then maintain that temperature for 36 hours before a recharge was needed. In Eco mode, I started the timer when the temperature was already -10C / 14F, made two batches of ice, and maintained the temperature for 40 hours before the battery died. In both cases, the battery quit inelegantly with an E1 error (low battery voltage protection) at about 5 percent charge left. Bluetti tells me “this is normal” which is... come on.

Bluetti provides adapters to power the MultiCooler by three other methods: a 12V / 24V DC connection to a car socket; a standard AC wall jack; or up to 200W of direct connected solar panels, but only if there’s a battery inside. Bluetti didn’t provide any charging data like watts, voltage, and current when I connected a 200W solar panel to the MultiCooler — it just shows it charging on the display and in the app. The unit can make ice no matter how the unit is powered, unlike the EcoFlow Glacier.

The MultiCooler includes a handle and wheels as standard, which make it relatively easy to transport over flat ground when fully loaded. It’s still heavy even without the B70 battery installed, and the wheels are rather small, resulting in limited ground clearance — that means occasionally having to drag the MultiCooler over rougher terrains.

Unfortunately, as I was wrapping up this review, I found that the MultiCooler would not turn on after sitting idle for about a week. It is now back with Bluetti, and a preliminary report suggests that my issue was caused by a heatsink detaching from a MOS tube — a critical voltage control element on the MultiCooler’s circuitry — possibly as a result of rough handling during shipment. Bluetti will now determine if this is a one-off situation or a general defect that requires changes in the manufacturing and assembly process.

We will update this review and add a MultiCooler score when we get the final analysis from Bluetti.

I should also note that while 3-in-1 fridge, freezer, and ice-making combos are impressive in all they can do, they are also expensive compared to simple 12V portable car fridges that cost less than half as much. But those won’t make ice from the power of the Saharan sun, so what’s even the point?

AC180T

The AC180T solar generator is a nicely designed power station with a built-in MPPT charge controller to connect solar panels. Nearly all the outputs and display can be conveniently found on the front, with the AC input on the side. A lid on the top hides the two B70 slots, which are keyed to ensure the batteries are inserted correctly, for a total capacity of 1.43kWh.

For context, 1.43kWh is enough to keep a 6000BTU window air conditioner (400W) running for about six hours, boil about 35 liters of water from a 1000W electric kettle, or keep a Starlink internet from space system running for about a day and a half.

Bluetti’s modular approach really helps to divvy up the weight of the AC180T. Each 5.3 × 6.3 × 13.8in / 134 × 160 × 350mm battery weighs 18.7lbs / 8.5kg, which brings the total weight of the AC180T up to 58.4lbs / 26.5kg when both are inserted — that’s a lot for most people to carry.

When plugged into an AC wall jack and in the fastest “Turbo” mode, charging two batteries from zero to 100 percent took 77 minutes and produced about 44dB of noise (from one meter away) while drawing 1.4kW from the grid. Charging in Standard mode still produced 44dB but pulled only 920W, while Silent mode dropped things down to 37dB and 735W. Charging a single battery in Turbo mode took 66 minutes and pulled a steady 860W. In all cases, charging began to slow down at around 95 percent full, as you’d expect.

I also tested Bluetti’s claim that the AC180T can produce up to 1200W of continuous AC output with one battery inserted or up to 1800W with two hot-swappable batteries.

With one battery installed, I was able to run a microwave at around 1250W for three minutes without issue, but a 2100W hair dryer resulted in an inverter overload, causing it to shut down for safety. I then added the second battery and plugged in the same hair dryer, which ran fine at a steady 1874W, until I plugged in a 1200W toaster for a total load of 3074W, which quickly shut down the inverter with another overload. No smells, no funny noises, no mess, as you’d hope. So, both tests passed.

To test the hot-swappable claim, I started the 1250W microwave with two batteries inserted. It continued to run as I removed and reinserted one of the batteries. I then unplugged the microwave and plugged in the hair dryer, drawing 900W, which continued to blow as I removed and reinserted a battery. I then bumped the heat to max (drawing over 1850W) with two batteries installed, pulled one, and the hair dryer shut off within seconds. Good.

As with all power stations, the AC inverter will drain the battery when left on. With no load attached and the AC output turned on, my two AC180T batteries (1.43kWh) dropped 30 percent in 24 hours. That works out to about 17.92Wh lost per hour, or a steady 18W just to power the inverter, which is fairly efficient. Still, you should enable Bluetti’s AC Eco mode (on by default) to automatically turn off the AC inverter after a user-defined time of low or no load. Otherwise, those fully charged batteries will die in just over three days.

For what it’s worth, I was able to plug the MultiCooler directly into the 12V / 10A DC car jack on the AC180T with the included cable, which obviates the need to swap batteries if you can keep the units close together. You can also power the fridge off the AC180T’s AC port, of course, but DC is more efficient (no wasteful inverter).

The Bluetti app is fine, but it’s cluttered with promotions and only works with the MultiCooler and AC180T over Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi like EcoFlow’s products. That means you’ll have to be nearby to check on your battery status or to adjust temperatures.

Conclusion

On their own, the SwapSolar AC180T solar generator and MultiCooler 3-in-1 fridge are each very competitive products — assuming, of course, that the defect on my MultiCooler review unit was an isolated issue. If so, then Bluetti’s SwapSolar kit is a winning combination.

Regardless, I hope to see Bluetti’s modular ecosystem approach adopted by competitors like EcoFlow, Jackery, and others. A company called Runhood has already been selling less powerful solar generators with modular batteries and accessories for over a year.

What SwapSolar is missing, however, is a small portable charging accessory to independently charge each B70 battery. Bluetti’s Evelyn Zou tells me that a “base” is in development to do exactly that. Then you only need to bring the base and battery into a shop, cafe, or gym to get things charged, instead of conspicuously dragging in the entire fridge or solar generator. The base will also convert the B70 battery into a standalone power source for your USB gadgets. Zou says that Bluetti is looking to expand the SwapSolar ecosystem in the future and is “actively working on new products.” But those are just promises for now, with no dates or prices.

Ideally, owners of the AC180T and MultiCooler and any other SwapSolar device could even upgrade to compatible batteries with improved chemistry over time. Or maybe it opens up a market to cheaper third-party alternatives. We’ll see!

Bluetti is selling the AC180T directly for $1,099. But the MultiCooler is still in that weird Indiegogo “indemand” phase — which means you’ll have to wait until August, according to Bluetti, if you prefer to buy directly from the company and avoid all the Indiegogo “perk” nonsense. The AC180T is covered by a five-year warranty, which drops to two years for the MultiCooler.

For the MultiCooler, my advice is to wait or look elsewhere until Bluetti explains itself.

The SwapSolar MultiCooler and AC180T combo kit is currently priced at $1,999 on Indiegogo. That sounds about right given that a comparable system from EcoFlow that combines the Glacier 3-in-1 fridge with a less powerful River 2 Pro solar generator currently sells for $1,499 or $2,799 when paired with a more powerful Delta 2 Max. The AC180T lists for $999 while the MultiCooler can be purchased separately for $799 (without a B70 battery).

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

We’ve curated a collection of great gifts that should appease any dad, from tabletop games and tools to some of our favorite tech.

It’s true that spending time with dear old dad on Father’s Day is probably the best gift you can give him, but I bet he wouldn't say no to a Garmin or a fancy-schmancy set of tools come Sunday, June 16th. After all, who can resist the allure of the perfect kit?

If you’re stumped on what to give your dad (or any paternal figure) next month, we’ve assembled a medley of tried-and-true gift ideas, each of which comes with a big stamp of approval from a Verge staffer. Our father-friendly recs span the entire spectrum of tech, from plush noise-canceling headphones and ultra-portable wall chargers to an Android-based ebook reader that’s as small as your smartphone. We even have a few analog picks and suggestions for the dad who refuses to grow up because, let’s be honest, Lego sets have only gotten better over the last decade.

Feel free to use the filters below to jump between price points. And if you find yourself still seeking the perfect gift for your dad, husband, partner, grandpa, etc., be sure to peruse our full slate of gift guides.

Someone going by the name “ShinyHunters” has been advertising a 1.3TB cache of data allegedly containing personal data (names, email/home addresses, and phone numbers), credit card details, and other information about 560 million Ticketmaster customers for $500,000 in hacking forums all week.

Now, Ticketmaster parent Live Nation — the company that upset an army of Taylor Swift fans and is facing a federal antitrust lawsuit — publicly acknowledged a data breach in a regulatory filing late Friday evening.

On May 20, 2024, Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (the “Company” or “we”) identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing Company data (primarily from its Ticketmaster L.L.C. subsidiary) and launched an investigation with industry-leading forensic investigators to understand what happened. On May 27, 2024, a criminal threat actor offered what it alleged to be Company user data for sale via the dark web. We are working to mitigate risk to our users and the Company, and have notified and are cooperating with law enforcement. As appropriate, we are also notifying regulatory authorities and users with respect to unauthorized access to personal information.

As of the date of this filing, the incident has not had, and we do not believe it is reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations. We continue to evaluate the risks and our remediation efforts are ongoing.

The only official statement we’ve seen until now has been from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, which confirmed it was working with the company to understand a cybersecurity incident. As noted above, it says it became aware of unauthorized activity on May 20th — it’s now May 31st. Live Nation has not responded to requests for comment from The Verge.

Live Nation didn’t provide specific details about the breach, how many people are affected, or what it’s doing, but a report by the security firm Hudson Rock claims bad actors breached their Snowflake cloud storage account, as well as those of other companies.

However, Live Nation investors can perhaps feel comforted by executives saying they don’t believe this breach will have a material impact on its overall business, which makes sense if you believe the Department of Justice’s monopoly allegations. With the Live Nation-Ticketmaster conglomerate controlling more than 60 of the top 100 US amphitheaters, where else are people going to go?

Starting in July, you won’t be able to add items to lists on third-party apps like Todoist and AnyList with Alexa voice control through their existing Skills. A post on Amazon’s developer site says it's shutting down access to Alexa Shopping and To-Do lists on July 1st.

List Skills and Alexa Shopping and To-Do Lists

Starting July 1, 2024, you will no longer be able to use List skills or the List Management REST API to access Alexa lists, i.e., the Alexa Shopping and To-Do lists, in your skills or apps. For other ways to build custom voice experiences, see Steps to Build a Custom Skill. Please contact us if you have any questions.

What this means is that unless developers choose to develop a new custom skill, their Alexa integrations will stop working, and you’ll have to rely on the Alexa app’s built-in list feature to use voice to add milk to your grocery list or put “take out the trash” on your to-do list.

Today, if you enable their Alexa Skills, third-party apps can sync with lists in the Alexa app and show that data in their app. I personally use this feature to add items to my shopping list in AnyList. But, as of July 1st, they’ll lose this ability and you’ll either need to use the Alexa app’s lists or hope the developer of your favorite list app builds a custom voice skill to manage lists in its apps.

Amazon told The Verge that developers can still integrate Alexa voice control of lists into their apps; they just can’t have access to Alexa lists anymore. “We are making some changes to the way that developers build lists,” said Sarah Zonouzi of Amazon PR. “Developers can integrate our custom voice interaction model into their skill to enable voice control and management of lists.”

She said this offers similar features to the existing options, with the main difference being the customer will be directly managing third-party lists with voice, not Alexa lists.

AnyList told The Verge it does plan to build a custom skill with a custom voice interaction, which it hopes to have ready by July 1. However, co-founder and CEO Jeff Hunter said that the downside is users will have to say, “Alexa *tell AnyList* to add apples to my grocery list,” instead of being able to just say, “Alexa, add apples to my grocery list.”

“We are disappointed with Amazon’s decision to kill the List Skill API, especially on such short notice,” said Hunter. “We expect this change to be disruptive for our customers. Not only will they have to train themselves to say ‘tell AnyList to…’ when talking to Alexa, but if they forget to do that, then their command may still appear to work, even though the item won’t be synced with AnyList.”

Todoist tells The Verge it is not planning to develop a new custom skill. “We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our Alexa integration by July 1, 2024,” said Omar Samuels.

He said they don’t currently have plans to work on a replacement due to the short notice of the shutdown and the resources required. However, he did say “We will be reviewing what possibilities exist to fill any resulting gaps in the future.”

Interestingly — a pop up in the shopping list section of the Alexa app says the company is also discontinuing its Alexa Shopping List Deals feature on July 10th, 2024. This is a program that connects you with deals on Amazon, Whole Foods, and other sources for items on your shopping list.

A shopping list feature is a clear monetization opportunity, so it’s likely Amazon is regrouping here. My guess is we may see a whole new shopping list experience coming to Alexa.

In the meantime, there are going to be a lot of annoyed Alexa users. Adding items to lists is one of the most popular uses for voice assistants, along with playing music, setting timers, and asking what time it is.

I find a dedicated list app like AnyList and Todoist much easier to use while pushing a grocery cart than the Alexa app’s list. While it has improved over time — you can now pin the shopping list to the Favorites section in the app, and there’s a homescreen widget — it’s just not as user-friendly as a dedicated list app.

Then there’s the fact that most third-party list apps have multiple ways of adding items to lists — including desktop apps and support for other voice assistants. That’s helpful if you’re in a multi-ecosystem household.

However, Google has also shut down its Google Home voice command integrations with list apps, breaking connections for AnyList and Any.Do users. Both these apps now only work with Apple’s Siri on an iPhone. Todoist, which also works with Siri, does support Google Assistant, but only on Android phones. As a result, it’s getting harder and harder to find a list app that works with more than one voice assistant, and across more than one family of devices.

Updated May 31st: Added a comment from AnyList on its plans to build a custom skill so customers can continue to use voice control with its app.

Netflix is increasingly getting into live events, with comedy specials, NFL games, and even the WWE, but live action means unpredictability, and today, the streamer announced that a planned July 20th boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson is being rescheduled. While Tyson recovers from an ulcer flare-up that required medical attention during a recent flight, he has been advised to do “minimal to light training” over the next few weeks.

Due to the interrupted training schedule for the officially sanctioned fight — Tyson’s first since 2005 —they’re now planning on a date later this year, which Netflix said will be announced by the end of next week.

“My body is in better overall shape than it has been since the 1990s and I will be back to my full training schedule soon. Jake Paul, this may have bought you some time, but in the end you will still be knocked out and out of boxing for good. I appreciate everyone’s patience and can’t wait to deliver an unforgettable performance later this year,” said Mike Tyson in a statement.

His rival, the YouTuber-turned-boxer, said, “My fans know I don’t want to face Iron Mike at anything but his best, but let there be no mistake — when he steps into the ring with me, I will be ready to claim my W with a sensational finish. Paul vs. Tyson will be one for the ages, and I promise to bring my best for this once-in-a-lifetime matchup.”

A data breach potentially affecting as many as 560 million Ticketmaster accounts and a confirmed one for Santander Bank may have stemmed from attacks on the cloud storage accounts with a company called Snowflake. As spotted by Bleeping Computer, an investigation from cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock reports that a bad actor gained access to Ticketmaster and Santander by using the stolen credentials of a single Snowflake employee.

According to Hudson Rock, the hacker bypassed the authentication service Okta using these credentials and then generated session tokens to obtain a trove of information from Snowflake. In addition to Ticketmaster — which publicly acknowledged the breach later on Friday evening — and Santander Bank, Hudson Rock suggests the hacker may have gained access to hundreds of other Snowflake customers. A few of the major brands that use the cloud storage service include AT&T, HP, Instacart, DoorDash, NBCUniversal, and Mastercard.

The threat actor involved appears to be a hacking group called ShinyHunters, which attempted to sell Ticketmaster’s data on the dark web for $500,000, according to Bleeping Computer. ShinyHunters also claimed responsibility for the Santander breach and put information said to belong to over 30 million customers up for sale.

Snowflake has seemingly disputed Hudson Rock’s findings in its most recent response, saying that while investigating “potentially unauthorized access to certain customer accounts,” it “observed increased threat activity beginning mid-April 2024 from a subset of IP addresses and suspicious clients we believe are related to unauthorized access.”

More details on those findings are available here, but the company says that while a bad actor accessed a “demo account” belonging to a former employee, it didn’t contain sensitive information. It claims that “To date, we do not believe this activity is caused by any vulnerability, misconfiguration, or malicious activity within the Snowflake product.”

Even before Ticketmaster confirmed the breach, malware tracker vx-underground said it could assert “with a high degree of confidence” that the leaked data is legitimate. It notes that some of the leaked information dates back to the mid-2000s and includes full names, emails, addresses, phone numbers, hashed credit card numbers, and more.

Earlier this month, Santander published a statement to confirm that “certain information” of customers in Chile, Spain, and Uruguay had been accessed. The Verge reached out to Ticketmaster and Santander with requests for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Update, May 31st: Noted that Live Nation has now confirmed the data breach.

ElevenLabs already offers AI-generated versions of human voices and music. Now, it will let people create sound effects for podcasts, movies, or games, too. The new Sound Effects tool can generate up to 22 seconds of sounds based on user prompts that can be combined with the company’s voice and music platform, and it gives users at least four downloadable audio clip options.

The company says it worked with the stock media platform Shutterstock to build a library and train its model on its audio clips. Shutterstock has licensed its content libraries to many AI companies, including OpenAI, Meta, and Google.

Sound Effects is free to use, but paid tiers can use the generated audio clips with commercial licenses, while free users “must attribute ElevenLabs by including ‘elevenlabs.io’ in the title.” ElevenLabs users have a set character count limit when writing prompts, with free users getting 10,000 characters per month. For Sound Effects, ElevenLabs says on its FAQs page that it will take 40 characters per second from the allotment if users set the audio clip duration themselves. If using the default audio duration, each prompt request will be charged 200 characters.

Libraries with sound effect clips already exist in the market for creators, filmmakers, and video game developers. But sometimes, these can be expensive or have trouble surfacing just the right type of sound. ElevenLabs says in its blog post that it designed Sound Effects “to generate rich and immersive soundscapes quickly, affordably and at scale.”

Other AI developers are also developing their own text-to-sound generators. Stability AI released Stable Audio last year, which creates audio clips of music and sound effects, and Meta’s AudioCraft models generate natural sound (think background noises like wind or traffic).

If you’ve been on the Facebook app lately, you might’ve seen Meta’s AI inject itself into the comment section with summaries of what people say. Given how wild Facebook comment sections often become, it’s not hard to imagine how ridiculous some of these summaries turn out. (This isn’t the first time Meta’s AI has appeared in the comment section, by the way: 404 Media spotted it pretending to be a parent in a Facebook group.)

After seeing screenshots of the feature shared on Threads and Reddit, I decided to check the comment sections on my Facebook app. I found the AI summaries popping up on many of the posts I checked — unhinged responses and all. One AI summary on a post about a store closure said, “Some commenters attribute the closure to the store ‘going woke’ or having poor selection, while others point to the rise of online shopping.”

Image: The Verge

Another Facebook post from Vice about Mexican street wrestlers prompted a comment section summary that said some people were “less impressed” with the performance and referred to it as a “moronic way of panhandling.” The AI also picked up some of the more lighthearted jokes people made about a bobcat sighting in a Florida town. “Some admired the sighting, with one commenter hoping the bobcat remembered sunscreen.”

It’s still not clear how Meta chooses which posts to display comment summaries on, and the company didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Either way, the summaries really don’t include anything that I found useful (unless you love vague notions about what random people have to say) — but it could help you identify posts where the comment section has gotten too toxic to bother scrolling.

The AI summaries have also prompted privacy concerns, as Meta is feeding user comments into its AI system to generate them. Over the past week or so, many Facebook and Instagram users in the European Union and the UK received a notification informing them that Meta will train its AI on their content. (Data protection laws in both regions require Meta to disclose this information.) Although Meta will let these users object to having their data used to train AI, the process isn’t that simple, and the company has rejected some users’ requests.

Here in the US, Meta’s privacy policy page says the company uses “information shared on Meta’s Products and services” to train AI, including posts, photos, and captions. Meta lets you submit a request to correct or delete personal information used to train its AI models, but it only applies to information from a third party. Everything else seems to be fair game.

May 31st marks the official last day of a covid-19 pandemic-era internet subsidy, the Affordable Connectivity Program.

The up to $30 monthly broadband discount (up to $75 for those on Tribal lands) helped 23 million low-income households in every county in the US access high-speed internet during a period when that connection became more vital than ever as businesses and schools shut their doors. The Federal Communications Commission and industry players have warned for months that the program would soon run out of money unless Congress found a way to fund it, but the money never materialized.

“Without Congressional action to extend funding for the program, millions of households are now at risk of losing their internet connections,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the final day of the program. “President Biden is once again calling on Congress to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, so tens of millions of Americans can continue to access this essential benefit.”

The White House called out more than a dozen internet service providers, including AT&T, Comcast, Spectrum, and Verizon, that have voluntarily agreed to offer plans for $30 or less to low-income households through the end of the year. Those commitments will cover up to 10 million households eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program, according to the White House.

But it’s not a permanent solution. President Joe Biden is reiterating his call to Congress to provide $6 billion in funding to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program. Meanwhile, some advocates, like onetime FCC nominee Gigi Sohn, have urged the agency to look into other ways it could use its authority to expand internet access.

In a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on Thursday, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said that in a survey, 77 percent of Affordable Connectivity Program households indicated the end of the program “would disrupt their service by making them change their plans or lead to them dropping internet service entirely.”

“It is not too late to save the Nation’s largest broadband affordability program,” Rosenworcel said in a note on the FCC website on Friday. “The ACP was too impactful and has too much support from both parties on Capitol Hill and across the country to just move on and say it was nice while it lasted. Bipartisan efforts to provide more funding for the ACP are ongoing, and the FCC is ready to resume the program as soon as any additional funding is provided.”

Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.

Earlier this week, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares took the stage at the Bernstein investor conference and threw down the gauntlet.

Tavares, who oversees companies like Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, and, most importantly, Jeep, said the launch of the new all-electric Jeep Wagoneer S would signal the start of an EV “offensive” that would take the US by storm, according to multiple reports. And part of that offensive would include a more affordable electric Jeep, priced somewhere in the range of $25,000.

For Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa, the announcement from his boss came as a bit of a shock.

“It’s a big challenge,” Filosa said Thursday, hours after unveiling the Wagoneer S in New York City. “And unexpected.”

Photo by Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Unexpected — and perhaps also a little awkward. After all, the Wagoneer S, with its premium materials, high-tech components, and impressive performance capabilities, is very much not an affordable EV. The fully loaded First Launch edition will start at $71,995 — not exactly a price meant to spur mass adoption.

Still, Filosa says Jeep will rise to the challenge. But how long will it take? Timing is of the essence. EV sales are still growing but at a slower pace than previous years. Buyers are more discerning. They’re looking for vehicles that are fast charging with plenty of range but also priced in a way that’s affordable. Most experts have said a $25,000 EV could help that line graph turn from a gentle slope into a hockey stick. But when it comes to exact timetables, only Tavares seems to know for now.

“My boss says soon,” Filosa said with a smile. “Obviously, its an engineering [challenge], so we need to put people [in charge of] developing the car. We have good ideas, we already had our calculation, and we strongly believe that we can get there. Strongly believe.”

Obviously, the project is still in its very early stages. While announcing the Wagoneer S, Filosa said the Wrangler-esque Jeep Recon would be revealed later this year. After that, a third unnamed vehicle will be announced the following year — though Filosa wouldn’t say whether it would be a battery-electric vehicle, plug-in hybrid, or perhaps both. “It will be affordable,” Filosa said, calling it “a smaller Jeep,” but likely not the $25,000 model referenced by Tavares.

Image: Jeep

Battery-electric vehicles represent a significant shift for Jeep, which has largely been focused on plug-in hybrid vehicles in the US. The company’s 4xe (pronounced “four by e”) hybrids, like the Wrangler 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe, are extremely popular, with PHEV sales up 124 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Jeep also sells a compact electric SUV, the Avenger, in Europe for around 35,000 euros, or about $37,800. The company’s cheapest model, the Jeep Compass, starts at $25,900.

Indeed, for the broader industry, the $25,000 EV has been somewhat elusive. Tesla reportedly canceled its plans for a more affordable “Model 2” vehicle at the behest of Elon Musk, who is in the process of shifting the company’s resources toward building a fully autonomous robotaxi. (Musk later recommitted to building “affordable” models while studiously avoiding referencing the $25,000 price point.)

Ford, Volkswagen, and Kia have all said they plan on producing smaller, more affordable EVs in the hopes of stirring up more demand among price-conscious shoppers. GM is relaunching its affordable Bolt EV on a new platform, while Nissan hasn’t said what the future holds for its pioneering Leaf hatchback.

Meanwhile, the specter of dirt-cheap Chinese EVs flooding the market has many automakers nervous — Filosa included. Companies like BYD, Li Auto, and Nio have been exporting plug-in vehicles with aggressive pricing to Africa, South America, and Europe. The Biden administration thinks tariffs can stop them from coming to the US, but that just may delay the inevitable.

“I worry because the level of cost that they need is 20–25 percent lower than our costs,” Filosa said of BYD and other Chinese automakers. “Obviously, I’m talking of challenges coming, and it will challenge us to get better.”