Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Iran has resurrected a Russian Frankenstein for what is to come

by

For decades, Russian shipyards have turned their diesel-electric submarines into one of the star products of their military industry: dozens of units of Project 877 and 636 (known in the West as the Kilo class) were exported to countries such as India, China, Algeria, Vietnam or Iran, offering a combination of relatively contained cost, affordable maintenance and coastal warfare capabilities that allowed navies without a great submarine tradition to take a strategic leap without developing their own technology. Iran has resurrected and modernized one of them. The shadow under the Strait. While Washington was approaching their carrier groups to the Gulf and first the USS Abraham Lincoln, and then the USS Gerald R. Ford, entered sensitive waters, the satellites captured a disturbing image at Iranian Base 1: one of the old Kilo class submarinesacquired from Russia in the nineties for around $600 million each, returned to its berth after months in dry dock. Amid American pressure for a new nuclear deal and Iranian warnings of all-out war, Tehran appeared to have resurrected a Frankenstein Russian for submarine warfare, returning to the scene a platform that for years dragged maintenance problems and availability, but it remains its most powerful asset underwater. The myth of the Russian “black hole”. The Kilo, designed in the Cold War as Project 877 and evolved into later variants, gained the nickname “black hole” for their low acoustic signal when sailing on batteries, a reputation that some experts consider exaggeratedagainst modern Western submarines with air-independent propulsion. However, their combination of relative stealth, heavy torpedoes, ability to mine shipping lanes, and anechoic coatings made them one of the star products Soviet and Russian naval export, sold to China, India or Iran, countries that were looking for an effective submarine force without developing their own industry. Today many of these navies are removing them due to obsolescence, but in the Persian Gulf they continue to be pieces with strategic value. A weapon designed to deny. The normal thing is that Iran does not aspire to defeat the United States Navy in the open field, but rather to defeat make more expensive and complicate its presence in the Strait of Hormuz through an area denial strategy supported by a set of mines, coastal missiles, fast boats and submarines. In this scenario, a Kilo operating on batteries can become a serious threat. for escort or logistics vessels that transit maritime corridors barely three kilometers wide, even if a supercarrier has layered defenses and anti-submarine coverage with MH-60R helicopters and airplanes P-8A. The key in this case is not so much to sink an aircraft carrier, but to sow enough uncertainty to raise the political and military cost of any attack. The dwarf fleet that completes the picture. There is no doubt, the modernization of the Kilo cannot be understood without the other half of the Iranian device: the more than twenty Ghadir class mini submarinesat least eleven recently visible on the same base, designed for shallow waters and intense traffic. With just 117-125 tons submerged and diesel-electric propulsion, these units are optimized for ambushes in coastal environments where civil noise, salinity and currents degrade sonar performance, making them difficult to detect, although limited in autonomy and firepower. Faced with American technological superiority, Iran accumulates quantity, dispersion and knowledge of the terrain. Geography, wear and calculation. Experts say as Jack Bubby that another equation must be taken into account. The conditions of the Gulf, a scenario with shallow depth, high salinity and complex currents, have historically punished the Iranian Kilos and reduced availabilityforcing long periods of maintenance and reconditioning. But precisely this restricted environment favors small and discreet platforms, and turns any concentration of naval forces into a calculated risk exercise. Thus, while the United States reinforces its presence to sustain diplomatic and military pressure, Tehran rebuilds its submarine force combining updated Soviet relics and modern coastal flotillas, betting that, in a conflict, the shadow underwater weighs as much as the steel visible on the surface. Image | rhk111X, Vitaliy Ankov In Xataka | From space something very dangerous can be seen in Iran: the US cannot do what it did in Caracas if it does not want a massacre In Xataka | If the US attacks Iran with drones, it will find a surprise: Russia has shielded its sky with an explosive weapon, Verba

Science is clear that it is better to ‘suffer’ 10 minutes a day

by

For years we have had a daily goal burned into our minds and also on the activity bracelets we have on our wrists: take 10,000 steps a day. A mantra that doctors have repeated, like the intake of two liters of water a daybut little by little it is pivoting to a completely different approach, since it does not depend on how much we move, but on how we do it. A paradigm shift. Expert Rhonda Patrick already pointed out Because as a society we should consider changing the goal of 10,000 steps in our daily lives to give way to a new concept that is revolutionizing preventive medicine, which is VILPA, which is the acronym for ‘Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity’ in English. This refers to doing small bursts of exercise of one or two minutes on a daily basis and which can be done several times a day. Something that is very simple, and although it may seem like it may have a harmless result in patients, the results point to the opposite. Its importance. To see if this works or not, we can go to the data extracted from the large groups of UK Biobank patients already a study published in 2022 which analyzed more than 25,000 people. Here it was seen that only 3 to 4 minutes of VILPA daily with bursts of just 1-2 minutes is associated with a 26-30% reduction in total mortality and specifically from cancer. But if we go further, we also observe a reduction of between 32% and 34% in cardiovascular mortality. However, the most relevant thing is that the benefits increase almost linearly the more minutes of vigorous activity you accumulate. Better than being sedentary. If we look at the most recent studies, such as published by The Lancent This year with more than 135,000 participants, it was confirmed that going from doing nothing to adding just between 1 and 6 minutes of vigorous exercise reduces mortality by 30% in the most sedentary people. The conclusion here is quite clear because we have a great performance investing very little time in the sport. It’s not all at once. One of the big doubts we have is whether those 10 minutes we are talking about have to be done in one go or if it is worth running a little to catch the bus. Here studies suggest that the way you do it does not matter as much as the total dose of exercise. This means that taking small exercise pills throughout the day offers the same benefits as doing them in one continuous session at the gym. This is great news for those who do not have time to go to a gym to train, since climbing the stairs quickly or carrying heavy bags counts, a lot. Rejuvenate the heart. One of the methods we have available to better structure the intensity of training It’s in the ‘Norwegian 4×4’. A protocol developed by different researchers that advocates applying four four-minute intervals of very high intensity along with three minutes of moderate active recovery between each block. With this simple regimen, the heart can be ‘rejuvenated’, causing the left ventricle to reverse its morphological changes and also improving the maximum volume of oxygen in patients with heart failure. That is why we have a much more efficient heart. You have to walk. Obviously, taking 10,000 steps a day is not stupid, and we must continue taking walking as an excellent habit for metabolic and joint health. However, the “10 minutes of intensity” figure supported by VILPA studies reveals an uncomfortable truth: walking at a walking pace does not replace the physiological benefit of being short of breath. As studies in huge cohorts show, introducing just a few minutes where your heart works at its maximum generates a great benefit in health and longevity compared to simple step volume. Images | Ingo Jakubke In Xataka | Neither walking nor running: science suggests that the squat is the true “drug” for healthy aging

Samsung no longer sells you a great processor. A good intermediary sells you

by

He Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 It is surely the most powerful processor that has ever come to an Android phone. Samsung has it in S26 Ultra. And in the launch communications of this mobile he has barely mentioned it, contrary to his modus operandi of yesteryear: the chip used to be one of the big arguments along with the camera and battery. What Samsung has developed with the S26with a lot of time and detail, has been AI. Specifically, the S26 will work with three: Gemini, Bixby and Perplexity. That you choose. That each one does different things. That the device is responsible for coordinating them between them. High-end hardware has reached a point where the differences are marginal for most users. Nobody buys an Ultra anymore because it has 20% more performance in the vapor chamber. But he can buy it because the phone asks him for the Uber only when he has an event on the calendar and calculates the times without him doing anything.to. Or because it filters the calls from spam (there will be trials for this), because it answers for you if you don’t want to pick up the phone, or because it suggests photos of the trip when a friend asks for them via chat. Samsung calls this ‘agentic upgrade’although what it describes is easier to understand: the mobile phone does things in the background without you asking it. There is the twist that the briefing already hinted. Samsung no longer sells itself as the maker of the best hardware. It is sold as the one that best connects you with the intelligence that others have built. It’s not Google, which has Gemini. It is not Perplexity, which has its search engine. It’s not even the chip, which is sometimes an Exynos but sometimes it’s from Qualcomm. Samsung is the layer that unites all thatthe operating system that decides how those agents talk to each other, the hardware that runs them. He is, in the most literal sense, an intermediary. And that’s where he’s focusing now. Perplexity in action, integrated into the S26. Image: Xataka. Galaxy AI. It is not its own AI but rather the integration of someone else’s. Image: Xataka. The bet makes sense as long as that role is difficult to replicate. One UI, Samsung DeXthe integration between native apps and Bixby, the brutal hardware privacy screen that only the Ultra has… All of these are things that you can’t have on another device even if you use the same AIs. For now, at least. The uncomfortable question is what happens when Gemini, Perplexity and Bixby are free on any Android. When what matters is not what AI you access, but how the manufacturer integrates it. Samsung is betting that this difference will be enough of a purchase argument. That’s why it doesn’t sell you the processor. You already assume it’s good. In Xataka | Samsung has a plan to become the greatest AI power in mobile phones. And that is why it has teamed up with Perplexity Featured image | Xataka

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has shown us a wonderful future. One full of screens with privacy technology

by

Many revolutions come without us realizing it and by surprise. As if they were a supporting actor that no one seemed to pay attention to and turns out to be the real star of the movie: This is how the privacy screen arrived of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: an innovation that no one expected and that made the AI ​​or the cameras of that mobile barely matter. Because although all those things add up, they are an evolution that we were all waiting for. But the privacy screen thing is something else: it is an everyday revolution and so obvious that one can only think how it is possible that we are in 2026 and no one would have invented something like this before. Samsung, as our colleague Ana Boria rightly says – please, don’t miss the Short -, has suddenly destroyed the entire industry of tempered glass that protects privacy. For years we have seen how it was possible to add a “privacy protector” in the form of protective glass to our mobile phone or laptop. With it it was possible to prevent any curious/gossip from taking a look at our device over our shoulder, but Samsung has made these protectors no longer necessary, because it has shown us how this technology can be part of the device’s screen itself. The idea is not entirely new, of course. HP has already applied a similar idea in some of its laptops a whopping 10 years ago. He called it Sure View and developed it in collaboration with 3M. That technology effectively allowed the viewing angles of the EliteBook 1040 and 840 to be critically reduced, but the proposal did not seem to work. Image: Samsung. Samsung, however, has gone a step further because this privacy screen can not only be activated and deactivated whenever we want: it can even be activated or deactivated in a personalized way for each application: if you want the privacy screen mode to be activated every time you look at your bank application, you just have to select this option in the settings. The customization of this feature is also extraordinaryand Samsung allows you to adjust it so that it is activated automatically, for example, when we receive notifications, or that the screen also goes into “anti-gossip” mode just when we are entering a PIN for an application. With the function activated, the screen only looks good to those looking at it from the front. This is one of those ideas that show that not everything is invented in the world of technology and that a real practical and everyday improvement as “silly” as this can be much more important and impactful than some AI options that remain fireworks. In fact, here Samsung has surprised us with an innovation that should make apple blush: the Cupertino company does not stop boasting that They are the champions of privacyand although they have certainly traditionally stood out in this section, here Samsung has left them biting the dust. To them and to everyone. Privacy screens have already become one of the clear technological innovations of 2026. Now We just hope that all manufacturers follow the story and end up implementing similar systems on their mobile phones. That may take some time, of course, but today it seems inevitable to think that what Samsung has done is open the door to a wonderful future in which we will be much safer from gossip. Good for Samsung. In Xataka | Image | Xataka with Freepik

The country that opted most for green now embraces the one made with gas

by

Just a couple of years ago, the atmosphere in German energy policy was one of pure euphoria. The small town of Bremervörde (Lower Saxony) had just opened the first train route operated solely on hydrogen. With an estimated saving of 4,000 tons of CO2 per year, the project was the perfect showcase for the Government’s great plan: relying the entire weight of its decarbonization on the purity of green hydrogen However, time has cooled enthusiasm and the current hydrogen landscape in Germany faces harsh economic realities. Refueling stations for hydrogen cars languish; in fact, H2 Mobility, the country’s main operator, announced the closure of several of its stations due to the lack of demand in passenger vehicles and constant supply bottlenecks. This face-to-face collision with reality has forced a drastic political turn: Germany, the country that most opted for the purity of green hydrogen, is modifying its laws to embrace “blue” hydrogen, that which is produced from natural gas using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Urgency changes the rules. The fractions of the government coalition (Union and SPD) have agreed to amend the Hydrogen Acceleration Law so that the production of blue hydrogen now enjoys the status of “overriding public interest”. Originally, this regulation sought to streamline bureaucracy only for 100% renewable projects, but the new draft expands its scope of application. As the specialized publication points out Tagesspiegel Backgroundthis change equates at the permit level the facilities that extract hydrogen from fossil gas (capturing CO2) with those that use wind or solar energy. This shift towards natural gas raises an obvious question for a country that has just gone through a severe energy crisis: where will the raw material come from now that the Russian tap is closed? The answer look north. Gas from the Barents Sea, of Nordic and Norwegian origin, is emerging as the ideal geopolitical lifeline to fuel this new European blue hydrogen machinery, guaranteeing industrial supply without falling into dependence on Moscow. A devastating wake-up call. This political shift does not come out of nowhere, but comes after a devastating report from the German Federal Court of Auditors (Bundesrechnungshof). According to this supervisory bodydespite the billions of euros injected in subsidies, the government is flagrantly failing to meet the objectives of its own strategy, as neither supply nor demand are growing as planned. Kay Scheller, president of the Court, publicly demanded a “reality check”, warning that, if it is not assumed that green hydrogen will not be competitive in price in the short term, federal finances will collapse under the weight of subsidies. The energy transition simply cannot wait for green hydrogen to be technically and economically viable on a large scale. The central problem is the cost. While natural gas (including CO2 emission rights) is between 43 and 67 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), the forecasts for imported hydrogen in 2030 rise to a range of between 137 and 318 euros per MWh. This abysmal price difference — which can reach 275 euros per MWh — makes it unfeasible for companies to make the change in the short term. Train crash. The business sector has breathed a sigh of relief. As explained in another article by Tagesspiegel Backgroundkey entities such as the Association of German Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) had been demanding this pragmatic step for some time. They argue that the transformation of heavy industry cannot sit idly by waiting for there to be enough wind and solar farms to flood the market with green hydrogen at affordable prices. On the contrary, environmental organizations They denounce that this movement It is a serious setback that will only consolidate and perpetuate the dependence of the largest European economy on fossil fuels. To unclog the sector, the Minister of Economy, Katherina Reiche, promised a few months ago simplify procedures “from the ground up”, recognizing that current processes are too slow. The declaration of “overriding public interest” will function as an administrative fast track that will cover not only production, but vital infrastructures as maritime import terminals and Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC). The risk of the “white elephant” and the fiscal hole. But legislative flexibility may not be enough to cover the enormous financial hole that is looming. The specialized portal CleanTechnica goes deeper, warning of the severe danger of “sunk costs”. Building and pressurizing pipelines without assured customers turns a theoretical infrastructure into an active spending sink. The Court of Auditors supports this thesis and warns of a serious synchronization problem: Germany has planned a huge 9,040-kilometre pipeline “core network”, but it is being built for a demand that today is a mirage. Large steel projects that were going to consume 18 TWh annually are faltering; of the four main ones, one has already been canceled and the rest face uncertain deadlines. The financing mechanism of this network is based on future users paying tolls to repay a state loan from the KfW development bank of up to 24 billion euros. If demand does not materialize and the pipelines remain empty, the mechanism will fail miserably, leaving German taxpayers exposed to losses exceeding €18 billion. The “Plan B” of the European locomotive The utopia of a Germany driven exclusively by green molecules has collided head-on with State accounting and the non-negotiable deadlines of heavy industry. Faced with the imminent risk of losing competitiveness and generating a fiscal crisis, the government has been forced to sacrifice the purity of its initial ecological ambitions. The country has understood that it needs an urgent “Plan B.” That Buxtehude train that in 2022 promised an idyllic future powered only by the wind and the sun, will have to share the track, at least for the next few decades, with the pragmatism of natural gas. At this crossroads, blue hydrogen has ceased to be the “dirty brother” and undesirable and has become the indispensable temporary lifeline of one of the great European economies. Image | freepik 1 and … Read more

renew Osaka water pipes

by

Osaka usually appears in rankings as one of the most powerful cities in Japan outside of Tokyo. Without going any further, the “power cities” ranking of 2025 once again placed it in the lead among the country’s large cities excluding Tokyo. However, beneath this modern profile lies a much less visible problem: an aging pipeline network that requires million-dollar investments and constant planning. In recent years, the state of these infrastructures has been gaining weight in the public debate, and the country’s third largest city is no exception. The donation. In November of last year, in the midst of a technical discussion on how to face this renovation, an unexpected gesture came to the municipal body in charge of water. An individual delivered 21 kilos of gold bars with one condition: that it be used entirely to improve deteriorated pipelines. The Mainichi newspaper notes that Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama explained at a press conference that the complex is valued at 560 million yen, around 3 million euros. “Repairing old water pipes requires a large investment. For that reason, I only have gratitude,” he said when thanking the donation, and confirmed that the City Council will respect that wish. We know (almost) nothing about the donor. Beyond the value of the gold and its destination, the identity of the person who made the donation remains unknown. The mayor explained that the person asked to remain anonymous and no information has been provided about his profile or origin. It has been made public that this is not an isolated gesture: previously he had already contributed 500,000 yen (about 2,700 euros) in cash for the water system. The actual invoice. When the official figures are analyzed, the scope of the donation takes on another dimension. As he explained to the Associated Press Eiji Kotani, head of the municipal water service, Osaka needs to renew a total of 259 kilometers of pipes. Replacing a section of just 2 kilometers represents an approximate cost of 500 million yen (about 2.7 million euros), an amount close to the full value of the ingots. In addition, it has been announced that leaks under the roads have increased in recent times. The problem is not limited to Osaka. Much of Japan’s public infrastructure was built during the rapid economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s, and today many of those networks are undergoing major renovations. BBC notes that More than 20% of the country’s water pipes have exceeded 40 years, which is the legal useful life. a real problem. That debate stopped being abstract at the end of January 2025, when a huge sinkhole opened on a road in Yashioin Saitama prefecture. The collapse engulfed a truck and triggered a complex rescue operation as teams tried to access the cabin where the 74-year-old driver was. Sewer system officials said corrosion of a pipe could have created a cavity under the asphalt and caused it to collapse. As we can see, the donation can help boost the renovation of the pipes, but it is far from solving the entire problem. Images | Jingming Pan | Juliana Barquero In Xataka | The Aztecs and Ulysses had something in common that humanity has always sought: the true secret of happiness.

Valladolid and León have been longing for a highway that connects them for more than 25 years. 75 million will be spent to build 10 kilometers

by

Valladolid and León are linked by 142 kilometers and a claim. Specifically, converting the N-610 secondary road into a two-lane highway in each direction. The project has received a small but important push. One that should culminate in the construction of a dozen more kilometers in a project that has been talked about for more than a quarter of a century. What’s new? That the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility approved last Tuesdayprovisionally, the connection between Villanubla and La Mudarra to continue advancing in the construction of the A-60 highway, which should connect Valladolid with León, currently separated by a national highway. Of course, the approval given by transport does not guarantee that these 10 kilometers will be carried out because, for the moment, any affected neighbor can present the appropriate allegations or observations in relation to the expected expropriations that are going to be carried out. To do so, interested parties have 30 business days. A new step. If consolidated, what will be built will be a 10-kilometer stretch between Villanubla and La Mudarra, a connection close to the Valladolid airport where, until now, the A-60 highway ends on its exit from this city. The project has an estimated budget of 74,750,633.16 euros. There seems little progress but if we take into account what has been done so far, the qualitative leap is more than evident. And right now, There are only 45 kilometers built of the more than 120 kilometers through which the highway is expected to run. That is, with those 10 kilometers, we would be close to reaching half of it and would represent around 10% of the total work. A 20th century project. The issue is especially painful for the neighbors because the project has been on the table for more than a quarter of a century. To find its origin, we must go back to 1997 when it was approved for the first time to deal with the matter in the Cortes. However, it was not until 2002 when the first procedures began, as stated in Europa Press. This last section, in fact, has been frozen for years and is now beginning to be processed urgently. In Valladolid newspaper They point out that the first time the papers were put on the table for these 10 kilometers that separate Villanubla from La Mudarra was 2017. However, the passage of time has caused the deadlines to expire, so it was not until the end of 2025 that a push was given again to the construction of this new section. The current situation. Right now, covering the distance that separates Valladolid and León represents an inappropriate expenditure of time for the distance that separates them. The short route is the N-610 highway, a secondary road with 142 kilometers that requires almost two hours of travel. There are also no better alternatives to reduce the time one needs. If you want to take a highway, there are not many options. The most obvious requires you to go from Valladolid to Tordesillas, there take the A-6 and then connect with the A-66. In this way, the driver is already forced to get closer (very close) to the two hours and add another 40 kilometers to the trip. Of course, the roads are safer. Security issue. Obviously, the construction of a highway between Valladolid and León would have an immediate impact on the security of the region. According to data from the DGT collected by Valladolid newspaper, In 2024, the N-601 recorded 41 accidents as it passed through Valladolid. That is, almost one accident per week was recorded. That year, nine deaths were recorded before the end of 2024 and in 2023 another 11 people died. Until now, the prevention plans for these accidents have focused on adapting the road to the large volume of traffic on it, with the 2+1 lane projection which should alleviate traffic jams in some points, especially those generated by heavy transportation. Photo | In Xataka | Spain built its roads thinking it was a hot country. Now that’s a problem

ended up having access to 6,700 devices around the world

by

You don’t have to have a house full of devices to depend on the cloud. All it takes is a connected robot vacuum cleaner so that some of its information passes through external servers and we can manage it from anywhere. The model has been standardized and, in principle, works. But that normality breaks down when questions arise about who can see what. That is what an American technology publication published regarding the DJI ROMO: A user claimed to have accessed data and activity from thousands of devices around the world before the issue was fixed. Curiosity and risk. The story begins with something much more trivial than one might imagine. Sammy Azdoufal, an AI strategy manager at a vacation rental company, only wanted to control his own DJI ROMO with a PS5 controller “because it was fun,” as explained to The Verge. To do this, he developed a homemade application that began to communicate with DJI servers. The unexpected thing was that it was not just his vacuum cleaner that responded. Instead of a single device, thousands began to appear, spread across different countries, which recognized it as if it were its owner. What I could see and control. What came next is what really changes the tone of the story. During a live demonstration, Azdoufal showed how his tool was detecting devices in real time: in just nine minutes he had cataloged 6,700 robots in 24 countries and collected more than 100,000 messages sent by them. Each one reported information every few seconds through a protocol called MQTTcommon in connected devices, indicating their serial number, which room they were cleaning, how far they had traveled or when they returned to the charging base. As Azdoufal himself explained, he did not need to “hack” the company’s servers in the classic sense. What he did was analyze how his own ROMO communicated with DJI’s infrastructure and extract the private token associated with his device, that is, the credential that allows him to authenticate to the system. To decipher these protocols, he resorted to the well-known AI tool Claude Codewhich he used as support in the reverse engineering process. The problem, always depending on your version, is that once authenticated as a valid client, the servers did not properly limit which messages you could subscribe to receive. The official version and patches. The company maintains that it detected the vulnerability in late January through an internal review and began remediation immediately. According to its statement, it deployed a first patch on February 8 and a second update on February 10 to cover nodes that had not received the initial fix. DJI admits “a backend permission validation issue” related to MQTT communication between device and server, although it says unauthorized access was “extremely rare.” It also highlights that the transmission was encrypted using TLS and that data from European devices is stored on AWS infrastructure located in the United States. Questions on the table. If a user was able to detect that level of exposure almost by accident, one might wonder how these systems are internally audited and what controls are in place before a product hits the market. We are not talking about just any appliance, but rather a device with sensors, a camera and permanent connectivity within the home. Azdoufal himself even questioned the presence of a microphone in a vacuum cleaner. It is not a new debate: in recent years Other manufacturers have faced similar incidents with robots capable of transmitting video or storing images. A change of scenery for DJI. After years dominating the air with drones and stabilization systems, the company decided to apply its engineering to domestic soil. The result was DJI ROMO, a robot vacuum cleaner that combines optical and LiDAR sensors to generate precise maps and avoid obstacles, supported by planning algorithms and the DJI Home app to manage zones, modes and alerts. It is not a simple mechanical appliance, but a connected platform that depends on continuous data to function with that precision. And that is where security takes on a determining role. Images | DJI In Xataka | How often should we change ALL our passwords according to three cybersecurity experts

In case of need, that AI is from the State

by

The Pentagon dropped the bomb a few hours ago. Anthropic has until this Friday at 5:01 p.m. to agree to have its AI models used for whatever the Pentagon deems appropriate. It is something that is turning the conversation on its head upside down. ethical use of AIbut more important than that, it puts on the table a very clear intention on the part of the United States: that if they consider that all resources must be used in matters of national defense, all resources belong to the State. And that’s where artificial intelligence from private companies comes in. In short. Dario Amodei is the CEO of Anthropic. The name may sound more familiar to you. Claudeone of his models. These are very versatile, but they have a red line very clear: They cannot be used for mass surveillance of US citizens (be careful with the nuance). Nor for the development of weapons or the use of autonomous weapons controlled entirely by AI. And this is something that conflicts with what the Pentagon wants: to use Anthropic models without restrictions. Why Anthropic, you might ask? Well, because this company offered its tool to the Government for the symbolic price of one dollar, which earned them a contract of 200,000,000 dollars. The move did not go badly, and little by little their models were integrated with those of Palantir. Now, the US wants to have an ‘unleashed’ AI, but as my colleague Javier Lacort explainsthe laws and ethics of the United States Armed Forces are based on the fact that a soldier can and must disobey a manifestly illegal order. An AI can do whatever you want it to do. A lever from 1950. A 200 million dollar contract is juicy, but seeing the nonsense that is continually invested in AIit’s pocket change. Anthropic would have it as easy as refusing and clearing the way for someone else to take his place in the Pentagon, right? Well… it’s not that simple. And it is not for two reasons. The first is that it is already highly integrated into all the systems, processes and services that the Department of Defense uses on a daily basis. It is too big a ship for it to change course. He “knows” too much about the interiors of those systems that must be highly secret. But the most important thing is that the United States has a lever to take over whatever it wants. The only thing you have to argue is that it is due to a need for national security. In 1950, during the Korean War, the Defense Production Acta law that grants the president powers to secure supplies necessary for national defense. This, for example, gives the Government power to require companies to prioritize contracts with the State to allocate materials, services and facilities. Also allow aid to expand productive capacity and, ultimately, put the largest companies in the country to work depending on what is needed. Too powerful to be private. This document has been expanded and expanded over time, since the needs of 1950 are not the same as those of later decades, and in 2023 the Executive Order 14,110. It is one that forces the owners of the most powerful AI models to notify the Government when they train systems that may pose a risk to national security, the economy or public health. After him, other drafts have been signed expanding the demands on AI, but the truth is that the Pentagon does not need to publish anything new to pressure Anthropic. Under Title I (ordering that certain products or services be provided to the Government), the Pentagon could take over Anthropic’s AI to carry out its designs. The support is what we have already mentioned: that “national defense.” And, in practice, it is defined that, if the company does not want its AI to do certain things because of that kind of moral code, if it becomes the property of the Pentagon, the ethical barrier can be eliminated. Disciplinary punishment for the “AI woke”. And now, the big question. Can Anthropic say something like “look, you keep the 200 million and each to their own”? Well no. Or not in such a simple way. I have already commented that Claude is too deep into the Pentagon systems (to the point that he was used in the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro) and “knows” too much. She’s very integrated into the Pentagon’s classified systems, and as we can guess, they weren’t going to let her go that easily. And that’s where the figure of Pete Hegseth comes in. He is the Secretary of Defense, and he has qualified that Anthropic moral standard like that of an “AI woke.” Yes… Because Google, OpenAI and xAI allow that the Government uses its models in any “legal” scenario (for the Government, of course), but not Anthropic, and in addition to the lever of the Defense Production Act, the United States can harshly punish the company. If they do not “give in” to their requests, they could identify Anthropic as a company that puts the country’s supply chain at risk. It would be cLike the Huawei veto a few years ago, but to a national company. In practice, US companies would not be able to work with Anthropic. That is to say, the country has a couple of good “arguments” for Anthropic to hand over that moral bar. Learning. It won’t be that long until 5:01 p.m. on Friday, February 27, when we will know if Anthropic agrees by hook or by crook to the Pentagon’s “requests.” What is clear is that this is a lesson. Not so much for American companies that, in the end, operate under the umbrella of the Defense Production Act, but for those of the rest of the world. Specifically, the European ones. And I’m thinking about the space race. Europe, like China, Russia and the United States itself, has embarked on the new space race. They are … Read more

Mobile software has become so complex that Samsung has had to add an AI to explain it to you

by

There’s a feature in One UI 8.5 that says more than it seems. It’s called, in Samsung’s internal nomenclature, ‘voice settings assistant’: you ask the phone why the screen doesn’t turn off, and it explains which setting is causing it. You ask it why the volume goes down on its own, and it tells you where the setting is that controls it. In it briefing of the Galaxy S26 They mentioned it almost in passing, as a nice detail among bigger and more important news such as the 3 AIs in 1, or the spectacular screen and its privacy mode. But this also deserves some attention. For years, learning to use a cell phone was part of the deal. You scanned the menus, memorized where things were, got used to their quirks, and cursed when you changed brands and couldn’t find anything. The instruction manual disappeared many years ago because it was assumed that phones were already intuitive enough not to need it. And for a while, they have been. The problem is that phones have not stopped growing. Every generation, and I’m looking at both iOS and Android, adds settings, modes, features, and layers of customization. One UI 8.5 brings, in the AI ​​section alone, more than a dozen new functions. The Christmas tree effect: We accumulate things without getting rid of the previous ones and we end up with an unruly mammoth. The operating system of a modern mobile phone has thousands of options spread out in menus that are sometimes where you would expect and sometimes not. And when something behaves unexpectedly, finding the reason can take several minutes of searching or a simple query to Google. Or ChatGPT. Samsung has decided that the solution to this complexity is not to simplify, but add a layer to help you navigate it. The mobile phone no longer expects you to understand it: it explains how it works if you ask it. It is a pragmatic move. Manufacturers have been in a race for years to add functions that justify the annual update, and retracing that path would mean cutting features that some users do use. So the solution is not to remove, but to translate. An AI that acts as a guide within the device itself. Google already has similar functions in pure Android and the Siri that the prophets promised maybe one day it will come. What Samsung does with One UI 8.5 is go a step further: it not only takes you to the setting, but explains why that setting is affecting the behavior that misses you. It’s the difference between giving you directions and explaining the map to you. The question that remains is how far this goes. If the phone needs an AI to explain itself, The next logical step is for that AI to start making decisions for you.: not only explain why the screen does not turn off, but also turn it off when it detects that you are not using it. Some of the agentic upgrades that Samsung has presented in the S26 are already going in that direction. The cell phone that asks you what you want to do and the cell phone that deduces what you want to do are closer than they seem. In Xataka | Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, S26+ and S26, first impressions: a broken heart in an unprecedented commitment to AI Featured image | Xataka

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.