Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Agentic AI was the new race for Big Tech and Meta was far behind. It has bought the company most capable of recovering

by

Meta has closed the purchase of manusa Singapore-based artificial intelligence startup, for more than $2 billion. Throughout this year, Meta has reinforced its AI operations by acquiring several companies focused on different specialties. In July bought Play AIfocused on voice with AI. In August acquired WaveFormsan audio-focused startup. And in September was done with Rivosa company specialized in the design of semiconductors and RISC-V chips. Manus’s is already the fourth major purchase this year, and it is his hope not to be diluted in the race to dominate AI when all this time he has focused his efforts on Llama and his open weights approach. Why it is important. The Agentic AI (agents capable of performing complex tasks with minimal human supervision) has long become the new battlefield for big technology companies. Although companies like Microsoft or OpenAI had sufficient resources to develop in this field, Meta needed to strengthen its position in this segment if it did not want to be left behind. Manus came to reach 100 million dollars in annual recurring revenue just eight months after its launch, which offers Meta a product that generates money right away, something not very common in this sector. What does Manus do? The startup rose to fame in March with a video demo that went viral, showing how its AI agent was able to produce detailed research reports, build custom web pages, filter job candidates, plan vacations, and analyze investment portfolios. All using AI models developed by companies such as Anthropic and Alibaba. At the time, Manus even claimed to surpass OpenAI’s Deep Research. Currently, the company has around 100 employees, mainly in Singapore, offers subscriptions of $20 to $200 per month and already has a user base of millions. Initial success. Manus emerged a few months after the debut of DeepSeekthe Chinese model that shook the foundations of the industry due to its capabilities supposedly developed with less computing power than its American rivals. Just like account WSJ, the startup secured a $75 million funding round led by Benchmark in April, which valued the company at $500 million. Among its investors are firms such as Tencent, ZhenFund or HSG. Untying ties in China. The parent company behind Manus, Butterfly Effect, was founded in 2022 in Beijing by two Chinese entrepreneurs, including its CEO Xiao Hong, known as ‘Red’. Although most of its researchers and engineers were located in China, Manus launched outside the country because it used American AI models that are not available there. Shortly after securing its investment with Benchmark, the company officially moved its headquarters to Singapore. According to account WSJ, Manus has ruled out developing a version for the Chinese market. Goal declared to Nikkei Asia that, following the acquisition, Manus will have no ties to Chinese investors and will no longer operate in China. All existing investors have been excluded from the operation, according to they count from Bloomberg. What’s coming now? Meta plans to keep Manus running independently while integrating its agents into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, platforms where Meta AI is available. According to WSJManus CEO Xiao Hong will report directly to Javier Olivan, Meta’s chief operating officer. “Joining Meta allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made,” Xiao stated in the official announcement. No return guarantees. Mark Zuckerberg continues his mission to prove that AI can deliver tangible returns. Goal plans to spend $600 billion in American infrastructure over the next three years, much of it related to AI. Just like assures Bloomberg, it is an amount that causes some skepticism in some investors, since there are no guarantees that this expense will generate significant income soon. Cover image | TechCrunch In Xataka | NVIDIA has paid $20 billion to “license” Groq’s technology. He actually bought it

Imoo turned the children’s smartwatch into its own genre. Now all the parents who bought it are stuck

by

According to CounterPoint Research estimate for the global smartwatch market in 2025… Apple grew 12%. Samsung fell 6%. Imoo grew by 17%. Action replay: A Chinese brand that exclusively sells children’s watches is growing more than Appleand definitely more than Samsung, which is going down. Imoo, what The year has already started growing in quotaalready has 7% of the global smartwatch market. And it doesn’t really compete against the Apple Watch Ultra or the current Galaxy Watch: compete against the anguish of not knowing where your child is when he leaves school. Or rather: against the fear of not knowing if one day something happens. Counterpoint Research projects that the global smartwatch market will grow 7% in 2025 after first falling in 2024. That rebound is partly explained by Apple launching the cheap SE 3 and recovering after seven consecutive quarters of declines. But there is another factor: China went from 25% global share in 2024 to 31% in 2025. And within that jump, Imoo has a specific role that perhaps we are not looking at closely enough. Huawei is reinforcing its focus on health and sports, Apple maintains its inertia, Xiaomi focuses on the watch as part of a domestic ecosystem… and Imoo has turned parental fear into a product category. Their watches have GPS, calls, SOS button or alerts when the child leaves an area geofenced by his parents. As a watch it is not very smart and perhaps fits better in the category of surveillance and emergency aid device. Imoo hasn’t invented parental fear, but it has built a great machine to monetize it. Besides, It is a device that creates functional dependency: Once a parent puts it on their child’s wrist, they get used to the peace of mind it provides. So it is difficult not to renew it when the child stamps it or when it becomes obsolete. This success of Imoo goes beyond technology: when you grow 17% a year selling this type of watches, you do not measure adoption, but rather the number of parents who have decided that the anxiety that would cause them not knowing where their child is (understandable, of course) is worse than the inconvenience of constantly tracking them. Once you cross that threshold, there is no turning back. Previous generations had opaque spacesmoments of disappearance for a few hours before returning to dinner. These spaces are closed with this type of products, colorful and gamified, with a branding questionable but an unquestionable commercial success. Parents do not feel that they “control”, but rather that they protect. And kids don’t feel tracked, at least until they get acne and the bomb goes off, until then they just feel like they have a cool watch. And there is an advantage for parents: if suddenly almost all of your child’s classmates have one, the fact that your child does not have one becomes an anomaly. Imoo’s 7% share (and counting) measures how many children are growing up knowing that their parents can track them at any time. It measures a generation that normalizes permanent connectivity as a default state from the age of six. Counterpoint speaks of the smart watch market with “China-driven growth” and “different strategies to sustain the engagement of the consumer”, but it does not mention that One of those strategies is to redefine a part of childhood. The next son will also wear the watch. And the next one too. Imoo doesn’t need to grow faster than Apple to win. It just requires that each generation of parents find it more unthinkable than the previous one to leave a child unaccounted for. In Xataka | After almost a decade with the Apple Watch, I have switched to a Garmin. And I understood what I was missing Featured image | Xataka

The most farmed animal on the planet is not chickens, pigs, cows or fish: it is prawns.

by

Christmas is a time of carols, millions of led lightsnougats, empachos and a particular culinary ‘lore’ in which prawns and prawns are not usually missing. If tomorrow you have the opportunity to taste them during New Year’s Eve dinner, think about the following: what you have before you, on the plate, They are unique animals for humanity. And they are for a very simple reason. There is no other species that we raise more massively, not even chickens. There are those who estimate that approximately 51% of all animals What we have on ‘farms’ are precisely decapods, especially prawns. Prawns galore. If these days (lucky you) you have the opportunity to enjoy a good tray of prawns you should know a couple of things. The first one there are two typesdepending on their origin: there are wild prawns, caught in the ocean and the coasts; and those from aquaculture, which come from specialized farms and play a crucial role to supply the market. These fish farms are also interesting for another reason: they represent the largest farms in the world, at least if we are based on the number of living animals they contain. There are many (many) more breeding animals in them than in farms specializing in chickens, pigs, cows or even insects and fish. Click on the image to go to the tweet. But are there so many? This is what he suggests a study from 2023 that a few months ago rescued in Asterisk Magazine Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla, former investment expert and co-founder of Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP), an organization dedicated precisely to promoting more ethical decapod breeding practices. The report estimates that the planet’s fish farms usually host around 230 billion of these creatures at any given time. To be more precise, between 150,000 and 370,000 million, which exceeds any other known farm animal estimate. Even, the authors clarify, insects. “440 billion (300-620 billion) farmed shrimp are slaughtered each year, far exceeding the number of the most numerous farmed vertebrates used for food production, such as fish and chickens,” specify the articlesigned by Daniela R. Waldhorn and Elisa Autric and published in August 2023 by Rethink Priorites. The photo is completed with the specimens that arrive our months from fishing at sea. Are there more figures? Yes. And they are striking. Although both authors acknowledge that today there is only “partial data”, there are studies that indicate that every year hundreds of thousands of decapods are grown in fish farms on the planet, especially prawns and shrimp, which represent more than 80% of the total. In their report (in English) Waldhorn and Autric generally speak of “shrimp”but when delving into the problems surrounding the aquaculture of these species, both authors provide some extra detail. For example, when listing the species with the highest number of deaths, they specifically cite the P. vannamei and P. monodon. The most correct In Spanish it is to speak of “prawns”, rather than “prawns”. A percentage: 51%. The figures for the aquaculture industry are overwhelming, but they are better understood when compared to those of other sectors dedicated to raising animals in captivity for consumption. Jiménez Zorrilla points out that, in generalregardless of the moment, prawns represent 51% of the total number of animals raised on farms. They are followed at a considerable distance by fish (23%), insects (19%), chickens (7%) and pigs and other livestock (< 1%). Translated into figures, this means that compared to the 230 billion shrimp and prawns that (on average) live in fish farms, there are ‘only’ 779 million pigs and 1.55 billion cattle, 33 billion chickens and 125 billion farmed fish. In case the data were not clear in itself, the activist points out that every year 440,000 million of these decapods are slaughtered for consumption, “more than four times the number of humans who have walked the Earth.” Why is it important? Because Jiménez Zorrilla, like Wadhorn and Austric in their day, do not limit themselves to probing the size of the industry. Its objective is not so much to answer the question of how many shrimp live in the world’s farmers as to draw attention to the conditions in which they develop. “The problem is larger in scale than that of insect farming, fishing or any vertebrate for human consumption,” researchers warn. “If these animals are sentient, current commercial practices pose serious welfare risks during cultivation, handling, sale and slaughter.” Image| Kawê Rodrigues (Unsplash) Via | DAP In Xataka | Prawns, prawns, shrimp, prawns and carabineros: how they differ and which ones are better

They no longer trust their own debt

by

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are looking for ways to protect themselves from the debt they have extended to build AI data centers, according to Ed Zitron’s latest report in which he makes a notable criticism of the boom of AI and the stock market in which debt and complacent analysis are inflating an unsustainable bubble, according to their analysis. Both banks are contemplating “synthetic risk transfers.” It is a mechanism that allows the credit exposure of loans to be sold to other investors while keeping the loans on their books. Deutsche Bank even is considering betting short against actions related to AI. Why is it important. These movements clearly show a certain distrust in the economic viability of the infrastructure they are financing. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and MUFG have participated in the world’s largest data center financing transactions, including various loans to CoreWeave and the stargate projectsbut now they are looking to reduce their exposure to those same assets. The figures. At least $178.5 billion in data center financing was closed in the United States alone in 2025, almost triple the amount in 2024. CoreWeave, one of the largest operators, carries $25 billion in debt on estimated revenues of $5.35 billion, losing hundreds of millions each quarter. The context. AI data centers are powered by a circular financing model: They sign contracts with their clients before having the physical infrastructure. They use these contracts as collateral to obtain bank debt. They buy NVIDIA GPUs and build facilities that take between one and three years to be operational. Only then do they start generating monthly income. If construction is delayed or the client cannot pay, the loan is up in the air. Between the lines. The banks that have fueled the bubble are now covering their backs. Yes, but. Banks argue that these hedges are normal risk management practices. The problem is that they are hedging themselves against loans that they themselves structured and approved, many of them to clients whose ability to pay is, at the very least, uncertain. CoreWeave has offered OpenAI net 360 payment terms (one year from invoice to settle), depending on your loan agreement. If OpenAI, which needs to raise $100 billion to continue operating, decides not to pay, CoreWeave automatically defaults on its credit obligations. And CoreWeave is probably the best-funded operator in the IT industry. neoclouds. The money trail. NVIDIA announced in October that would guarantee $860 million in lease obligations from a partner in exchange for warrantswith 470 million deposited in a guarantee account. CoreWeave’s third-quarter balance sheet includes a “non-current restricted cash” item of $477.5 million. NVIDIA also signed a 6.3 billion contract with CoreWeave to buy the capacity that CoreWeave fails to sell until 2032. Go deeper. The banks that are hedging their bets are the same ones that have funded most of the global AI infrastructure. They are not selling the risk of any loan, but the risk of data centers that may never turn on, or that if they do, will serve customers who burn billions without generating profits. When the financiers of boom show signs of having stopped believing in boomit is worth paying attention. In Xataka | We have reached a point where not even the CEOs of Google or Microsoft deny that we have an AI bubble Featured image | İsmail Enes Ayhan

why OpenAI is installing Boeing 747 engines in its data farms

by

Just three years ago, Blake Scholl, CEO of aviation company Boom Supersonic, had a linear business plan: He would first build the supersonic plane of the future and, much later, retrofit its engines to generate power. However, a phone call changed the order of factors and revealed the desperation of the technology industry. On the other end of the line was Sam Altman. The OpenAI CEO’s message was a direct plea: “Please, please, please get us something.” Altman wasn’t looking for plane tickets; I was looking for electrical power. This anecdote, reported to the Financial Timessummarizes the state of emergency in the sector: artificial intelligence is advancing at breakneck speed, but it has hit the wall of physical infrastructure. While the AI evolves in monthspermits to connect to the electrical grid can take up to ten years in some regions. Faced with this paralysis, the industry has opted for “Plan B” which consists of bypassing the grid and manufacturing its own energy on site. The tall price of urgency. This strategic shift has profound consequences. The first is economic, the “delay” is expensive. According to BNP Paribas analystspower from a gas plant built for Meta in Ohio costs about $175 per megawatt hour, nearly double the average cost for an industrial customer. The second is environmental. Mark Dyson, from Rocky Mountain Institutewarns that the emissions of these plants are much worse than those of the general network, which combines efficient gas with renewables. Despite this, the urgency is such that the authorities are giving in. In Virginia, the world’s data center heartland, it is considering relaxing emissions rules to allow generators to run more frequently. Even polluting plants that were in retirement, like the Fisk plant in Chicagohave canceled their closure to feed the demand for AI. From the sky to the data center. The most surprising solution comes from aeronautical engineering through aeroderivative turbines. The ProEnergy Company are buying motor cores CF6-80C2 of the iconic Boeing 747 to rebuild them as ground power units. A single one of these turbines generates 48 megawatts, enough for a city of 40,000 homes. It is not an isolated case. GE Vernova already supplies this technology for the gigantic Stargate (OpenAI/Microsoft) data center in Texas. Blake Scholl himself confirmed that it will sell Crusoe turbines “practically identical” to those of his supersonic planes to finance his aeronautical project. The return of diesel. Beyond aviation turbines, the sector is rescuing the most reviled fuel: diesel. The manufacturer Cummins has already sold 39 gigawatts of energy to data centers, doubling their capacity this year. What was once emergency equipment for power outages is now in demand as a primary energy source. The situation has escalated to the US Government. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, suggested on Fox News an almost war economy measure: requisition the backup generators from data centers or large stores like Walmart to turn them over to the network when the general system falters. The ignored alternative: Is smoke necessary? Not everyone agrees that the return to the fossil is inevitable. A study by researchers at Stripe, Paces and Scale Microgrids maintains that the future is in “off-grid” solar microgrids. According to their calculations, a system with 44% solar energy is already as cheap as gas, and one with 90% renewables would surpass nuclear projects in profitability. The advantage is speed since these solar farms can be built in less than two years in desert areas from Texas or Arizona. Giants like Google have taken note, buying the electric company Intersect Power for 4.75 billion dollars to protect its clean supply and not depend on the network. However, the majority industry prefers diesel and known gas due to a matter of technical inertia, due to the prosaic fear that the cloud will go out if the sun does not shine. AI goes physical. The industry finds itself in a technical paradox. To power the most advanced software on the planet, big technology companies are resurrecting combustion engines and burning fossil fuels on a massive scale. Although these “bridge turbines” allow AI to continue growing today, experts cited by the Financial Times They warn that this fever could cool as the tech giants reduce their capital spending. For now, the cloud has had to come down to earth. The future of artificial intelligence, ironically, depends not only on brilliant code, but on who controls the underground and who manages to turn on enough “plugs” so that the greatest technological revolution of our era is not left in the dark. Image | freepik and Harpagornis Xataka | The exorbitant deployment of data centers for AI has a new problem: salt caverns

five essential LEGO sets to give as gifts on Three Wise Men

by

One of the most magical nights of the year is approaching. If you want to surprise a geek of some of the most famous sagas and franchises of all time (such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel and more), you can do so by giving them a LEGO set. These are some of the best options that you can consider. LEGO 76450 Harry Potter Book Corner: Hogwarts Express As a die-hard Harry Potter fan that I am, this LEGO Harry Potter Book Corner: Hogwarts Express set It is one of the ones that has caught my attention the most in a while. Above all, I like it because it looks great on a shelf, since it works as a bookend. This set from the legendary building brick firm recreates the scene in which Harry Potter and the Weasly family cross platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross train station. It is a set of 832 pieces and it comes with minifigures harry potterRon and his two pets: Hedwig the owl and Scabbers the rat. LEGO Harry Potter Book Corner: Hogwarts Express The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO 72037 Mario Kart If there is a well-known game on the console nintendo switchthat is, without a doubt, ‘Mario Kart‘. Now, thanks to this set LEGO 72037 Mario Kart You will be able to have the famous plumber in his car at home, like in the legendary video game. To have this set assembled at home you will need some space, since it is a large set (measures 22 x 32 x 19 cm) and is made up of 1,972 pieces. The figure of Mario has joints in arms and it is a perfect LEGO set to display in a gaming room. LEGO Mario Kart: Mario and Standard Kart The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO 76313 Marvel Logo If you are planning to give something to a marve fanl in Three Wise Men, this is the LEGO set that you will surely love. It is about the LEGO set 76313 Marvel: Logowhich is perfect for displaying on any shelf. Recommended for ages 12 and up, this LEGO set (931 pieces) comes with mini figures of some protagonists of the saga Marvel. Among them, you can find Iron Man, The Avengers, Hulk, Thor, Black Life and Captain America. LEGO Marvel: MARVEL Logo and Minifigures The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO 75375 Star Wars: Millennium Falcon Star Wars is one of the most successful film franchises in the history of cinema. If you want to give something to a fan of hers, this LEGO set 75375 Star Wars: Millennium Falcon It is perfect to surprise. This LEGO set of Star Wars includes a total of 921 pieces and it comes full of details. Unlike other constructions from the firm, this one has a compact size, with a height of 13 cm, 24 cm in length and 19 cm in width. It also includes an identification plate, support and a commemorative token for the 25th anniversary of the collaboration between LEGO and Star Wars. LEGO Star Wars 75375 Millennium Falcon The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO One Piece Set 75639 – Going Merry Pirate Ship He LEGO set 75639 One Piece-Going Merry Boat It is a set from the famous building block brand with which you can build the iconic Straw Hats ship. It is composed of 1,376 pieces and recommended for ages 10 and up. Its dimensions are 34 cm high, 39 cm long and 20 cm wide. It presents an incredible level of detail and comes with five minifigures (Zoro, Naomi, Usopp, Luffy and Sanji). Additionally, it includes four “Wanted” posters, although these are random. LEGO 75639 One Piece Going Merry Pirate Ship Toy The price could vary. We earn commission from these links 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 | LEGO In Xataka | Your favorite series, comics and movies also in LEGO: 15 construction kits ideal to assemble yourself or give as a gift In Xataka | LEGO constructions on another level: the Technic Series has the models that any collector would dream of

Apple, Google and Samsung promised them happily with 5,000mAh batteries. Until China came to rub their hands on their faces

by

The person writing these lines has an American mobile phone—made in China—with a little more 5,000mAh. A figure in which giants like Apple, Samsung or Google have been comfortably installed for years. Meanwhile, in China, Honor has just made official a phone with a 10,000 mAh battery. The launch is not surprising just because it has managed to literally introduce a powerbank inside a smartphone. It is surprising because it breaks a barrier that until now no one had dared to cross. Not due to lack of possibilities, but due to industrial inertia. The aforementioned. Honor has made the Honor Win and Honor Win RT. Two phones that, in addition to having the best Qualcomm processorshave a 10,000mAh battery made of silicon-carbon technology. The message is clear: this is not a typical high-end, it is proof that China is the leading benchmark in batteries for smartphones. thickness. For years there has been an unwritten but unquestionable rule: more battery means more thickness. The 10,000 mAh were reserved for rugged, bulky mobile phones designed for very specific uses. These Honor Win break that logic. They are thinner than a iPhone 17 Pro Maxbut with double the energy capacity. There are no gimmicks, fine print or marketing exercises: it’s a real leap in energy density. How did they achieve it?. Honor has not specified how they have managed to take the capacity to such an extreme but the person responsible is clear: silicon-carbon. This technology has been demonstrating for years that it is possible to introduce much denser batteries in the sizes in which lithium has already reached its ceiling. Chinese mobile phones have been standardizing for more than a year batteries over 7,000mAhand Honor’s move to reach five figures marks what aspires to be a new standard. The cons. Silicon-carbon poses certain challenges, and the first is degradation. These batteries, especially in their first generations, They seemed not to be at the same level as classic lithium batteries. Over time, the promised charge cycles are virtually identical to those of traditional lithium batteries (more than 1,500). The second is the cost: producing this type of cells is more expensivewhich partially explains why, for the moment, these figures reach China first and not global markets. In fact, a common practice is to find models whose Chinese version has more battery than the global version, reserved for the rest of the markets. A third key point is related to security and regulation. Denser batteries require stricter controls, and Western regulatory frameworks are not always prepared to adopt these types of advances so quickly. None of this invalidates progress. It simply explains why Apple, Samsung or Google have not yet made the leap. It’s not that they can’t: it’s that they haven’t wanted to take the risk… yet. China is going to force a move. The 10,000mAh batteries are, without much room for doubt, one of the biggest technological leaps in the world of smartphones after the arrival of AI. A figure that will allow us to normalize the three days of average use without going through the charger. The leap is so relevant that, whether they like it or not, “traditional” manufacturers will have to start making a move, as they had to start doing with fast charging systems. Samsung has already started implementing the 7,000mAh in phones like the Galaxy M51but its high-end is still at the 5,000mAh barrier. Google also moves in the 5,200mAh and Apple… is Apple. With a greater or lesser pace of implementation, these manufacturers are forced to keep pace with China in these advances. And that translates into admitting that we were wrong about lithium. Image | Honor In Xataka | The Android phones with the best battery of 2025: which one to buy and recommended models

Snow is one of the few things that can delay the Shinkansen in Japan. To combat it there is a solution as simple as it is effective.

by

Japanese bullet trains are known for their extreme punctuality. However, when the snow appears, neither the most cutting-edge railway system of the world is saved. And to combat it, the country’s railway institutions developed a solution as simple as it was ingenious: sprinklers installed along the tracks that spray water during snowfall. This is done to prevent snow from accumulating and wreaking havoc on the trains. We explain in detail how these systems work. Why is it important. Snow not only causes the system to stop being as punctual as usual, but it can also cause serious damage to high-speed trains. And at speeds above 200 km/h, the snow on the ground rises due to the air current generated by the train, which can cause it to compact under the cars forming ice balls that, upon impact with the ground, throw gravel into the air. This can end up breaking windows and damaging train components if left untreated. Japan has spent decades perfecting systems to eliminate this problem without sacrificing speed or punctuality. The origin of the problem. When the Shinkansen began regular operations in 1964, according to explains JR Tokai (the operating company of the Tokaido Shinkansen), construction was carried out in a hurry and “there was not enough time to consider” alternative routes that would avoid areas of heavy snowfall. In January 1965, just three months after launch, snowfall in the Sekigahara region caused serious incidentsincluding broken windows and shattered water tanks. The investigation revealed that the real culprit was speed, since the wind generated raised the snow, which ended up turning into ice projectiles under the carriages. The solution: sprinklers. To prevent the snow from rising and forming those dangerous ice balls, it was installed a sprinkler system along the tracks that sprays water during snowfall. There are currently sprinklers deployed in a stretch of more than 70 kilometers, covering the lines most affected by the snow. In 2009, the nozzles were improved so that the water reached areas that were not reached before, melting the snow more effectively. The system does not completely remove snow, but changes its consistency to prevent it from compacting and flying, thus reducing the risk of damage. It is not the only solution. The water system is complemented by other resources. During non-service hours, snow plows work at dawn to remove accumulated snow. Since 2003, rotary snow plows have been used that use rotating brushes capable of cleaning up to five centimeters below the surface of the rails. In addition, since 2013, devices with optical sensors have been used to monitor weather conditions, and there are cameras installed under the carriages to detect snow accumulations. When a snow-covered train arrives at stations like Nagoya or Osaka, there are also specialized teams waiting under the platforms with high-pressure washers to quickly remove stuck-on snow. The results speak. All of this operation has radically transformed the Shinkansen’s defenses when the snow arrives. According to JR Tokaiin 1976 there were 635 train cancellations due to snow, a figure that has been reduced to zero since 1994. The average delay due to snowfall has also improved dramatically, dropping to just a few minutes. Beyond the trains. In the northern regions of Japan, where snowfall can exceed three meters, many roads have sprinklers integrated into the asphalt. The system, known as ‘shosetsu’ (disappearing snow) or ‘yuusetsu’ (melting snow), was developed in 1961 in the city of Nagaoka by Yosaburo Imai, founder of a century-old confectionery. Imai was inspired by observing that snow did not accumulate where thermal water gushed from underground. Since then, underground pipes transport geothermal water (at about 13-14°C) to pavement sprinklers that melt snow during winter storms, avoiding the use of salt or snow blowers. Cover image | KUA YUE In Xataka | The straightest road in Spain is located in a place whose name I don’t want to remember: between El Provencio and La Roda

There are already autonomous robots smaller than a grain of salt

by

Robotics has been pursuing the same obsession for decades: reducing the size of machines without emptying them of intelligence. Until now, that goal had a physical limit that was difficult to cross. Above a certain threshold, making a smaller robot meant making several compromises. That just changed. A team of researchers has shown that It is possible to build an autonomous robot so tiny that it can barely be seen, but still capable of perceiving its environment, processing information, and responding without outside intervention. The development comes from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, who have built what the team describes as the autonomous programmable robot smallest achieved so far. The device is designed to operate submerged in a fluid, and in that environment it can move and operate. The scientific article describes a body measuring approximately 210 by 340 micrometers and 50 micrometers thick. Its scale is so small that it can rest on the ridge of a fingerprint and is almost invisible to the naked eye. A complete robot on a microscopic scale. The difference compared to previous attempts is not only in the miniaturization, but in what this device theoretically manages to integrate. According to the researchers, the microrobot incorporates computing, memory, sensors, communication and locomotion systems within a single autonomous platform. Until now, these systems often relied on external equipment to process information or make decisions. In this case, the robot can execute digitally defined algorithms and modify its behavior based on what is happening around it. The main obstacle to getting here has not been conceptual, but physical. At micrometer scales, the rules change: gravity and inertia lose weight, and forces such as viscosity and drag dominate. In that environment, moving through a fluid is more like moving through thick material than swimming in water. Added to this difficulty is an even more severe restriction, energy. With power budgets around 100 nanowatts, integrating propulsion and computing at the same time had been, until now, an almost impossible compromise. Electronics designed to survive on almost no power. The solution involved rethinking the robot’s electronic architecture from scratch. The team worked with a 55 nanometer CMOS process and used subthreshold digital logic to keep consumption within a budget close to 100 nanowatts. In that space they managed to integrate photovoltaic cells for power, temperature sensors, control circuits for the actuators, an optical receiver for programming and communication, as well as a processor with memory. Locomotion is one of the most unique aspects of design. Instead of motors or appendages, the microrobot uses electric fields to induce currents in the fluid around it, moving without moving parts that could break. Its creators describe it as a system in which the robot generates its own “river” to move forward. That same minimalist logic extends to communication. The measurements you make, such as temperature, are encoded into motion sequences, a simple but effective method at this scale. Tiny robots that act together. Beyond individual behavior, the team has shown that these microrobots can synchronize and operate in groups. According to the researchers, several devices are capable of coordinating their movements and forming collective patterns comparable to schools of fish. This approach opens the door to distributed tasks, in which each unit contributes local information or action. In theory, these groups could continue to operate autonomously for months if kept charged with LED light on their solar cells, although available memory limits the complexity of programmable behaviors for now. With this platform, researchers propose a path toward more general-purpose microrobots, capable of executing tasks in difficult environments without constant supervision. On the horizon are applications that today are closer to the laboratory than to the real world, for example in biomedicine, where devices of this type could operate on body fluids. The team itself insists that this is just a first step. The advance opens a technical base, but the jump to practical uses will depend on increasing performance. Images | University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan In Xataka | We still don’t know if humanoid robots will be the next great technological revolution. Yes we know that China will lead it

South Korea just turned on AX K1. “An AI for everyone” that puts the country in the race between China and the US

by

The race for artificial intelligence It is the new diamond of the economy of many countries. one to whom they are throwing money as if the world were going to end and that it is having serious implications on issues that affect citizens such as energyhe employment and with one last controversy: the exorbitant price of RAM. The great powers they want to be sovereign in this field, and South Korea has just light his first hyperscale artificial intelligence model. His name could be some son of Elon Musk: AX K1. In short. Developed by the giant SK Telecom, AX K1 is a model that has 519 billion total parameters, although during inference, which is the practical use case, it “only” activates about 33 billion. It’s still accurate (as accurate as an AI can be) but consumes far fewer resources. That 519B – A33B mode is based on the ‘architecture’mixture of experts‘ that selects in real time and dynamically the optimal parameter subsets for each task. These parameters are like the neural connections that allow the model to “learn” during training, and the fact that South Korea already has a hyperscale model is a huge leap in the country’s position within the global picture of AI. Master Model. The design of this model allows stable performance in tasks such as advanced reasoning, mathematics and multilingual comprehension, but there is also an interesting concept: it works as a “Master Model”. These models are the ones that transfer knowledge to smaller models. While the master knows everything, the lighter model is specialized in a specific task. And, although the large model consumes an enormous amount of resources, the “student” that inherits complex capabilities without having to manage so many parameters can run on devices and environments with more limited resources. For example, the AX K1 with those 512B can “transfer its knowledge” to those below the 70B scale, much more specialized and cheaper. “As Korea’s leading AI company, we will continue to push forward our efforts to deliver AI for everyone” – Tae Yoon Kim “AI for everyone”. In less words: the master model allows the expansion of AI to be accelerated because the hyperscale is used for research, but the lower scale is used for more everyday products. And, precisely, that is what SK Telecom seeks: for its IOA to be the basis on which the country operates. In collaboration with different universities, associations and thanks to the memory manufacturer SK Hynix –one of the giants of the sector and part of SK Telecom-, the company hopes it will be the foundation of an “AI for all.” This implies that they will deploy it in their services and, as it is open source, its API can be the basis of other models in university, business and even national ecosystems. In fact, there is already talk of very specific solutions, such as access to AI through text messages and even phone calls, but also multilingual search services and even a boost for AI in video games. And, of course, for humanoid robotics either for education. The great advantage that the consortium that owns AX K1 has is that it is one of the largest groups in the world, with a presence in the semiconductor, telephone, transportation, construction, energy and video game industries. Therefore, you can easily scale this technology. Third in contention. SK Telecom has confirmed that it plans to continue expanding its model with agent-based execution and those 519Bs allow Korea to become “one of the top three artificial intelligence nations in the world,” in the words of Tae Yoon Kimone of those responsible for the model. The group’s intention is to help “consolidate South Korea as one of the world’s top three artificial intelligence nations,” a race that is taking place resources difficult to contextualize in both the United States and China and which is crushing markets like RAM for consumers. Image | SK Telecom In Xataka | The exorbitant deployment of data centers for AI has a new problem: salt caverns

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.