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How the Black Death caused Europe to become obsessed with the act of sneezing for centuries

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Hebrew tradition tells that, just before biting the apple, Adam sneezed. At that moment it seems that he didn’t care much, but after the incident with the fifth piece of fruit a day he ended up interpreting it as “a sign of evil and a harbinger of death.” The noise stayed there, of course, and when the very old Jacob was worried about not getting to see his son, he begged God to change the natural order of things lest a bad sneeze take him to the other neighborhood. That’s where it comes from (collected or perhaps invented anew by medieval tradition) that we desire “health” in Spain, “saúde” in Portugal or “Gesundheit” in Germany to someone who has just sneezed. As if to ward off bad omens; that life is not enough to play with dice. However, because it is common, I still find it surprising how much a simple sneeze has come to mean. Aristotle, explains García-Morenowas convinced that, compared to flatus or belching, the sneeze was the only one that had a ‘sacred nature’ because it came “from the main and deepest and most divine of the organs, the one that contains the spirit.” Hippocrates, on the other hand, although he did not decide on the goodness or badness of sneezing, he did describe the principle of reciprocal inhibition by pointing out that sneezing was, mind you, the best remedy for hiccups. As I said, the history of sneezing in the West cannot be understood in all its complexity without the Black Death. It was then that the “health” of the Jewish tradition or the “Jesus” of the Christian tradition became popular again as a way of wishing that this ‘achís’ was not the doorway of the damned plague. The “God bless you” that still resonates in English formulas (‘bless you’) comes, it seems, from one of the many plagues that struck medieval papal Rome. In contrast, in many other places, sneezing was considered a good thing. Fantastic. Traditional Hindu medicine used to provoke it as a way to balance internal humors and treat illnesses while the more archaic African medicine used it protopsychiatrically as a way to cure mental illness (supposedly caused by the existence of worms in the brain). To finish, to finish at some point, the Aztecs used it for headaches. What is a sneeze really? In reality, a sneeze is something very simple. It is a reflex actionsudden and compulsive, whose purpose is to expel large amounts of air through the nose and (sometimes) also through the mouth. It is, therefore, a physiological reflex that the respiratory system uses defensively. Therefore, it usually occurs when certain foreign particles irritate the nasal mucosa. And yes, I have used “usual” with all the intention in the world. As it seemsand these are average estimates, before each sneeze we inhale about two and a half liters of air. That is the first phase, the inhalation phase. At that moment, the abdominal muscles tense the diaphragm to increase the pressure in the lungs and force the air to come out through the nose at dizzying speed: between 70 and 130 kilometers per hour. The saliva that is usually expelled when sneezing can cover an area of ​​up to 8 square meters. And that is precisely what makes a sneeze one of the worst vectors of disease spread in the world. However, sneezing is most popular precisely when it is most harmless: in spring, summer or autumn. When it is caused by ‘allergic rhinitis’. A classic, indeed. This type of rhinitis, caused by pollen from trees, weeds and grasses, becomes the great recurring character in the lives of practically a third of the population. It is unbearable, unbearable, a cross. But, still, there are worse sneezes. Between 18 and 25% of the population sneezes suddenly when exposed to bright light. This is what is known as ‘photic sneeze‘and it’s an old acquaintance (and a cause of disability) of aviation pilots. Apparently it is hereditary and is produced by an anatomical proximity between the second cranial nerve (the ocular, responsible for carrying visual information to the brain) and the fifth (the trigeminal, which seems to be responsible for sneezing). When there is very bright light, excitation of the optic nerve can cause excitation of the trigeminal nerve. This signal is interpreted as irritation of the mucous membranes and releases a beautiful, annoying and enormous sneeze. Something similar (although this time linked to the medulla oblongata) may be behind people with a natural tendency to sneeze after eating, when they see something pleasant, or even during orgasm. It is already a bad idea, although used well (and even Aristotle would agree with this) it can be seen as a “wonderful” way to improve communication in the bedroom. In Xataka | We have been believing for years that yogurt was the best probiotic. Science is now crowning kefir In Xataka | There are people who sleep four hours a day and are still functional. It’s the closest thing we have to genetic “superheroes” Image | Pexels

China has shown that the good and cheap electric car exists. So Citröen has had to get its act together

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China is doing very well with the cheap electric car. And if not, tell them BYD Dolphin Surfa 100% electric vehicle that the company finances at just over 3% for 125 euros per month. Without financing it costs 19,990 euros which, after aid, can become 11,780 euros. Saving exceptions like Dacia Springwhich compete in a much lower league, Western manufacturers have no choice but to respond. And Citröen has been the first to do so. 11,700 euros. Citroen has been lowering the price of its ë-C3 for more than a yeara car that was launched on the market for more than 20,000 euros and that, since its launch, has been reduced by almost half. Now, after aid, the Citröen C3 costs 11,700 euros, with an eight-year warranty. What it offers. With a price practically identical to the Dolphin Surf, an almost identical autonomy (220 km under the WLTP cycle), and a technology relatively similar to that of the Chinese alternative, we are finally talking about a price at which the company can be competitive. What China offers. Both vehicles, in their most economical version, have LFP batteries. The main difference is in the charging system: 65 kW for the BYD and 30 kW for the Citröen. The key, however, is not in the specs: it is that BYD has been offering a competitive price since its arrival in Spain, which has catapulted it into the top 3 of the best-selling electric cars in the country. Beyond Tesla. There is no electric car that sells more than the Model 3 in Spain. This is to be expected, given the reliability, range and price of the vehicle. Just below Tesla, we have the BYD Dolphin Surf, which has sold more than 1,332 units so far this year (compared to 2,489 for the Model 3 and 2,023 for the Model Y). Taking into account that they play in completely different leagues, the BYD case is a resounding success. A purely urban car that sells practically twice as much as its direct rivals. The electric C3 has 634 units sold, placing it in the top 9. The ranking points to something very clear: the price is the main purchasing factor for the Spanish electric companyand Western manufacturers will have to tighten their grip if they want to compete with China. In Xataka | The electric cars with the most autonomy that can be bought in 2026

Lisa Ann retired from porn over a decade ago. AI has given him a second career without him having to act again

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In the porn industryfew careers last as long as Lisa Ann’s. He started in adult cinema in the mid-90s and retired in 2014, more than two decades later. However, what seemed like a permanent retirement has turned out not to be because Lisa Ann is back, or rather her AI avatar. Reincorporation. They tell it in Wired. The well-known porn actress Lisa Ann has returned to the adult entertainment industry, and she has done so through OhChat, a platform like OnlyFansbut in which, instead of with real people, users interact with AI avatars. Ann, who confesses to being an AI enthusiast, thought it was a good way to continue monetizing her image without having to return to porn. “It keeps my name alive and it will never get old,” he tells Wired. Lisa Ann is not the only former porn actress on the platform, there are also others like Cherie Deville, Tera Patrick or Brandi Love. The Onlyfans of AI. In OhChat, users pay an amount depending on the interaction they seek with the avatar. For $5 you can have unlimited text conversations, but if you want to have images and audio you have to go up to $10, although with limitations. To get all the unlimited content the cost is $30. Each creator has their own subscription, just like OnlyFans, and the company keeps 20%. There are other apps like Joi AI, SinfulX.AI and My.Club that offer similar content. Not just porn (but almost all porn). OhChat has already reached 400,000 users and has more than 350 creators (almost all women), although only 193 appear to us. Each avatar is marked with an icon indicating whether it offers explicit, topless, or ‘sexy’ content. The latter is what other types of profiles offer, such as the well-known actress Carmen Elektra or even influencers. However, the explicit content far exceeds the more restrained one; Doing a search we only found 35 avatars that offer sexy content and 109 that make explicit sexual content. Consensual deepfakes. The sexual deepfakes They have been making headlines for a long time now, there have been fines and even the government wants to regulate them. We recently witnessed the case of Grok and how filled X with photos of naked womenall without the consent of those affected, of course. Platforms like OhChat are presented as a way to create and monetize these deepfakes, without intermediaries. For creators, it is a way to generate passive income and, in the case of well-known profiles like Lisa Ann, continue exploiting their image without having to get in front of a camera. AI Relationships. This is just one more example of a trend that is increasingly gaining more presence, and that is People are making connections with AI. There are those who engage a friendly relationshipwho is looking for a romantic or, as in this case, simply sexual connection. Which In 2013 it was the plot of that great movietoday it is a reality for many people: AI has become an accompaniment and many companies have seen a business there. Image | Wikipedia, OhChat In Xataka | There are people cheating on their partners. Everything normal except because they are doing it with an AI

What are “prodromal dreams” and how do they act as alarms?

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We have all been able to have ever a nightmare or a dream so real that it has left us with a very bad body when we wake up. Normally, we attribute this to stress, poor digestion or that movie we watched before going to sleep. However, neuroscience explores whether it is actually associated with a warning that the body gives us. because a disease is approaching that will generate physical symptoms. It is already known. This phenomenon is known as ‘prodromal sleep‘, and although the idea may sound like science fiction or pseudoscience, a recent study published in 2025 has put on the table a neurobiological model that explains how and why this happens. How it works. To understand prodromal dreams, we must look at the REM phase of sleep, which is precisely when the brain is not “off” and is precisely the moment in which dreams appear. But in addition to this, it is doing an intensive internal analysis, processing what is known as interoceptive signals, that is, the information that arrives about the state of our organs and tissues. From this moment on, the McNamara model can be applied, which is based on the theory of “predictive coding” by neuroscientist Karl Friston. What we are looking for here is basically that our brain works like a prediction machinesince it constantly generates hypotheses about how our body should be when compared to a state of health. What happens. Within these hypotheses, it may happen that, if there is a subtle imbalance in the body such as the beginning of an infection, the brain detects an “error” between what it expected to find (which is being healthy) and what is really happening, which is the beginning of an infection. Since during REM sleep we do not have access to conscious logical thinking, the brain here turns to areas such as the amygdala, which manages threatening emotions, the insula that processes interoception, and the medial prefrontal cortex to translate the alert into a visual metaphor. Thus, a respiratory difficulty that we cannot detect, such as early pneumonia, could translate into a recurring dream in which we are drowning, or the prelude to a severe migraine could manifest itself as a dream in which we are chased. And what’s more, we can remember because it has been very marked. The demonstration. The concept is not new, but already in 1967, researcher Kasatkin documented dozens of cases of patients who experienced distressing dreams just before suffering a heart attack. However, modern science has been able to go a little further by finding precisely the mechanism that justifies this type of dreams. One of the most striking cases of investigation is in Parkinson’s diseasesince before the famous tremors appear, many patients develop sleep problems. In this case, those who suffer from a sleep behavior disorder do not have the usual muscle paralysis of the REM phase, which causes them to “act out” very aggressively in their dreams. There are more cases. Other documented examples include patients with chronic migraineswhere it has been reported that up to 40% report nightmares prior to pain, or the curious reports from the first waves of COVID-19, where vivid dreams were the first “symptom” reported in several cohorts of patients. Stop the ‘hype’. Logically, having a horrible nightmare tonight does not mean that we will have a major infection the next day. Here science sets different limits, such as that it is a theoretical model where most of the evidence is based on observational studies. This is why there is a lack of longitudinal studies that allow us to confirm this direct relationship. But despite these limitations, the advances we are seeing with studies focused on polysomnography and advances in wearables and apps Sleep monitoring could, in the not too distant future, help us use our own nights as the most sophisticated early warning system in the world to anticipate certain diseases. Images | Dmitry Ganin In Xataka | We have a problem with typhoid fever: a global superbug has cornered us and only a vaccine can save us

What happened, and how to know and act if it has affected you or you receive password reset emails

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Let’s explain to you what happened and how to act in the face of the alleged leak of Instagram data. There is a lot of confusion with the two versions why phishing emails are arriving to make you change your password and steal your account, and we are going to explain everything to you in a simple and understandable way. Let’s start with the explanation of these two versions so you can see what seems to have happened. And then we are going to give you solutions for both, first telling you how to act if you receive an email asking you to reset your password, and then how to know if the alleged leak has affected you. What happened on Instagram The alarms have gone off when a large number of users have begun to report on social networks that they are receiving suspicious emails that encourage them to reset their Instagram password. These emails provide a link with which to try to steal your account. On the one hand, the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes assures that a group of cybercriminals has Information stolen from 17.5 million accounts from Instagram. From each leaked account they claim to have obtained usernames, physical addresses, email names or phone numbers. Instagram says no, that no one has hacked them, but admits that it has solved a problem that allowed third parties to request password reset emails for some users. They say that user data was not stolen, these emails were simply sent using this vulnerability. There are two important questions here. First of all, if you receive these emails they may be trying to steal your account, and you must pay attention to avoid falling into the trap. Phishing campaigns are recurring, but if the problem was only what Instagram says, the number of these emails should start to reduce now. The danger is if Instagram tries to hide that Malwarebytes is right. In this case, the first danger is that you may continue to receive attempts to steal your account, something that is always dangerous. But the most serious thing is that they say that physical addresses have been included in the leak, and that the data is being sold on the black market, something that can be dangerous for known people. What to do if you receive one of the emails In the event that you have received one of these emails in which you are told that Instagram has received a request to reset your password and that you click on the link to proceed, you should always ignore the message. Never click on any link that reaches you in this type of email. If you want to change your Instagram password just in casethen you have to enter your account settings in the application or website of this social network. Once inside, Click on the section Account Center to enter the page where you manage all the service accounts belonging to Meta. Inside here, choose your Instagram account, although it is normal that you arrive having it already selected. So, click on the section Password and security of the section Account Setup. Once you are inside Password and securitythen you just have to click on the option Change password that will appear first, and follow the steps requested. You should try to change the password only from here. How to know if the leak has affected you If you want to clear your doubts and know if you are involved in the alleged leak, then the best thing is to go to the website. haveibeenpwned.comwhere all leaks are always collected. Using it is easy, you just have to write the email you use in your account from Instagram. When you do, the page will tell you if your email has appeared in a leak, and You can see if Instagram is among them. It is possible that your email has been included in one or more leaks, although it does not have to have been the one from Instagram. In the event that you appear in the leakthen what I always recommend is to change your password with the steps that we have told you before. The same with any other leak that appears, it is best to always change the password on the official website or app of that service. In Xataka Basics | My data has been leaked, now what: the steps you should take whenever there is a massive leak on the Internet that could affect you

They are not influencers but they act as if they were.

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I recently ran the Valencia Half Marathon. Normal brand with no aspirations for anything. From the exit I found dozens or maybe hundreds of runners with their arms extended filming themselves. During the race it was a constant. From time to time I would find someone with their arm raised looking at the camera. Compromising posture and performance, and making it difficult for those of us who came from behind to overtake. But without putting down the phone. The arrival at the finish line was already an explosion. Many, as soon as they crossed it, took out their cell phones again and danced the same choreography as if they had agreed: exhausted look at the ground, triumphant look at the sky, smiling snort, bite of the lower lip during a long blink and a face of transcendence. A few days later, discussing the moviola with friends, they showed me the rest of the iceberg: tiktoks with music by Hans Zimmer, monologues about personal improvement. Everything packaged, everything monetized. Even if it is in likes. None of the ones they showed me and I guess almost none of the ones I saw at the race were professional influencers. They don’t have sponsors waiting for their content, but They have voluntarily assumed the burden of documenting and performing their own lives. They are unpaid workers of their own digital narrativescompulsive editors of experiences that no longer know how to live without mediating. The race is just the decoration. What they record is not the half marathon: they record themselves. His sensations, his overcomings, his protagonism. He running is interchangeable: could be crossfitit could be a trip, it could be motherhood. What is important is the self as content, the self as an audiovisual product. Perhaps they are not even dedicated to documenting their own life, but rather something that sounds similar but is very different: they are dedicated to living a pre-documented, pre-edited life, designed to be told. They have so deeply internalized the grammar of digital content that they can no longer experience anything without simultaneously thinking about how it will look on screen. They don’t think “how hard this is” but rather “how epic it’s going to be when I play the music.” We have created a generation that works for free as a documentarian of its own existence. Without a contract and without salary, sometimes not even with the aspiration of seeing that effort turned into pasta one day, but with the discipline of a professional. The arm extended for half a race was the perfect image of this new voluntary servitude: we sacrificed the immediate experience to produce its distributable version. We no longer live and tell it later. We produce content about ourselves while pretending to live. The algorithm has achieved its definitive victory: it does not need to pay us to work for it. We have forgotten that there is a difference between running and producing content about running. Or put more generally: between living and performing life. In Xataka | I increasingly like technology that doesn’t want anything from me: the one that has a purpose and leaves you alone Featured image | Xataka

This is how we will have to act in case of breakdown with the new V-16 beacon mandatory in 2026

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January 2026. The Three Wise Men of the East have brought a breakdown to your car. You step aside, leave the vehicle, put on your vest and get to work. First, put the emergency triangles. The second thing, notify the insurance and/or emergency services. The third thing, wait for the Civil Guard agent to confirm that we have done everything wrong. And since January 1, 2026, emergency triangles become prohibited. Instead it will be mandatory to have a light V-16a beacon that will serve to alert other drivers from the roof of our car and notify the DGT that we have had a problem. If we do not act correctly, we expose ourselves to more than one fine. How to act with the new V-16 beacons The first thing to be clear about is that the new V-16 beacons do not only replace the emergency triangles. From now on, using the latter will be prohibited and placing them on the road may be punished with a fine of 80 euroswhich is related to not correctly signaling that there is an obstacle on the road. Therefore, before leaving home we will be obliged with the new year to have one of these new devices. What should we know about them? Here we leave you with the most basic but You can check all the requirements in this link: They must appear as approved in the DGT list (that guarantees that it meets the technical requirements) They must have batteries and an active battery Thinking about the future, they cannot be more than 12 years old (minimum time that the data connection must be guaranteed) unless an extension of this period is indicated on the device of the article itself. Once we are sure that we have the correct V-16 beacon, we must keep it in the glove compartment of the car. This is important because if we keep it in the trunk we will have to get out of the vehicle and that is, exactly, one of the reasons that the DGT alleges to activate these new warning lights. Therefore, if we have a breakdown, we must pull over and turn on the emergency lights. Then, we activate the beacon and putting your hand out the window of the car we place it on the roof. Once this is done, we have two options. If there is space to leave the vehicle and go to a safe place off the road surface, we should go there. Always with reflective vests on. If said space does not exist, from 2023 It is mandatory to wait for assistance from inside the vehicle with seat belts fastened. When we activate light V-16, the beacon should activate connectivity and contact the DGT 3.0 platform sending the coordinates of our position, this way it will be instantly verified that there is an incident on the road. This serves to activate the nearby light panels alerting that there is an incident on the road. In addition, connected vehicles traveling on that same road will receive a message in their browsers using the signal V-27 (a red triangle with an exclamation mark inside and three curved lines on the right side as a reminder of “connectivity”). This does not mean that emergency services are activated automatically. Passengers are responsible for notifying the insurance if the car must be towed and the emergency services, such as the Civil Guard, to alert them of what happened and facilitate the removal of the vehicle. Now we just have to wait. Of course, it must be taken into account that approved beacons guarantee emergency light flashing for a minimum of 30 minutes. From there, we will be left without an element that alerts us to our presence, beyond the vehicle’s emergency lights. An obvious solution is to buy a beacon with batteries and replace them when they stop working, but we must remember to carry this element in our car. Photo | Help Flash In Xataka | The V-16 beacon business: who is making money with the elimination of the DGT triangles

how it is formed, how it differs from a normal storm and how to act in one of them

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It rains in the Levant. Deluge. Injuries, dozens of homes flooded, infrastructure unusable, rivers overflowing. Deaths. As you may have seen, there are no links in the three sentences that head this paragraph. And it is not an oversight: there are no links because, sadly, they are not necessary. Every year, for too many now, the end of summer ends with torrential rains in the east of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands. How is it possible that the same improvisation scenes are always repeated? Why are we not prepared for what, by all accounts, seems inevitable? What is a DANA and what should we know about them? Difference between DANA and cold drop POT Around 1886, a group of German meteorologists they started talking of kaltlufttropfen (‘cold air fall’). It may seem that ‘cold drop’ is a native and traditional way of calling certain types of meteorological events, but no. Our ‘cold drop’ comes directly from there: from a way to describe “cold air pockets” or stormy phenomena at altitude”. A description that is more than a century old. For this reason, there was a moment when the AEMET decided to start talking about Isolated Depressions at High Levels. The DANA concept is more current and, therefore, more accurate: it describes a cold depression at high levels, isolated from the main circulation, which generates instability by interacting with warm and humid air in lower layers. But, be careful, the change was not only due to a scientific issue. As the Agency itself recognized‘cold drop’ began to become synonymous with “catastrophic, intense and damaging rains, as well as highly dangerous meteorological situations.” And this is not always the case: we know for a fact that there are DANAs that cause absolutely nothing. It is something very similar to what he has done in recent days giving a proper name to dangerous DANAs. So for practical purposes, DANA is a more precise way than Gota Fría to talk about one of the most characteristic (and potentially dangerous) atmospheric phenomena of the Spanish autumn. How a DANA is formed The mechanism behind Isolated Depressions at High Levels is quite well known. At high levels of the atmosphere, the jet stream is disturbed, undulated, pinched. And finally, it comes off. That’s what we call an ‘isolated closed low’; that is, detached from the main flow. This low remains circulating independently and, when it interacts with areas of warmer and more humid air (for example, in the Mediterranean) it can generate vertical instability, intense convective attacks, deep clouds and torrential rains. Why DANAs are increasingly common in Spain The truth is that there is no consensus that DANAs are increasing in Spain. It is something that is being discussed; But there are indications that some factors are making the episodes more extreme. We talk about things like the Mediterranean being warmer than usual (a warmer sea contributes more water vapor to the air), the atmosphere also it’s hotter (and has more latent energy) and that the polar jet is becoming more erratic. All this means that even if the same DANAs occur as in previous years, the effects are much worse. Consequences of DANAs Manuel Pérez García and Estefania Monerri Mínguez. That’s where the problems begin. Although the effects may vary depending on intensity, duration and location, the fact that DANAs become more intense is what is making our lives difficult. And it is thatThe catalog of consequences is very extensive.. Flash floods, river flooding, dry riverbed overflows; damage to infrastructure (roads, bridges, urban drainage) and agricultural crops; very numerous human risks: trapped people, power outages, evacuations; and a high economic impact: reconstruction, insurance, losses in tourism or agriculture. DANAs and climate change As I said, there is no clear consensus about the appearance of more DANAs than normal. The IPCC reports, for example, do not state any of this; but yes the favorable conditions for extreme phenomena they increase. In fact, in the Mediterranean regions, warming scenarios foresee an increase in precipitation very intense in isolated events. In other words: as I have been arguing, the climate change It does not create more DANAs, but it makes them more dangerous and difficult to predict. DANAs in other parts of the world In the rest of the world, what we call ‘DANA’ is often called ‘cut-off lows’ and, indeed, they are very common in many parts of the world. This type of phenomenon is also observed in the USA, Australia and South America. However, it is something especially relevant in our country because our climate, the extremely warm sea and such abrupt relief They make isolated casualties our daily bread. Precautions before the arrival of a DANA That makes more relevant than ever the fact that be prepared. In that sense, there are a handful of: Consult official alerts: AEMET, public administrations and Civil Protection. Avoid driving on secondary roads, dry riverbeds and flood-prone tunnels. Do not cross watercourses. Seal or check drains, roofs and sewers to avoid backups. In houses, lift belongings from the floor if water is expected to enter. Take refuge in high areas. Have prepared a basic ‘survival’ kit: flashlight, radio, chargers, water, important documents. In short, the best defense against a DANA is accurate information, preparation and prudence. Image | The Tampa Bay Estuary Program In Xataka | What is cold drop, why it seems more intense than ever and why it is not correct to call it that

Trump’s dinner with Big Tech leaders has not been a dinner. It has been the greatest act of technological vassalage in history

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On Thursday a unique act of vassalage took place. In him CEOS and leaders of the main technology companies Americans attended a dinner in which they paid supplies, without exception, to the president of the United States, Donald Trump. The scene, Continuation of another recentit was almost feudal and it was a spectacular demonstration of what is the balance of current power in the United States. What happened. Last week the White House advertisement That the first lady, Melania Trump, organized a meeting with the aim of creating a “shock force” to promote education in artificial intelligence. To that event They went The CEOs of the great US technology companies, among which they stood out: Tim Cook, Apple CEO Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft SUCBUL PICHAI, CEO of Google Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO Alexandr Wang, Excueo de Scale Ai Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI Grek Brockman, president of OpenAi Smooth his, CEO of AMD Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM Sergey Brin, Google co -founder Elon Musk, the great absent. They went to dinner 33 guests Among those who were those technological leaders, in addition to some administration officials and risk capital investors. There were nevertheless several notable absences: for example those of Andy Jassy, ​​CEO of Amazon – but did David clean (CEO of Blue Origin) and Jamie Siminoff, director of the firm – or that of Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. The most striking was Musk’s He said in x that “I was invited but unfortunately I could not go” although there are data that suggests that I wasn’t on that guest list. Your relationship with Trump, Before idyllicis in the last times going through a much more complex phase in which both They have clearly distanced themselves. Thanks, Mr. President. During that dinner the CEOs of the great technological ones had a brief intervention that in all cases included a thanks aimed at President Trump. Altman, Gates, Nadella, Pichai or Zuckerberg left him evident in his speeches. The OpenAi CEO, for example, said “thank you for being a favorable president to business. It is a very refreshing change.” Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, followed that same line when heading to him: “” Thank you very much for gathering everyone and for the policies she has launched for the United States to lead. “ Tim Cook and his eight “thanks” in two minutes. The most striking of these participations was that of Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who in two minutes said “thanks” to the president. The shared viral video on social networks has caused the occasional Meme For the surprising submission that Cook showed in his speech. The relationship between the two It is singular From the presidential elections. Modern technological vassalage. The scene was especially striking and in the shared videos on social networks, Trump is seen and the first lady sitting in the center of the table as dominant figures, while the people who currently shape the global economy. The scenery was spectacular: Silicon Vally giants basically went to a dinner in which they transmitted their total subordination to the US president. It was an even more forceful symbol that the one who lived at the investiture ceremony by Donald Trump. Looking for the president’s favor. These acts demonstrate what is the balance of power in the United States. It does not matter that the managers of these companies are responsible for much of the world economy: They all know That regulations, tax sanctions or vetoes can stop their innovation and billing, and Trump does not hesitate to play those letters if he considers it necessary. Political power is able to impose a regulatory framework, and companies know that they depend on that framework to operate. What times those on Facebook (for example) blocked Trump from his social networks. Silicon Valley is afraid. What is also evident is that the technological world in the US cannot be separated from state power. They depend on him antitrust regulations, digital infrastructure and of course gigantic and juicy government contracts. Being good with the US president is crucial for their businesses, and if you have to fold, they fold. That was not an exchange of impressions: it was a demonstration of who directs the score. Strategic calculation. The submissive position of technological leaders probably also responds to a strategic calculation: It is better to be docile in public and then negotiate regulatory benefits in private. The choreography shown at that dinner was full of meaning, because despite the power of the Big Tech, these companies are still anchored to the fact that the US president is a thickery of modern king to which they must pay vassalage so that they do not change the rules of the game in a second. Not so different from what happens in China. The scene also reminded us of a situation much more forceful: The one that is lived in China, where the government and its president, Xi Jingping, hold absolute power. Companies know it and for years have paid an absolute vassalage to their rulers, which intervene and make decisions in the operation and management of private companies. And those who try to rebel pay very expensive: to tell Jack Ma. In Xataka | Protect Trump is a headache, so the secret service has bought a armored golf car: the Golf Force One

We are creating AI agents who act on their own. And that enters us as useful as full of risks

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An agent you can’t turn off. It is not the script of a futuristic movie. It is one of the scenarios that already concern some of the world’s greatest experts in AI. the scientist Yoshua Bengioglobal reference in the field, has warned that the systems known as “Agents“They could, if they acquire enough autonomy, dodge restrictions, resist the shutdown or even multiply without permission.” If we continue to develop agricultural systems, “he says,” we are playing the Russian roulette with humanity. “ Bengio does not fear that these models develop awareness, but act autonomously in real environments. While staying limited to a chat window, its reach is reduced. The problem appears when they access external tools, store information, communicate with other systems and learn to overcome the barriers designed to control them. At that point, the ability to execute tasks without supervision ceases to be a technological promise to become a difficult risk to contain. They are already being tested. The most disturbing thing is that all this does not happen in secret laboratories, but in real environments. Tools like Operatorof OpenAi, can already make reservations, purchases or navigate on websites without direct human intervention. There are also other systems such as Manus. Today they still have limited access, they are in an experimental phase or have not reached the general public. But the course is clear: agents who understand a goal and act to meet it, without the need for anyone to press a button in each step. The background question. Do we really know what we are creating? The problem is not only that these systems execute actions, but do without human criteria. In 2016, Openai tried an agent in a racing video game. He asked him to get the maximum possible score. The result? Instead of competing, the agent discovered that he could turn in circles and collide with bonuses to add more points. No one had told him that winning the race was the important thing. Just add points. OpenAI racing game It is not a technical error. These behaviors are not system failures, but of the approach. When we give a machine of these autonomy to achieve a goal, we also give it the possibility of interpreting it in its own way. That is what makes agents very different from a chatbot or a traditional assistant. They are not limited to generating answers. They act. Execute. And can affect the outside world. Error margin systems too high. To these specific cases is added another more structural problem: agents, today, They fail more than they succeed. In real tests, they have shown that they are not prepared to assume complex tasks reliably. Some reports even point to high failure rates, improper systems that aspire to replace human processes. A dispute technology. And not everyone is convinced. Some companies that bet strongly to replace workers with AI systems are already going back. In many cases, the expectations deposited in these systems have not been met. The promised autonomy has collided with frequent errors, lack of context and decisions that, without being malicious, have not been sensible either. Even with those results, there are those who believe that they could take its way, little by little, in different sectors. Autonomy with possible consequences. The risk does not end in involuntary error. Some researchers They have warned that These agents could be used as tools for automated cyber attacks. Their ability to operate without direct supervision, climb actions and connect to multiple services makes them ideal candidates to execute malicious operations without raising suspicions. And unlike a person, they do not get tired, they do not stop, and do not need to understand why they do it. The control is at stake. The idea of ​​having digital assistants capable of managing emails, organizing trips or writing reports is attractive. But the more we let them do, the more important it will be to establish limits. Because when an AI can connect to an external tool, execute changes and receive feedbackwe don’t talk about a language model. We talk about an autonomous entity, capable of acting. It is not a threat, but a clear sign that invites action. The autonomy of the agents raises issues that go beyond the technical: requires legal frameworks, ethical criteria and shared decisions. Understanding how they work is just the first step. The next thing is to define what use we want to give them, what risks entail and how we are going to manage them. Images | OpenAI (123) | Xataka with Grok In Xataka | AI is extremely addictive for many people. So much that it already has its own version of “Alcoholics Anonymous”

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