180º Archives - usatoday24

The head of AI at Alibaba leaves the company. That points to a 180º turn for the Qwen family models

March 6, 2026 by usatoday24

An employee leaving a company does not have to mean a radical change, especially when that employee has been the leader of an important project and his departure occurs just after the launch. This is what just happened with Junyang (Justin) Lin, the technological leader of the team qwen. A strange exit. On March 2, Alibaba launched a new model family lightweight with two fast models designed for edge use, a multimodal model for agentic systems and a reasoning model that stood up to much larger models. The next day, Junyang Lin announced on his X account “I am leaving. Goodbye, my dear Qwen,” without giving further details. And he wasn’t the only one. Also leaving the company were Hui Binyuan, a scientific researcher, and Yu Bowen, head of post-training at Qwen. No one has commented on the reasons behind his departure from the company and rumors that they had been fired They didn’t wait. However, according to Panda Daily, Alibaba said it had approved his resignation. ¿What is happening? Justin’s departure caused a stir among his colleagues, with some claiming that it was “the end of an era”. We are talking about the person who has led the Qwen team from the beginning and a great AI researcher, with an academic profile that exceeds 40,000 citationsso this decision has raised many eyebrows. Whether fired or resigned, Justin was a key figure on the team, but he also leaves just after a launch and several other employees have followed him. What is happening at Alibaba? Closed models. As we said, the parties involved have not offered more details, but the theories have not been long in coming and one of them is that Alibaba could be thinking of moving towards closed models. Alibaba has been making efforts to monetize its AI and closing their models could be part of the plan. It would certainly make sense for the project leader to quit at the prospect of such a profound change. There’s a new guy in the office. Shortly after the news broke, another one jumped out: Alibaba has signed Zhou Haowho until now was a researcher at Google DeepMind. Zhou will join the Qwen team as head of post-training, so he will directly replace Yu Bowen and not Justin. Zhou has been a key figure in the development of Gemini 3, the Seeker’s AI mode, and Deep Research mode. lto open source strategy. DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen… Chinese companies have become the standard bearers of open source AI, an antagonistic strategy with the closed stance of the US. But it is not a question of giving away AI just for the sake of it, but rather it is part of their roadmap: offering access to create a large user base and thus be able to be dominant in the future. Furthermore, Chinese companies know very well that the US is technologically ahead (Justin himself recognized it recently), so launching open and free AIs is a way to gain ground on them. However, in the long term it does not seem like a very good strategy because there will come a point where they want to monetize it and there is a risk of losing users who feel betrayed. We do not know if Alibaba has already started down this path, but if it has, we will soon see if this risk is real or not. Image | qwen In Xataka | China’s open AIs aren’t “beating” ChatGPT, they’re doing something more important: catapulting their industry

A Chinese city has had an idea to simplify changes in meaning: to fly 180º in the middle of the highway

August 24, 2025 by usatoday24

Changing meaning on some roads is a real nightmare. If we go for a National Highway It is relatively simple, but skip a highway exit or in large avenues of some of the larger and more congested cities on the planetit involves going huge to change the meaning of the march. And in a Chinese city they are applying a solution that facilitates the maneuver: the ‘U -urn‘, or “U turning”. The videos are not very convincing if we talk about security. U -urn. There are several designs when making changes to meaning. The idea is to make as many maneuvers as possible and that these are safe. Roundabouts are an efficient design for this, but on roads with a large number of lanesThey are little practical. You can always turn in the street and turn the block to rejoin the main road, but it takes longer. There the U-Turn that has begun to apply in cities such as Jinancapital of Shandong. The concept is simple: a lane stuck to the median that allows not to turn left, but to make an even more closed turn to join the opposite direction of march. AAAAAHORA. The video that we leave just on these lines is revealing: several cars stop in several numbered squares and wait for their turn to make that change of meaning. A continuous white line makes the difference between that lane and the rest of its march, and a yellow makes medium. How do you get the impatient drivers wait for your turn? Through a traffic light, which is the one that regulates the maneuver. The coordination between the traffic lights allows to stop the traffic of the lane to which we want to incorporate while opening the traffic light that gives green light to the incorporation maneuver, and discontinuous lines on the ground serve as a guide for drivers. Jinan’s U-Turn Risks. Now, although in This video Posted by People’s Daily and In this other Published by MAO NO, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the maneuvers seem idyllic, if we look at both videos and in the above we can see two of the problems, and consequent risks, of this maneuver. On the one hand: the scope that can be produced by the vehicles that already circulated in that direction. There is a traffic light that cuts trafficbut … what happens if they jump it or if they circulated at more speed? The same goes for those who want to incorporate. As the turn is so closed, there may be touches between them. In fact, there are several cars that must lessen or even correct the trajectory so as not to “eat” any of those that are incorporated. An example in the United States. In Florida, specifically Nothing exotic. Now, this U turning is not exclusive to China and, although the implementation in Jinan has caught attention, There are other areas in which it is allowed. The United States or Taiwan are two of them, but in the case of the North American country, it depends on the State and the implementation varies from a discontinuous line on the ground, the regulation through a traffic light or more extreme cases such as a road design that, in Spain, seems exotic: Therefore, although very colorful, that Jinan lane is another implementation of this 180 degree turn to change meaning. In countries outside Europe, where apples are usually smaller and narrower roads, it is normal to see this type of implementations, but in the case of the solution applied in Jinan, the striking is the amount of cars simultaneously that can make the change of meaning. And the problem is that, although functional because it allows a road with a large number of lanes Several cars can make a 180 degree turn simultaneously, in the published videos you can perfectly see that the possibility of a range is there. Images | Mrswagger21 In Xataka | It looks like a 240 -kilometer roller coaster, but it is one of the most amazing and complicated highways in China (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news A Chinese city has had an idea to simplify changes in meaning: to fly 180º in the middle of the highway It was originally posted in Xataka by Alejandro Alcolea .

Marc Murtra and his 180º turn compared to Álvarez-Pallete

May 8, 2025 by usatoday24

Telefónica’s price It has just reached 4.5 eurosits highest level in three years. Just when the new executive president, Marc Murtra, turns his first hundred days at the helm of the Teleco. Why is it important. From the appointment of Murtra in January, the revaluation of Telefónica exceeds 16%. A stock market resurrection that confirms market confidence in the strategic review designed by the former president of Indra to save a telecus whose value 57% had collapsed during Álvarez-Pallete’s mandate. The Catalan engineer has achieved in three months what Telefónica had been trying for years: to recover the favor of investors. And he has done so by executing a very different vision than his predecessor. The panoramic. Murtra has identified two existential problems for Telefónica: Latin American ruin and the ballast of being perceived as a traditional telecus in a technological world. In Latin America, the subsidiaries have weighed the results with millionaire losses: 1,327 million in Argentina, 872 million in Peru (which entered into the bankruptcy of creditors) and 437 million in Chile. The rhythm of divestment has accelerated brutally: Argentina sold for 1,190 million to the Clarín group, Colombia on sale to Millicom for 370 million, and Peru practically given away for 900,000 euros to Integra Tec. The turning point. While leaving the continent that became a financial bleeding for the company – Brazil on the margin -, Murtra has positioned Telefónica as the protagonist in the European consolidation of the sector, raising the debate from the business to the geopolitical. His Inaugural speech at the Mobile World Congress From Barcelona he went straight to the heart of Brussels: “It is time for large European telecommunications companies to consolidate and grow to create technological capacity.” Between the lines. The strategy has two pillars: End the Latin American expansion (except Brazil, which is still profitable) and focus efforts on European markets with greater profitability and legal certainty. Transform Telefónica from a traditional telecus to a technological company, taking advantage of the fact that almost half of its business income (43%) They already come from non -traditional services. With Emilio Gayo as CEO, the duo is creating a balance between operational execution (Gayo) and strategic vision (Murtra) that is working. It is no accident that Gayo has achieved Telefónica España growing in income, Ebitda and customers For the first time since 2018. And now what. Analysts expect Telefónica to reduce their investments in fiber infrastructure to focus more on technological aspects, freeing Indra from this mission so that focus on the defense and aerospace sector. Meanwhile, the market expects important operations, with Vodafone Spain and Digi as possible acquisition objectives to strengthen its position in Spain first … and in Europe later. The turn. The exceptional thing about this change is that Telefónica is about to give Sorpasso to herself: Become a technology services company above Teleco. This turning point where more than half of its business turnover will proceed with technological services, not voice or data, is close. His new narrative as a European tractor is being well received by a market that had been waiting for a pragmatic, clear and decisive turn. The times of the global expansion without control have been left behind. For retailers who have been seeing their heritage for years, this change of course is the arrival of spring. One that can reverde the laurels, even if it is a bit, of the old Matildes. In Xataka | The EU has spent years fiercely fighting monopolies. Teresa Ribera has other plans for telecos Outstanding image | Telefónica

The new OpenAi image generator takes a 180º turn in a section that we did not see coming: censorship

March 27, 2025 by usatoday24

That of the photo is supposed to be that of Karl Marx with purchase bags and with an unusual attitude: leaving a shopping center and demonstrating An unusual change to capitalist and consumerist philosophy. But of course, it is not him: he is a Deepfake generated by a very peculiar model. Specifically, by the new OpenAi model integrated in Chatgpt and that goes beyond Dall-e in a key apparent: censorship. Goodbye (almost) to censorship. In the “system card“From this OpenAi model, a unique message stands out: we can generate deepfakes without apparent problems. As explained in that text, “The generation of images 4 is able, in many cases, to generate a representation of a public figure based only on an indication of text. In this launch, We will not block the ability to generate adult public figuresbut we will implement the same safeguards that we have implemented for the edition of images of photorealist loads of people. For example, this includes trying to block the generation of photorealist images of public figures that are minor and material that violates our policies related to violence, images that encourage hate, instructions for illegal activities, erotic content and other areas. Public characters who wish not to generate their image can choose not to participate. “ A similar approach to Grok’s. Openai’s philosophy is now The same line than the one Grok 3 raised With its generation of images months ago. Censorship disappeared and it was feasible to generate any type of Deepfake even with public characters. Openai responsible highlight how the approach here is different from the series of Dall-E models, and that “opens the possibility of useful and beneficial uses in areas such as educational, historical, satirical and political discourse.” Even so, they add, they will continue “monitoring the use of this capacity, evaluating our policies, and we will adjust them if necessary”, which makes it clear that a misuse of these options could lead OpenAi to re -apply censorship mechanisms. Why now. Openai’s decision is striking, but logical. Grok 3, which was a little widespread model, has achieved some popularity thanks to that “politically incorrect” approach to its AI model. After all, AI models are tools, and can be used for both good and evil, like any other tool. Controlling the bad uses is extremely difficult and expensive, and here OpenAi leaves the ball on the roof of the users. The Deepfake generation With famous characters in Grok 3, he unleashed a flood of memes and contents of all kinds with those celebrities, but it seems that in recent times “we have become accustomed” to having that capacity and apparently the diffusion of these images has relaxed. The initial controversy has blurred, and Openai probably knows that this will help further boost the use of chatgpt and perhaps to harm his rival, Grok 3. The quality of the photorealist images rises of level in this new image generator integrated in chatgpt with GPT-4O. Source: OpenAi. But they don’t want to put the leg. Generating images is wonderful, but it can also end up being a problem for the models that put the leg. It happened to Google with Gemini, which ended up generating controversial images of Black Nazis soldiers in which the desire to be inclusive ended up posing reputational problems and Important economic. He Addendum to the official announcement by OpenAI Let it clear They have taken special care to generate “safe” images. The model censures much less, but can continue to be refused to generate certain types of images that, for example, avoid control of CSAM materials (sexual Child abuse material). The evolution of Dall-e. In January 2021, nobody probably paid too much attention to a news that we published in Xataka. An unknown OpenAi Dall-e presented at that timea model capable of generating images from a text prompt. In April 2022 Dall-e 2 would arrivebut in reality we all “click” in June of that year, when it was launched Dall-e 2 mini And we could all try that. And it was impressive. Images in Chatgpt. The new OpenAi in this area is not a theoretical Dall-E 4. instead what the company has presented is the so-called image generation integrated in its model GPT-4O. The announcement is important because it allows you to generate images directly within Chatgpt, but also do it with a quality clearly superior to that offered by Dall-E. Until the text generates well. One of the outstanding characteristics of this model is its ability to render text precisely: if you ask for an image with a certain text, that text will appear clearly, while in other models the text may appear distorted or illegible. According to Openai, the model takes advantage of “the inherent knowledge base of 4”. And more striking options. In Openai they also highlight how we also have the ability to generate in “multiturn”, that is, refine images from the previous ones. We can polish them or add new elements to the images with new PROMPTS. The understanding of the context, the quality of the photorealistic images – such as Marx – or even the generation of diagrams and graphs are other remarkable options of this image generation model. Activated water marks. There is an additional element of the model: all the images generated They include C2PA metadatathat is: they contain invisible “water marks” that allow to identify all these images as generated by GPT-4O. In Openai they even emphasize that they have created an internal search tool that allows us to use the technical attributes of the generations to verify if that content comes from their model. But it is still imperfect. The company’s own ones notice: the images may contain bulk and hallucinar errors, and the generation of text, especially with multi -mounted support, can end up offering meaningless texts. Who can use it. The image generation in 4o has already begun its deployment for users of Chatgpt plusPro, Team and even free accounts, and will soon reach Enterprise … Read more

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