Month: March 2026

twelve countries have just decided that much better with Bizum

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Bizum has not only conquered the Spanish: now it is who leads the construction of the pan-European payment system that aspires to stand up to VISA and Mastercard. That is, who aspires to be the face of European sovereignty in payments against the great American solutions. The new company that will coordinate this alliance of national solutions will have its headquarters in Madrid. Why is it important. Europe moves trillions of euros in daily digital payments and almost all of that infrastructure passes through American hands. That twelve EU countries plus Norway have decided to join, and that they have chosen Spain as their headquarters, is a declaration of geopolitical intentions. “We want to not depend so much on American solutions,” said Fernando Rodríguez, deputy general director of International Expansion at Bizum. Difficult to explain it more clearly. The context. The project starts from a previous alliance between Bizum, the Italian Bancomat Pay and the Portuguese SIBS, which was later joined by Blik (Poland and Slovakia) and Vipps MobilePay (Nordic countries). In parallel, the scheme werodriven by the European Payments Initiativealready operates in Germany, France and Belgium. All of them now converge under a common architecture: a central infrastructure that acts as a “bridge” and guarantees that a user in Oslo can pay a user in Lisbon without any American intervening. Between the lines. The choice of Madrid has not been automatic. It has been, according to the protagonists themselves, “the first compromise solution” reached between the partners, which says a lot about the difficulty of what is to come. Choosing a venue is the easy part. The shareholder agreement that will determine the governance and distribution of power, the selection of the CEO and the negotiation of a legal process that the parties describe as “long and complex.” There is an obvious risk: that national interests will strain the alliance. Coordinating 13 countries with different banking cultures and different market sizes is something we have not yet seen in Europe. Main winner? Bizum. With difference. Their 31 million users They are almost 20% of the total clients of all the allied systems, and that weight has been enough to convert Madrid into its headquarters and place Spain at the center of an initiative that no one would have imagined led from here ten years ago. We did not see the leap from national payment application to European sovereignty lever. The big question. Whether this consortium will be able to challenge Visa and Mastercard for real ground depends on whether it manages to go beyond payments between individuals. Electronic commerce and point-of-sale payments, planned for 2027-2028 and what has been achieved so far we have only seen the tip of the icebergoften with walk-around approaches; They are the litmus test of truth: that is where the American networks have their most profitable business and where Europe has been down for decades. Go deeper. The president of the Spanish Banking Association, Alejandra Kindelán, also has been clear about this: Europe needs to gain autonomy at a time of rising geopolitical upheaval. Payments, in this context, have ceased to be the usual infrastructure and have become a matter of sovereignty. And dependence on American networks is increasingly seen in Europe as a problem to be solved. Featured image | Xataka with Mockuuups Studio In Xataka | Europe seeks its sovereignty in rare earths and knows how to achieve it the fast way: with a supermine in Sweden

Balcony rental at 9,000 euros

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Religious fervor cannot be bought with money. The best places to contemplate it, yes. For some time now something curious has been happening in Andalusia: Holy Week comes preceded by a news blast about quotes and increases and decreases (usually just increases) in rental prices. The chronicles in question have nothing to do with housing, not even with the rates charged by hotels or Airbnb. Its focus is on the balconies of cities like Seville or Malaga with the best views of the religious steps, small viewpoints for which you can pay now. 9,000 euros. There are those who talk about “commodification” of Easter. What has happened? There is news that, no matter how much it is repeated year after year, is still that: news. The balconies in the center of Seville or Malaga are a good example. From long ago the media have been counting the prices increasingly exorbitant that are requested during Holy Week for these spaces, places with privileged views of the religious processions. What is curious (as has just been proven in Andalusia) is that, as is the case with residential or vacation rentals, the terrace business is not reaching its ceiling. In the end it is nothing surprising. Something similar happens with the terraces of Valencia during the Fallas, those of Vigo at Christmas or in other cities Spanish when celebrations are organized in the street, which includes, for example, the celebration of football titles. If there are balconies with good views there is guaranteed business. One that can bring in hundreds or even thousands of euros in a few days. Are they that expensive? The data has been provided by the College of Property Administrators (CAF) of Seville. According to their estimates, enjoying a good balcony in the historic center to admire the images of El Silencio, El Gran Poder or La Macarena costs several thousand euros. To be more precise, 6,000 in exchange for a whole week. The data draws attention for two reasons. First because it is double than what was requested a few years ago (in 2023 the average was around €6,000). Second, because in cases in which a privileged location is combined with catering services, this cost can skyrocket until reaching €9,000. Does it only happen in Seville? No. A few weeks ago the Andalusian press reported that in Malaga the rent for accommodation with the best views of the processions had also skyrocketed. In mid-March, 15 days before the start of Easter, Malaga Today assured that Airbnb was asking for 900 euros for a two-night stay in a studio on Larios Street. In Cisneros (also in the center) an apartment with windows facing the street was rented for €500 for two days, a figure that rose to €750 on Booking. What exactly is paid? Basically two things. Dates. And location. Rents do not skyrocket just because. They do it mainly in accommodations with balconies located in strategic areas from which to admire the images of El Silencio, El Gran Poder or La Macarena (in the case of Seville) or El Cautivo, Cristo de la Buena Muerte or Los Estudiantes (Málaga). The height, the quality of the views or the specific day complete the rates and explain why there are cases in which €9,000 is requested for a week. Also that rentals have stopped being a private business and have become ‘professional’ hand in hand with companies. Does it only happen with balconies? No. The subscriptions for chairs and boxes of the Official Race offered by the General Council of Brotherhoods and Brotherhoods of the City of Seville are not affordable for everyone. Especially after experiencing a 3% year-on-year increase. The price table published by the organization shows that rates range from €90.5 for a chair in Plaza Virgen de Los Reyes to 1,016 for the best boxes in Plaza San Francisco. Between both figures there are several options above €100. For example, on Avenida Constitución (Tribuna Faro) there are places available for €161.3. It may seem like a lot, but a subscriber recently recognized to The Country who rents out the two chairs he has at the beginning of the Official Race for double what they cost him (170 each). And that’s because he gives them to a friend. “If it wasn’t him, I could ask for whatever I wanted, and even more so right now with the boom around Holy Week in Seville,” presume. The fertilizers represent the main source of financing for the brotherhoods that organize Holy Week in Seville. Why is it so important? Beyond the interest aroused by the exorbitant prices that are asked (and paid) for the best balconies in Seville or Malaga to follow in the footsteps, the topic raises another interesting question: the debate on commodification of Holy Week, an event that (beyond tourism or the law of supply and demand) has a religious reason for being. “We have become accustomed to the fact that there is no area of ​​human activity that is not subject to commercialization, because the justification is that everything is subject to costs and the same thing you pay to go to the theater or football is paid to see Easter in the front row,” I was reflecting recently in The Country Alberto del Campo, professor of Social Anthropology at the Pablo de Olavide University. Images | Jon Connell (Flickr) 1 and 2 In Xataka | In Sagunto they have voted on whether tradition or equality should have more weight in the Holy Week processions. They have been quite clear

Science finally shows that they hunted the largest beasts of their time

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The classic image of neanderthal as a brute hominid with no intelligence and that barely survived by scavenging what other predators left behind, it is increasingly being left behind as we make new discoveries. Precisely, we now know that 125,000 years ago, our evolutionary cousins They were Europe’s apex predators, capable of organizing to take down the most formidable land creature of their time: the straight-tusked elephant. A beast that doubled the size of today’s African elephants and reached 13 tons in weight. The mystery of the spear. To reach this conclusion we have not traveled back in time, but rather we have gone to Leringen in Germany. Here in 1948 archaeologists found a skeleton of the straight-tusked elephant, with a 2.4 meter yew spear stuck between the ribs. A priori it seemed like the definitive proof or, as some anthropologists have called it, the smoking gun of Neanderthal hunting. However, scientific skepticism prevailed: was it a coordinated attack or did a group of opportunistic Neanderthals find an elephant trapped in the mud and finish it off? This is where a great debate has been generated that has now been closed in 2026 with the publication of a new scientific article. What have they done? Here the researchers have basically focused on the skeletal remains of the animal that was found, and the objective was to find the details of the hunting process. What they saw was that the cut marks and damage to the bones did not correspond to a simple opportunistic shot, but to a frontal and tactical attack. In this way, experts point out that the Lehringen spear is no longer an anomaly or a happy coincidence, but rather irrefutable proof of systematic hunting behavior. The context. In addition to what has now been known, in the past researchers demonstrated that the hunt for these titans was not an isolated event, but rather a systematic and recurring practice. The problem that was seen is that shooting down a 13-ton elephant raises the obvious question: what do you do with so much meat before it rots? This is where the classic perception of the Neanderthal falls apart. An elephant of that size provided enough calories to feed 100 people for a month, and processing that amount of meat and fat required three basic points: Groups of people larger than previously believed, which break with the idea of ​​small nomadic bands of 20 individuals. Settle in a specific area when you have plenty of food. Master fire and techniques, such as drying meat so that it can last for a long time. A new image. With all this research, the truth is that the textbooks have to be rewritten, since you can see how Neanderthals had the cognitive ability to plan, the communication necessary to coordinate mass ambushes, and the social structure to process and store tons of food. Images | Wikipedia Generation with AI In Xataka | The great mystery of sex between Neanderthals and Sapiens: genetics suggest that Neanderthal males preferred human women

The problem for the US is not that China is mass-producing a new hypersonic missile. It costs the same as a Tesla

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The most advanced military systems have had something in common: exorbitant prices and limited production, with weapons that can take years to manufacture and cost millions per unit. It happens that there is a less known fact that is beginning to change everything: today it is possible to build technology capable of traveling more than 1,000 kilometers in minutes using components derived from the civil industry. And China is in the lead. What a car costs. It we count in November of last year. China has introduced a quiet but profound change in modern warfare: a hypersonic missile, the YKJ-1000capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 7 and traveling more than 1,000 kilometers for a price around at $99,000that is, equivalent to that of a high-end car like a Tesla Model It is not a trivial fact, although it may seem anecdotal, it is actually the core of the problem you have right now. United States in Iranbecause it completely breaks the traditional logic of military balance: for the first time, an extremely advanced weapon allows to be exclusive and expensive to become something potentially massive, accessible and replicable on a large scale. It’s not the technology, it’s the cost. Because the challenge for the United States is not that China has developed a new hypersonic missile, but that it has done so extremely cheap. While intercepting a threat can cost millions per attempt (with systems like Patriot, SM-6 or THAAD), destroying that missile costs dozens of times more to manufacture it. This creates a brutal asymmetry where the attacker always wins financially, forcing the defender to spend disproportionate amounts just to stay safe. In this scenario, defending yourself is no longer sustainable, especially in the face of massive attacks. Mass production. Unlike traditional programs, this missile is not a limited or experimental piece, but rather a product designed to be manufactured in large quantities. using civil materialscommercial supply chains and components already available on the market. China has not only reduced the cost, but has industrialized productionallowing us to imagine scenarios where hundreds or thousands of these systems can be rapidly deployed, saturating any existing defense without the need for absolute precision. Invisible launchers. The change is not limited to the missile itself, but how it unfolds– Can be launched from platforms hidden in shipping containers, trucks or common industrial facilities, integrating into global civil infrastructures. This virtually eliminates any predictability on the origin of the attack, expanding the scope of the threat to any point within its operational radius. In other words, war no longer has defined fronts and begins to depend more on a diffuse network where the attacker can appear anywhere without prior notice. The swarm effect. Added to this logic is the parallel development of advanced drones like the TM-300capable of flying at high speed, with stealth capacity and also designed for mass production. In that light, the combination of cheap missiles and swarming drones creates a scenario in which even sophisticated defenses can be overcome. simply by volumenot because of technological superiority. It is not necessary for all attacks to be successful: it is enough for some to do so to generate a disproportionate strategic impact. Change of era. If you like, all this points to a structural transformation: one where the advantage is no longer in having the most advanced weapons, but in being able to produce them faster and cheaper that the opponent can defend himself. The central idea, as we saw in Ukraine and now in Iranis clearly imposed: the problem for the United States is not that China is mass manufacturing a new hypersonic missile, but that it is doing so at a ridiculously low costaltering the balance between attack and defense and opening the door to a war where quantity and price can prevail over technology and sophistication. Image | x In Xataka | China is sending drones to an island 100 km from Taiwan. The problem is that Japan and the US are filling it with missiles In Xataka | China has drawn a very clear red line to Japan: being an ally of the United States is good, supporting Taiwan is bad.

I thought my kitchen couldn’t fit one more whim. Until they invented the invisible induction hob

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The Spanish we cook less and lessand Roig himself predicts that in a few years there will be no kitchens in the houses. For everyone who thinks otherwise, good news: the induction cooktop industry is progressing at a dizzying pace. The invisible induction. There is a phenomenon going viral on networks such as YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram: the induction invisible. They are in the most literal sense of the word, since they are invisible to the eye and can be placed practically anywhere on the countertop. Although they may seem like a magical solution, these new induction systems have technology that we already know and some important cons to know. How to achieve it. Countertops with invisible induction allow you to cook directly on the countertop surface, without the need for a visible plate. The technology is the same as in a conventional induction hob: a system of electromagnetic coils generates a field that induces electric currents in ferromagnetic materials. The surface of the countertop acquires only the residual heat, the intensity of which will largely depend on the material used in it. Thus, like any other induction system, it is much more complicated to burn yourself compared to a ceramic hob. Novy undercounter induction. The pros. In addition to the design, which allows us to completely forget that we have a plate embedded in the countertop, cleanliness is a very strong point. It is enough to clean our countertop regularly without fear of damaging the plates, since they are under the surface. There is also a gain in surface area, since the plate They are also usually quite easy to control, some of them using wireless controllers, others using a traditional remote control or, as in the case of some Cecotec models, we can choose where to install the visible button panel. The buts. Invisible inductions cannot be installed on any countertop. Brands like Cecotec They sell theirs at a pretty cheap price.recommending porcelain or granite materials that withstand temperatures greater than 400 degrees and with a minimum thickness depending on the model. Invisible Cooking Surface plate. Viewed unassembled it is not so futuristic. Although the companies that market them overlook it, invisible induction has a small counterpart: the heat has to pass through the countertop. This creates a barrier that slightly increases consumption, although as an induction system they are still much more efficient than traditional glass-ceramics. If you are worried about leaving marks over time, for now (these plates have been on the market for a few years, although they are still unknown), no big complaints. The manufacturers assure that the countertop is treated so as not to become marked with use, although it will depend on the care with which we place the pots and pans on it. Go deeper. Repairing this type of hob is also more expensive than traditional induction hobs. Despite this, modular installations are usually used so that they can be replaced without it being necessary to completely change the countertop. If Roig is right and in a few years there will be no kitchens, at least those who resist eat only precooked You can have the most beautiful one. In Xataka | Goodbye to the hood in the kitchen. Hiding it is not enough for Samsung: it has integrated it into its new induction hob

so you can win a Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition

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One more week, we return with a new exclusive giveaway for the community of Xataka Xtra. The first draw was a 75-inch LG televisionthe second a Nothing Phone (3a) Community Edition of which there are only 1,000 units and now we return with a super, super, super limited product that, in fact, is not sold in Spain: the Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition. We are going to discover both the device and the mechanics to participate right away, but first it is worth remembering that You can join Xataka Xtra from only two euros per month. This subscription includes access to this exclusive giveaway and all those that will come in the future, as well as unique discounts on digital services, a direct line with Xataka editors in El Consultorio, an exclusive Discord server and much more. And now, yes, the draw. How to participate in the exclusive draw for a Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition Like all exclusive raffles for Xataka It’s that simple. Make sure you check that box to automatically participate in the exclusive Xataka Xtra draws | Image: Xataka A gesture as simple as a click or a press, depending on where you read us from, will allow you to access this draw and future ones. If you are already part of Xataka Xtra and have participated in previous draws, don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything, so you can ignore this paragraph. As a summary, the draw is as follows: Requirements: be a Xataka Xtra subscriber and resident in Spain (Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla) Start of the draw: Monday, March 30. End of the draw: Friday, April 10, at 9:00. Winner selection and resolution: Friday, April 10. How will the winner be chosen? From Xataka we will choose a random subscriber and two substitutes. If the winner does not respond within the period stipulated in the legal bases of each draw, the winner will go to the first substitute and, if this does not happen either, to the second. Winning a giveaway does not prevent you from winning in the following ones. You can find the legal bases at this link. Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition | Image: Xataka Regarding the award, the Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition has a radically different finish than the standard model, with a black synthetic leather back, gold details inspired by House Targaryen and dragons and a technology that makes the back turn red when exposed to heat. It is a very cool mobile, yes, but also a collector’s item. It is not sold in Spain, but thanks to Realme Spain from Xataka we have the possibility of getting a true fan of the George RR Martin universe to take it home. In Xataka | Subscribe now to Xataka Xtra

China wants to lead all technological conversations and is clear that this involves 6G. He has stepped on the accelerator

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Chenoa said that “when you go, I come.” In the technology sector it can be applied to many things, and one of them is the development of 6G by China. In 2018, the commercial deployment of 5G was taking its first steps, but in China there was already talk of the next generation. In the last update of the Five Year Plan they reconfirmed that 2030 was the deadline for network deployment, but now they are going one step further because 6G is not a simple improvement in communications. This is a geopolitical issue and a technology that will be ubiquitous. Completing phases. It was during the Annual Conference of the Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing where experts and representatives of the technology and communications industry presented an ambitious route for the development of the 6G network. Over the last five years, China has been patenting technologies related to the sixth generation and it is estimated that it accounts for approximately 40% of all global 6G patent applications. This is a very important step because, for example Huawei has already achieved something similar with 5G and that implies that everyone who wants to use that technology has to pay certain fees to the Chinese company. It also attracts talent and reinforces the internal industrial ecosystem for what is considered “a comprehensive industrial chain” in the country. It is something that has been bearing fruit, with a first phase in which companies have been collecting information and “materials” and a second phase for 2026 in which they project integrate more than 300 key 6G technologies into a functional prototype. AI from the ground up. Something key about this technology is that it is not simply something that will allow a connection with lower latency and higher speed. That is relevant, of course, since it is estimated that speeds above 100 Gbps will be achieved with a delay much less than a millisecond (in 5G, the figure is about 1Gbps), but in 6G what matters most is that it will be a system that will have artificial intelligence integrated into each layer. This is, perhaps, the most ambitious of everything that has been discussed in the forum. Unlike 5G, which has had to adapt to the capabilities of artificial intelligence and robotics, 6G has been designed with AI from the ground up. This implies that each network unit (stations, terminals and core networks) will have built-in AI computing power. In short: they will be systems that, in addition to allowing 6G connection, will have the capacity to operate AI agents locally. The idea is not to have to depend, for certain tasks, on data centers that are sometimes long distances away. In addition, it is being proposed that the network be ubiquitous – that it be everywhere -, being a system that can operate on land, air, space and sea. It sounds tremendously ambitious, but we are talking about a technology that will coexist with plans to take data centers into space. Mass adoption. As we pointed out a few days ago, China wants to carry out the deployment by 2030, but this ‘launch’ of 6G will not be for the consumer. Once the network is deployed and seeing that it is viable to promote the technologies they want to develop (robotics, physical AI, remote computing or autonomous driving, for example), it will be the consumer’s turn. It is something that will arrive by 2035, but here we should not be too optimistic. It won’t be easy. Although it sounds great to have devices in your pocket and at home that achieve that speed without the need for a cable connection, you have to keep something in mind: although 5G has been with us for more than six years, is still taking its first steps. We have 5G devices, yes, but there are several problems. One is that, many times, 5G is not “real” or does not reach the speeds it could. On the other hand, coverage is essential, and it is something that varies by neighborhood. In a report from a few months ago, the European communications giant Ericsson pointed out that Europe has a problem. While other countries have deployed the millimeter band, most European countries have prioritized the medium and low bands. We have a lot of coverage (there are the covered territory maps), but we have less speed and more latency. And if it is not resolved, the deployment of 6G will be useless. At least Europe has spoken out and He doesn’t want the play to be repeated.. Vital. And this, as we say, is essential because you will already be sensing that 6G is not only more speed: it is the wireless technology on which we want to shape the immediate future. have the superiority It is a geopolitical advantageand China is not the only one in this battle. China may have ZTE and Huawei, but South Korea has SK Telecom and Samsung. They want to have a functional 6G network by 2028, something in which they also Japan and the United States are involved. In any case, it is evident that we are going to start talking a lot about 6G in the short term because all the powers are moving. It will not be easy and the vice president of ZTE himself has commented that there are obstacles such as the supply chains of essential components and the cost of deploying a 6G network, but that as it is a technology that unites communications, AI, the aerospace industry and, above all, the military, it can make countries focus on this development. In Xataka | China was not supposed to be able to produce 7nm chips without ASML machines. It already has two companies capable of doing it

AI chatbots are more flattering than humans giving personal advice. And that’s a problem

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Before, to create your echo chamber you could only follow like-minded people on networks, now you can create your own personalized echo chamber with an AI. A Stanford study has thoroughly analyzed the excessive adulation of LLMs and the result is clear: if you want to be told what you want to hear, it is better to talk to the AI ​​​​than with a person. The study. The Researchers analyzed eleven language models, among which were the most popular ones like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or DeepSeek, and they fed them with data sets about personal dilemmas. In addition, they included 2,000 prompts taken from the Reddit community. Approximately one-third of all scenarios included harmful or outright illegal behavior. Then, they compared the LLM responses with human responses to see who tends to agree with the user more. In a second part of the study, they recruited 2,400 participants and had them chat with flattering and non-flattering language models. We like to be proven right. Chatbots tend to be much more flattering than a human when giving personal advice, but not only that, people generally prefer these types of responses. The models endorsed the user’s position 49% more than humans in general dilemmas and endorsed harmful behavior 47% more. In the second experiment, people who chatted with different models considered the sycophantic model more trustworthy and preferable. Furthermore, she came away more convinced that she was right and less willing to apologize or repair the conflict. Why is it a problem. According to the authors, LLMs can reinforce egocentrism and make people more morally dogmatic. According to Myra Cheng, co-author of the study, “By default, AI advice does not tell people that they are wrong or give them a reality check (…) I worry that people will lose the ability to deal with difficult social situations.” In addition, there is another worrying fact and that is that users perceived the models as equally objective, which suggests a lack of critical vision to be able to distinguish a flattering AI from a non-flattering one. AI is not a person. It is obvious, but the reality is that every day we address AI chatbots as if they were one. Thank him and ask him for things please It is a harmless symptom of our mania for anthropoformize everything. However, when We use AI as a substitute for a psychologist or when we establish intimate relationships with a chatbotthat’s where we start to step in swampy terrain. The authors of the study consider it urgent that companies introduce safeguards to reduce the excessive complacency of LLMs and advise avoiding using them as a substitute for a person to deal with personal conflicts. The counterpoint. There are voices that argue that AI is not generating these echo chambers, at least not with as much intensity as we have seen with social networks. According to John Burn-Murdoch in Financial Timeslanguage models tend to raise consensus with experts and generate more moderate opinions than networks. Their argument is that the economic architecture of networks rewards inflammatory and polarizing content, while chatbots compete to offer reliable answers to users who use them to make important decisions. It is not just an opinion, it has also done an experiment in which it has simulated thousands of political conversations between users with extreme positions and several of the main chatbots on the market. Based on electoral surveys and data on the use of these tools, it measures how positions would move if a part of the citizenry used AI to inform themselves. The author concludes that, on average, the models tend to push the most radical ones towards more temperate positions closer to the expert consensus, also validating many fewer conspiracy theories than those that routinely circulate on social networks. In Xataka | AIs have become accompanying tools against loneliness. For some researchers it is “junk food” Image | Zulfugar Karimov in Unsplash

How to create a paper cut illustration from your photos with artificial intelligence, using ChatGPT or Gemini

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Let’s tell you how to create a paper cut illustration from your photos using artificial intelligence. We are going to tell you a prompt that you will be able to use in both ChatGPT and Gemini, although the result can vary greatly depending on which of them you use. Therefore, we will start by telling you the prompt that you should copy and paste, which is quite long and detailed. And then we will tell you the differences between using Gemini and ChatGPT to do this, because they are very notable differences. Illustration of paper cut from your photos To make this composition, you simply have to add a photo and paste the text to the prompt What are you going to introduce to artificial intelligence? Then, the AI ​​will analyze the content of the photo and generate the result. This is the textual prompt that you must add: “Turn this image (attached) into a soft illustration style by layering handmade cut-out paper, inspired by the aesthetics of papercraft dioramas. Use soft, rounded shapes, adorable, simplified character proportions, and minimal facial details (point eyes, rosy cheeks) to create a warm, charming look. Apply stacked layers of paper with visible depth, subtle shadows between layers, and clean cut edges reminiscent of laser-cut cardboard. Add a distinctive white outer layer surrounding each main character, similar to a thick sticker border or a cut-out white paper backing, clearly separating the characters from the background. This white layer should look like an intentional paper layer, not a glow or halo. Use a pastel color palette with muted blues, greens and warm neutrals, balanced and calming. Lighting should feel soft, diffuse and uniform, enhancing dimensional paper layers without harsh contrasts. Textures should appear matte and tactile, like thick art paper or EVA foam. Overall mood: Cozy, endearing, delicate and story-like, with a playful yet polished handcrafted look, suitable for modern illustration, children’s books or decorative art.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Then, you only have to wait a few seconds and you will get the result. This will vary very noticeably depending on the AI ​​model you are going to use. As you can see, it is a very VERY long prompt, but since we have translated it into Spanish you will be able to read it, review it and even make changes. Differences between Gemini and ChatGPT results Gemini does the paper cut style best. Gemini does the cut paper style better when creating the resulting image from your photos. The result is very beautiful, smooth and with very schematic images. However, does not capture characteristic features very welland in the case of animals it can even change the color of their hair. ChatGPT captures details much better ChatGPT captures colors and details betterthe characters that appear in the images are much more recognizable. However, the cut-out paper is not made in layers like in Gemini, the style is much less artistic, and looks more like stickers overlaid on a background. Therefore, there are no perfect results, and it will be up to you to do tests and see what you prefer, whether realism or more of an effect of overlapping cut-out papers. Taking into account that each AI offers results with its own personality, you will have no problems choosing one or the other depending on the photo and the result you want. In Xataka Basics | How to create an image of yourself and a Pixar character with your face using artificial intelligence, with Gemini or ChatGPT

Each new AI model is the best ever until the next one arrives. Anthropic and OpenAI have turned that into a business

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It doesn’t matter what technological product we are talking about, because both the product and how it is sold to you matters. And here making promises and generating expectations is the classic strategy. The next processor is going to be more powerful, the next smartphone is going to take better photos… and of course, the next AI model is going to be (much) better. We are seeing that message constantly in the AI ​​segment, but now it is going further. Anthropic and a curious leak. A group of security researchers they detected a few days ago 3,000 unpublished documents in an accessible Anthropic database. They included a draft of the blog entry that corresponded to the theoretical launch of their next AI model. The striking thing is not so much the filtration itself (whether intentional or not), but what those documents reveal. Mythos goes beyond mere evolution. Or at least that’s what that leaked draft seems to reveal. It describes a model called Claude Mythos—also called Capybara—which would not be a simple improvement on Claude Opus, but would be a level above it. The document says that this model is “bigger and smarter than our Opus models, which until now were the most powerful.” Anthropic signs up for hype. According to this leak, the benchmark scores would be notably higher than those of Opus 4.6 in programming, reasoning and cybersecurity. At Anthropic have ended up confirming the existence of this development, and have described it as “a level change” and “the most capable model we have created to date.” It’s not too surprising a phrase, because it’s basically the same thing they’ve been saying about every new model they’ve released. And even they are scared. In fact, what is surprising in that draft is not the message that it is better, but the warnings that accompany that future presentation. Thus, Anthropic describes Mythos as “currently far ahead of any other AI model in cybersecurity capabilities.” In fact, they warn that this may be the beginning of “an imminent wave of models that can exploit vulnerabilities in ways that far exceed the efforts of the defenders.” Or what is the same: Mythos could be a extraordinary tool for cyber attackers. The actual launch plan is to first offer Mythos to cybersecurity organizations to prepare. We will see if that gives an advantage, if Mythos meets expectations. OpenAI also makes a move. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have been moving in parallel for some time, and now they have done so again. At OpenAI they are preparing their new AI model, codenamed “Spud” (“potato”). Hardly anything is known about him beyond the fact that his pre-training phase has been completed. More relevant is that this model appears just when At OpenAI they have decided to be less OpenAI and more Anthropic. They have abandoned Sora and they are redirecting resources to regain ground where they are losing it. That is, in companies. But the count is not infinite.. These days, users of Claude’s $100 and $200 per month plans began to notice how they used up their limits and token quotas in less than an hour during their work hours. What is happening is that Anthropic is training more powerful but much more expensive models to use and that makes it difficult to serve them. Demand is growing faster than the efficiency improvements that are coming, so according to some analysts, AI companies are adjusting those quotas and in a sense making Their models behave as if they were “dumber” to save. It’s something we’ve seen in the past. hedonic adaptation. The psychologists called hedonic adaptation to the phenomenon by which humans quickly become accustomed to any level of experience, good or bad, and return to our starting emotional state. When applied to AI, this phenomenon explains that this model that seemed miraculous to us six months ago today seems slow and limited, and what six months ago seemed like science fiction is today the minimum we ask of companies. Anthropic and OpenAI have not invented the concept, but they have integrated it into their roadmaps like other technology companies in the past. We mentioned it before: they not only sell what they have today, but (more importantly) what they will have tomorrow. Mythos will be brutal and very expensive. Anthropic’s draft warns that Mythos will be “very expensive to serve and will be very expensive for our customers.” That points to two possibilities. The first is that only users of the Max plans can access some consultations with this model. The second, that a subscription appears even more expensive than that 200 dollars a month so we can leverage Mythos with more leeway. We already had a free AI, a basic paid AI and a high-end paid AI. Now we will also have super high-end AI. In Xataka | The hard landing of OpenAI: after years at the forefront, it is discovering that AI is not won only with memes and hype

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