betting

Meta hit it big, betting everything on the metaverse. Now they have a Schrödinger metaverse

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We often see large companies change the design of their logos. They do it to maintain consistency with the product they are promoting at that moment, but the logo is one thing and the name and the entire brand are another. Facebook fearlessly jumped into the pool in October 2021 changing its name to Metaof ‘metaverse‘. After lose tens of billions and with the metaverse buried, Meta confirmed the inevitable: it will close the Horizon Worlds platform this year. But there is a twist: after announcing the closure, they now say that they will keep it alive for a while longer. How much? Mystery. In short. One of the most iconic moments of the technology presentations was when, in a packed room, Mark Zuckerberg walked between rows of journalists wearing a Quest helmet. The metaverse had arrived, or so Zuckerberg wanted. Years later, the reality is very different from future they hoped for Facebook Goalbut the name change had already been done and had to be accepted. ‘Horizon Worlds’ was the platform on which we could lead a second life, one that nor the employees of the Meta itself they used. To the metaverse he was doing badly, extremely badand Meta tried to make it stick in every possible way taking it to mobile and integrating it with Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Meta announced the plan as one to bring the metaverse everywherebut a few hours ago, Meta took the final step: he announced that on June 15 he would close ‘Horizon Worlds’ in the Quest helmets. Lowering the blind. Although the metaverse is everywhere, it is evident that the most natural way to access it is through virtual reality. However, it is clear that they are not going the way they would have liked and, in a release On Discord, the company confirmed that virtual worlds could no longer be created, published, or accessed in VR after that date. It was announced that the closure would be carried out in stages, killing applications from the Quest store starting on March 31 so that no more users can join, culminating with the definitive closure of the VR worlds on June 15. In the announcement, Meta confirmed that ‘Horizon Worlds’ will, from now on, be a mobile-only app. It seemed like the culmination of a process that, apart from burning money, has led Meta to lay off hundreds of workers and hit a 30% blow to the budget of the Reality Labs division. Schrödinger’s metaverse. But it is clear that those who are still in the metaverse did not like the news at all, to the point that Meta has had to come out to clarify the message… and back away. Although they have done it in a curious way. In a question session on Instagram, the company’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, came to the fore to comment that the dead man is very much alive, that they have thought better of it and that ‘Horizon Worlds’ will remain in VR for “the near future.” The statements are as follows: “The ‘Horizon Unity Runtime’ games do not work on mobile, only in VR, and we will not be introducing new games. Again, most of our strategy is aimed at mobile, but people who already have games they like will be able to download the ‘Horizon Worlds’ app and use it in VR in the near future.” In the units of measurement, “near future” is not that it is very concrete, but at least it seems that they do not kill it yet due to, according to Bosworth, showing support “to the fans who have contacted us.” He has commented on it in stories (something that, conveniently, will be deleted), but here is the video: Other type of glasses. Come on, where I said I say, I say Diego and the Quest metaverse will continue to live for a while longer. As a user, I wouldn’t throw my hat in the ring because it’s clear that they are planning a closure sooner rather than later, but it is always good news that they have listened to those who continue using the platform. Because the Quest, beyond ‘Horizon World’, is an extremely interesting headset for playing and consuming content, but Meta has been betting on another type of glasses for some time. There are the Ray-Ban Meta, “normal” glasses that are used not to consume, but to create. Already in 2024 we said that Meta was giving a flip from your VR glasses to your everyday glasses because the Ray-Ban Meta is not only a tool for content creators and anyone who wants to record their daily lives: it is a device through which Meta can distribute its AI. And an extremely controversial one, based on what we now know about Where can the images we record end up? with those glasses. And AI, of course. Because if years ago it was the metaverse, now Meta’s obsession is AI. The company is focusing on this technology in which it is not very well positioned. They focused a lot on preparing and presenting very good models, but not very consumer friendly and it was the big loser of the AI ​​race last year. Their change in strategy seeks to gain a foothold in a segment in which they are already ChatGPT, Grok, Claude or the chineseand for this it has a double strategy. On the one handa super team of AI stars whose machine will have to start working at some point. On the other hand, a collaboration with NVIDIA and another with AMD to train the AI, as well as the development of own chips for inference. There is 135 billion dollars at stakean investment in one year that exceeds the total of the Metaverse and that indicates why it is logical for Meta to abandon anything that does not work for him in the slightest right now in order to allocate all possible resources to pursue the new objective. Images | Goal … Read more

Spain is betting its future in the semiconductor industry on a single card: gallium chips

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SPARC Foundry is one of the best assets that Spain can cling to to get on a train, that of semiconductors, currently guided with a firm hand by USA, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan. This Galician company, however, does not pursue producing silicon chips. In this area, competing with the five powers I just mentioned is essentially impossible. SPARC’s plan involves building a manufacturing factory in the Valadares Technology Park, in Vigo. next generation photonic semiconductors. The interesting thing is that these chips will not be silicon; They will be manufactured using gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP) or gallium nitride (GaN), and will most likely have a leading role in the telecommunications, defense, automotive, consumer electronics, quantum computing or the aerospace industry. Be that as it may, SPARC will not tackle the GIGaNTE project alone. Indra leads it with a 37% stake in SPARC Foundrywhich places the latter group as the majority partner of the company specialized in the production of chips. According to SPARC and Indra, the Vigo semiconductor plant will be operational during the first half of 2027 and will have the capacity to manufacture up to 20,000 wafers per year when it is able to work at full capacity. An interesting note: GIGaNTE, the name of this project, has been designed around the chemical formula of gallium nitride (GaN). Gallium aspires to be the protagonist of the next generation of chips Photonic integrated circuits use photons to process and transmit information. Photons are the elementary particles responsible for forms of electromagnetic radiation, including the manifestation of visible light. They have no mass and are capable of traveling in a vacuum at a constant speed: the speed of light. However, something worth not overlooking is that although we are referring to them as particles, they also manifest as waves, hence the existence of the quantum phenomenon known as ‘wave-particle duality’ to identify the wave nature of light. Although, as we have seen, SPARC will produce photonic chips, the core of its business will revolve around gallium arsenide and gallium nitride. Unlike silicon, They are not elementary semiconductors. And they are not because the latter are characterized by being made up of a single chemical element, while gallium arsenide (GaAs) is composed of gallium (Ga) and arsenic (As), and gallium nitride (GaN) is composed of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). SPARC is going to produce photonic chips and the core of its business will revolve around gallium arsenide and gallium nitride The term semiconductor is appearing many times in this article, so it is a good idea that we review what it is about before moving forward. A semiconductor is an element or compound that, under certain conditions of pressure, temperature, or when exposed to radiation or an electromagnetic field, behaves like a conductor, and, therefore, offers little resistance to the movement of electrical charges. And when it is found in other different conditions it behaves like an insulator. In this last state it offers great resistance to the displacement of electrical charges. In elements with electrical conduction capacity, some of the electrons in their atoms, known as free electrons, can pass from one atom to another when we apply a potential difference at the ends of the conductor. Precisely, this electron displacement capacity is what we know as electric currentand we all know intuitively that metals are good conductors of electricity. Curiously, they are because they have many free electrons that can move from one atom to another and, thus, they manage to transport the electrical charge. Gallium nitride and gallium arsenide are semiconductors, and this implies that under certain circumstances they are capable of transporting electrical charge. When the appropriate conditions exist, the mobility of its electrons is much greater than in semiconductors such as silicon or germanium. And this means that its capacity to transport electrical charge is also superior. Another very interesting property of these compounds is their high saturation rate. It is not necessary for us to delve into this parameter to the point of excessively complicating the article, but it is interesting that we know that it reflects the maximum speed at which electrons can move. through the crystal structure of these compounds. This maximum speed is limited by the dispersion suffered by the electrons during their movement. Gallium arsenide transistors can work at frequencies above 250 GHz This property has very important repercussions. One of them is that gallium arsenide transistors can work at frequencies above 250 GHz, which is a quite impressive figure. In addition, they are relatively immune to overheating and produce less noise in electronic circuits than silicon devices, especially when it is necessary to work at high frequencies. On the other hand, gallium nitride can work at very high voltages and reach extreme temperatures without its performance or stability being compromised. Besides, allows manufacturing compact and efficient transformers Because it dissipates little energy in the form of heat, it will most likely play a fundamental role in the charging infrastructure of electric cars and base stations for 5G communications. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | SPARC Foundry In Xataka | Spain steps on the accelerator in its particular chip race. And it does so with a total commitment to integrated photonics

All Big Tech are betting the money they have and the money they don’t have on the future of AI. All but one: Apple

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650 billion dollars. There it is nothing. That is the total amount that Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are going to invest in data centers for AI. That amount of money is astonishing and is similar to the current GDP of countries like Argentina or Israel. But the curious thing is not only that: there is a Big Tech that is totally ignoring this fever to spend on AI as if there were no tomorrow. Apple against the current. The company led by Tim Cook is the only one of the group of large technology companies whose capex (planned capital expenditure) was reduced last quarter. Based on FactSet data compiled by SherwoodApple’s forecasts for that quarter were not to spend more, but attention, spend (quite a bit) less. The numbers don’t lie. According to the data provided by these companies, Amazon expects that in 2026 its capex reaches up to 200,000 million dollars. Google wants to go from 175,000 to 185,000 million. Meta estimates that the expense will be between 115,000 and the 135,000 million. And although Microsoft did not give a specific figure, it surely exceeds the $114 billion estimated by Wall Street. And Apple? Apple will not spend more, but 19% according to its latest estimates: about $12.7 billion. Amazon: +42% YoY (vs. previous year) Microsoft: +89% YoY Google: +95% YoY Goal: +48% YoY Apple: -19% YoY Cupertino goes from AI. While its competitors spent record sums last quarter (which ended December 31) on the purchase of material and properties linked to the AI ​​sector and data centers, Apple continues not to invest in this sector. It is something that makes it clear that the company seems to have definitively decided that this is not its war. Siri+Gemini is the best test. Confirmation of that “surrender” is in the recent announcement that Gemini will be the AI ​​on which the new version of Siri will be based. Apple’s new AI assistant is expected to hit the market this spring with at least some initial features, but the fact that it does so depends entirely on Google’s AI model makes it clear that Apple here prefers to delegate rather than invest to have its own foundational model. AI will be a commodity. Instead of participating in this costly war of language models, Apple is clear that AI is going to end up being a commodity, something that is going to become a basic standard technology like the PC, mobile phone or laptop is now. Model prices plummet as the capacity of those models grows, and benchmarks make it clear that no model is better than another for long. Apple as a gateway to AI. As usual, what Apple will do is take advantage of the fact that has the “gateway to AI. With 2.4 billion devices worldwide, it controls the most valuable distribution channel on the planet. It has the luxury of not making “the engine,” but rather acting as an avenue to bring AI to the masses. Here agreements like the one it has completed with Google are just the beginning. It doesn’t matter being late. It is something that is in the company’s DNA. He also did not want to fight the search engine battle, but it did not matter: he reached an agreement with Google, which has paid him billions of dollars for years to be able to put its search engine as the default engine on iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple prefers that others pave the way and absorb the costs of early learning. Then she usually arrives with superior integration and a refined experience (iPod, iPhone) or directly with deals like the one she completed in the search engine space. AI will be invisible and ubiquitous. Apple’s goal doesn’t seem to be to offer its own chatbot on the web, but to make AI invisible and ubiquitous. It doesn’t matter which model runs behind it, but simply that this AI works transparently for the user. And it does so, of course, seamlessly integrated into Apple services and applications. Privacy by flag. And of course, with that vaunted commitment to privacy that Apple always boasts of. Its Private Cloud Compute is the best proof of this. By not relying on advertising (hello Google, hello OpenAI), it is able to offer advanced features without collecting massive data from users. But there is risk. Still, the strategy has a critical risk: if AI models become a commodity and end up creating technological monopolies, Apple could be permanently at the mercy of its suppliers. If these competitive advantages end up being consolidated in the model layer – the one controlled by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google – and not in the integration layer – which is Apple’s – the dependence on third parties will be a dangerous strategic weakness. Room for maneuver. Apple has annual benefits close to 100 billion dollars, which gives it an enviable financial position to wait for this “hype” cycle to cool down. It is clear that there is an AI bubble and that bubble will probably end up exploding and leaving many victims. If it does, one of those that will undoubtedly have room to maneuver to survive will be Apple. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | China does not have a spending problem with AI. What it has is a huge income gap compared to its main rival

He is 82 years old and has earned 746% betting on a mine that doesn’t even work

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Canadian Eric Sprott has multiplied his investment in Hycroft Mining by eight thanks to the precious metals boom. And its stake is now worth more than $2.1 billion, despite the fact that the mine has not been operating for years. Numbers. Sprott is a veteran investor commonly recognized as the “gold magnate.” In 2022 it invested $28 million in Hycroft Mining. Today its participation exceeds 2.1 billion dollars, having achieved a profitability of 746%. The company’s shares have soared more than 425% in the last two months and have accumulated a rise of more than 1,500% since the tycoon began to expand his position last summer. A mine that does not mine. Hycroft owns an open pit deposit in northern Nevada that has been operational since the 1980s, but the company has not mined gold since 2021. Instead, it reprocesses previously mined ore that remains on the surface. Most of its reserves are underground and the company lacks a defined plan to resume mining operations. In fact, it has not generated income since 2022, when it had a turnover of just $33 million, according to data from Bloomberg. Gold and silver rally. Hycroft operates as if it were “a huge underground ETF,” according to defined Brian Quast, precious metals analyst at Bank of Montreal. Gold and silver prices have reached all-time highs over the last year, and investors are looking for any way to get exposure to this rally. Even if the mine is not operating, its reserves gain value with each rise in prices. Sprott has been defending investment in gold and silver for decades, and this bet has placed him among the few billionaires who have been able to capitalize on the current boom. From almost bankruptcy to stock market stardom. Just like account Bloomberg, Sprott’s initial investment came as Hycroft was close to insolvency. Together with AMC Entertainment, which had plenty of liquidity after the meme stock phenomenon, the Canadian ended up saving the company from its creditors with this investment. The announcement skyrocketed the shares almost 100% in the premarket, although the enthusiasm did not last long, as by the end of 2022 the value had fallen below half the entry price. Sprott sold a fifth of his position, barely recovering his investment. For three years, his bet remained stagnant while the price of gold rose without stocks following suit. Searching results. Last summer, Sprott changed strategy. Between June and January it has invested an additional $187 million to almost double its stake to exceed 40% of Hycroft’s capital. “I am doing everything possible to expand my position to the maximum,” declared in October to Tony Denaro, content creator dedicated to finance. Their move coincided with new drilling results that identified higher-quality silver deposits than expected and areas with expansion potential. AMC stared. The other major investor, who rode the wave with Sprott in 2022, was the AMC cinema chain, although it did not suffer the same fate. In December, when his Hycroft shares finally turned positive after years of losses, he sold 80% of his stake to Sprott for $24 million. Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, justified the operation ensuring that it was “the right time to monetize and reallocate capital” to its core business. Two months later, that block of shares is worth $172 million. The gold fortune. Although precious metals are on the rise, few big fortunes have been able to take advantage of the boom. According to the report UBS Global Family Offices 2025, these types of asset structures barely allocate 2% on average to precious metals. Only a few investors like Sprott or Hong Kong’s Cheah Cheng Hye have bet heavily, as share Bloomberg. For Sprott, Hycroft’s spotty track record is precisely its biggest draw, because as gold and silver prices rise, the likelihood increases that reprocessing will become increasingly profitable, opening up more possibilities for monetizing underground reserves. “You cannot find a more leveraged and significant reward,” said the investor. in the interview with Denaro. Cover image | Palisades Gold Radio and Leonie Clough In Xataka | Seven of the ten largest fortunes in the world in 2026 are due to AI: this illustrative graph makes it very clear

Time magazine decided that “the architects of AI” were ‘Person of the Year’. And chaos broke out in the betting houses

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‘Time’ magazine has named ‘Person of the Year’, its traditional editorial recognition of the most relevant people of the year, to the “Architects of AI”. The topic is sensitive and controversial, and has unleashed opinions for and against the election. But it has also unleashed a parallel and unexpected tidal wave: people losing small fortunes at betting houses because of this Time decision. Beings of the year. When ‘Time’ revealed on December 11 that “AI Architects” (and not simply “AI”) would be its “Person of the Year 2025”, betting platforms Polymarket and Kalshi were plunged into absolute chaos. More than $75 million was left hanging over semantic disputes over what exactly constitutes a “person.” We are not going to go into the legitimacy of that decision or the technical quality of the cover assembly, but we can comment on how The cover effect among betting professionals brings to the table some characteristics of unregulated speculative markets that convert cultural events into casino chips. The collapse of betting. The users of Polymarket who invested more than $6 million betting on “AI” as the winner discovered that its interpretation did not match the platform’s rules. The final decision established that the title “Architects of AI” was not equivalent to designating artificial intelligence as such, giving thousands of bets as losers. The distinction was crucial: Naming those who build the technology differs radically from crowning the technology itself. In KalshiHowever, bets on individual executives (Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, Dario Amodei, Lisa Su and Demis Hassabis) were winners, while those who bet on corporate entities such as “ChatGPT” or “OpenAI” lost. Polymarket had more restrictive rules: betting specifically on “Jensen Huang” was a losing option, validating only the generic “Other” option. Polymarket cited an illustrative precedent: if ‘Time’ awarded “Donald Trump and the MAGA movement,” bets on Trump would win; but if the title were just “The MAGA Movement,” Trump would be excluded even if he was on the cover. Other Polymarket controversies. This scandal adds to a series of episodes that question the integrity of Polymarket. In November 2024, an unauthorized modification to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) maps temporarily showed a Russian advance on the Ukrainian city of Myrnohrad. The change allowed bettors to earn returns of up to 33,000% before ISW admitted to fraudulent editing and fire the responsible geospatial specialist. weeks latersomeone identified as AlphaRaccoon generated profits of $1.15 million by betting with suspicious accuracy on the results of the 2025 ‘Google Year in Search’. Meta engineer Haeju Jeong documented on social media that the bettor had gotten 22 of 23 predictions right, including that singer d4vd (with just 0.2% probability) would top the searches. the same user had previously won $150,000 predicting the exact launch of Gemini 3.0, which fueled accusations of privileged access to Google information. Semantic controversy. And another one from Polymarket, which got into define whether President Zelensky had worn a suit at the NATO summit in the summer of 2024. Despite more than forty global media describing his outfit as a formal suit, the resolution protocol UMA (a decentralized oracle on Ethereum that verifies real-world data for blockchain applications) ruled “No” in a series of bets that moved $242 million. Numerous media They talked about large holders of UMA tokens manipulating the result through coordinated voting. Person of the Year, or whatever. Time magazine has been deliberately stretching the definition of “person” for decades, setting precedents that preempted this year’s confusion. In 1982 he chose “The Computer” under the title “Machine of the Year”, while 1988 crowned “The Endangered Earth” as “Planet of the Year”. The 2006 edition generated controversy by awarding an indeterminate “You”, referring to all users of digital content. “The Silence Breakers” of the #MeToo movement (2017) and “US Scientists” (1960) are other examples of award-winning collective entities. In Xataka | Five years ago he worked from his bathroom on the brink of ruin. Today he runs a company valued at 8 billion

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t care to lose $ 200,000 million in AI. The real risk would not be betting on it, ensures

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“We are going to invest aggressively. Even if we lost a couple of hundreds of billions of dollars it would be an annoyancebut it is better than being left behind in the race for superintelligence. “Those words recently pronounced Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO. The founder of Facebook does not tend to shake his hand when making risky technological bets. He already knows what it is to lose them: Metaverso is being a failure for the moment, but even if he does not seem to want to leave that bet. The company continues to invest in it even though It is estimated which has already lost 45,000 million dollars in that project. But for him the commitment to AI, although it seems exorbitant, is almost mandatory strategically. In the interview In the Podcast Access The Meta CEO explained how In fact the Risk for a company as a goal would not be aggressive enough. In the recent Trump dinner With the great leaders of the technological segment in the US, Zuckerberg promised to invest at least 600,000 million dollars in the United States until 2028. Analysts believe that The numbers do not fit: It is estimated that Meta will invest about 80,000 million dollars in the US in the second half of 2025 (including all its expenses). That would make it necessary that from 2026 to 2028 he spent 520,000 million, but experts do not see it feasible and some They think than these comments They are more business marketing than anything else. But what is true is that both goal and other large technology companies are investing extraordinary amounts of money in this field. We already saw that Capex’s forecasts of some of them are huge in 2025 due to that commitment to AI data centers: Amazon: 100,000 Millions of dollars Microsoft: 80,000 Millions of dollars Google: 75,000 Millions of dollars Goal: 65,000 Millions of dollars Apple: 12,000 Millions of dollars Thus, Mark Zuckerberg is not too frightened to lose 200,000 million dollars in AI, but he also knows what is something like that. In April 2024 their financial results were so disastrous That their shares suddenly 19%, which was equivalent precisely to a drop in the stock market capitalization of 200,000 million dollars. Of course, Meta recovered. In that downturn the goal shares were just 500 dollars. Today and a half later, they are at maximum, $ 778. The company has stumbled in the past, but Zuckerberg has risen again and again AI bubble: “I think there is definitely the possibility, at least empirically, based on large infrastructure constructions of the past and how they led to bubbles.” And even so, Zuckerberg is clear that this is a critical moment for this technology and it is better to bet on the big not to do it and lose. For him going too slow can make you lose a privilege position, and that would be fatal because according to him “it will be the most important technology that will allow the greatest number of new products, innovation and creation of value in history.” In Xataka | Big Tech have buried thousands and billions in AI. They are earning money, but not thanks to the AI

While Europe fights with its rules on AI, the US is betting on the contrary: an unprecedented normative relaxation

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The AI is already redefining our relationship with technology, but is also redrawing the spheres of power in the world. United States and Europe They say they are committed to their development, but they are doing it from very different places. The most recognized companies in this area are Americans: Google, Openai, Microsoft, Amazon. Europe has some outstanding startups, such as Mistral or the Spanish Freepik. Now, while the EU cautious applies its ambitious regulation of AIThe United States presents a plan that goes right in the opposite direction. Washington draws its path: less rules, more speed He “Ai action plan“Presented by the White House is, above all, a declaration of intentions. More than 90 measures grouped into three pillars – innovation, infrastructure and international leadership – that draw a road map for the United States to win the AI race. The keyword, throughout the document, is speed. {“videoid”: “x8jpy2b”, “Autoplay”: fals, “title”: “What is behind it like chatgpt, dall-e or midjourney? | artificial intelligence”, “tag”: “Webedia-prod”, “Duration”: “1173”} The Trump administration not only wants to boost the development of new AI models, wants to do it by eliminating obstacles. Federal agencies will review their own regulations to withdraw those considered “onerous” for innovation. And the export of technology with complete packages – scrub, software, models, applications – designed for strategic allies will be facilitated. To all that is added an impulse to the infrastructure that had already taken its first steps: Relax permissions for data centers and chips factories, enable federal soil, modernize the electricity grid and form technical labor (electricians, air conditioning technicians, maintenance). The message is clear: less bureaucracy, more investment, but also more Washington influence. While Washington Dregula, Brussels regulates The European Union It was the first great power to raise comprehensive legislation on AIwith the objective of guaranteeing transparency, security and respect for fundamental rights. AI ACT entered into force on August 1, 2024. The prohibitions and literacy obligations in AI began to be applied on February 2, 2025; The rules for general purpose models will do so on August 2, 2025; And the obligations for high -risk systems will arrive on August 2, 2026 (some will extend until 2027). The regulation is ambitious: it establishes risk categories, it limits uses such as mass facial recognition and demands strict controls for the most advanced models. In addition, it has introduced a code of voluntary practice to advance part of these demands. Goal has publicly refused to sign the documentincluding a series of criticisms of the position that the community block has adopted. To that rejection are added internal pressures: a group of large European companies – among them Airbus, Lufthansa, Asml, Totalenergies or Mistral–They asked Brussels at the beginning of this pause or simplify the application of the regulation. From the commission, for now, they insist on maintaining the planned calendar.     Criticism from both sides Neither the American nor the European strategy are exempt from criticism. Both generate tensions, doubts and warnings from different fronts. In the United States, the deregulator approach has generated a wave of reproaches. The plan talks about maintaining global technological dominance through deregulation, infrastructure and alliances. For many, That is a clear bias in favor of great technological. JB Branch, by Public Citizen, denounced that the plan It is in practice a favor treatment of Silicon Valley. More than 90 organizations launched the “People’s ai Action Plan“As a counterpart, accusing the White House of prioritizing corporate interests on social welfare.” The plan is written by and for those who want to use AI about us, not with us, ” They said Sarah Myers West and Amba Kak, from the AI Now Institute. In Xataka We thought the Antispam law had not served at all. The responsible companies are already being fine Europe, meanwhile, deal with its own problems. European startups and multinationals claim more margin to compete without normative ballast United States and China. The balance between promoting innovation and guaranteeing control remains far. Images | Xataka with Gemini Flash 2.5 | Igor Omilaev In Xataka | Google’s summaries are reducing clicks to half. And that only points in one address: the collapse (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news While Europe fights with its rules on AI, the US is betting on the contrary: an unprecedented normative relaxation It was originally posted in Xataka by Javier Marquez .

In his career against the United States, China is betting on something different: an artificial intelligence “personified”

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The AI ​​race has two main actors: the United States and China. Although at first it seemed unattainable, China already steps on Americans as far as quality is concerned and advanced by leaps and bounds in areas necessary for its development such as energy. China has another ace in the sleeve: the personified. Two ways of seeing the AI. Although they compete in the same land, the strategies of both countries have obvious differences. A clear example is in the business model itself: United States bets on a premium and China for a free AI. The differences would go much further. As writes As Andrew Stockols writesMIT researcher specializing in digital infrastructure in China, the United States focuses on the abstract, leading the great language models with Chatgpt, Gemini or Claude. For its part, China is betting very strong for an IA integrated into physical systems and infrastructure, with a clear leadership in areas such as industry and robotics. The “personified”. In English it is called “Embodied ai”, which can be translated by personified, embodied or integrated. It is an AI with physical presence, applied to systems that interact with the environment through sensors and actuators. It is the artificial intelligence applied to autonomous cars, personal mobility vehicles, models of “urban brain” and of course robotics. This idea is Chinese government priorityalready include the term in your work report This year. Robots for everything. Robots running marathons, Making Kick-Boxing, Playing football and even Robots-pump. China likes robots, it is clear to us, but this obsession goes far beyond these nice examples. Leading the robotics sector is part of the Plan “Made in China 2025” already today have achieved a competitive position, so much that in the United States already The alarms jumped. If we focus only on the industry, China is the undisputed leader with a 51% of the total stock of industrial robots. A few months ago, He appeared at BeiSi Kaiwu“The first integrated AI platform” with support for different “bodies.” This platform allows robots to perceive, interact and learn from the environment dynamically. In addition to humanoid robots, it is also intended for other products such as autonomous driving or even wearable devices. Autonomous vehicles. In 2020, China published its “Innovation and Smart Vehicle Development Strategy” where the idea of ​​”person-carretera-nube” is included. The key to this proposal is that not only cars carry sensors and cameras, they must also be present on roads, especially intersections. In addition, cars would communicate with each other to avoid collisions. Although with advantages from the point of view of security, there is a disadvantage and it is the cost of creating and maintaining that infrastructure. But not all self -employed vehicles have to be cars, other personal mobility vehicles are also developing with autonomous driving such as Autonomous wheelchair that the Freego company presented in March this year. Urban brains. There is even more. Another of the key applications of this integrated AI is in the cities. China has been working on the idea of ​​the smart city for a long time. Already in 2016, they developed a solution for the city of Hangzhou that helped Manage traffic using AI. Since then, they have not stopped appearing similar projects And there are currently many Chinese cities that have “brains”. However, behind this intelligent city idea there is an interest in improving the governance of cities or, in other words, that works as a surveillance system. We see it in This ambitious plan to integrate AI in the city of Wuhan: “Integrating algorithms of AI in real environments. Imbued with the predefined values ​​by the Chinese Communist Party, the AI ​​interacts with its natural environment, learning as it progresses.” Image | Alex Knight in Pexels In Xataka | There is a new battle between China and Elon Musk: its protagonists are humanoid robots and goes for long

Your plan to leave the oil also goes through betting strong in video games

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‘Pokémon Go‘He broke into 2016 and transformed the world of mobile video games. He took us out, turned any corner into a digital hunting field and immersed us in augmented reality as never before. Almost a decade later, the iconic game is about to change the owner. Scopely, a developer owned by Savvy Games Group, which in turn belongs to the Saudi Sovereign Fund, has signed an agreement To buy it with other Niantic titles. A millionaire operation. Scopely has decided to disburse $ 3.5 billion to get part of the Niantic games business, which in 2024 generated more than 1,000 million dollars in revenue and maintains a base of more than 30 million active players per month. As we can see, this agreement does not imply the total purchase of the American company, but the acquisition of a part. If regulators are approved, Scopey, based in the United States and 950 employees in Spain distributed between Barcelona and Seville, will stay with ‘Pokémon Go’, ‘Pikmin Bloom‘ and ‘Monster Hunter Now‘, in addition to’ Campfire ‘,’ Wayfarer ‘and the global network of meetings that support them, such as live events. It will also absorb the team responsible for these projects, guaranteeing their jobs. A catalog with several successes. Scopely is the ‘Monopoly Go’ editor, a mobile game that, although it may not sound you, It became one of the great prominent global after beating its income record in 2024. And it is not his only strong letter. It is also behind ‘Stumble Guys’, ‘Star Trek Fleet Command’ and ‘Marvel Strike Force’, games with huge communities. With this acquisition, it seeks to get your business a step further. What will happen to Pokémon Go? One of the questions that can be asked is what will happen to the game. Scopely has given a signal by absorbing Kei Kawai and Ed Wu, veteran leaders of their studies. The company ensures that the teams “will continue with their ambitious roadmaps” and that “players can expect these games, apps and events to remain faithful to the experiences they know and love.” One of the keys to the success of other Scopey titles has been his aggressive monetization strategy, an issue that follows in the air in regard to ‘Pokémon Go’. It is not clear if the company will apply the same model or if it will respect the current structure of the game. In any case, Pokémon remains owned by The Pokémon Companyso any important modification should have its approval. Challenging moments for Niantic. The agreement comes after a complicated stage for Niantic. Although ‘Pokémon Go’ was a phenomenon from day one, reaching more than 500 million players in their first year, its popularity collapsed during confinements, when its mechanics based on outdoor exploration was practically unusable. This was followed by several setbacks. Niantic canceled ‘Transformers: Heavy metal’, developed in collaboration with the creator of Sleep no More‘Punchdrunk’, in addition to two internal projects with Blue Sky and Snowball Key names. There were also layoffs: In 2023, more than 300 employees were disconnected. With this panorama, the big question is inevitable: if Niantic is letting go to its greatest success, what bet does it have for the future? A turn to AI. Once the operation is finished, Niantic will transform its technological platform into Niantic Spatial Inc., a new Geospatial company. Its objective will be to develop a new generation map for devices and machines to interact with the physical world. As part of the agreement, Scopely will invest 50 million dollars in the company and continue to share certain data from the players. Black gold to digital world. It is no secret that Saudi Arabia seeks reduce its dependence on oil and diversify its economy. A key piece in this strategy is its sovereign fund, owner of Scopely, the company that has just signed the agreement with Niantic. The Fund plans to invest about 40,000 million dollars in the video game industry, with the aim of creating hundreds of companies and thousands of jobs from here to 2030. Images | Scopery | Niantic In Xataka | Neom seems crazy, but Saudi Arabia does not take the brake and begin to build a cube in which 20 Empire State fit In Xataka | The video game industry seems to be clear where its next boom is: in the games “for couples”

‘Gambling Man’ is the portrait of the man capable of betting billions after a 12 -minute conversation. And lose

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Technological capitalism continuously disappoints its investors regarding what continually promises them. In 2022, when Masayoshi are announced losses of 23,000 million dollars in softbankthe market pretended to surprise what was inevitable: the collapse of a bubble inflated by the megalomania of its architects itself. It was not the first time they were seeing a fortune evaporate. He had already lost 99% of his wealth in the Crash of the ‘Puntocom’. The pattern is repeated because it should be repeated: the eternal reproduction of the same, where each cycle of boom and Bust Technological needs its own prophets and martyrs. They are represents both roles with particular dedication. Lionel Barber’s new biography about Masayhoshi are‘Gambling Man‘, portrays a man who has turned the extreme risk into a show. The book aims to unravel the genius after seemingly irrational decisions, but ends up revealing something more important: how modern technological capitalism has normalized recklessness as business virtue. They are, who like to compare with Napoleon and Genghis Khan, embodies the violence of a system that has made the disruption its mantra. Invest 4,400 million dollars in Wework After a 12 -minute conversation because it can do it – as well portrayed the phenomenal Wecrashedfrom Apple Tv+ – because el System rewards the grandiloquent gesture about rigorous analysis. Economic rationality is subordinated to the imperative of the show. The mechanism needs, of course, a distortion of the objectives it says. SoftBank does not really seek to identify the best technological companies in the future, seeks to feed the narrative that you can do it. The reality is that the Vision Fund It operates as a validation machine: Validation for Son, which found in money and success a way to overcome discrimination suffered in postwar Japan; validation for founders who receive their investments; Validation for a market that needs to believe that someone, somewhere, can see the future. “If you are intelligent you do not need leverage, and if you are silly you should not use it,” said Warren Buffett, who in addition to being the best investor in history is a great representative of a more sober and methodical capitalism. Perhaps the first is not understood without the second. They are represents the antithesis of buffet: a system where the mass leverage –SoftBank came to accumulate more than 150,000 million in debt– It is not a means but an end in itself. Debt as a show, as a demonstration of power. What surprises is not that they are survived their failures, but that the system needs them. Each multimillionaire loss reinforces its misunderstanding image, willing to bet against consensus. “At some point, everyone will tell you that you are crazy,” he proclaims. The line between vision and reckless has become deliberately diffuse. Today, while driving A new multimillionaire bet in chips for AIThey are still playing their role in this work. The public applauds because it must applaud: the fiction that after each new technological bubble there is a visionary genius is too comforting to abandon it. He show It must continue, although we all know how it ends. The Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi are Outstanding image | Wikipedia CommonsXataka In Xataka | Who are the largest millionaires in Spain: the list of the ten richest people in the country

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