Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Every time the Vatican has warned of the danger of a technology, that technology has ended up changing the world. It’s up to the AI

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Let’s do a little memory. The 15th century was ending and The Christian Church found the printing press wonderful.almost providential. The adoption of that invention by ecclesiastical institutions was enthusiastic because it allowed them to amplify their mission. It didn’t take long for the discourse to change noticeably. in the bull Inter multiplies In 1487, Pope Innocent VIII praised it but warned of its risks: the same thing that served to spread the word of God, could serve to spread heresies and false ideas. It was then that censorship was introduced according to which no book should be printed without the approval of the ecclesiastical authorities. That laid the foundations for the future Index librorum prohibitorum which established a list of prohibited works for all of Christendom. That didn’t go too well. Martin Luther precisely took advantage of that divine invention to distribute your propaganda during the Protestant Reformation, and if this movement ended up being successful it was undoubtedly thanks to the printing press. It is not in vain that Luther is considered the first author of best-sellers of history. The encyclicals in the face of technological advances Let’s move forward. In 1891 Pope Leo XIII published his encyclical Rerum Novarumpossibly the most famous social encyclical in history. In it the pontiff focused on the rights of workers as response to the disturbing Industrial Revolution. He denounced the concentration of wealth and new technologies “in the hands of a few,” and warned that this was turning workers into slaves. Let’s keep moving forward. 90 years ago, Pius XI launched his act Vigilanti Cura (1936), dedicated exclusively to cinema. It recognized the technological progress that cinematography represented, but warned that if it was not strictly regulated, it would become the greatest instrument of moral corruption and mass manipulation in history. That message would be accompanied by the encyclical Miranda Prorsus (1957), by Pius XII, which extended that warning to both radio and televisionwhich had as much or more capacity than cinema to be beneficial but also toxic to humanity. There have been other social encyclicals related to technology: Pacem in Terris (1963) by John XXIII spoke of the atomic danger, while Evangelium Vitae (1995) by John Paul II was a wake-up call against eugenic biomedical techniques and embryo manipulation. The curious thing is that most of these encyclicals were published many years after certain technological advances had occurred. That would make one think that there are one or several encyclicals dedicated to the internet, mobile phones or social networks. There are not, although these topics have been mentioned by the last Popes in other messages. Arrives Magnificent Humanitas Therefore it is surprising that Pope Leo XIV has dedicated an entire encyclical to artificial intelligence. He has done it just three years after ChatGPT was launched, and he has also done it with a unique title: Magnificent Humanitas (2026). A fact: Robert Fracis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV, graduated in mathematics in 1977 from Villanova University in Philadelphia. This encyclical follows a very clear historical line of argument: on many occasions in which a disruptive technology appears, the Vatican adopts the role of “ethical brake” and tries to warn of something relevant: technical and technological advances must be subordinated to human beings. In Magnificent Humanitas the discourse is known and reasonable: warning that large AI companies They will end up imposing their moral vision on the entire planet. It is not just that hyperscalers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google) or companies like OpenAI or Anthropic dominate this market in the commercial section: it is that this dominance also translates into a form of influence that is even more worrying than cinema or television were (and are). The encyclical also warns of how AI is causing a “cognitive displacement” in which human beings end up preferring that algorithms think for them instead of making a reflective effort. The text is very long (40,000 words, which is approximately equivalent to a novel of about 150 pages) and ambitious, and covers many more areas, but the univocal message is that of a warning about the dangers of this technology. If one looks at this entire catalog of papal warnings from a historical perspective, it is impossible not to see the paradox. Most of the technologies that the Vatican once denounced as existential threats ended up, in the end, making the world a better, more prosperous and more connected place. The printing press democratized culture, the Industrial Revolution raised the global standard of living, cinema and television enriched the collective imagination, and biotechnology saves lives. History shows us that these bad omens of the Popes never came to pass completely, but we must be careful. The value of these encyclicals is not in their ability to predict the future, but in their function as ethical counterweights. It’s okay and necessary that someone warns about the risks, because those dangers were and still are real. Image | The Holy See In Xataka | Spain has been a Catholic country for more than 1,500 years. “The Change” now wants to turn it into an evangelical one

how to configure it to use a neutral router with it

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Let’s tell you how to configure Bridge Mode of the Movistar Smart WiFi 7 router, so that you can connect a neutral router. doing this You will make the main router a third-party router chosen and purchased by you, with features that can make better use of your network connection. He Bridge Mode It is a function that disables the functions of your home router. This way, the router will become just a modema kind of gateway or bridge to which to connect another different router. The different router will become the main one, it will be in charge of the WiFis, security, privacy, connections and all the functions of the router, while the operator’s router only decrypts and sends the line. Unfortunately, this means that you will not be able to stop using the operator’s fiber, it is a necessary intermediary between the fiber you have contracted and your neutral router. However, if you like to tinker, doing this can help you access functions that the new router may have but are limited in the operator’s, improve connectivity features, and make better use of your line. Configure the Bridge / Single-user Mode on the Movistar Smart WiFi 7 router To activate bridge mode on the Movistar Smart WiFi 7 router, the first thing you have to do is enter its settings. To do this, open the browser and type the address http://192.168.1.1 in the address bar. This address is the local IP, which is what the router uses to take you to its configuration panel. When you enter, you will have to write your username and password. If you have not changed it, you can find these two pieces of information on a sticker under the routerin the “Router access data” line. Once you are in the Movistar router configuration, you have to click on the menu button with the three stripes icon at the top left. This will display a menu of options, where you have to click on the option Multi-position/Single-position that will appear to you. Once inside the configuration Multi-position/Single-positionnow you have to select the option Single-user (No NAT). This mode allows your device to directly acquire the public IP, avoiding using NAT (‘Network Address Translation’) to browse the Internet. This mode means that you can only have one device connected to the router, which in this case will be the other router that we are going to use. Therefore, now all you have to do is install and configure the neutral router that you want to use following the instructions on the device. Cover image | Ivan Linares In Xataka Basics | PPPoE credentials: what they are and how to get them to configure your neutral router

This is what ICARUS can do now that it has its own satellite

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The ICARUS project, devised by the Max Planck Institute to monitor animals around the world from space, is not new. However, after a break that began with the ukrainian warlast year it began to be reactivated and this month it took its biggest step forward: placing its own satellite into orbit. Thanks to this, it will be possible to do a much more exhaustive monitoring of the animal world, reaching conclusions that may even be useful for studying the progress of climate change or zoonotic diseases. RAVEN goes into action. RAVEN is the first satellite of the Icarus program. Until 2022, it had only one receiver located in the Russian module of the International Space Station (ISS). that year relations of the Max Planck Institute were broken with Russia, so Icarus operations on the International Space Station were paused. However, those responsible for the project did not give up. They partnered with the New Space company TALOS to miniaturize the system and turn it into a payload that could travel to space on a CubeSat satellite. This was already achieved in November 2025, when the receiver was placed on a German satellite sent into space for other purposes. However, this May they have gone further by placing their own satellite into orbit. This not only allows the fauna to be studied more widely and, above all, with greater independence. It also consumes a tenth of the energy consumed by the ISS device. A long history of wildlife observation. Wildlife observation has gone through many phases. Initially, only the animals could be monitored directly. Scientists hid to observe them on site, in their habitat, trying to disturb them as little as possible. Then camera traps were devised. These are still used today, but logically they have certain limitations, since there are many blind spots that are not captured by them. Later transmitters were developed that can be placed directly on the bodies of animals. However, to capture the signals they emitted it was necessary to use antennas that could not be very far from the place where they were located. Faced with all these problems, it occurred to a group of scientists from the Max Planck Institute that the key could be to observe animals from space, since this allows much more data to be collected throughout the planet, simultaneously and continuously. An upgradeable transmitter. The International Cooperation for Research on Animals Using Space (ICARUS) is a wildlife observation program that is mainly based on two devices: the transmitters that are placed on the bodies of the animals and the receiver that is directed into space. The transmitters used today They are labels measuring 4 grams in mass and more or less the size of a euro cent coin in the smallest cases. They run on solar energy, resist sudden changes in temperature and are comfortable, so that animals can carry out their lives normally. In addition, they must go unnoticed so as not to become easy prey for their predators. Still, for smaller animals, such as insects, this size is still a limitation. Icarus scientists are working to create one that weighs less than a gram and is much smaller. The transmitters can still be improved A receiver that has improved a lot. The first ICARUS receiver was installed on the ISS in 2018, during a spacewalk by cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev. It had little to do with the RAVEN satellite that is already operating in low Earth orbit. Without a doubt, the receiver has evolved a lot in a short time. Many applications. Monitoring animals from space is useful for many reasons. Broadly speaking, it seems that it only serves to know where they are at all times and, therefore, control their migrations. But that may have other implicit applications. For example, if migrations occur earlier or later than usual, or to places that are not typical for that species, it may be due to changes in temperatures associated with climate change. It’s a way to continue the advance of this phenomenon. You can also see how the animals that are reservoirs of zoonotic diseases are distributed and, thus, establish risk areas. ICARUS is even starting to be used to track poachers. If the animals flee in fright and it is not related to the presence of predators, the predator may be human. In some countriesthis is still the order of the day and it is important to look for ways to locate them in order to stop them before they act. ICARUS scientists hope train an algorithm that helps them detect possible poachers taking into account these escapes along with other factors. In summary… There are many applications, and all this thanks to a silent guardian that is already watching in space without the need for space stations to support it. Image | Magnific/Ororatech (X) | Max Planck Institute In Xataka | These are the invasive animals that are eating endangered animals

sexual deepfakes out, mandatory AI label and millionaire fines to the private sector

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Spain has approved the draft Organic Law for the good use and governance of artificial intelligence. The standard adapts the legislation to framework established by the European Union with the AI ​​law and establishes a series of obligations and prohibitions based on the risk classification of these systems. The regulations impose mandatory human supervision in high-risk systems and extend responsibility beyond the company that deploys these systems, also reaching those who use them. Sanctions. In mild cases, penalties range from 6,000 euros, such as not cooperating with the authorities, to 500,000 euros or 0.5% of the total turnover. In more serious cases, turnover shoots up to 35 million or, failing that, 7% of global turnover in very serious cases. Fines of 15 million or 3% of turnover are also proposed when high-risk systems are used without human supervision. The double standard. The controversy arises because these fines are not applied when it is the administration that fails to comply with the rule. If, for example, the police or a ministry uses an AI system classified as prohibited, the law contemplates reprimands and disciplinary actions, but no fines. The Government defends that it has “raised the bar for self-demand” with transparency measures, among which is the creation of a public inventory of all AI systems used in administrative procedures. It also introduces the figure of the AI ​​delegate who will be in charge of coordinating its use. Deepfakes. The creation of deepfakes of a sexual nature and also the creation of child pornography with AI tools is prohibited. Deepfakes that do not fall into these categories (for example of a politician or a public figure) are not prohibited, but must be labeled as AI in a “clear and distinguishable” way from the time they are first shared. AI content tagging. The ministry establishes that videos and images must have a watermark in a corner of the image in which the acronym AI is clearly read. For audio generated with AI, that same seal must appear in the corresponding application, whether it is Spotify, Apple Music or another service. If you do not choose this label, it will be the audio itself that must incorporate a warning that it is generated with AI. The date to begin applying this labeling is August 2 of this year. Who will be in charge of controlling it. Supervision will fall mainly on AESIA, the Spanish AI Supervision Agency, but will be supported by other authorities such as the Spanish Data Protection Agency for biometric data, the General Council of the Judiciary for the judicial field and the Bank of Spain for everything related to the financial system. According to The CountryAESIA plans to hire 50 analysts before the end of the year to carry out this task. When it comes into effect. The law is intended to come into force before the end of 2027, but the obligation to label data with AI will come into force on August 2. However, as the law is not yet applied, in practice it means that for more than a year there will be obligations in place, but with no real ability to impose fines on companies that fail to comply. Image | Moncloa In Xataka | Deepfakes are much more than a bad joke. Now the Government wants them to be a violation of the right to honor

This European alternative to Google Drive is a three-in-one that is now discounted

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There are few things I hate more than wanting to take a photo. and the cell phone tells me that I have no free space. I admit that it is my fault, because I have photos on my phone from more years ago than I would like to admit. I don’t know if the same thing will happen to you, but the alternative that is presented to me is to go to cloud storage and there, as a general rule, we usually go to the clouds of companies like Google, Apple or Microsoft. But we have quality European alternatives. What’s happening? That we may not want a subscription anymore if it has a high price. One of these European alternatives is Internxt, which right now has a promo active that could be great for just that: we can try a month from 1.57 euros if we use the code ‘XATAKA’. Internxt – One month trial The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Cloud storage that includes VPN It is a good alternative if we are looking for that extra storage in a European cloud (in fact, Internxt is a company of Spanish origin). This promo gives us the first month of your annual subscription at a super attractive price, then costs the full price, which is 9.99 euros per month. We also have another alternative, which is to choose your ‘lifetime’ subscription, in which we will pay only once and that’s it. The price of this one, with the code ‘XATAKA’, is 298.87 euros. But what does Internxt stand out for? The prices that we highlight a little above correspond to the cheapest subscription that this company has (we will talk about the other two a little further down). The first thing, of course, is your cloud storage: offers 1TB. Their service also has end-to-end encryption. That means, in short, that not even Internxt itself can access them. It also has two-factor authentication. Another point of Internxt that is worth highlighting and that not all clouds comply with is that It is open source and transparent. This is made public through GitHub and can be reviewed and verified by anyone interested. It is a way to ensure that you do not have any type of back door through which our files or data end up in the hands of third parties. But, beyond cloud storage, it also stands out because it includes an encrypted VPN and an antivirus within the subscription. If at any time we have thought about getting one of these two tools (or both), Internxt is a good option that would save us from having more subscriptions. Finally, as we mentioned before, there are two more Internxt plans. Both include more cloud storageas well as other tools. As with the one above, using the code ‘XATAKA’ we can benefit from a month with a fairly large discount. We leave you, as an outline, what both include and their price: Premium Plan: 3 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner and other additional features per 3.15 euros the first month and 19.99 euros per month for the rest of the year (or 456.17 euros if we choose the ‘lifetime’ plan). Ultimate Plan: 5 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner, meet and other additional features per 4.72 euros the first month and 29.99 euros per month for the rest of the year (or 613.47 euros if we choose the ‘lifetime’ plan). Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Internxt In Xataka | 61 European alternatives to Google, X, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, DropBox, Google Drive, WhatsApp and other popular services In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files

South Korea has just entered the most exclusive club on the planet. And China and North Korea are not exactly calm

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In 2004, South Korea admitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency that years before it had rperformed secret experiments of uranium enrichment without officially declaring them. That caused a small diplomatic crisis and revived a question that has been chasing Seoul for decades: how far it is willing to go to not be left behind in Asia. Now he has taken an unprecedented step. The great leap. South Korea just gave one of the most important strategic steps in its recent military history: entering the small club of countries capable of operating nuclear powered submarines. Until now, this terrain was reserved for powers such as the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom or India. He Jangbogo-N project It completely changes Seoul’s position in Asia because it stops being only an advanced industrial and technological power and also becomes a naval actor with oceanic ambitions and a much more sophisticated deterrence capacity. The decision has an enormous symbolic component, but above all practical: A nuclear submarine can remain submerged for months, travel enormous distances and operate with a freedom impossible for traditional diesel models. For China and North Korea the message is clear. South Korea no longer wants to limit itself to protecting its coasts; It wants to have a permanent presence and response capacity throughout the regional board. Announcement of the project in the South Korean defense ministry Seoul’s great obsession. He official argument revolves around the North Korean threat and especially the growth of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal. North Korea has been developing ballistic missiles launched from submarines and working on their own naval nuclear propulsion programs with possible Russian help. In this context, South Korea considers that its current diesel submarines are no longer sufficient to maintain a credible long-term deterrence capacity. The new nuclear models would allow the waters near the peninsula to be monitored for much longer and guarantee second attack ability much more difficult to neutralize. Even without nuclear weapons on board, the simple possibility that these platforms could disappear under the sea for long periods makes any enemy military calculation much more complex. China in the equation. Although North Korea is the immediate threat, the greater strategic background clearly points towards China. They remembered the TWZ analysts that Beijing has been expanding its submarine fleet and strengthening its naval presence for years throughout Asia-Pacificas South Korea watches the regional competition shift away from focusing solely on the Korean Peninsula. The construction of nuclear submarines reflects precisely this mental change in Seoul: the country is beginning to see itself as a regional maritime power with much broader interests. Hence China has publicly criticized the program and has insisted on the obligations non-proliferation. Beijing understands perfectly what it means this technological leap. A neighbor with its own nuclear submarines implies a presence that is more difficult to track, a much deeper surveillance capacity and a navy capable of operating far from its ports. The most delicate detail. Impossible to pass by, because South Korea insists that does not intend develop nuclear weapons and will use low-enriched uranium under supervision international and coordination with the United States and the IAEA. However, the movement remains extremely sensitive because historically almost all countries with nuclear submarines also ended up developing atomic arsenals. Therein lies a good part of the regional concern. Although Seoul maintains officially your commitment With non-proliferation, the project brings it technologically closer to capabilities that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. Furthermore, the international context has changed. Blind trust in the US military umbrella It’s not so solid anymore. As before, in South Korea the debate has been growing for years about whether the country needs a more autonomous deterrence capacity against Pyongyang and against an increasingly powerful China. A gigantic industrial bet. The program is also a statement of industrial power. South Korea wants to build the submarines within its own territory using its naval, nuclear and technological industries, something that fits perfectly with the country’s obsession with gain strategic autonomy. The government estimates that the project will last more than forty years between construction and operation, it will generate tens of thousands of jobs and strengthen key sectors such as modular reactors, advanced shipbuilding and military engineering. Market reactions have made the expected impact clear: the large South Korean naval companies they shot in the stock market after the announcement. Seoul understands that this project not only redefines its military strength; It may also establish the country as one of the few nations capable of designing and maintaining complex nuclear naval systems on its own. The silent race. The most important thing is that the movement of South Korea can further accelerate the submarine and nuclear race in Asia. Australia now advances with AUKUS To obtain nuclear submarines, North Korea seeks its own with Russian support and China continues to expand one of the largest submarine fleets on the planet. Now Seoul officially joins to that strategic underwater competition. If you also want, the region is entering a stage where the ability to disappear under the ocean for months has become one of the maximum symbols of military power. And South Korea just announced that is going to be part of that exclusive group, even if that means further altering the security balance in East Asia. Image | x In Xataka | Russia has built an imposing nuclear submarine with one mission: to launch one of the most extreme weapons ever devised In Xataka | North Korea has cleared up doubts about its alliance with Russia: it has just announced its first nuclear submarine

China can slow down Earth’s rotation by filling the Three Gorges

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The Three Gorges Dam It is a marvel of modern engineering. Located in central China, it interrupts the passage of the Yangtze River, the longest in Asia, generating more electricity than any other hydroelectric plant on the planet. It is so large that, according to NASA, filling it can slow down the Earth’s rotation. With a minimal impact, but highlighting the human influence on planetary balances; even the most fundamental ones. The Three Gorges Dam. The Yangtze River is the third longest in the world, behind the Amazon and the Nile. Also called the Blue River, it drains a basin of almost two million square kilometers, feeding 40% of Chinese territory with water. In the middle course of the river there are three natural gorges called Qutang, Wu and Xiling: the Three Gorges. In 2012, almost two decades after the start of construction, China inaugurated the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world, built on the Yangtze River in Hubei province to take advantage of the Three Gorges waterfall. How China overshadowed Itaipu. With a power of 22,500 MW, the Three Gorges Dam is the first to generate more energy than the Itaipú hydroelectric plant, shared by Brazil and Paraguay on the Paraná River. In 2020, the Three Gorges Dam broke Itaipú’s 2016 record of 103 TWh after intense monsoon rains. That year, its 32 700 MW turbines produced almost 112 TWh of electricity, more than what entire countries, such as Finland or Chile, consume annually. The megastructure is completed by two smaller 50 MW generators, which provide power to the plant itself, and a boat lift that allows navigation on the river. And it slowed down the Earth’s rotation. With a length of 2,335 meters and a height of 185, this colossal structure is capable of retaining up to 40 cubic kilometers of water, or in other words: 40 billion liters. A gigantic mass that, as NASA warned in 2005 and was evaluated laterif filled, it could have a calculable influence on the rotation of our planet. According to geophysicist Benjamin Fong Chao of NASA’s Goddard Center, filling the Three Gorges Dam would slightly shift the Earth’s axis to slow its rotation, increasing the length of the day by 0.06 microseconds. A slightly longer day. Although it is a small change compared to the melting of the polar caps or large earthquakes, demonstrates the impact that human activities can have on our planet, even on a scale as large as the Earth’s rotation. Take the devastating Indonesian tsunami of 2004. It was caused by an earthquake which, in turn, was due to a compaction of the Earth due to the interaction between the tectonic plates of India and Myanmar. That tsunami had the opposite effect: it moved the North Pole about 2.5 cm to the east, which slightly accelerated the planet’s rotation, reducing the length of a day by 2.68 microseconds. The key: the moment of inertia. The trigger for this effect is a physical magnitude called “moment of inertia” that describes the resistance of a body to changes in its rotation. The moment of inertia is greater or less depending on the amount of mass of the object and how that mass is distributed with respect to its axis of rotation. The classic example is a figure skater who, by crossing his arms close to his body, increases his rotation speed. Similarly, the Earth’s rotation can be modified by changes in its mass distribution. In the example of Indonesia, the movement of tectonic plates caused a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that modified the distribution of masses on the Earth’s surface and, consequently, the planet’s moment of inertia. The Moon has competition. The Earth is not a perfect sphere; Its axis of rotation shifts naturally due to changes in the atmosphere, oceans, and Earth’s crust. Since 1900, this axis has moved about 10 centimeters per year. Traditionally, this displacement was attributed to the retreat of glaciers or the gravitational pull of the Moon. Now we are beginning to understand the hand of man, and the Three Gorges Dam or the melting of the poles, which increases the water level towards the equator, are not the only examples. Another example is wells. Between 1993 and 2010, human geoengineering extracted approximately 2,150 gigatons of groundwater, used for consumption, agriculture, livestock, and industry. This massive extraction raised sea levels by more than six millimeters and, surprisingly, shifted the Earth’s axis of rotation by 80 centimeters east. Question of adjusting the clock? The impact of the wells or the Three Gorges Dam on the Earth’s rotation, although minimal, raises questions about the influence of human activities on our planet. For years, some researchers have advocated introduce a negative leap second in international time if the Earth’s rotation becomes slightly faster. As we saw a few months agothis idea is becoming progressively outdated. A Nature study suggests that the melting of the poles is already offsetting the hypothetical (and tiny) acceleration of the Earth due to human causes. The leap second was going to be introduced in 2026… And for now it has been postponed to 2029. It is possible that it will never be introduced. Short record. The impressive magnitude of the Three Gorges Dam can be put into perspective in two ways. The first is by observing the works that China is undertaking in the future Medog hydroelectric power stationin Tibet, located on the Yarlung Tsangpo River. Its works began in 2025 and, once it is completed, in 2035, it will be the most powerful dam on the planet, three times more than that of the Three Gorges. The second is with a fact: despite its brutal dimensions, the Three Gorges only produce 1% of China’s annual electricity. A testament to the country’s energy voracity. In Xataka | Dujiangyan: the engineers who, more than 2,000 years ago, decided to tame the Min River and, unintentionally, ended up forging China

In China they want humanoid robots to do household chores. The problem is that a house is not a factory

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For years we have seen humanoid robots do somersaults, danceppractice martial arts or move through factories with increasingly striking capabilities. The next step seems almost natural: taking them home to do the laundry, prepare a bed or support elder care. The problem is that this transition is not as direct as it seems. A factory is designed to reduce uncertainty; A home, on the other hand, is full of small exceptions. And for a robot, those exceptions can be exactly the difference between a flashy demo and a useful product. The concept. SCMP account That GigaAI has introduced the SeeLight S1 as the country’s first general-purpose home humanoid robot model, developed in collaboration with the Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Center and the Hubei Humanoid Robotics Industry Alliance. In images released by the company, he appears performing very recognizable tasks: cutting vegetables, frying eggs, loading a washing machine, hanging clothes, making a bed or opening curtains. The company also plans to test it for free in homes in Wuhan in the first half of 2027. A house is not an assembly line. That is the fundamental difference. In a factory, the robot can work with known references, pieces always placed in the same way and movements that are repeated thousands of times with very few variations. In a home, on the other hand, nothing guarantees that the shirt is where it was yesterday, that the chair has not moved or that a pet does not cross in front of it just when the robot is trying to complete a task. Much movement, little understanding. Xinhua itself collects an idea that helps cool down the epic of the demonstrations and that does not only affect China, but humanoid robotics in general: humanoids have greatly improved in their “cerebellum”, the part linked to control and coordination, but they still have major problems in their “brain”. In other words, they can execute complex movements, but it is difficult for them to understand what a scene means and what function each object has within it. Home is also a data problem. Now, for these systems to work better in real homes, they need to learn from real homes, but the home is precisely one of the places where it is least easy to collect data. We are not just talking about room maps, but about objects, forces, angles, routines and physical decisions that are difficult to simulate. Advances and challenges. According to NSFCthe country expected to exceed 10,000 humanoid units sold in 2025, with a year-on-year growth of 125%, and there were already pilots in industrial manufacturing, delivery, catering and services. The important nuance is that none of this automatically turns this industrial career into a successful deployment within homes: the sector itself locates the path prudently, first industry, then logistics and commercial uses, and only later the home. A future easy to imagine, difficult to materialize. The difficult part is demonstrating that this can be done usefully, safely, and at reasonable cost outside of a prepared demonstration. There is the real border. China and other countries around the world can accelerate prototypes, pilots and production, but a home does not forgive clumsiness in the same way as a controlled stage. To get home, the robot will not have to understand human life better. Images | GigaAI In Xataka | In China there are already “schools” for robots. Its objective is the same as schools for humans: to teach them to work

There is a city that has scanned the faces of more than 3 million people on the street and it is not in China, but in Europe

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A few days ago a man was walking down the street when, without realizing it, a camera scanned his face. As he continued walking, a sophisticated system compared his face to a police database, sent the alert, and within minutes he was arrested. It happened in London. The city of cameras. London is one of the most surveilled cities in the world; according to some sourcesin its streets there are more than 600,000 cameras controlling everything that happens. For some years now, in addition, they have a real-time facial recognition system to identify dangerous criminals, and it seems that the system is being as effective as it is controversial. In numbers. London’s Metropolitan Police say that since the beginning of 2024 they have made 2,500 arrests, of which 2,100 are related to violent and sexual crimes against women and girls. The system scanned more than 3 million faces in one year and only generated ten false positives. During a pilot in the Croydon district at least 470,000 passers-by were scanned with only one false positive. According to the police, the result of this test was a 10.5% crime reduction. How it works. The facial recognition cameras they have installed are capable of scanning up to 5,000 faces per hour. What they do is send the data to a police operations room where an AI system, signed by the Japanese company NEC, is dedicated to compare them with the police databasewhere there are more than 17,000 registered suspects. When there is a match, an alert is issued to officers in the area so they can make the arrest. Opposition. Organizations like Big Brother Watch has carried out campaigns against this systemarguing that it risks normalizing mass surveillance in public spaces and calling the technology ‘Orwellian’. Furthermore, they strongly question its true operational profitability since, while the police boast of making an arrest every 35 minutes, they warn that these statistics hide the enormous number of hours of the agents and the immense logistical resources that the system requires on the streets, diverting efforts from traditional and more proportionate police work. The debate has intensified after the unprecedented use of the system in a political protest in London. Big Brother Watch took the case to the High Court, but it ruled in favor of the legality of the technology, paving the way for its expansion. In favor. Despite opposition from some organizations, according to Police Director Lindsey Chiswick, the technology is “revolutionary” and completely secure, stressing that the biometric data of those who do not match the list of suspects are immediately destroyed. There are also fears that the algorithm discriminates based on race, but the police hide behind the fact that the tests carried out concluded that the system is accurate and does not present ethnic or gender biases. According to Chiswick, citizen support is around 80% in surveys. Image | Levi Meir ClancyUnsplash In Xataka | Concern over mass video surveillance has created a new product: anti-facial recognition glasses

College students are getting more A’s than at any other time in history. There is a suspect

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Some already call it “grade inflation.” It is a phenomenon that should make us happy—what grades our young people get—but that is increasingly worrying in the educational world. University students have never gotten as many A’s as they have until now, but in reality the credit is not theirs. Using ChatGPT and other AI tools It is distorting its capacity and putting the educational system at a global level in check (again). Note inflation. Igor Chirikov published in May 2026 a study in which he talked precisely about how artificial intelligence is causing grade inflation. In his research, he analyzed the data of half a million students in 319 subjects at the University of Texas, and detected something surprising: since 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the number of outstanding students at that institution has grown by 30%. But not everyone gets the same grade. In his conclusions, Chirikov explained how “these increases” in the grade “were greater when homework had a greater influence on the grades, which is consistent with the theory that AI is replacing the student’s work, and not improving learning.” The effect is greater, for example, in courses such as Economics or Journalism, where there are many written assignments to be submitted, but also in Computer Science courses and others in which programming subjects are taught. Both ChatGPT and other AI models are an increasingly popular (and effective) tool for students who want to improve their grades at all costs. perfect homework. The researchers indicate that a displacement of cognitive tasks is occurring here. The student no longer uses technology to support the learning process, but rather completely delegates many of the tasks that he should do to the AI. Essays, research papers and programming practices What should they give to teachers? They are becoming more and more perfect. Mirage. That theoretical brilliance is a mirage. Controlled studies like this one reveal that students who systematically use AI in their assignments end up suffering a 17% drop in their grades when they are subjected to a classic in-person pencil and paper exam on the same subject. ChatGPT becomes a superpower, but without it, grades drop clearly. The problems grow. Grade inflation is not a new phenomenon. In the US, university centers suffer structural pressures: if they are strict, they receive criticism from students, which jeopardizes future students wanting to attend them. This contributed to the fact that at Harvard, for example, A’s went from representing 24% of grades in 2005 to 60.2% in the spring of 2025. ChatGPT, write me my TFG. In Spain and Europe the panorama is similar. 89% of university students admit to using AI to write reports or Final Degree Projects (TFG), according to a recent GoStudent survey. Meanwhile, 61% of teachers confess that they do not have tools or software to confirm that whoever has done a job has not done it with AI. They are all too good students. When the outstanding becomes something totally normal and so frequent, this grade loses its power of differentiation. The filter previously made it clear which students were exceptional, something that was also vital for companies’ search for talent. Now those looking for these talents have reacted: in the US, job portals such as HandShake show that job offers that require a minimum GPA (average score of the university degree) of 3.5 out of 4 have skyrocketed from 9% in 2020 to 25% in 2026. As all university students are exceptional, companies look for the most exceptional among the exceptional. No more A’s. This distrust of job and homework qualifications has made some institutions prefer to return to the past. harvard will apply a notable reform in fall 2027 and will limit outstanding grades to a maximum of 20% per course, while honors enrollment will also depend on a certain percentile instead of via grades. 85% of the students opposed to these measures, but at Harvard they will continue with the measures although they indicate that they will review their application three years after the start of their application. everyone cheats. At the prestigious Princeton University the phenomenon is equally worrying. About half of its students They used AI to write their essays. 15% admitted to using AI to cheat in school, and 65.5% “knew a classmate was cheating and did not report it.” Everyone seems to be cheating at the university, as indicated in an article in The New York Intelligencer as early as May 2025. The university has just approved a proposal that would allow supervised exams, something that would break a 133-year tradition in which the students themselves monitored each other to prevent others from cheating. The “Code of Honor” of this institution has not been able to with the avalanche of AI. Image | Christian Lendl In Xataka | Something is happening in the computer science major in Silicon Valley: enrollment falls for the first time in 20 years

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