Volkswagen has announced it’s rolling out its improved in-car AI voice assistant, IDA, with both locally processed and cloud-based responses from ChatGPT and other models, starting on September 6th. The first cars getting the feature will be the 2025 Jetta and Jetta GLI and the 82kWh battery version of the 2024 ID.4, with other cars getting it later this year.

Drivers in cars that support ChatGPT will need to be subscribed to VW’s Plus Speech with AI service to get it. Down the line, the company says most of its 2025 models will get the new AI voice assistance features, including the ID.4 and ID Buzz (which will both get it free for three years) and the GTI, Golf R, and Tiguan (free for one year). Jetta, Jetta GLI, and Taos owners will need to subscribe on their own. Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport models won’t get ChatGPT until 2026, Volkswagen says.

The company previously announced its ChatGPT integration plan at CES in January. At the time, it wasn’t clear how it would all work. Volkswagen says that OpenAI’s chatbot along with a “multitude” of other models are provided by automotive chatbot company Cerence, which will take over for IDA when requests are more complex than tweaking your air conditioning settings. For instance, the company says when drivers ask for things like restaurant recommendations or for the chatbot to tell you a story, that will go to the cloud.

IDA can locally process natural language requests for certain things, Volkswagen claims. Tell it you’re “chilly,” and it should know you mean you want the heat on. (Here’s hoping it doesn’t sometimes kick that over to ChatGPT to tell you about nearby Chili’s restaurants.)

San Francisco-based Peak Design — maker of one of our all-time favorite backpacks — is back with its first new bag lineup in five years. PD says its new Outdoor line of backpacks and slings can be worn together for use beyond the pavement. They feature the company’s “most advanced soft-goods design to date,” with lots of adjustment points for a variety of body types and loads. The new bags are compatible with the company’s modular packing cubes that make it easy to organize and quickly access camera equipment, clothing, and other gear.

“Peak Design has been synonymous with ‘outdoor photography’ yet we still haven’t created true outdoor bags…until now,” says Peak Design founder and CEO Peter Dering in a press release. “The Outdoor Line is not only the culmination of everything we’ve learned as bag designers, it’s also a giant nod to our most loyal and longest-tenured customers.”

The Outdoor Backpack is available as an internally framed 45L (L for liters) model for heavy loads and a smaller 25L version for shorter excursions. Both offer quick-cinch roll-top access from the top as well as the ability to splay the bag almost completely open from the back for easy packing and “total visibility” of your gear. The bags also feature sleeves for laptops and hydration packs (with drinking hose passthrough), slash-proof and “weatherproof” construction (with an optional Rain Fly sold separately), and a promise of “superior comfort and fit with significantly less bulk” compared to other backpacks (including PD’s own bags, I hope). The bags also support several options for external hauling including deep pockets and a cord system for carrying things like tripods, sleeping pads, jackets, and water bottles.

It’s worth noting that the 45L Outdoor Backpack weighs 3.97 pounds (1.8kg) while the 25L model weighs 2.54 pounds (1.15kg). That’s heavy if your primary goal is backpacking through open country where huge 60-liter bags often weigh less than 3 pounds (1.36kg). Still, the 45L Outdoor Backpack is definitely an improvement over Peak Design’s previous flagship, the 3.88 pound (1.76kg) 30L Everyday Backpack.

Besides the internal frame and extra hauling capacity, the 45L bag differs from the 25L bag by shipping with a removable hip belt that’s sold as an add-on for the 25L Outdoor Backpack. Both bags are available in black, “cloud” white, and a purple-ish “eclipse.”

Each backpack is compatible with Peak Design’s camera and packing cubes that come in a variety of sizes and fabric choices that prioritize weight or weather resistance. The camera bags are designed to help haul everything from diminutive mirrorless systems, to multi-accessory drones, on up to full professional rigs. Only the 45L bag is suitable for the largest packing cubes sold by Peak Design.

The Outdoor Slings are available in 7L (weighing 0.74 pounds) and 2L (0.39 pounds) sizes and convert quickly from crossbody to waist bags. The larger 7L bag features stowable gear loops for external storage, and it can also fit PD’s smallest camera cube. Both can be worn on the chest when mounted to the shoulder straps of the Outdoor Backpacks for quick access to your most important gear.

Given Peak Design’s crowdfunding history, it’s unsurprising that the Outdoor line is launching as a Kickstarter exclusive today through October 15th, with a January 2025 targeted ship date. There, you’ll find discounts of 20 to 25 percent off retail pricing, according to PD, before the bags eventually make their way to peakdesign.com, Amazon, and other global retailers as early as late November 2024.

Retail pricing will be as follows:

LobbyMatic claims on its website that its AI-powered software can do everything — like automatically monitor congressional hearings or “supercharge research” into legislative and regulatory issues.

Jumping on the AI hypewagon is a perfectly respectable career move. The problem is that sources have told Politico that Wohl and Burkman are running the firm under the pseudonyms “Jay Klein” and “Bill Sanders.”

LobbyMatic has no leadership listed on its official website. A company by the name of LobbyMatic that is registered in Delaware lists its registered agent as “A Registered Agent, Inc.” When reached for comment, LobbyMatic emailed The Verge with a link to a video featuring a man who looks like Jacob Wohl. In the video, he admits that “years ago I was involved in partisan politics.” Later in the video, he adds, “I don’t want my past in partisan politics half a decade ago to distract from a phenomenal product.”

The man does not explicitly identify himself as Wohl at any point or address the claims that he is running the company under a false name.

Politico’s report is based mostly on four former employees they are keeping anonymous. Its case can be summarized as follows:

When The Verge emailed LobbyMatic, we received an email with nothing but a hyperlink to a post on X by an account called @TheLobbyistGuy. The post reads, “Explaining the situation” and features a four-minute and forty-one-second video of a man who looks like Jacob Wohl. “There’s a news story out today I’d like a chance to respond to,” says the man. “It’s no secret that years ago I was involved in partisan politics. It’s certainly no secret in Washington, D.C. It was about half a decade ago, I was a young man, and since then, I have taken my energy in a new direction.”

He then proceeds to give a sales pitch for his software.