Meta’s Terrible AI Profiles Are Going Viral

Meta might not be the first company that comes to mind when you think of generative AI, but they are a big part of the current artificial intelligence race. The company has its own AI model, Llama, has added “Meta AI” to all of its big products—whether you like it or not (you don’t). Meta even wants you to try making your own AI bot. It’s safe to say the company is all-in on AI.

But even for a company so committed to AI, this latest story is simply bizarre. It turns out the company has been experimenting with AI-generated user accounts on its platforms since 2023. The Instagram versions of these pages are currently going viral, but they’re also available on Facebook. The accounts are verified, and each is equipped with a unique personality, but they’re completely fraudulent. Each is entirely made up, with posts of AI-generated images.

It’s all very weird, but also not all that new—the profiles were created more than a year ago, and appear to have largely been abandoned. And now that the profiles are getting a lot of online backlash, Meta is actively deleting their content.

Meta’s AI users are an off-putting bunch

It’s not hard to see why the internet has embraced hating these fake people. Take “Liv” (username “himamaliv”), who purports to be a “proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller.” Liv is, of course, not real, nor is the life she posts about on her Instagram. But that doesn’t stop Liv: The creator has posts about raising strong girls, ice skating with her family, and “soaking up all the sun and fun” with “the kiddos.” Each post sports a corresponding image—the beach post shows children playing in the sand, while the ice skating post shows skaters on an ice rink—but all of these images are AI generated.

To Meta’s credit, each picture sports a Meta AI watermark to denote the image isn’t actually real, but it doesn’t make these posts any less creepy. Why is an AI-generated “mother” posting an AI-generated image of her “kids” playing at the “beach?” Who benefitted from the AI-generated coat drive she is proud to have spearheaded?

Credit: Jake Peterson

In her second oldest post, from Sept. 26, 2023, she says “My backyard is my happy place…I’ve thrown so many birthday parties, cookouts, and girls nights in this space that I’ve lost count. Forever grateful for the life I live,” complete with an AI-generated image of a picnic spread. The thing is, Liv has not thrown birthday parties, cookouts, or girls nights in this space. This space doesn’t exist. The life Liv is so grateful to live doesn’t exist.

Liv is following 18 accounts at the time of writing. Thirteen of them appear to be similar AI-generated pages. For example, there’s Becca (dogloverbecca), who posts AI-generated dog content; Brian (hellograndpabiran), who advertises himself as “everybody’s grandpa;” and Alvin the Alien (greetingsalvin), who is, um, an alien.

But not all the posts are AI-generated. Some of them have videos posted to their accounts as well, and while AI-generated video can certainly be convincing these days, I don’t think these videos are AI generated—at least, not all of them. Carter, the AI dating coach, had a cooking video from January 2024 that appeared very much to be real, but it seems Meta nuked all the content. Still, who posted them? To what end?

These accounts are not new, but are newly going viral

The oddest thing is, these posts and pages are not new. Liv’s latest post, for example, is from March 8, 2024, as are most of the posts from these AI bots. (Carter appears to have posted as recently as June.) For the most part, their profiles are abandoned, although verification badges are still affixed to each. That said, as I’m writing this, Meta appears to be deleting the content on each of the Instagram pages. The Facebook counterparts appear to still be live, but I imagine they’ll be gone soon, too.

Credit: Jake Peterson

The pages are actually tied to AI chatbots Meta developed back in 2023, when it was really kicking its AI programs into gear. The headlines then focused mostly a roster of celebrity AI chatbots, which let you chat with “Tom Brady,” “Kendall Jenner,” and “Paris Hilton.” But among these list of non-celebrity chatbots Meta rolled out were names like Liv, Brian, and Alvin the Alien. You can still chat with them if you like: visit Liv’s profile, and you can start up a conversation. But just like with any other AI chatbot, you probably won’t get very far.

It’s not totally clear why these accounts are going viral now, a year and a half after Meta initially rolled them out. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s because they really are that bad. The accounts are weird, and there are so many layers to their weirdness: The personalities Meta developed are off-putting (and borderline offensive); the posts themselves are creepy (who wants to see AI photos of fake people’s kids, complete with a story about their day at the beach?); and the fact that they’re verified defeats the purpose of verification altogether.

In short, the accounts might be from 2023, but they reflect a raging resentment of AI slop in 2025. As Jason Koebler of 404media writes on Bluesky:

The currently viral Meta AI profiles are old and are already inactive because they were such a colossal failure and were indistinguishable from AI spam. This ‘inevitable’ future Zuckerberg is trying to shove down our throats is being completely rejected

www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro…[image or embed]

— Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 12:12 PM

How to Use a Rice Cooker (for Rice and so Much More)

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I have two rice cookers. Ol’ trusty, that I’ve used since college (and that was not recently), and a modern digital one from Toshiba. Judge me all you want, but I use them both and the old one is still kickin’. Whether your machine is $200 with 30 settings, or $15 with a single toggle switch, rice cookers all have the same bones. The best part is that they’re so easy to use, even the least confident cook can feel good about their rice. Here’s how to use a rice cooker for rice—and the many other non-rice foods you can cook in one.

How do rice cookers work?

Inside the rice cooker there is a circular heating plate and a smaller central, spring-loaded plate.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

(Please forgive the appearance of my elder rice cooker in the photos; let’s just call it “seasoned,” shall we?)

A rice cooker uses heat and water to cook rice. If you’ve ever cooked rice in a pot on a stove before, you know heat and water aren’t hard to come by. It’s the final stage of not burning the rice that’s tricky. That’s where the rice cooker wins. Unlike your pot on the stove, a rice cooker has a sensor that ensures your grains are cooked to fluffy perfection, and then stops cooking.

Rice cookers have simple mechanics on the inside: a thin metal bowl to hold the rice, a heating plate inside with a spring mechanism underneath, and a thermostat. When you fill the metal bowl with water and rice and load it into the machine, the heating plate conducts easily through the thin metal of the bowl. The temperature only goes up to boiling (212°F) while cooking, because that’s the peak temperature of water before it evaporates.

The steamy air slowly escapes through a hole in the lid or another vent in your rice cooker. This slow ventilation allows condensation to drip back into the rice, extending the boiling time and giving the rice ample time to absorb enough water.

At the end of the cooking time, all of the water has been soaked up or escaped as steam. There is no longer a pool of water in the bowl so the temperature starts to rise above 212°F. This change in temperature triggers the thermostat in the appliance to switch from “cook” over to the “warm” setting, and the spring pushes the bowl up away from the heating plate. The rice is cooked through, with nary a grain burnt.

How to use a rice cooker

1. Measure and rinse your rice

There are many types of rice out there, but I grew up on Jasmine rice, and we always rinsed it. Rinsing it gets rid of excess starch, and this makes sure the finished rice doesn’t end up gloppy. To do this, you can put your measurement of rice in a mesh sieve and run water through it, moving it around with your fingertips.

White jasmine rice in a metal container with measurement markings on the inside.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Alternatively, I usually dump the rice into the metal cooking pot and then cover it with water. You can see in the picture that the water becomes nearly opaque with starch. Simply swish it around a bit with your fingers and pour off the cloudy water. I do this twice. Note that the water you add for cooking might cloud up a little, and that’s just fine it doesn’t have to run clear.

Pouring water out of a pot of rice into a sink.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

2. Add the cooking water

Add the water that you’ll cook the rice in. A 1:2 ratio of rice to water is well-loved. This can change depending on the type of rice you’re using, and how you prefer the final texture to be. If you want drier grains, use a quarter-cup or so less water. If you like wetter rice, use a bit more. If you want super soft rice to break up into congee then you’ll need even more water. Many packages of rice come with suggestions so you can check the directions if you’re unsure.

3. Load up the cooker

Put the metal bowl into the rice cooker and close the lid. Now comes the cooking part where you can press a button and walk away.

Multi-setting models

Cooking with a rice cooker should be a pleasant, simple experience. Even if you have an appliance with a digital screen and multiple settings, there should be a button for “rice.” Some models will have buttons for specific types of rice, like brown rice, sushi rice, or jasmine rice. If you know the type of rice you have, go ahead and select the button. That might be enough, or if there is a “start” button, press it now.

The control panel of a modern digital rice cooker.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

If you don’t know what kind of rice you have, that’s totally fine. Just click “rice” or “white rice.” The amount of water you added is actually more important than the clever little button options they give you. Sure, brown rice and white rice need different timings, but remember what I said about the thermostat? A good machine will be able to adjust the timing based on how much water is left in the tank.

Single-setting models

If you have a rice cooker like I do, you don’t have a lot of options. Simply load the bowl with rice and water, cover it with the lid and press the lever to “cook.” The machine will automatically switch to the warm setting when it’s done.

With just one switch, it doesn’t get more “no frills” than this, but boy can it cook.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Highly rated rice cookers:

Use your rice cooker for a whole lot more

Definitely use this handy gadget for perfect rice, but you might as well find it a permanent spot on the counter because it can do so much more. Use it for one-pot meals, hands-off hot oatmeal, perfectly peelable hard-boiled eggs, use chicken broth instead of water for seasoned rice, or try mac and cheese that makes itself. I could write a whole entire post on all the things you could make in a rice cooker, but we have that already so just read all about it right here. Have fun exploring, and may your rice cooker steam multiple happy decades of food for you.

This Samsung Watch Is At Its Lowest Price Right Now

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The Samsung Galaxy Watch FE, crowned “The Best Android Smartwatch of 2024” by PCMag, is currently priced at $199.99 (down from $249.99)—the lowest it’s ever been, according to price-trackers). Designed exclusively for Android users (Android 10 or newer), it is a compact, 40mm smartwatch with a 1.19-inch Super AMOLED display. That said, its bezels are a bit chunky, which might not be to everyone’s taste. Setting it up is straightforward but requires a few extra apps. You’ll need Galaxy Wearable to get started, Samsung Health for accessing detailed health metrics, and Samsung Health Monitor for ECGs. It’s a bit of a hassle but manageable if you’re already in Samsung’s ecosystem.

SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch FE 40mm LTE AI Smartwatch w/Fitness Tracking, BIA Sensor, Personalized HR Zones, Heart Rate Tracker, Sleep Monitor, 2024, Black [US Version, 1Yr Manufacturer Warranty]

The Galaxy Watch FE covers the essentials on the health side, tracking heart rate, sleep stages, blood oxygen levels, and body composition metrics like body fat percentage and BMI. Snore detection is also available, but only if you’re using a Samsung phone. However, it lacks a few high-end features like sleep apnea detection, skin temperature sensors, and Galaxy AI. On the lifestyle side, it holds its own. You’ll have access to a variety of third-party apps via the Google Play Store, with popular options like Audible, Calm, Spotify, and WhatsApp readily available. The watch also lets you make calls, send texts, and receive notifications, making it a practical everyday companion.

Available in black, silver, and pink gold, the Galaxy Watch FE is lightweight at just 0.9 ounces, yet it’s built to endure. With an IP68 rating, 5ATM water resistance, and MIL-STD-810H certification, it’s tough enough to handle dust, submersion, and extreme temperatures. The battery life of the Watch FE is decent, though not groundbreaking. You can expect 27 hours of usage with the always-on display, or 40 hours with it turned off, according to this PCMag review. If longer battery life is a must, the OnePlus Watch 2, currently priced at $249.95 (down from $299.99), might be a better fit.

Apple Might Owe You Money for Letting Siri Spy on You

If you use Apple devices—specifically, Siri-enabled devices—you might have some money coming your way. That’s because Apple just agreed to a $95 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit. The dispute? That Apple’s infamous smart assistant, Siri, violated user privacy.

Wait, what did Siri do?

Back in 2019, we learned that Siri was inadvertently spying on many of us. It has to do with how Apple was training and improving its assistant. As you likely know, to trigger Siri, you say “Hey Siri,” (these days, you can simply say “Siri”) and the assistant wakes up and answers (or attempts to answer) your query or request. This is known as the “wake word.” The problem is, sometimes the assistant mishears something said, and, believing it to be the wake word, turns on, resulting in those times you hear, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that” when you, in fact, never asked for Siri’s help in the first place.

In order to improve Siri, Apple would occasionally send snippets of audio recordings from Siri-enabled devices to third-party contractors, in part, to rate whether or not a Siri trigger was warranted in that specific case. Apple said it would send fewer than 1% of recordings to contractors, and that none of the recordings were tied to the Apple IDs of the users they came from, but that wasn’t enough to preserve their privacy. As a result of this training policy, contractors were privy to, “private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters, and so on.” And while the user’s Apple ID might not have accompanied the recording, contractors did have access to the user’s location, contact details, and app data.

Apple created a situation where if your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV thought you said “Hey Siri,” there was a small chance whatever you were doing at that time would be shared with some third-party contractor somewhere in the world. Apple isn’t unique here, however: Both Google and Amazon have been accused of the same, and Google is currently engaged in a similar lawsuit. Shortly after these reports, Apple made it possible to opt-out of sharing Siri recordings, and later stopped storing the recordings altogether.

There might be a slice of $95 million waiting for you

The lawsuit Apple just settled ranges between Sept. 17, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2024, the period of time “Hey Siri” has been an option on Apple devices. If you can attest that your Apple device accidentally triggered Siri during a private conversation, you qualify for a payout. That’s $20 per Siri-enabled device, with a limit of five devices. In theory, you could walk away with $100 from this lawsuit, but if too many class members come forward, that initial $20 could drop.

To be clear, Apple has denied wrongdoing in this case, though the company did apologize for the Siri debacle years ago. In addition, this settlement still needs approval from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Until then, the payouts are not official.

As Reuters points out, $95 million is roughly nine hours of profit for Apple. Justice.

Telegram Has a New Verification Strategy to Cut Down on Scams

Misinformation and scams are an unfortunate reality of the internet in 2024. That “news” account might really be pushing falsehoods and lies, while that outreach from “Google” likely isn’t from the company at all. You really need to be on guard at all times when processing the information that passes through your social feeds, which is why it helps when apps and platforms take action to protect users from untrustworthy sources.

Telegram has a new verification system

That seems to be the motivation behind recent updates from Telegram. The messaging platform has an existing verification system built into the service, where companies and public figures can register themselves with Telegram and receive a blue badge of honor. That way, when you see content from a notable person or an organization, you can rest assured those words being share are actually from that source. Many platforms (but not all) offer this type of service, of course. Even Google is thinking about rolling out badges for search.

But Telegram has a new addition to how it conducts verification: Once an organization is verified, it can then apply to become a “third-party verifier,” which lets them verify other accounts and chats it deems official, too. These verification badges will differ from the blue checkmarks, and will instead look like blue emojis or icons. Any account or chat verified in this way will have a banner in its profile that explains which third party verified it and why.

I’m all for this type of verification process, and hope it catches on. It puts trust in accounts that already have proven their authority to Telegram, and, over time, will help users quickly parse which accounts and chats are legit, and which might be best to avoid. In the future, you might see a post from an account or chat, and since it doesn’t have that badge, think twice about the message it’s trying to get out.

Other new Telegram features

Credit: Telegram

In addition to third-party verification, Telegram announced a series of other features and changes coming to the platform:

Message search filters: When searching, you’ll now see an option in the “Chats” tab to sort your messages by “All Chats,” “Private Chats,” “Group Chats,” or “Channels,” to help you find the messages you’re looking for.
Folder names gets custom emojis: If you subscribe to Premium, you can add custom emoji to the names of your chat folders. You can even replace the text that would normally appear here with whatever emoji you want.
In-app QR code scanner: When using the in-app camera on either iOS or Android, you’ll also be able to scan QR codes.
Collectible gifts: Telegram “gifts” are small tokens of artwork you can share with friends and display on your profile. Now, you can upgrade a gift to make it a “collectible.” This will add a new look made by a Telegram artist, as well as a unique background, icon, and number. You can share collectibles with other users, or, if you’re so inclined, auction it as an NFT. Right now, 20 gifts can be upgraded to collectibles, with over 1,400 unique appearances.
Service message reactions: Service messages are those alerts you get whenever someone joins a group, begins a video call, or sends you a gift. Telegram now lets you react to these alerts, which adds a fun layer to these previously informative-only messages.

My Favorite Renter-Friendly Storage Solutions That Won’t Leave a Mark

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When you rent, the space is your home but it’s not your home, you know? You obviously want to keep it tidy and organized, not only for your own benefit, but so you don’t end up forfeiting a security deposit sometime down the line. The real trouble comes into play when deciding how to do that. In most cases, you can’t remodel or make any permanent changes, but you’re not without options: Here are the best (non destructive) organizational solutions for renters.

Always opt for expanders or tension rods

Plenty of people screw shelving and rods into the walls of their rentals with the understanding that they can patch the holes before they leave, but it’s still not ideal. On move-out day, you have enough going on, so you may not want to go full handyman at a time when you already have to relocate and unpack somewhere else. Expandable organizers are a much better option overall.

Expandable drawer dividers (eight for $29.99) are excellent because they help you follow the rules of the Organizational Triangle. Specifically, they enable you to divide drawers and shelves so you have hyper-specific storage spaces for all your item categories. This is really important for keeping everything in order, but you can do it without permanently installing a thing. The same goes for these expandable tension racks ($24.95), which produce extra shelving space wherever you need it.

Obviously, try to use standard tension rods wherever possible, from hanging curtains to creating a bar for extra clothing or handbag storage, but also consider tension-based shower caddies. If there’s one place you really shouldn’t be making permanent changes, it’s anywhere with tile or ceramic, so these are your safest option for leaving the bathroom exactly as you found it. You can get a four-tiered caddy for less than 20 bucks.

The best shelving for renters

In my many years as a renter, I’ve tried all kinds of shelving units. My problem is I need a lot of storage space, so even though I really like squat ones that don’t take up much room, they’re just not that useful for me and always end up getting really cluttered. I need big ones—but they have to be just the right size. If they’re too top heavy or too light, they need to be secured to the wall, and that’s just not what I’m trying to do in a space that I don’t own.

I love this four-tiered shelving unit from Furinno ($32.99), which I’ve had for four years and have had no problems with. Other units I tried before were the wrong size and would collapse or fall over. These are just sturdy and stable enough to stand on their own without reinforcement. Not once in four years have they done anything to displease me or risk my security deposit.

Furinno Turn-N-Tube 4-Tier Multipurpose Shelf Display Rack, Round Tubes, Pink/White

I am also a huge proponent of cube storage. Square shelving provides smaller holes, so you have to be more specific and intentional about the categories you’re storing, but the heft is evenly distributed and they’re low enough to the ground that, again, they don’t need any reinforcing. My top tip, as someone with too much experience, is to get the ones you do have to screw together, not the ones that slide into external holders. Those are too light and unstable. They will collapse. The ones you screw together, like these from Furinno ($29.99 for five units), are much more stable.

Quality adhesive is the renter’s friend

I have all kinds of cool organizers around my home, attached to walls and under cabinets. They’re attached by adhesive, meaning on the day I leave, I can just pull them right down. I’ve moved and rearranged them a lot and never noticed them pulling at any of the drywall. That’s because I use quality adhesive. I prefer 3M over Command, which I’ve noticed tends to fall down more. You can get over 16 feet of the adhesive for $12.99.

As for what I use it for, let me count the ways. I have an entire “organizational wall” that includes individual sunglasses holders, racks for belts and hats, and bottle storage for things like sunscreen and hairspray. I also use adhesive hooks all over the apartment, as well as adhesive towel and utensil organizers in the kitchen.

All of these are inexpensive, coming in under $20, and give me hyper-specific organizational options for all of the things I need to store without doing any damage to the property. All that said, I don’t recommend adhesive shelving. Any large shelf you have to stick to the wall runs the risk of crashing down. That’s not worth it to me, so I stick to shelving units and smaller wall-based organizing tools.

How to Watch Pornhub Even If It’s Blocked In Your State

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The internet is changing rapidly, and adult entertainment is no exception: Porn sites operating in 17 U.S. states must now verify that their users are adults with a government-issued ID or some other suitable method of proving their identity—which is not necessarily something you want to do every time you visit an adult site. In response, Pornhub, as well as other sites under parent company Aylo, have gone dark in each state in protest. As such, many users across these states are now searching for the best VPNs (virtual private networks) to install on their devices so they can still access the site.

As of Jan. 1, three states—Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina—now require sites like Pornhub to ensure visitors are adults. They join a list of states that includes Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Texas, and Virginia—all of which have lost access to Pornhub and Aylo sites. Georgia will join this list in July, once its similar law is enacted. Louisiana is the only state with one of these laws Aylo works with, utilizing the state’s digital license program, “LA Wallet,” to verify users. If you attempt to load the site in one of the other 17 states, however, you’ll see, in part, something like this message: “[Age verification] bills have failed to protect minors, by driving users from those few websites which comply, to the hundreds of thousands of websites with far fewer safety measures in place, which do not comply.”

These laws are not going without challenge. Pornhub sued Texas, for example, but blocked the site in the state once the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law. For its part, Pornhub says the Texas ruling will, “impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech” and that age verification generally, “is not an effective solution for protecting users online.” The company wants to see age verification handled at the device level. As for the federal appeals court, it pointed to the age verification needed to buy old-fashioned, printed porn: Not applying the same rules to online content “implies that the invention of the Internet somehow reduced the scope of the state’s ability to protect children,” wrote Circuit Judge Jerry Smith in the ruling. The Supreme Court will hear the case later this month.

How to watch Pornhub if it’s blocked in your state

Whatever your position on age verification laws, remember that the best VPNs can connect your computer to a server in a different part of the world—making it look like you’re located somewhere other than where you actually are.

That’s just the start, though, when it comes to the benefits of installing a VPN. These software tools hide your browsing activity from governments, law enforcement agencies, and whoever is providing your internet. Generally, VPNs make it harder for companies to track you, and give you more security and privacy (though not total anonymity) online.

With that in mind, Lifehacker has covered the best free VPNs, the best paid VPNs, and the best free VPNs for Android in the past, but I’d like to highlight a couple of recommendations here—if you want more suggestions for your internet browsing needs (adult site-related or not), follow those links above.

The best free VPN: Proton VPN

Proton VPN doesn’t put any bandwidth restrictions on free accounts.
Credit: Proton

We’ve written in glowing terms before about how good the free Proton VPN is, and it’s a great pick if you don’t want to spend anything. Its appeal starts with Proton itself: It’s committed to privacy, was started by scientists in Switzerland, and is siloed from the big tech names (like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft). It’s a name you can trust.

There are also surprisingly few restrictions for a free VPN. The two main limitations are you can only connect from one device, and you don’t get to choose which country’s servers you connect to. That’s it—it’s not painfully slow, like a lot of free VPNs. If you do need more flexibility in your VPN connections and features, there are paid upgrades available too.

Add in the ease of use you get with Proton VPN, the support for a broad range of devices, and the reliability you get from servers around the world, and it’s difficult to beat in terms of a free VPN. Sign up here for a Proton account, if you don’t already have one.

The best paid VPN: NordVPN

You can connect to more than 60 different countries with NordVPN.
Credit: NordVPN

You’ve got a lot of excellent options to pick from when it comes to paid VPNs, and there’s no app that’s far and away above the others—but we’re going to highlight NordVPN here, which we recently compared to ExpressVPN. It’s fast, it’s flexible, and the software it offers across multiple platforms is more polished and intuitive than with a lot of its rivals.

You get lots of features with NordVPN, from split tunneling to DNS customizations to support for the super-private Onion network. While you can easily use the software with just a couple of clicks (or taps), there are numerous advanced features available if you want to dig a bit deeper—you can even have a dedicated IP address (though it costs extra).

Pricing for NordVPN starts at $11.95 a month, but you can get some pretty significant discounts if you pay for a year (or two years) up front. That’s enough to get you up to six simultaneous connections, and you can sign up here to register and download the apps.

What Happens to Your Debts When You Die

So, you’ve died. Congrats, you’re finally debt-free! Unfortunately, things are now a bit more complicated for your relatives. When someone dies, their debts don’t simply disappear. Instead, for the most part, they become part of the deceased person’s estate—the collection of all assets and liabilities left behind. Understanding how these debts are handled is crucial for both estate planning and managing inherited responsibilities. Let’s take a look at what exactly happens when you die with debts to your name, and what you can do to ensure your family members are not left with an unwelcome surprise. And, of course, none of this is legal advice—it’s simply an overview of what happens, generally speaking, to your debts when you die.

First off, the probate process

After death, the estate goes through probate. This is the legal process where an executor is appointed to manage the estate, assets are identified and valued, valid debts are paid, and remaining assets are distributed to heirs. During probate proceedings, any outstanding debts must be settled using property and funds from the estate. Heirs receive no inheritance until debts are settled.

Most states require debts to be paid in this order:

Funeral expenses
Estate administration costs
Federal taxes
Medical bills from final illness
Secured debts
Unsecured debts

If the estate lacks funds to pay all debts (aka an insolvent estate), debts are paid according to priority order. Lower-priority creditors may receive partial payment or nothing, while remaining debts typically die with the deceased.

Some assets bypass probate and are protected from creditors. These include life insurance proceeds, retirement accounts with named beneficiaries, assets in living trusts, and property held in joint tenancy.

Types of debts and what happens to them

Now that we know the order of debts that need to be paid, let’s take a look at how different types of debt are handled.

Federal student loans

Automatically discharged upon death
Death certificate must be submitted to loan servicer
Private student loans may have different rules; some require payment from the estate

Credit card debt

Paid from estate assets
Not inherited by family members unless they are: co-signers on the account, joint account holders, or required by state law (in community property states—more on that below)

Medical bills

Estate is responsible for payment
May be negotiable with healthcare providers
Family members generally not liable unless they signed financial responsibility forms or live in states with specific filial responsibility laws

Mortgages and home loans

Property can transfer to heirs, but the mortgage remains
Options for inheriting family members are to assume the mortgage and continue payments, refinance the loan, or sell the property to pay off the debt

Car loans

Similar to mortgages, lender may allow loan assumption by qualified heirs
Vehicle can be sold to satisfy the debt

Impact on family members

The good news is that relatives are not typically responsible for repaying the debt of someone who’s died, unless:

They’re a co-signer on a loan with outstanding debt.
They’re a joint account holder on a credit card. (Note: This is different from an authorized user.)
They’re a surviving spouse and your state law requires spouses to pay a particular type of debt.
They’re the executor or administrator of the deceased person’s estate and your state law requires executors or administrators to pay an outstanding bill out of property that was jointly owned by the surviving and deceased spouses.
They’re a surviving spouse and you live in a community property state that requires surviving spouses to use jointly-held property to pay debts of a deceased spouse. These states include Alaska (if a special agreement is signed), Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

If there was no co-signer, joint account holder, or other exception, only the estate of the deceased person owes the debt.

Preventive measures

While you can’t plan for an unexpected death, there are steps you can take now to protect heirs from debt complications. The most obvious step is to maintain adequate life insurance. Even if you’re young and healthy now, you could still need a plan. Make things easier for your loved ones by keeping detailed financial records and regularly updated beneficiary designations. Finally, consider creating a living trust, and consult with estate planning professionals.

If you’re the family member of someone who recently left debt behind them, consider consulting a probate attorney. Don’t automatically pay debts from personal funds, and always request debt verification in writing while keeping detailed records of all communications.

Debt settlement is tricky enough while you’re alive. Understanding what happens to your debts when you die is the best way you don’t leave a mess for your estate once you’re gone. For more, here’s how to talk to your kids about your estate plan now.

Nobody Can Agree on What ‘Zone 2’ Cardio Is

This post is part of Find Your Fit Tech, Lifehacker’s fitness wearables buying guide. I’m asking the tough questions about whether wearables can really improve your health, how to find the right one for you, and how to make the most of the data wearables can offer.

“Zone 2” is the term the fitness world has (mostly) agreed upon to describe the low intensity cardio most of us should be doing regularly. When you’re in zone 2, you’re working hard enough that you start breathing more heavily, but easy enough you could hold a conversation doing it. You stop a zone 2 session because your workout time is up, not because you’re too exhausted to continue.

But what heart rate should you expect to see on your fitness smartwatch when you’re in zone 2? That’s where people disagree.

What is zone 2 training?

As I’ve explained before, the name “zone 2” comes from heart rate training. To train by heart rate, you use either a wristwatch with an optical heart rate sensor (that green light on the back) or a chest strap paired to your watch or just to a phone (chest straps are more accurate, and I recommend a good $25 one here).

To train by heart rate, you aim to keep your heart rate in the “zone” that gives you your desired workout. In most of the popular systems, there are five zones. Zone 1 is your resting or recovery zone; zone 2 is low intensity cardio; and zones 3, 4, and 5 are for harder efforts, usually done for only a few minutes with recoveries in zone 1 or 2 in between. (I have a more detailed guide to the zone system here.) While zone 2 is the trendiest at the moment, the other zones still have uses. Personally, I think zone 3 is underrated, and probably most of us would be better off getting a mix of zones 2 and 3 for our steady cardio rather than pure zone 2. But that’s a story for another time.

Heart rate zones are usually defined as percentages of your maximum heart rate. So when I set my Apple Watch to keep me in zone 2 during my runs, it wants my heart rate to be between 60% and 70% of maximum. Even at an easy effort, I found I was commonly exceeding that limit. On the other hand, when I hop on a Peloton bike, my heart rate is often still in zone 1 when I could swear I’m riding at a zone 2 effort. It turns out that system defines zone 2 as 65% to 75% of my max.

Who is right? Well, everybody. “Zone 2” isn’t a term with scientifically designed boundaries. Anybody can split up heart rate zones any way they like. (Stay tuned for my patented eight-zone system, coming as soon as I can find a way to monetize it!) If you train with more than one gadget, or if you find yourself discussing heart rate training with a friend who uses a different system than you do, it’s worth knowing the differences.

What heart rate percentage counts as zone 2?

Let’s take a tour of some of the more popular wearables and fitness systems that measure heart rate in a five-zone system, or something like it.

First, it’s important to know that most (not all) of these percentages are based on your max heart rate. To know your max heart rate, you need to do a real-world test, not just calculate it from a formula. For example, one formula calculates my max heart rate as 178 beats per minute, and another says it should be 169; in reality, I’ve seen as high as 207 when I’m running, and 198 on a spin bike. (And yes, your max can differ for different types of cardio. My heart rate while I’m swimming would probably be lower still; when your body is horizontal, your heart has an easier time moving your blood around.)

There are other systems to consider too. “Heart rate reserve” (HRR) means that you take the difference between your max and your resting heart rate (instead of between your max and zero) and calculate from there. Some gadgets will estimate a different benchmark, like your lactate threshold, and use that as a basis for the zones.

So, here are the zone 2 percentages from a variety of popular wearables, along with what they are percentages of:

Apple Watch: Zone 2 is 60-70% of your heart rate reserve, with your “resting” heart rate set to either 72 or a number the watch has picked up automatically, and your maximum calculated with the 220-age formula. (You can choose to set the zones manually, instead.)
Fitbit: instead of “zone 2,” Fitbit devices have a “moderate” zone (formerly called “fat burn”) set at 40% to 59% of your heart rate reserve. To find your heart rate reserve, your max is calculated according to the “220 minus age” formula, and your resting heart rate is measured by the device. You can set your max and your zones manually if you prefer.
Garmin: Depends on your device and on how you’ve chosen to set up your zones. As a percentage of max heart rate, zone 2 is 73-81%. As a percentage of heart rate reserve, it’s 65-75%. And as a percentage of your lactate threshold heart rate (which the watch can automatically detect for you, and which normally falls between zones 4 and 5), it’s 79-88% of that heart rate. Note that these numbers won’t necessarily line up with each other. A heart rate that is in zone 2 on one of these systems may be in zone 3 on another. And, of course, you can set your max and/or your zones manually.

Some other fitness platforms have defined heart rate zones to be used with your training. To name a few:

Orangetheory gets its name from the “orange” zone it wants you to be in during workouts. Its equivalent of zone 2 would be the “blue” zone, at 61% to 70% of max heart rate. It uses an “industry standard formula” to determine your max, which Self reports is 208 minus 0.7 times your age. After you’ve taken 20 classes, an algorithm will pick out a new max heart rate for you.
Peloton defines heart rate zone 2 (no relation to Power Zone 2) as 65% to 75% of your max heart rate. Max heart rate is 220 minus your age unless you adjust it manually in your settings.
The American College of Sports Medicine defines “light” training, arguably its version of zone 2, as 57% to 63% of maximum heart rate. “Moderate” is 64% to 76%.

How do you know which benchmark to use?

Rather than obsessing over numbers, think about the big picture and decide what training effect you are trying to achieve with your workouts.

If you want to build your endurance with low-intensity cardio, or if you want to rack up minutes in this zone to help with weight loss, it doesn’t matter exactly what your heart rate works out to be. What matters is that you can do the exercise for a long time without fatiguing, but that you’re also not slacking off and barely doing any work at all.

In other words, you can use your gadget’s heart rate numbers as a guide, but keep them honest with a reality check based on what fitness professionals call “perceived exertion.” If you want a number to focus on, you can rate your exertion on a scale of 1 to 10—called RPE for “rating of perceived exertion”—and aim for an RPE of about 3 to 4.

Over time, you’ll start to notice what heart rate tends to show on your watch when you’re at that level. I know that if my heart rate is in the 150s, I’m doing a good job of keeping my jogging to a “zone 2″ sort of effort. If it pokes up into the 160s at the beginning of a run, that’s probably harder than I’m going for—but if it hits 160 at the end of a long run on a hot day, that’s fine. (Heart rate changes with the temperature and the length of your workout, a phenomenon called cardiac drift.)

Ultimately, this is probably the most accurate way of using heart rate to determine exercise intensity: figure out the intensity you want first, and use heart rate as a guide to be able to hit that same intensity on a consistent basis. After all, if there were one correct number that was easy to determine, the different gadgets and platforms would have all gotten on board with it by now. So trust your body more than your watch.

How Much Exercise Do You Really Need?

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You probably know zero exercise is not enough and that going for a walk every day is generally a good thing. And if you’re training for a marathon, you’ll be on your feet for a couple hours of hard workouts every week. But what is the benchmark for a human being just trying to squeeze enough healthy exercise into their life? Let’s break it down.

The basics: 150 minutes of cardio and two days of strength training every week

Fortunately, all the major public health organizations are in agreement. The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Heart Association are all on board with the following guidelines for aerobic exercise:

At least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity (cardio) exercise like walking or easy jogging, or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise like running, or a combination. (If you can easily meet that, more is better.)
At least two days per week of muscle strengthening activity, like lifting weights or doing other strength training like pushups, resistance band exercises, or even heavy manual labor like shoveling.

A previous edition of the guidelines said that you need to do your cardio for a minimum of 10 minutes at a time for it to count, but the current recommendation is to get it in however you can, even if that includes some shorter bursts here and there.

If that’s too easy, level up to 300 minutes

If you’re pretty athletic, the above won’t sound like much. Good news! The WHO has set a secondary goal for folks like you. It’s simple: just do double the above. So you can aim for 300 minutes of moderate cardio, or 150 minutes per week of vigorous activity. Here’s what that might look like:

An intense, hour-long martial arts class three times a week (60 x 3 = 180, but this is vigorous cardio, so the minutes count double)
Go on a 45-minute after-dinner walk every day (45 x 7 = 315 minutes of moderate cardio)
Commute by bike to work, 20 minutes each way (40 minutes per day x 5 days per week = 200 minutes moderate cardio) and play recreational league soccer for two matches per week (50 minutes each game, for some combination of moderate and vigorous cardio, definitely puts us over 300).

What do “moderate” and “vigorous” exercise mean?

Walking at a purposeful pace counts as “moderate” cardio, and jogging counts as “vigorous.” I have a detailed breakdown here of what exercises count as moderate versus vigorous. The distinction is not based on heart rate or effort level, but rather on a scientific metric called METs that relates to how much energy and oxygen the exercise takes. Moderate exercise is anything that scores between 3 and 6 METs, and vigorous exercise is 6+ METs.

That said, you can estimate by effort level. When you’re doing moderate exercise, you’ll be a little bit sweatier or breathing a little harder than when you’re at rest, but you can do it continuously without feeling tired. It may not even feel like a workout. Here are some examples of moderate cardio:

A brisk walk
Commuting or doing errands by bike, on relatively flat ground
Using a spin bike or other cardio machines like the elliptical, at a low intensity, steady pace
Housework and light yard work, like washing windows or mowing the lawn with a power mower

By contrast, vigorous exercise includes activities where you’re working hard and breathing hard. You might still be able to keep up a conversation, but it’s not likely to feel easy. Vigorous exercise also includes the really hard stuff where you might not be able to keep it up very long. This could include:

Running fast
Bicycling uphill
Pushing yourself to finish a Crossfit WOD with a good time
Swimming laps
Playing a game of soccer or basketball
Tougher housework and yard work, like chopping wood or using a push mower

Can I combine moderate and vigorous cardio?

You can mix and match these two intensities. The math is simple if you think about 150 minutes as your target and consider every minute of vigorous cardio counting double. Here are some examples:

A 20 minute brisk walk every weekday morning (20 minutes x 5 days = 100 minutes moderate cardio) plus a 30-minute spin class that has you working pretty hard (30 minutes counted double is 60; add that to the 100 and you’re at 160 minutes).
An hour of hiking, three days a week (60 minutes x 3 sessions = 180 minutes moderate cardio)
Three 30-minute jogs (30 minutes x 3 = 90 minutes moderate cardio) plus a workout with 10 minutes easy jogging for a warmup and then 20 minutes of hard running, followed by a cooldown of another 10 minutes easy. (20 minutes vigorous x 2 is equivalent to 40 minutes moderate cardio, plus we can add the warmup and cooldown for another 20 moderate minutes). That gives you 150 total.
Go for a 30-minute easy bike ride on Monday. Try a 45-minute water aerobics class on Wednesday. Take a short hike on Saturday. Mow the lawn for an hour on Saturday. (30 + 45 + 30 + 60 = 165 moderate cardio)

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How much strength training do you need?

So far we’ve been talking about aerobic exercise, which is the kind where you’re continuously moving (or, perhaps, doing quick work/rest intervals) and your heart rate is up. But there are other important forms of exercise, too. The WHO and other organizations recommend two days per week of “high intensity muscle strengthening activity,” which includes anything where you’re thinking in terms of sets and reps. (Three sets of eight to 10 reps is a good structure to start.)

That activity can be anything that challenges your muscles, and where the last rep is a lot harder than the first. This could include lifting weights, or resistance band exercises, or bodyweight exercises like push-ups. So if you run three days per week and have time for more exercise, don’t just fit in extra runs; try adding two days in the weight room.

The strength training recommendations are for two days per week, per muscle group. If you like to work your upper body and lower body separately, that would mean two upper body days and two lower body days. If you prefer workouts that work all your muscles, you only need to do two of those full-body workouts per week (at minimum).

Can you get too much exercise?

What about an upper limit on how much exercise you get? There isn’t one, from a public health point of view. More is better. (And even if you are doing less than the recommendations, anything is better than nothing.) That said, it is always possible for you, as an individual, to do more exercise than your body is ready for. Don’t jump from a life of occasional strolling to a marathon training plan. (And if you are on that marathon training plan and you’re feeling worn down, take a break already.)