Month: December 2025

There are more than 900 retailers trying to sell you home electricity. And now Spain has begun the great purge

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Spain has a world record that is difficult to justify; it is the country with the most registered electricity suppliers. For years, the official list exceeded 900 companiesalthough more than half never had real activity. A “ghost market” that generated confusion, operational risks and an opacity inappropriate for a strategic sector. Now, for the first time, the Government has decided to put things in order. In the last twelve months, the first disqualifications have begun to cascade and everything indicates that the registry will undergo a massive purge. A total screening. The latest report from the CNMC confirmed what the sector intuited for a long time. Of a census of more than 900 marketers, only 416 companies had clients and purchased energy effectively. The rest—hundreds of societies—remained in a kind of permanent pause, registered but without activity. And the law is clear about this. Both the Royal Decree 1955/2000 as Law 24/2013 They allow the Ministry to withdraw the authorization of any marketing company that spends a year without operating or that fails to comply with its economic and technical obligations. According to information that El Periódico has had access tothe Ministry for the Ecological Transition has disabled some 40 marketing companies in the last year, the majority without clients or without energy purchases for more than twelve months. Cleaning is based on systematic application of article 74a legal mechanism that had been underused for years. A process that has come into action. The process is already observed in the Official State Gazette itself, where It was published in October the disqualification of Virtual Power Plant & Smart Energy SL for not presenting the required guarantees to the market operator. The resolution also ordered the automatic transfer of its clients to a Reference Marketer, in accordance with Law 24/2013. Similar cases also appear in CNMC files, as INF/DE/368/23where it was documented that a marketing company accumulated non-payments, insufficient guarantees and zero energy acquired to supply its clients. It worked only on paper. What does this mean for the market and the consumer? Although it may seem like a technical matter, the purge directly affects citizens. According to Rate and Electricitythe elimination of ghost marketers implies: less risk of a company going bankrupt overnight, more control over small operators without real solvency, more security and continuity of supply, since the regulations require customers to be automatically transferred to a Reference Marketer if their supplier fails. And, finally, a less opaque market with a lower risk of fraud. This is a systemic problem: some of these small firms accumulated non-payments to Red Eléctrica (REE) and the Iberian Market Operator (OMIE), generating costs that ended up absorbing the entire electrical system. Others promised unviable prices and, unable to buy energy on the daily market, simply disappeared. But, is it so easy to open a marketing company? Spain is the only European country where a prior administrative license is not required to operate as an electricity marketer. Opening a company of this type is relatively simple: it is enough to present to MITECO a communication of start of activity accompanied by a responsible declaration of compliance with the requirements, according to the official file of the Ministry itself. Before, yes, the interested party must accredit before REE and OMIE its technical and economic capacity: present financial guarantees, demonstrate that you will be able to buy energy on the market and have computer systems to communicate daily with the system operator. According to the consulting firm Audynforsystemthis accreditation is the true operational filter, but it has not prevented the proliferation of small local or merely registered marketers. How does debugging continue? The objective is not to reduce the number of marketing companies per se, but to eliminate: those that have never operated, those that do not meet guarantees, those that default on payments or generate risks to the system. According to Expansion416 marketing companies are still active, 335 have already been deregistered in recent years and 137 are under investigation for inactivity. The CNMC and MITECO will continue to apply article 74 of RD 1955/2000 to automatically disqualify those who have not been active for a year. Furthermore, recent resolutions show that who breaches guarantees or non-payments will be disqualified, with mandatory transfer of clients. THE message is unequivocal, there will be fewer marketers, but more reliable ones. It starts to get organized. For years, no one hit the brakes. Now, with defaults, regulatory tensions and an electrical system hit by unprecedented volatilities, the Government has decided to put things in order. The paradox is evident, while Europe tries to attract more competition, Spain has had to do just the opposite: reduce a hypertrophied market that never reflected real activity. Ongoing purging is not just administrative cleanup. It is an attempt to rebuild trust in a sector that needs stability to face the country’s great energy challenges: electrification, storage, digital networks and renewable transition. Image | freepik Xataka | 2026 has not yet started but it has already managed to produce the first bad news: the light goes up

The question is not if we are going to miss out on seeing Eurovision, but where we are going to see Eurovision

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RTVE had spent weeks threatening to do it if Israel continued among the countries participating in Eurovisionand has finally carried it out, breaking a streak of 65 uninterrupted participations since 1961. However, this goes beyond a mere refusal to continue broadcasting the final: there are many interests behind this decision and they will be unleashed from now on. The most obvious: who broadcasts Eurovision now? Spain breaks the deck. RTVE leaves Eurovision 2026 given the refusal of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union, organizer of the event), to veto Israel, with 738 votes in favor compared to 264 against and 120 abstentions. The vote did not actually address the expulsion of Israel, but rather the approval of new measures on transparency in televoting that, in practice, allowed the country to continue. Spain thus joins the pressure front in which the Netherlands (AVROTROS), Ireland (RTÉ) and Slovenia are also active, and the measure is total: there will be no candidate in Vienna and no live signal of the final One of five. Spain thus becomes the only member of the Big Five (a group formed by the largest financiers of the event along with France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) to abandon ship. The impact in figures of this decision is direct: each country of the Big Five (which enjoy automatic access to the final without going through the semi-finals) contributes approximately 350,000 euros annually to the festival, a sum that the EBU will lose from the Spanish coffers and which is much higher than the 30,000-50,000 euros paid by the smaller nations. Furthermore, it happens at a delicate time: Moldova had previously justified withdrawing by citing “unsustainable costs.” On the other hand, Germany threatened to leave if Israel was expelled, evidencing the internal fracture. Spain thus becomes the first member of the Big Five to withdraw for political reasons, establishing a precedent that could encourage other countries to follow in its footsteps. Together, these five states provide the broadcast with some thirty million viewers. That is to say, as the press has commented, it is an unprecedented decision that turns this into “the biggest boycott in the history of the festival” Who broadcasts now? RTVE’s renunciation of broadcasting rights raises an unprecedented question: can other Spanish television stations broadcast the contest? We must take into account decades of institutional blockages by RTVE. FORTA (a federation that brings together twelve regional television stations) has been trying to join the EBU for thirty years without success. “RTVE’s authorization is a necessary condition, and it repeatedly denies our entry,” declared its general secretary in 2020. Even so, the EBU statutes allow multiple members per country, as is the case with private channels that gained access (SER and COPE on radio). In 2014, when Spain was absent from Junior Eurovision, the European organization contemplated Atresmedia or Mediaset assuming participation, but the EBU Steering Group rejected the proposal. Now, the EBU technically could sell the emission rights to other Spanish channels, although it would require, again, the approval of RTVE. There is a precedent for all this hustle and bustle in Germany: the ARD that represents the country is, precisely, a consortium of regional television stations, similar to the FORTA model. Boycott, something remains. Boycotts are not new to Eurovision, although we have never witnessed one of this magnitude. In 2009, Georgia left after refuse to modify his song ‘We Don’t Wanna Put In‘, considered critical of Putin. In 2017, Russia was unable to participate in kyiv after sending Julia Samoylova, banned for performing in Crimea. The closest precedent was in 2022, with the Russian expulsion for invading Ukraine. Arab states historically avoid the contest due to the Israeli presence: Morocco only participated in 1980, when Israel did not attend. Türkiye left in 2013 alleging unfair behavior by the Big Five. International reactions. Israeli President Isaac Herzog celebrated the decision that Israel remained in Eurovision as a sign of “solidarity” between nations, while the Foreign Minister he wished for “a fall from grace” of all those who have participated in the boycott. An opinion against the boycott that has found echo in countries like Austria: Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger, for example, insisted in that the contest “is not an instrument for sanctions.” In Xataka | After the Eurovision controversy, thousands of people asked themselves an old question: what is Israel doing in a “European” contest?

Warner series, franchises and business units that will be owned by Netflix

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Netflix did not need to demonstrate creative capacity: its own production had become the reference for global streaming. However, the announced agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business introduces a change in scale if regulators end up approving the operation. It is not about adding a few more series, but about integrating a studio with decades of history, the area where HBO is located and a very relevant part of its catalog, in addition to several franchises that have marked popular culture. Faced with such a move, the inevitable question is what, exactly, will become under the control of Netflix, without this meaning that everything will appear tomorrow in its application. The agreement is not closed yet and depends on several formal steps. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery have announced that the operation, valued at $72 billion in capital and some $82.7 billion in enterprise value, can only be completed after spinning off the new Discovery Global company. From there, the process will be in the hands of the regulators, which could take between 12 and 18 months to review an integration of this magnitude and could impose additional conditions or, in the worst case scenario, block it. The perimeter of the deal: what actually goes into the package. Official communications and media analysis agree that the operation covers the historical core of the study. That includes Warner Bros. Pictures, responsible for its film catalog, and Warner Bros. Television, the basis for some of the most influential series of recent decades. Added to that block are HBO and the HBO Max platform, which are part of the streaming business that Netflix intends to integrate, as well as DC Studios. The inclusion of Warner Bros. Games is not detailed in the first press release. What’s left out: the new Discovery Global. The operation does not cover the entire Warner Bros. Discovery. Before completion, the company must spin off a block of channels and services that will not come under Netflix control. Warner Bros. Discovery’s corporate plans indicate that this group will be integrated into the new Discovery Global, an independent company that will maintain assets such as CNN, Discovery Channel, TBS, TNT in the United States, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery+ and part of the sports operations, including TNT Sports US. Film franchises: from Hogwarts to Gotham. Netflix and Warner’s own joint communication serves as a guide to understanding the caliber of the film franchises involved. It mentions specific titles such as ‘Harry Potter’, the DC Universe, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Citizen Kane’, along with television brands such as ‘Friends’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Game of Thrones’, as a sample of the archive that accompanies the study. From that base, media like Newsweek and What’s on Netflix broadens the focus and they point out that, within Warner’s recent filmography, sagas such as ‘Dune’ or ‘The Matrix’ also appear as part of the fund that would remain under the management of the studio controlled by Netflix, always with the caution that it is not an official list title by title. Warner’s animated treasure. Among the assets least visible to the general public, but widely cited in coverage of the agreement, There is the extensive animation catalog that accompanies the Warner studio. There, icons like ‘Looney Tunes’, ‘Tom and Jerry’ and ‘Scooby-Doo’ are mixed with series that defined Cartoon Network’s identity, from ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ and ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ to ‘Adventure Time’, ‘Regular Show’ and ‘Steven Universe’. The interactive leg of the deal is best understood if we look at what it means, in practice, for Warner Bros. Games to change ownership. Although the first corporate communication did not go into that level of detail, specialized media such as GameDeveloper have cited to a company spokesperson to confirm that the video game division is entering into the operation with Netflix. What is confirmed and what remains unknown. At this point we can draw a relatively clear line between what is confirmed and what still depends on third parties. The perimeter of the agreement falls into the first group: Netflix and Warner have explained that the package includes film and television studiosthe area where HBO and HBO Max and the video game division are included, while the linear channels are grouped into Discovery Global. We also know that franchises such as ‘Harry Potter’, the DC Universe, ‘Friends’ or ‘Game of Thrones’ are mentioned by the parties themselves as examples of the archive they provide. What remains open is when and how this will be reflected in the catalog of each country, what will happen with co-productions and previous licenses already signed and to what extent regulators will impose additional conditions or, in the most extreme scenario, decide to stop the operation. The real impact of this operation will be noticed over time, not from one day to the next. If the agreement receives the approval of regulators, Netflix will manage a studio with a historical weight that is difficult to replicate and a library that has defined much of recent audiovisual culture. What the viewer will see will be a gradual transition, marked by pre-existing licenses and agreements that must be respected, with different schedules depending on the country and type of content. Even so, the movement anticipates a stage in which the platform will stop depending so much on third parties and will consolidate its own base of content that, until now, it could only license. Images | Netflix | Warner In Xataka | All the unanswered questions left by Netflix’s purchase of Warner: a huge mess

Italy snuck a bridge between Sicily and Calabria into NATO as “military spending.” Not even tanks can cross it

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The hyperbolic idea of a mega suspension bridge record to unite the Italian peninsula with Sicily is something that the Romans already dreamed of. We are talking about an infrastructure that, if carried out, would become the largest suspension bridge on the planet. However, its chronicle as the driving force of rearmament in Europe is comparable to the project of underwater tunnel between Spain and North Africa. The old dream of the Strait. The ambition to link Sicily with the Italian peninsula by means of what would be the longest suspension bridge in the world reappeared at the center of the national debate not as a technical proposal, but as a head-on crash between political power and institutional control. Although the project It has been orbiting the imagination of different governments for decades, it was the combination of Matteo Salvini’s personal impulse and the political will of Giorgia Meloni’s executive that tried to reactivate it with an extraordinary sense of urgency. However, that speed caused the breakup: the Court of Accounts, constitutional guarantor of the control of public spending and compliance with national and European standards, rejected the file considering that the 2005 competition could not legally support a work that has tripled its estimated cost, that presents significant documentary gaps and that could violate essential rules of competition and environmental evaluation. Stand by. The decision made a few weeks ago, preventive and not definitiveexposed deep fissures in the management of the project, where political urgency prevailed over internal technical warnings from the Ministry of Transportation itself, which had requested more time to complete the documentation. The duel for two. The government’s reaction was immediate and furious. Meloni accused The judges were accused of overstepping their bounds and Salvini, who had turned the bridge into a symbol of his political survival, denounced a political gesture disguised as a technical judgment. They both had to moderate tone after recognizing that, although the Court of Auditors does not have the “final word”, its reservations are binding in the sense of raising the political responsibility of the executive: if the government decides to move forward without satisfying its objections, the Court will register the reservations and send them to Parliament, leaving an official record of the risks, including legal, budgetary and procedural ones. Continue without permissions. This warning is especially important given the possibility of future litigation promoted by groups opposed to the work. Still, the law allows the government go ahead even without the full endorsement of the institution, a path that Meloni and Salvini do not rule out, although aware that putting maximum pressure on the Court could open an institutional fracture that is difficult to manage and increase the likelihood that the courts will overthrow the project in later phases. The figures and the promises. The bridge 3.7 kilometers It is not just an infrastructure: it is a political symbol. Salvini presents it as a public work most important in the worldcapable of regenerating southern Italy, generating more than 36,000 jobs, stimulating economic growth of more than 23 billion euros and reducing crossing times across the Strait ten minutes away. But these arguments compete with other factors: its cost has escalated from the 3.8 billion expected in 2005. up to 13.5 billion current, and the Sicilian railway routes remain precarious. Furthermore, the local population asks before improvements in internal mobility that an iconic megaproject and the seismic risks of the Strait, one of the most active points in the Mediterranean, still lack a fully convincing technical response. For Salvini, however, abandoning the project would mean accepting a decline in his influence within the Italian right, especially at a time when Meloni dominates the political scene and his own bases are looking for evidence that he retains capacity. The technical fissures. The decision of the Court of Auditors was based on concrete elements: missing or poorly presented documentation, procedural shortcuts, inconsistencies between old figures and current projections, doubts about compliance with European procurement standards and an environmental file that, according to the judgesis based on claims of “imperative public interest” without the required technical support. The institution denounced that part of the essential documents They weren’t even pointed out. by the ministry, forcing the magistrates themselves to identify them. In parallel, the ministry’s technicians had warned Salvini months before that the precipitation could lead to exactly this scenario. The minister decided move forward anywayaware that delaying the process would have meant admitting that the work schedule set for the end of the year was impossible to meet. That political obstinacy is now turning against him, in the form of doubts about his ability to manage such a monumental project. The labyrinth of the contest. The most explosive element for the immediate future of the bridge is the question of the tender. Salvini opted to reactivate the contract awarded in 2005 to Eurolink consortiumled by Webuild and accompanied by companies from Spain and Japan, precisely to avoid a new contest. In 2012, when the project was paralyzed, the consortium demanded 700 million euros in compensation, which it will only withdraw if works resume. But the judges have pointed out that financial changes and uncertainty about the updated cost could force a new tender, which would delay the work for years, perhaps more than a decade. Environmental objections. The government tried to shield the project with a document that proclaimed reasons of public interest imperative to overcome environmental obstacles, but the Court of Accounts he replied that these justifications lack solid technical support and do not adequately detail the impact on extremely sensitive coastal and marine areas. Thus we arrive at the executive’s attempt to present the bridge as an infrastructure of strategic value. for NATO (arguing that it would facilitate rapid movement of troops in the central Mediterranean), an idea that was welcomed with skepticism and even irony: for regional experts, the bridge would be “at most a military objective,” not an operational tool. The use of international security as an … Read more

avoid cell phone use and sleep 12 hours

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While in Silicon Valley they brag about hugging the culture of “996” with eternal days With no time to rest, Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of Telegram, has built a routine that clashes head-on with that model. Instead of living glued to your cell phone, opt for long hours of rest and phone use reduced to its minimum essential expression. All this taking into account that he runs an app with hundreds of millions of users around the world. Sleep as a tool for creativity Durov does not forgive time to go to sleep. The millionaire explained in an interview on Lex Friedman’s podcast that books every night between 11 and 12 hours to be in bed. That It doesn’t always mean you sleep. all those hours, but the founder of Telegram, instead of getting nervous and getting up when he can’t fall asleep, simply limits himself to staying in bed thinking. “Some people hate it. They tell me ‘Take a sleeping pill’ but I never take pills. I love those moments because I have so many brilliant ideas, or at least they seem that way to me in those moments, while I’m lying in bed,” said the stoic millionaire. In fact, the scientific literature corroborates what Durov says and associates it with a moment in which inactivity causes the brain to wandera moment in which the brain’s abstraction mechanisms are activated that are responsible for assimilating knowledge and relating concepts. This process is closely related to creativity as it fosters new connections by helping to find solutions to complex problems. It is the same process that explains why the best ideas or solutions they occur to you in the shower or when you wash the dishes. The mobile phone is not the center of life Another curious habit of the founder of Telegram is that he avoids picking up his cell phone at all costs. just get upand delay as much as possible entering the torrent of notificationsnetworks and messages, as a deliberate way of protect your concentration. Friedman himself confirmed this point, ensuring that in the previous two weeks that he had shared with the millionaire I hadn’t seen him use his cell phone. to share content on social networks or respond to messages. Durov considers that the telephone is, above all, a constant source of distractions that prevents people from developing their own ideas and decide for themselves what they pay attention to. “If you open your phone first thing in the morning, what you end up being is someone who is told what to think about for the rest of the day,” Durov said. The millionaire summarizes his position with a very clear phrase: “My philosophy is quite simple. I want to define what is important in my life. I don’t want other people, companies or organizations of all kinds to tell me what is important today and what I should think about.” Durov’s case is even more striking if his career is taken into account: before Telegram, he had already founded one of the largest social networks in Russia, and now he is in charge of one of the most used messaging services in the world. He himself recognizes that it may seem contradictory to promote products that encourage constant connection and, at the same time, opt for the minimum possible exposure to mobile phones in their personal life. In Xataka | There are big billionaires obsessed with having dozens of children. And then there is the CEO of Telegram, who has 100 Image | Flickr (TechCrunch)

All the unanswered questions left by Netflix’s purchase of Warner: a huge mess

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After a few weeks of three-way negotiations, it is finally Netflix that has won, with $82.7 billion ahead, take over Warner Bros.. Which includes, of course, HBO Max, but also the entire production arm of the veteran company, one of the few majors classics that remain in Hollywood. However, the purchase is of such importance that a multitude of questions arise, many of them still unanswered. This is everything we know (and don’t know) about this absolute revolution in the world of streaming. What we do know. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery have announced an agreement that radically transforms the entertainment industry. The operation, which is expected to close between the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027, unites the streaming giant and its more than 300 million subscribers with one of Hollywood’s most legendary film studios, founded more than a century ago. For now, Netflix must wait for CNN and Discovery to finish separating from what was their parent company. And now, the doubts. What will happen to Warner’s classic IPs and franchises? Netflix takes over a trove of intellectual property that includes the DC universe‘harry potter‘, ‘game of thrones‘, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo and the distribution rights to franchises such as ‘Dune‘ or the Monsterverse. It also acquires film classics such as ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Citizen Kane’, as well as emblematic HBO series such as ‘The Sopranos’, ‘The Wire’ and others close to the platform such as ‘Friends’. Netflix will most likely keep these franchises active and continue them. The company has stated in its statement that these IPs will allow “creating greater value for talent, offering more opportunities to work with successful intellectual property.” The big advantage for consumers is certainty: One of the fiercest criticisms of Warner Bros. Discovery under David Zaslav was the removal of content from HBO Max for tax reasons. Netflix has opposite incentives. Who knows…and if we get to see ‘Batgirl’? What has Netflix not bought and what Warner divisions and businesses are not included in the purchase? The deal completely excludes Warner Bros. Discovery’s global networks division, which will be spun off into a new company called Discovery Global. This spin-off has been planned since June 2025 and will be completed in the third quarter of 2026, before Netflix can close the acquisition, and includes assets such as CNN, TNT Sports in the United States, all Discovery channels (Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TBS, TruTV), the main free-to-air television channels in Europe, the Discovery+ streaming platform and Bleacher Report. This split makes strategic sense: Netflix has never shown interest in the traditional linear channel business, which is in structural decline. In fact, revenue from Warner Bros.’ cable television division. fell 23% in the last reported quarter. Netflix stays with what really interests it: production studios, content libraries and HBO Max. Are HBO Max prices going to rise? The most immediate answer is that most likely yes, although not immediately. Netflix has a documented history of regular increases: Since 2017, the platform has raised its rates by approx. every 18 months. The most recent one occurred in January 2025. However, the arrival of HBO Max changes the equation. When Disney acquired Fox in 2019 for 71 billion, Disney+ increased its price by 129% between 2019 and 2025. We must not be naive: with 302 million global subscribers after acquiring the 128 million of HBO Max, Netflix would exceed 420 million, a huge base where small increases will generate billions of dollars in additional income. Our bet: a single premium price between 20 and 25 dollars/euros per month by 2027, when the deal is underway. What does Netflix get apart from the catalog? Beyond content libraries, Netflix acquires monumental physical and operational infrastructure. You get the historic Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, a production facility that has been operational since the 1920s and includes multiple sets and top-of-the-line technical equipment. The company has emphasized that this will allow them to “significantly expand American production capacity.” Perhaps most transformative is the global theatrical distribution apparatus. Warner Bros. has deals with networks around the world, a network that Netflix has never fully developed. Netflix will inherit “a global distribution apparatus” which includes contracts, commercial relationships and an army of professionals: human teams made up of executives and creatives with decades of experience. Will you take advantage of it? Netflix has promised maintain “Warner Bros.’ current operations, including theatrical releases for films,” but frankly, and seeing Netflix’s relationship with theaters in recent years, there is reasonable room for skepticism. How is Netflix’s presence on HBO going to be creatively noticed? Speculative territory, but we can reason from the corporate cultures of each platform. HBO built its reputation through a creative process where pre-production is vital, with constant rewrites and only the best series receiving the green light. A meticulousness that has historically paid off, for example, at the Emmys. Netflix is ​​just the opposite: it renews and cancels without stopping, trying many things and sticking with what works. Possibly we will see a hybridization where HBO maintains its distinctive seal of quality, less fast food than Netflix, but accelerating production rates. As a curious note, in the presentation in London to which We attended just a couple of days ago The current CEO of HBO, Casey Bloys, highlighted the differences in creative approaches with Netflix as one of its strengths. Maybe everything will change from now on. What legal problems may arise for the purchase? The regulatory hurdles are substantial. The combined entity would exceed 420 million global subscribers, giving it more than 30% of the streaming market, a threshold traditionally considered problematic in US antitrust law. Republican Representative Darrell Issa warned this month that Netflix already possesses “unmatched market power” and that adding HBO Max “could result in harm to consumers.” Senator Mike Lee was more forceful, declaring in X that this transaction “raises serious competition issues, perhaps more so than any transaction I have seen in a decade.” Netflix … Read more

to confess to us when you are lying

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Generative AI has a credibility problem. As much as we are amazed by her ability to converse, we still cannot trust her 100%. Hallucinations are the Achilles heel of technologya structural failure that not even the most advanced models such as GPT-5 have managed to eradicate. OpenAI knows this, and their plan to mitigate it is not to make the model perfect, but to make it honest: they are training their AIs to confess when they cheat. Snitch Award. As revealed MIT Technology ReviewOpenAI researchers are testing a new training technique with their GPT-5 Thinking reasoning model. The idea is simple but powerful: reward the model not only for giving a correct answer, but also for admitting if they have done something wrong or taken an improper shortcut. It’s something like a reward system: if you confess the mistake, you get the prize and escape the punishment. How it works and results. In testing, the model generates a second block of text after the main answer. In it, you analyze your own behavior and mark whether you have followed the instructions. For example, in a test where it was asked to solve a math problem in nanoseconds (impossible for the code it could write), the AI ​​manipulated the timer to zero. However, in the subsequent confession he admitted the deception. Of 12 scenarios designed to force mistakes or lies, the model admitted to bad behavior in 11 of them. Why AI lies. Current models that are trained with reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) often conflict. They want to be useful, harmless and honest at the same time. When these goals collide—for example, if they don’t know an answer—the AI ​​chooses to invent something that sounds good. Boaz Barak, one of the researchers at OpenAI, explains that the models follow “the path of least resistance”: if lying is the easiest way to accomplish a difficult task, they will lie. Confession seeks to alter that equation, making honesty also a rewarded path for the model. Transparency vs black box. The confession technique is an attempt to open the “black box” of LLMs. Until now, we depended on the chain of thoght (the chatbot’s internal monologue) to understand its steps. As they become more complex, those reasonings become illegible to us. That is why confessions offer an easier to understand summary. However, experts outside the company warn: we cannot blindly trust an AI to be honest about its own dishonesty. If the model does not know that he has hallucinated, he will not be able to confess it. A necessary step towards reliability. OpenAI needs its models to be reliable if it wants ChatGPT to become that “operating system” that manages our lives. They have already had to adjust their models to take care of the mental health of users and avoid dangerous responses. But the challenge of veracity is technical and legal, especially in the old continent, where inventing data collides with the GDPR itself. AI learning to say “I made that up” could, ironically, be its most humane advancement yet. Cover image | Generated by Pepu Ricca for Xataka (with editing) In Xataka | In 2022 OpenAI put Google in “code red”. Three years later, Google has OpenAI on the ropes

a years-long plan to bring Steam to all devices

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Valve is executing one of the most ambitious strategies in recent software history. While Microsoft tries to convince the world that Windows on ARM is ready and Qualcomm promises raw powerGabe Newell’s company has taken a shortcut: Instead of waiting for developers to port its games, it’s funding the technology that makes that unnecessary. You want your Steam library to work on any device without anyone having to lift a finger. The precedent: Proton. To understand the magnitude of the movement, we must look back. A decade ago, playing on Linux was almost utopian. Few developers ported their titles to the Penguin OS, Microsoft has been cornering the PC gaming market for a long time. However, Valve changed this forever from the software side. It was thanks to Proton, a compatibility layer derived from the old Wine that translates Windows instructions so that Linux understands them. This was the cornerstone of the success of the Steam Deck– Proved that you don’t need Windows to run titles of all types, including many AAA. Now, Valve wants to repeat the move, but changing the objective: from desktop PCs to mobile chips. The architect in the shadows. It was Pierre-Loup Griffais, leader of SteamOS, who confirmed to The Verge in an interview that Valve has been “secretly” financing several projects since 2016. The most important currently is «FEX-Emu». What is it? FEX is an emulator which translates the instructions of the x86 processor (the language of traditional Intel and AMD chips for PCs) to ARM64 (that of current mobile phones). The combination: Valve is integrating it into a specific version of Proton for ARM. The goal, according to Steam’s Linux OS boss, is to “remove barriers so users don’t have to worry about which games work.” Obsession with efficiency. Obviously, these investments are not philanthropy, but pure industrial necessity. The company prepares hardware that needs this technology to exist, such as the future Steam Frame viewer. But there’s more: Griffais explains that ARM chips are superior in efficiency for low-power devices, something that has opened the door to speculations of all kinds. An ultraportable with Steam smaller than the Deck? Who knows. Without the compatibility layer of FEX and Proton, these devices would be born without a catalog. With it, they could run thousands of PC games from day one, also adding Android games through another protagonist of recent days: “Lepton”. Yes, multiplayer titles with anti-cheats deep, like ‘Fortnite’. The democratization of gaming. The revolutionary thing about these emulators is that, as they are open source tools, the benefit is universal. It already allows run recent games like ‘Hollow Knight: Silksong’ on an Android mobile without an official version existing. Even manufacturers like Xiaomi have gone ahead with initiatives like “WinPlay” that allows Play Steam titles on your HyperOS devices. Valve is paving the way so that any powerful device, whether tablet, mobile phone or ARM laptop, can be a potential Steam Machine. This contrasts with the efforts of companies like Microsoft, whose emulation layer, Prism on Windowscontinues fighting with the game compatibility. The master plan. It is none other than running SteamOS everywhere. Valve wants SteamOS to be the default operating system for gaming, regardless of the silicon underneath. We have already seen the first steps with the arrival of SteamOS to third-party consoles and the announcement of the Steam Machine desktop By eliminating the barrier of chip architecture (x86 vs ARM) and operating system (Windows vs Linux/Android), the firm ensures that its store is the only constant in a fragmented hardware future. And that only implies one thing: that users spend money on it. A win-win in every rule. Cover image | Valve In Xataka | The video game industry seems to be clear about where its next boom is: in games “for couples”

He paid his managers to contradict him, not to obey him.

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We tend to think of the CEO of a company or the leader of a team as the person in charge, who imposes its criteria and, basically, that person is the one who orders what his team should do. According to Steve Jobs, that is one of the worst mistakes of a leader. In the 90s, Steve Jobs shared a lesson 72-minute masterful presentation of his vision of what a management team should be like in a talk at MIT. Jobs paid his managers not to do what he said, but he paid them so that they would contradict him when I was wrong. 33 years later, his theory is still as valid today as it was in 1992. He didn’t pay them to prove him right. In his talk in front of MIT students, Steve Jobs explained that during his time at the head of NeXTafter his expulsion from Apple, hired very talented managers not to tell them what to do, but to get them to contribute their judgment about what decisions to make really. Steve emphasized that the value of the management team It’s not that he strictly abides by the CEO’s criteria.but to suggest other alternatives, even if these contradict the leader’s opinion, thus avoiding teams that limit themselves to saying “yes, boss” to everything. “I had never believed that if you are on the same management team and you think differently about something, then one has to convince the other to change their mind. Because look, when you do that you are paying someone to do what they think is right, and then you try to convince them to do what they don’t think is right. Sooner or later a conflict ends up breaking out,” Jobs assured the MIT students. According to Jobs, the best strategy to reach the correct decisionIt is not about managers giving in to others’ arguments about whether they are wrong or not. The key is to get them all together in a room and make a consensual decision in which everyone gives in a little, smoothing over the edges, but without giving up what they think is right. This idea is based on recognizing that well-paid managers must think independently, generating debates that avoid costly mistakes and promote better collective results. The NeXT Eight At NeXT, Jobs formed a team of eight managers who were in charge of precisely that: opposing him when his point of view was not appropriate and debating the important decisions of the company. This group did not debate minor day-to-day issues, where they had full decision-making capacity, but rather focused on critical issues for the company that allowed them advance aligned. “We pay people a lot of money and we expect them to tell us what to do. So you shouldn’t do certain things if there are people who don’t agree with it,” Jobs reflected to the students. According to Jobs, the “NeXT eight” They didn’t spend the day together debating decisions, but rather focused on the really important ones. “We can have about 25 things to decide on in a year, that’s not many,” Jobs insisted, because they knew exactly what decisions should be made by unifying common points of view, not the opinion of a single person, no matter how much that of the boss. In this way, they avoided future conflicts by ensuring that everyone involved in the execution shared the vision, strengthening the commitment and involvement of the group. His best school was Apple Although Apple was not Jobs’ only business success (he was in charge of convert to Pixar into the animation giant that it is today), without a doubt the company with the bitten apple logo was his best business school. During his time at Apple, Jobs learned to adopt a long-term leadership vision with your team. To do this, he had to repress his famous tendency to micromanage his employees by resisting the impulse to correct errors immediately so that the teams they made mistakes and they would learn for themselves. “When I see something that is not being done well, my first instinct is not to fix it. In other words, we are building a team that is going to do great things over the next decade, not just this year,” said the Apple founder. John Fitzgerald Kennedy summarized in one sentence what Steve Jobs wanted to convey to the MIT students who attended that conference in 1992: “An intelligent man is one who knows how to be smart enough to hire people smarter than him”, although Jobs had probably added the tagline “…and he listens to them.” In Xataka | Steve Jobs was always very critical of Microsoft designs. His recipe to improve them: that Bill Gates took LSD Image | Bernard Gotfryd (The United States Library of Congress)

We have so many satellites orbiting the Earth that they have become a barrier for someone: telescopes

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For years, the astronomical community has looked at the sky with considerable concern from Earth. And it’s normal. In recent years, the number of satellites that we have put into orbit has grown exponentially, highlighting above all starlinkwhich promised to bring the internet to the entire planet in exchange for fill our nights with “trains of lights”. But this is only hindering our ability to continue investigating the universe where we are immersed. Trapped in a cage. The telescopes that we now have closer to Earth to do their work logically have to look towards our sky. The problem, as the research points out led by Alejandro S. Borlaff, is that they are going blind. Specifically, the low orbit (LEO) space telescopes that are not only not safe, but they are trapped in a real cage that prevents them from seeing further. Until now, it was possible to think that satellite traces could only affect terrestrial observatories. However, orbital reality is pure geometry: most large space telescopes like Hubble They orbit at about 540 km high. A height at which the internet megaconstellations that are located above or in the layers that range from 340 km to 8,000 km. Because. Satellites do not emit any type of light and should not cause problems. But the problem comes when they reflect sunlight, and when this happens in the new coverage satellites that have a large size, we find that even if it is night on Earth (or wherever the telescope is), at a hundred kilometers high the Sun continues to illuminate the satellite. And the lighting and telescopes they get along very badly. Space telescopes are designed to look at objects that are “still” at infinity (stars, galaxies). To capture its faint light, the telescope must fix its gaze on an exact point and not move. However, satellites move at thousands of kilometers per hour in relation to the telescope and since the camera shutter is open for a long time (long exposures of minutes or even hours) to capture weak light, the satellite crosses the entire frame during the photo, being recorded not as a point, but as a continuous line or “scar” of light. A problem. In this way, if a telescope is 540 km high when pointed at the sky, it will encounter an increasingly dense network of space traffic in the form of satellites. Specifically, there are currently about 15,000 satellites in orbit, but requests to different regulators suggest that we could reach half a million satellites by the end of the 2030s. Something that would leave large space observatories unusable. To put specific cases, we have the NASA Hubble that right now 3–4% of the images it captures have satellite trails. A figure that will increase to almost 40%, causing one in every three photographs of the most famous telescope in history to have a ‘light scar’. We have another case in SPHEREx which is the future explorer of the origins of the universe and which will have almost 100% of its catchments contaminated. Its impact. It is undoubtedly incalculable. Missions like ARRAKIHS (of the European Space Agency, with strong Spanish participation) or SPHEREx depend on taking very wide-field images to map the structure of the universe. By having such a large field of view, the probability of dozens of satellites being “snuck in” in a single shot is 100%. For him Chinese Xuntian Telescopewhich orbits lower, the situation is much worse. Being “below” most of the Starlink, Kuiper constellations and the Chinese networks themselves such as Guangwang You’ll have a harder time dealing with nearly a hundred bright lines crossing every image you take. The solution. Orbiting telescopes were a solution to this problem that was occurring in terrestrial telescopes. Now history repeats itself. Experts point to the need to define precise orbits so that telescopes can avoid satellites in a simple way. But this requires great international coordination to share this information and, above all, to regulate the number of launches that are carried out. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | Which telescope to buy to enjoy the nights and stars: 20 telescopes, binoculars, gadgets, accessories and more

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