Month: March 2026

The problem is that no one can agree on what they are.

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He James Webb Space Telescope It has been targeting the most remote regions of the universe for years and, with each new observation, it has revealed something that doesn’t quite fit. In his images, small, tiny, bright red dots appear, which repeat with a frequency that is difficult to ignore. They are not a specific anomaly or an observation failure: they are objects that astronomers have been studying for some time without having yet achieved a convincing explanation of their nature. The novelty. A recently published study in The Astrophysical Journal, led by Devesh Nandal and Avi Loeb, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, opens an alternative to the most widespread interpretation. Specifically, it suggests that some of these red dots might not be systems dominated by active black holes, but rather supermassive stars formed in the early universe. Speaking to Live ScienceNandal argues that this type of star can explain key features of these objects without depending on the presence of growing black holes. Before this turn, the so-called “little red dots” had already been on astronomy’s radar for some time. The term began to be consolidated in studies published in 2024, when several teams began to analyze them systematically after the first Webb observations. We are not talking about a recent discovery, but rather an accumulated enigma: At Xataka we already address it as a phenomenon that is difficult to fit into current modelswith very compact, extremely luminous objects present in the early universe. The dominant hypothesis. During the first years of analysis, the explanation that gained the most traction was that these red dots were driven by growing black holes. In the first phase, some of the researchers attributed its red color to dust in the environment, although later work has shifted part of that focus to hydrogen gas. What is starting to not fit. With the passage of time, some observations have complicated this initial interpretation. Several of these objects do not show clear X-ray emissions, one of the most common signs of active black holes, and their spectra lack strong metallic lines beyond hydrogen and helium. Added to this is “The Cliff”, one of the objects analyzed by the RUBIES program, which does not fit either as a conventional galaxy or as a system dominated by dust. The proposal of the new study fits into this context, which proposes a different reading for at least part of these objects. Instead of active black holes, some small red dots could be supermassive stars formed from primordial gas, composed almost exclusively of hydrogen and helium, and observed just before collapsing. According to the model developed by the team, this scenario reproduces both its extreme brightness and specific features of its spectra, without having to assume the presence of a growing black hole. The new study does not close the debate, rather it expands it. The researchers themselves acknowledge that directly demonstrating what lies behind these objects remains extremely difficult, and other voices in the scientific community insist that none of the hypotheses can yet be ruled out. The presence of black holes in these systems remains to be demonstrated directly and, for now, is inferred mainly from their brightness and how abundant they are. Images | NASA/ESA/CSA (1, 2) In Xataka | The Zoo Hypothesis: Why Aliens Likely Know About Us and Don’t Want to Contact Us

It’s geopolitics. And China goes with the accelerator to the table

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When commercial 5G was taking its first steps in 2018, China was already talking of the next generation. The Asian giant saw very early that 6G would be a strategic element and got to work to dominate the conversation before its rivals. Because this is not about playing with less latency at a cloud game or download data faster. It is about having frontier technology before the rival. Strategic 6G. Since the middle of the last century, China has had something known as the ‘Five Year Plan’. It is a roadmap that sets out the objectives to be developed and achieved over a period of five years. Everything goes into it: energy, economy, society, technology and the environment, and it represents an organizational chart to coordinate policies that make the set objectives possible. In the 14th Five-Year Plan, the focus was on developing technologies that would allow China to be self-sufficient in semiconductors and digital technologies such as 6G. Time has passed and we have been able to see enormous progress during this time (especially in semiconductors), and now the new development plan has just been published in which we want to strengthen that sovereignty, but where two key objectives are framed: AI and 6G as a lever for economic growth. Calendar. The new roadmap defines the objective for the period 2026-2030, but the country has been preparing the ground for years. Huawei, already in 2019, He pointed out that they were testing 6G internally and that it was considered that it would not be until the end of the next decade when it would begin to be deployed commercially. The moment is approaching and steps have been taken. In 2020, China deployed what was considered the world’s first 6G satellitein 2022 experimented with sending data packets of one TB per second from a kilometer away, and in 2023 we learned that military uses were also being analyzed. For example, vibration analysis in water to detect even smaller submarines and drones in the open sea from the air. In the middle of last year, the state media CCTV commented that China’s objectives with 6G were being met as planned, highlighting, again and as they do every time they make a communication on the subject, the country’s leadership in this field. And… for what? China wants the world to know that are very actively developing this technology. And the big question is… do we need 6G? And here there is a big mistake: thinking that 6G is a technology for users. Obviously, consumer devices capable of having connections of these speeds will be essential for applications, for example, of artificial intelligence that are not calculated at the local level, but 6G is not so much for mobile phones but for the global network. From the same CCTV statement it is detailed that “6G is more than a communication technology.” This is something to drive more complex devices, smart terminals and new generations of sensors. Speeds above 100 Gbps are targeted with a delay of less than a millisecond (in 5G, the figures are about 1Gbps) and this will benefit the remote manipulation of devices, the number of simultaneous connections and tasks that require total precision, such as “swarms” of robots working in the field and coordinated by artificial intelligence. This sounds like science fiction, but recently Samsung presented its plans to transform its factories by 2030. Robots will be the workforce and the brain will be the AI. In its own updated five-year plan, China emphasizes the development of ’embodied AI’, that “robotics with AI” as one of the pillars of the country’s technological development. Everyone wants to lead. The country detailed that “the future 6G will not only be a mobile communication network, but a new generation of mobile information.” But of course, with all the range of possibilities that something like this opens up, and with how important it can be for an accelerated and massive deployment of robots, Physical AI and even of the remote computing in data centersno country wants to miss the train. Because China has giants like Huawei, but South Korea has SK Telecom and Samsung. Both have already expressed their intention to start conduct short-term technology tests with an ambitious goal: to have a functional 6G network by 2028. Japan is also in that raceEurope (which missed out on 5G) He doesn’t want things to repeat themselves. with 6G and the United States, whose current president already said in 2019 that I wanted 6G for yesterdayis also in garlic. A basic problem. My colleague Laura points out in Xataka Mobile that China wants to win the 6G battle before the battle for 6G begins, but although it is evident that they are in it and they lead patent applications worldwide (as has already happened thanks to Huawei with 5G), as users… we say again that the thing will take a while to start. At least in Europe. In a report last year, Ericsson, which is a communications giant, He pointed out that there is a basic problem: While competitors have deployed the millimeter band, most European countries have prioritized medium and low bands. More coverage, less speed, and although soon it will be time to talk about 6G as a current technology, the 5G has been with us for more than six years, and it is still taking its first steps. And if Europe wants to be a reference in robotics, AI and new technologies, it will have to start deploying towers as they are already doing in other regions. Pexels (edited with Gemini) In Xataka | Qualcomm believes that 6G will be the definitive network for AI and has already set a date: the reality is that 5G is still in its infancy

New BMWi3, features, price and technical sheet

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In six months with the order book open, BMW has collected 50,000 reservations from the BMW iX3. The figure is even more striking if we take into account that the car has arrived exclusively with a single 469 HP engine and a gigantic battery of more than 100 kWh, so its starting price of 69,900 euros is a starting point that will probably fall. The electric SUV was the first car of the New Classthe reset in the BMW electric family that will mark its future. The purely electric platform that promises combustion car ranges, charging powers of 400 kW and a cabin built from the software. Now, it is the BMW i3 that will take over in this New Class that will mark the company’s purely electric future. A car that draws aesthetically from some of its historical sedans but that, again, repeats with a cabin that will surprise the most classic. The most important Series 3 in (many) years The BMW i3 was, in its day, a car ahead of its time. A sort of small electric car, very spacious inside, with electrical technology that was a rarity in the market and a touch typical of BMW. A combination that could only be found in what it was: a laboratory. Today, thanks to those investments in R&D with wheels, BMW has a new i3. One that couldn’t be more different. Because this BMW i3 is already part of the 3 Series range. It will be the first purely electric and it does so with the weight of taking the reins towards the electric car that the Germans have been diversifying but that, forced by Europe, they will have no choice but to prioritize in the coming years in the Old Continent. Almost proportionally sculpted like one of its great successes from the past, the BMW E36, the new BMW i3 arrives with a thin and wide kidney grille, opposite to what we saw in the BMW iX3. Here the horizontal is prioritized over the vertical, unlike in the electric SUV where the verticality of the front was deepened. The shapes tend to be monolithic, with a continuous pilot rear that crosses its entire width. Inside, BMW repeats the formula with its BMW Panoramic iDrive. That is, we have a multifunction steering wheel with touch keys whose icons light up or turn off depending on whether we are driving, parked or moving on a fast lane. The central screen is gigantic, 17.9 incheswith a rhomboid shape to bring the functions on the left side closer to the driver. It combines customizable widgets with the map or any other function we want. But the idea is that the central screen is a mere accompaniment to be accessed from time to time. And the BMW i3 has the thin screen that covers the entire width of the vehicle in the upper area. Instead of a traditional Head-Up Display, BMW has this customizable digital surface to which we can send information about the trip we are taking, the calendar, what is playing on the radio or the corresponding music application or the weather, to give some examples. It is an interior that seems difficult to convince purists. It will try to convince them with its mechanics and battery. As in the case of the electric SUV, the BMW i3 xDrive 50 is the first to hit the market. That is, one of its most powerful versions. Adding its front and rear axle motors, the BMW i3 xDrive 50 comes with 345 kW of power (469 HP) and a torque of 645 Nm. It is accompanied by a battery whose capacity has not yet been revealed, but taking into account that BMW announces a range of more than 900 kilometers (before homologation according to the WLTP cycle) we can expect it to be around or exceed 100 kWh. What we do know is that the car will have 800 volt technology and a charging power of 400 kW, promising to recharge 400 kilometers of autonomy in just 10 minutes. In any case, we will have to wait for more details to have a clear idea of ​​this aspect but one of the best consumption on the market is expected. To manage all the power and dynamism of the car, BMW will have what they call heart of joythe superbrain responsible for controlling the load and energy recovery but also the traction of the wheels or the response of the steering. According to BMW, the response of all the systems involved is 10 times faster than previous systems. BMW wants to make the new i3 the perfect balance between dynamism and consumption to win over those who still have their reservations about the electric car proposals. Photos | bmw In Xataka | BMW i7, analysis: how to bend the limits of the electric car with a sedan that makes no concessions

Spain has the cheapest wholesale energy in Europe in the midst of the Hormuz crisis

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The outbreak of war in Iran on February 28 and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz have plunged the world, overnight, into an energy crisis of alarming proportions. In the midst of this global chaos, a European country is resisting the challenge much better than its neighbors: Spain. A shield in front of the market. To understand why electricity in Spain has not become more expensive at the same rate as in the rest of the continent, it is essential to look at how the electricity market works. The European system is “marginalist”meaning that the most expensive technology needed to meet the demand for a given day (usually gas) is what dictates the final price of all electricity. The day after the start of the conflict in the Middle East, the price of gas rose by 55%, according to Euronews. However, the impact on Spanish bills is being cushioned, thanks to the fact that the share of clean energy in the country’s generation mix already exceeds 60%. Since 2019, Spain has added more than 40 GW of renewable capacity, doubling its wind and solar farms. Added to this structural deployment is a key seasonal factor: a solid spring “hydraulic cushion”, with the reservoirs located at 82.6% of their capacity. The data of the Iberian exception. The x-ray of the European wholesale markets, reflected in the records of Energy-chartsconfirms this gap in a very visual way: The Spanish daytime miracle: Spain’s graphics during February and March They show almost absolute dominance of renewable generation and hydraulic pumping. This massive injection sinks prices from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., becoming free, or even registering negative prices, because many plants find it more profitable to bid at zero price than to assume the very high costs of stopping and restarting their machines. The fossil condemnation of Germany and Italy: The European contrast is devastating and explains the asymmetric impact of the war. German market data for the same period reveal a heavy dependence on non-renewable sources, illustrated by a thick gray strip of fossil generation that sustains their system. The case of Italy is even more illustrative about the dangers of depending on foreign gas: its graphs show a huge constant load of non-renewable generation, which condemns the transalpine country to maintain a systematically high and flat price curve throughout the day. The “green shield” night fissure: However, we are not invulnerable. As analyst Antonio Aceituno, from the consulting firm Tempos Energía, warns, in Europa Pressthe Spanish balance is broken when evening falls. When the sun disappears, gas combined cycles begin to cover demand, returning tension to prices. This explains why in March the monthly average It woke up abruptly to 64.05 euros/MWh, with nighttime peaks of up to 247.15 euros/MWh. It is empirical proof that, no massive batteries to save the sunat eight in the afternoon we are still at the mercy of what happens in the Strait of Hormuz. Furthermore, time is against us. Antonio The Tempos Energía analyst warns that our precious “hydraulic shield” could begin to give way at the beginning of summer if the conflict becomes entrenched. In the worst case scenario, the June bill could jump above 100 euros per MWh, reaching the feared 120 euros between July and August. A halfway transition. The current energy crisis has left an irrefutable lesson: renewables are our best social shield. The deployment of recent years has prevented Spain from suffering the same financial drowning as its neighbors. As energy financing expert Gerard Reid reflects, in Euronewsit is preferable to depend on China to import a solar panel once every 25 years, than to depend on oil and gas from the Persian Gulf every day. But the transition is painfully incomplete. As long as lack of storage forces us to turn on gas plants when the sun sets, our pockets will continue to be hostage to global volatility. Whether due to a military drone over the Strait of Hormuz or due to political retaliation in the Oval Office, Spain’s true energy independence will not come until we are able to massively save the sun and wind that we have left over. Image | Photo by Alexis Presa on Unsplash and Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki on Unsplash Xataka | Skyscrapers are full of glass, so some Spanish researchers have had an idea: let them serve as “solar panels”

now he is banning them for pesticides

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The summer of 1994 was a wild year on the French border. Images of French farmers overturning strawberry trucks Spanish protests in Toulouse went around the world and the ancient tension between the two countries became a memory for history. In these 30 years, many things have changed. But that tension is not. That tension has left La Junquera and Hendaye, but it is still there and the institutional-health path demonstrates it. On March 16, the French Government ordered the withdrawal of all strawberries of Spanish origin sold by two supermarket chains. The reason? Residues of phytosanitary products above the community limits (MRL). What exactly happened in France? Something relatively common: the withdrawal of certain products due to problems with phytosanitary residues (although the sheet does not make it clear what the specific problem was). What complicates the management of the alert is that, since they were sold in bulk, they did not have easily identifiable batches: all the product has been withdrawn. Does this mean the alert is false or politically motivated? Nothing of the sort. In principle, the controls They are real and the excess waste is documented. What it does mean is that the historical rivalry is not only summarized in overturned trucks at the border: the regulatory and phytosanitary route is another playing field. France is not persecuting us in the literal sense of the term, but it is true that Spain has a real problem with this (and we have to get our act together). A very real problem. According to EurostatSpain is the largest consumer of pesticides in the European Union: we are talking about 75,774 tons in 2020, almost a quarter of the total. It is true that France is following closely, but the distance is increasing. We must not forget that, recurrently, different products have been blocked for health reasons. He North American veto on fresh pepper between 2022 and 2023 is perhaps the best-known example. Most of the problems come from imports from third countries and the asymmetry of border controls. But there is much more, the analysis of wastewater has led us to think that There is a black market for pesticides in the country. Spain facing the future. That is the best way to say it: the world has changed and Spanish leadership has to assume it. The agribusiness has demonstrated an unbeatable capacity to compete, lead and conquer markets; But as they say in the financial world: “Past earnings do not guarantee future returns“. The withdrawal of a product is an anecdote, but it is also a reminder that there is always a moment when anecdotes become trends (and changing trends is more complicated than it seems). Image | cyril mzn | Raghavendra Mithare In Xataka | Boycotts reach supermarkets for Huelva strawberries: how the drought is confronting German and Spanish consumers

reducing the target bonus when you are on medical leave is not discriminatory

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Getting sick if you work at Mercadona it can be very expensive. Not because of the medical leave itself, which is covered by Social Security, but because the days you spend recovering can take money away from the annual milestone bonus that the company distributes among its employees. A recent sentence The Supreme Court has given approval for Mercadona to deduct the proportional part of the sick leave periods from this objective bonus, and has made it clear that doing so does not mean discriminating against the worker for being sick. What the Mercadona agreement says. He article 31 of the collective agreement of Mercadona, valid until 2028, regulates the annual bonus that the company pays to its workers. To receive this bonus you must meet individual annual objectives, pass an assessment interview and have worked in the company for at least three months during the evaluated year. Its amount is a monthly payment of the salary of the professional group corresponding to the month of January of the year valued, and the company pays it during the first week of March. The point that has generated controversy is the one described in section c, which establishes that, if an employee accumulates more than 30 calendar days on sick leave common throughout the year, all those days no longer count as time worked for premium purposes. If the loss does not exceed that threshold, the days do count. On the other hand, sick leave due to work accidents, birth permits, risk benefit during pregnancy and paid leave are always considered time worked. The unions said enough. The Galician Inter-Union Confederation (CIG), which represents 1.7% of Mercadona’s workforce, took this clause to court with the argument that treating differently those who fall ill for work reasons and those who fall ill for common causes amounts to discrimination based on illness. The union relied on the violation of articles 2.1 and 4.1 of the Law 15/2022 on equal treatment and non-discriminationwhich expressly prohibits discrimination based on illness or health condition, something that before that law neither the Supreme Court nor the Constitutional Court recognized as a cause of prohibited discrimination. The National Court already rejected in September 2024 the lawsuit presented by the main unions with representation in Mercadona. Being on sick leave does not count as work. The judges’ reasoning in their ruling is based on a principle of labor law that many are unaware of, but which is included in the article 45.c of the Workers’ Statute: When a worker begins a medical leave, his or her contract is suspended. This means that, during this time of convalescence, the company has no legal obligation to pay the salary or any remuneration concept linked to actual work. As the CCOO and UGT unions pointed out in their writings to the court, during the leave there is no guarantee of equal pay with respect to the periods of effective work, and the company is not even obliged to pay the base salary, so it is not obliged to maintain the supplements for objectives. The Supreme Court says it does not discriminate. Regarding the difference between sick leave (for maternity or paternity leave, for example) and sick leave, the Supreme Court considers it justified because anyone who falls ill due to work has lost their health precisely for the benefit of the company, which deserves more favorable treatment. Furthermore, the Supreme Court remembers that it is the Social Security legislation itself that in its articles 156 and 157historically establishes those differences between professional contingencies and common, in aspects as varied as the requirements to collect benefits or their duration and amount. A victory with nuances. However, despite ruling in favor of Juan Roig’s company in the bulk of the matter, the judges have detected a specific point in the agreement that does violate the rights of workers. While reducing the target bonus proportionally to the days of sick leave is legal, preventing the employee from accessing that bonus system due to that sick leave is not. The ruling declares void the section of article 31 in which the days of common illness were excluded from the minimum calculation of three months necessary to be able to collect the objective bonus, even if it were for a lower amount as the Supreme Court has recognized. The practical consequence of this nuance implies that, if a worker has only been contributing normally for two months to collect that premium and the third month he takes it offthose sick days must count towards reaching the minimum three-month stay required to access the bonus. However, this bonus will be lower than expected because the company may reduce it proportionally to the days that have actually been worked. That is, the withdrawal cannot be a reason for exclusion from the count, but it can reduce the final amount of the premium. In Xataka | A company fired the same employee twice in eight months. The court has annulled them and returns to work with 25,000 euros Image | Wikimedia Commons (Carlos), Unsplash (Owen Beard)

The last thing was a Navy submarine for 130,000 euros

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The Spanish Navy embarked on the path of renewal some time ago, one in which the old glories are left without a place and must make way for new generations. Within this strategy, Spain put up for sale last year one of the last submarines of the S-70 family, a Tramuntana which for almost 40 years was the backbone of the country’s submarine force. The price? Little more than what it costs Xiaomi SU7 Ultraand it is an important step in the cycle of weapons renewal in which Spain finds itself. What you pay. The S-74, baptized ‘Tramontana’, was the fourth of the Navy’s S-70 series submarines. Based on the French designs of the Augustaleft the shipyards of the old Navantia in 1984 and served the Navy since 1985. With about 68 meters in length, capacity for 60 crew members, four torpedo tubes and a propulsion system with a double diesel engine of 3,600 HP and an electric engine of about 3,500 kW, the submarine could last up to 45 days without surfacing. After participating in numerous exercises and the occasional international deployment, his moment came in February 2024. After 38 years of service, and after a stretch in his useful life while awaiting the ddeployment of the first S-80the Tramontana was decommissioned and immobilized at the docks of the Cartagena Military Arsenal, ready to await its fate. What you take. In May of last year, the BOE published a resolution detailing the sale of the Tramontana. As is usually the case with this type of sales, it is not about anyone arriving and being able to get hold of a military submarine: the operation aims to serve as scrap metal. The base price was set at 138,468.53 euros and whoever was interested had to leave a provisional deposit of the base price: 27,693.70 euros. The final deposit will also be 20% of the amount reached in the auction. Is it easy to sell one of these things? Not at all, and if not… Ask the Prince of Asturias. The legendary Spanish aircraft carrier that was once the spearhead of the Navy also went up for auction after completing service. After having to repeat them with succulent discounts because no one wanted it even for scrap, he undertook a last trip to the Aliaga ship cemetery in Türkiye, where it ended up scrapped. In fact, the BOE already contemplates in these operations that, if no one opts for it, three additional auctions will be held, one every seven days and with a 15% discount compared to the previous auction if the previous one is void. Emblematic. For some it will be sad, but when something so enormous reaches its life cycle, there are only two alternatives: keep it as an element of maneuvers for training or auction it to recover money and have it scrapped. Unlike the aircraft carrier, the S-73 Mistral submarine has already been acquired by a scrapping company in Cartagena. A third option is to display it, but it is something much easier to do with a plane than with a submarine (although there are some, of course, as a museum ship). Scrapping. Speaking of the Mistral, after decommissioning it in 2021 after 35 years of service, it sold for 150,000 euros to a scrapyard that dismantled the vehicle to recover the valuable metals inside. The starting price was slightly lower than that of the Tramontana: 136,078.53 euros. Inflation affects everything. If we get philosophical, it is a bitter end for a submarine that, for decades, acted as a protection element in the Mediterranean. He participated in several NATO missions, but perhaps the most remembered operation was when he patrolled the waters around the Perejil islet in the dispute with Morocco in 2011. The S-73 Mistral, to get an idea of ​​the size Renewal. In the most pragmatic sense, it is still a 40-year-old submarine, so it didn’t make much sense to sell it to other nations (especially when looking for clients for the S-80newer and whose sale would help defray the costs of development). Because Spain has been creating for years – not without a few problems – its new fleet, the aforementioned S-80. They represent a generational leap in absolutely all their capacities, and they held out for the S-74 as long as possible until the arrival of the S-81 Isaac Peral. Now, the only one of the veteran submarines operational is a S-71 Galerna which keeps alive that strategy of at least two ‘live’ submarines at a time in terms of defense. And when the next units of the S-80 begin to arrive, the easiest thing is for the S-71 to have the same fate as its brothers the Siroco, the Mistral and the Tramontana. It’s still the weapons cycle, which can be stretched to a certain point, but when the time comes… better to get some money than have a dead asset. Images | José María González, Alberto Hernandez In Xataka | The new fear of Western fleets is not nuclear. They are conventional submarines armed with surprise and a flag: China

Seedance 2.0 has used Hollywood intellectual property to go viral. Hollywood has used the courts

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ByteDance is not only the company responsible for TikTok: This is a conglomerate that is pushing the development of artificial intelligence in China. And a few weeks ago they presented a Video generation AI which was the most brutal thing we had seen: Seedance 2.0. He perfectly matched any animated character, but also to flesh and blood actors. The West was quick to react, raising its voice and arguing “what happens to my copyrights.” And, in the background, there is something more important: one more chapter in the technological power struggle between China and the rest of the world. In short. Seedance 2.0 is a multimodal AI that allows us to generate video from text, images and other video chips. With a single promptAI takes care of the rest, combining video, audio and visual effects that can be extremely realistic. During the days following the announcement we were able to see a multitude of examples that showed a level of “perfection” not previously seen in other video models. “China is coming”. And the problem is what you are imagining: to recreate a photorealistic Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, he has evidently been inspired by those in the flesh. Also in the Douyin’s inexhaustible librarythe Chinese TikTok, which allowed him a complex understanding of facial and physical expressions and lighting calculations in a multitude of situations. My colleague Lacort already said it: This is not “China is coming”, but rather “China already does this… and we don’t”. Hollywood picks up the phone. And of course, just like the Japanese industry did when OpenAI blatantly copied his works so that we could create our Ghibli-style dog in ChatGPT, the American film industry was quick to raise its voice. One of the first was Disney, which in the purest Nintendo stylesent a cease and desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese company to use Disney characters to train your model. Disney is bothered by this threat, but it bothers it more that it doesn’t get a cut like it does from its alliance with OpenAI. Days later it was Motion Picture Association (to which Netflix, Amazon Prime, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner or Disney belong) which sent the same letter of interruption of operations to the Chinese company, accusing it of using its characters and protected material to train the model. And it has had consequences. Putting on the brake. In China, Seedance 2.0 remains operational, where it has achieved a high degree of virality among users, but where it also serves as a tool for creators. ByteDance planned to open global access in mid-March, but due to threats from the Western film industry, have put those fallow plans. “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users” – ByteDance’s response Disney has surely seen this video: Geopolitical pulse. It is not known how or when Seedance 2.0 will be launched outside of China, but in the background there is something very interesting: the use of copyright as a weapon in the technological war. If this has already gone from “the wolf is coming” to “the wolf is already here”, the West is using its available weapons to stop the advance. We have been following the technological and trade war between the United States for years (dragging Europe) and China, and if this movement implies another movement in the current geopolitical game in which the two poles are developing their AI by leaps and bounds. And China is achieving it without having the same resources at hand as the US AI Big Tech. Seedance is estimated to have been built without NVIDIA H100 chips banned for China, some that its rivals do have. Precedents. Is something similar to what happened with DeepSeek in LLMs And now it’s happening with synthetic video: the US has tried hard to leave China out of the conversation, but they are managing to have a strong presence in it. Another example is the reverse engineer ASML machines o what SMIC and Huawei are making progress in building cutting-edge chips. Capacity vs regulation. And another important theme of the ‘Seedance case’ is that it has become an example of the head-on collision between the technical capacity of AI and the regulatory power of the industry. It’s funny that when it became known that the American AI had ‘borrowed’ the entire Internet to train their models, other industries would be more lukewarm than when a Chinese company does it. And at the center of it all is a European Union that is expressing its intention to bring some sanity to progress for the sake of progress, overriding copyrights that can be trampled depending on who does it. In a proposal to “protect creative work with copyright in the age of AI, the European Parliament requires a series of measures so that companies pay for the resources they need for technology training. According to these companies, such a measure would go against progress and smaller AI companies. It would be curious if ByteDance responded to Disney with that same argument. In Xataka | All the big AIs have ignored copyright laws. The amazing thing is that there are still no consequences

robot vs robot battles where humans only watch

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In the year 2024, a relevant event occurred in the context of the war in Ukraine. So the number of drones produced for military use far surpassed to that of traditional armored vehicles, with tens of thousands of units deployed on the front. That change not only reflected a question of cost, but a profound transformation in how a modern war is conceived and fought today. One where humans have less and less to say. Forbidden to humans. In Ukraine, a new type of battlefield has emerged that breaks with everything known: the called “kill zones”those strips of several kilometers where any movement is detected and destroyed almost instantly by swarms of drones. In these spaces, human presence has become extremely limited and dangerous, almost inaccessible, forcing soldiers to remain buried for weeks or months and move alone in exceptional conditionswhile the terrain between the lines becomes a kind of permanent “no man’s land”, one saturated with sensors, mines and constant surveillance. If in the 19th century battles and quarrels were fought with steps and guns in duels in the sunTwo centuries later, duels have mutated into disputes between machines. Wars without troops. I remembered a few weeks ago the financial times that, in this new environment, direct combat between people has ceased to be the central element, replaced by confrontations where machines take center stage. Aerial drones patrol, detect and attack targets continuously, while unmanned ground vehicles advance, hold positions or execute ambushes in places where an infantryman I couldn’t survive. There have even been documented situations in which systems from both sides confront each other without direct human presenceevidencing a qualitative change in the nature of combat. Robots against robots. The most striking result is the appearance of authentic “duels” between unmanned systems, where UAVs and UGVs search, hunt and they destroy each other. Drones waiting on the ground like smart mines, vehicles that ambush routes supply or systems specifically designed to locate and neutralize other robots reflect an autonomous combat dynamic in constant evolution. Thus, each advance generates an immediate response from the adversary, creating a cycle accelerated innovation which is more reminiscent of a technological ecosystem or a futuristic war video game than a conventional war. Fully automated logistics. Even tasks that historically defined the rear, such as supplies, evacuation or minelaying, have been absorbed and replaced by machines. Now drones transport food, water and ammunition, while ground vehicles extract wounded people or deploy explosives in inaccessible areas. This change, furthermore, is not only tactical, but rather structural, because the battlefield seems not to admit The human presence continues, forcing a kind of outsourcing of essential functions to systems that can take risks that no soldier could accept. The leap to self-employment. They explained in Forbes that, although many of these systems continue to depend on human operators, the trend points towards a increasing autonomywith robots increasingly capable of detecting, deciding and acting with less intervention. If you also want, the integration of artificial intelligence, advanced sensors and coordination in swarms anticipates a scenario where hundreds of systems operate simultaneously in air, land and sea, further expanding these inaccessible areas and reducing the room for human maneuver. The future in real time. In summary, what is happening in Ukraine It is not only an adaptation to the current conflict, but it could be said that it is a preview of what they will be like. the wars of the future. The unprecedented combination of total surveillance, combat automation and progressive replacement of the soldier in the most dangerous areas is transforming war in an unprecedented confrontation between systemsone where humans are relegated to supervision and strategic decision-making. From that perspective, rather than a gradual evolution, the conflict in Eastern Europe has suddenly accelerated a transition that seemed very distant a few years ago, turning science fiction into something similar to an operational reality. Image | Telegram In Xataka | Ukraine has become the world’s leading specialist against Iranian drones. And he won’t share his antidote In Xataka | If Ukraine promoted the use of drones, Iran has triggered the Terminator algorithm. And that was already a problem in science fiction

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