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Microsoft wants to preserve Xbox games and has chosen an unexpected path: officially emulate them on Windows

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The video game industry advances with a speed that does not always leave room to look back. New consoles arrive, stores are renewed and the physical format loses ground, while a part of the old catalog remains linked to systems, accounts and services that do not last forever. Who have tried return to a game from decades ago We know that keeping it does not necessarily mean being able to execute it. That is the point at which preservation stops being just a concern of archives and museums. In that context, Microsoft has chosen an unusual formula to recover part of its history: bring games from the first Xbox to Windows 11 without converting them into remakes or native versions for PC. The American firm assures that this launch marks the beginning of a broader preservation effort, although, as we will see, this is a limited test. There is also another detail that changes the magnitude of the announcement: the technical means by which these games can work on current hardware. Let’s see. For now, the program does not open the entire Xbox historical catalog nor does it allow you to run any old games on Windows. The starting point is not a broad collection, but four specific games with which Microsoft begins to convey a part of history from Xbox to Windows. The company has not yet detailed which titles will arrive next or at what rate the catalog will grow. For now, these are the ones chosen: ‘BLiNX: The Time Sweeper’ ‘Conker: Live and Reloaded’ ‘Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge’ ‘Fuzion Frenzy’ As we say, what comes to Windows are not conventional remasters or adaptations remade game by game. As confirmed by Microsoft to PC GamerXbox uses emulation to reproduce on a modern computer the environment necessary to run software designed for its first console. This solution maintains the original gameplay, but allows improvements to be added such as VSyncup to four times resolution rescaling, anisotropic filtering and enhanced antialiasing. Users can also choose between full screen and windowed modes, as well as configure language and audio. The initiative is not limited to the desktop computer either. Titles can be installed on Windows 11 compatible portable devices, including ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally Xwithout necessarily depending on cloud gaming. Minimum requirements are modest for current hardware: 8 GB of RAM, a Core i3-8100, Ryzen 3 1200 or Ryzen Z2 A, and graphics equivalent to a GTX 950, Radeon RX 550, Intel UHD 770 or Arc A310. From a favorable perspective, the progress is difficult to ignore. Microsoft is prolonging the useful life of works that until now remained linked to Xbox hardware and its backward compatibility system on later consoles, and bringing them closer to players who may never have had those machines. The problem appears when we go from retaining access to retaining a copy. Microsoft has not announced standalone installers or versions without DRM, the system used to control and verify digital licenses. Nor has it detailed what checks these four games will require, how long they will be able to work offline or whether they will still be available for download in, say, ten years. We do know that your access depends on Windows 11, the Xbox app and a license linked to our account. It is an important difference compared to GOG, which allows you to download DRM-free backup installers and save the files to install without using your application. All of this occurs while the industry reduces independent avenues of access to its catalogs. Nintendo closed in March 2023 digital purchases of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, although for now it maintains the possibility of redownloading the purchased content. Sony, for its part, has announced that he will leave to produce discs for all new PlayStation games from January 2028. These are two different decisions, but both remember that the availability of a digital work ultimately depends on the continuity of a platform and the conditions established by its owner. Images | Xbox In Xataka | Video game preservation has already been mortally wounded with Sony. The next blow comes from an entire country: Germany

Garmin has just entered Whoop’s territory with the new CIRQA. He has chosen to attack right where it hurts most

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Wearing a device on your wrist to get to know your body better usually means accepting one more screen. The race pace, notifications, alerts and summaries appear there, inviting us to constantly check what is happening. Garmin now joins a proposal that other manufacturers had already explored: eliminating that part of the experience without giving up continuous tracking. Your new bracelet collects data during the day and nightbut centralizes your consultation on your mobile. It does not seek to show more things, but rather to offer another way of living with personal monitoring. The protagonist of this story is called CIRQA Smart Band and it is Garmin’s first screenless smart bracelet designed to bring together daily monitoring, sports and well-being in the same device. In Spain we can order it from July 24 by 199.99 euroswith two sizes, a fabric strap adaptable to the wrist or arm and up to ten days of autonomy. This is not the first time we have seen the company explore this format: in 2025 it launched the Index Sleep Monitoralthough that proposal was focused on sleep and recovery. Technical sheet of the new Garmin CIRQA Strap material Fabric (ComfortFit straps) Quick release straps Yes (14mm quick release pins with a 24mm wide strap) Shell size 27x47x9mmSM: 120-200mmL-XL: 145-240mm Weight Module: 14.8gStrap: SM, 5.9g (20.7g)Strap: L-XL, 6.4g (21.2g) Battery Lithium-ion Up to 10 days of autonomy Memory/history 128MB Heart rate (constant, every second) Yeah Abnormal heart rate alerts Yeah Respiratory rate Yeah PHYSIOLOGICAL AGE Yeah Body Battery™ Energy Monitor Yeah Stress throughout the day Yeah Resting heart rate Yeah Meditation Yes (without guide) breath work Yes (with guidance only via Garmin Connect+) Dream Yes (advanced) sleep trainer Yeah Sleep monitoring Yeah Variations in breathing Yeah Nap Detection Yeah Hydration Yeah Women’s health Yeah Estimates of previous ovulations Yeah skin temperature Yeah JET LAG NOTICE Yeah Lifestyle log Yeah Health status Yeah Pulse oximetry acclimatization Yeah Accelerometer Yeah Connectivity Bluetooth ANT+ GPS connected Yes (depends on mobile) price 199.99 euros Using CIRQA means accepting that we won’t be able to check what you’re recording by just looking at your wrist. There’s no dial to go to, menus to scroll through, or data that appears when you raise your arm. To consult them we will have to open the application on mobilewhere we can review the information collected and, during an activity with the phone’s GPS, check basic data such as distance and pace. On the band we will only find a side buttonconfigurable to start our favorite activity. Garmin wants to measure everything without putting another screen on your wrist The device can recognize activities such as walking or running on its own and save them for us to review later. As we confirm or correct those records, it will adapt its classification to try to identify them more accurately in the future. We can also manually start tracking more than 80 activities and assign one of them to the side button. For outdoor routes, however, you will depend on the phone’s GPS: it does not integrate its own. With the mobile connected, it also allows us to share our location through LiveTrack. Outside of training, the bracelet maintains continuous monitoring of heart rate and can alert us if it detects unusually high or low values ​​depending on our settings. Also estimates oxygen saturationrecords stress, skin temperature, steps, calories and intensity minutes. Body Battery also offers an estimate of how our energy reserves evolve throughout the day. Added to this are the monitoring of the menstrual cycle and pregnancy, retrospective estimates of ovulation and the recording of habits such as alcohol or caffeine consumption. At night, the proposal becomes especially ambitious. CIRQA breaks down sleep stages, detects naps, calculates an overall score and offers a personalized estimate of how much rest we need. It also analyzes the regularity of our schedules, alignment with the circadian rhythm, breathing and HRV status, in addition to including a smart vibration alarm. These measurements can help us identify changes with respect to our usual pattern, but they do not allow us to diagnose apnea or other sleep disorders. When we train, its value is not only in accumulating measurements, but in trying to convert them into decisions. The predisposition to train combines factors such as sleep and recovery to tell us whether it is appropriate to speed up or slow down, while the training state helps to interpret whether we are training productively, if we have reached a peak of form or if we are accumulating an excessive load. We can also follow the evolution of VO2 maximumknow the estimated benefit of each session and see how much time the body needs before the next effort. Garmin also includes a specific mode for wheelchair users, although with adapted functions and without VO2 maximum calculation. Garmin insists that CIRQA does not require a subscription, and it is essentially true: we can check sleep, recovery, training status or Body Battery without paying a periodic fee. That doesn’t mean everything is included. The company places some functions after Connect+ artificial intelligence, nutrition, meditation, select training plans and advanced graphics during live activities, while Natural Cycles maintains its own rate. The approach is thus separated from that of Whoopwhere membership is part of access to the product; Here the payment layer is optional and is added on an already functional basis. The CIRQA does not arrive at empty land. For 99.99 euros, the Fitbit Air offers he basic tracking without fee and book your personalized trainer with Gemini for Google Health Premium. Polar proposes a formula closer to that of Garmin: its Loop costs 179.90 euros and does not require a subscription either. Amazfit completes the range with the Helio Straporiented towards training and recovery without mandatory recurring payments. As we see, the absence of a screen is no longer enough to differentiate ourselves: we must also look at how much we pay and what is available after the purchase. For 199.99 euros, … Read more

“I have chosen automobiles as a symbol of extreme freedom for man”

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“The upper classes dedicate their leisure time to sports or activities that often involve bizarre risks. (…) The upper classes of the liberal order, among whom there are no bricklayers, love any leisure activity that involves challenging time, one of the capitals they have in abundance. And one of the ways to challenge time is speed. In turn, speed (which has nothing to do with haste) is synonymous with status“. Raquel Peláez in I want and I can’t: a story of the posh people of Spain. Enzo Ferrari was born in the 19th century. Yes, in the death throes of the century, but still in the 19th century. It was 1898 and less than a decade remained for the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti collected in The Figaro he Futurist Manifesto. This most likely explains much of Enzo Ferrari’s life. Il Commendatore He was born in Modena and a year before a handful of artists subscribed to the aforementioned text he was able to see his first car race. It was 1908, I was ten years old. In the next eight years he would lose his brother and his father and would join the ranks of the army in the Great War. In those days, Enzo Ferrari had already done his first jobs as a mechanic and tried to get his skills taken into account to fix military vehicles although he was unsuccessful in the attempt. Upon his return to a destroyed Italy, he headed to Turin with the dream of joining Fiat, where he was rejected. Despite everything, it didn’t take him long to find a place as a mechanic and with the money he saved he bought an Alfa Romeo and modified it to fulfill one of his dreams: competing. He was then part of the staff of CMN (Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali) where he was promoted to racing driver, which was a springboard to Alfa Romeo, for whom he competed until the early 1930s. Only the birth of his son Dino removed him from competition and put him in charge of managing the company’s competition department. Enzo Ferrari in his years as a driver A running escape Those years, as we said, coincided with futurism and all kinds of avant-garde movements. The West had entered a wild race that was betting on speed, on the development of faster and more capable machinery. The races multiplied. In 1924 the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in 1927 the Mille Miglia. Fascist culture carried this search for technical perfection and the cult of movement to its maximum expression, to the point that in Germany the Rekordwoche were born, races on huge highways with closed traffic to show who was faster. In those first Autobhan, Mercedes even proposed reach a top speed of 750 km/h with your Mercedes T-80. The crazy race for speed attracted, of course, the wealthiest classes. Thorstein Veblen already in his Leisure class theory of 1899 puts on the table that the wealthy need to prove that they have money. That is, it is not enough to have it, you have to show it to the world. Much of that demonstration was done by showing that one had free time. The worker, he worked. The rich man had free time and enjoyed it. And in those early years of the 20th century it became fashionable to demonstrate it by driving cars at full speed. It is no coincidence that the aforementioned Mille Miglia was an endurance race open to traffic. That love of speed was doubly attractive because it triggered the risk and the sensation of going beyond the limits that humans had had until then. Man moved faster than ever, speed records on the ground or in flight were constantly being broken. The Second World War only accelerated everything. The States put all their resources to overcome the rival with more capable vehicles. Without a doubt, without the advances of those days, the technical demonstrations that arrived in the 50s cannot be understood. In between, The Scuderiathe racing team created by Enzo Ferrari when he took over the competitive side of Alfa Romeo, broke ties with his mother at the beginning of the race. His work was therefore suspended but he recovered it very soon and Already in 1947 it appeared in a minor race as its own team separate from the clover mark. The following year, The Ferrari 166 Inter was launched as the company’s first road car.. It was also the first of the historic 12-cylinder Ferraris. “I have chosen automobiles as a symbol of extreme freedom for man”Enzo Ferrari would say in some words recorded by Vincenzo Borgomeo in The myth of the Rossa as stated in the Italian encyclopedia Trecanni. That phrase perfectly sums up what the Ferrari brand became over time. The Maranello company occupied its own space between aristocrats and the nouveau riche who wanted to drive faster than anyone else. Pure muscle that exploded in the 1950s with the development of some of the fastest cars in the world. Risk, speed and the supposed search for freedom coincide in the death of Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Ángel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Spanish pilot better known as Alfonso de Portago and (as you can imagine) Marquis of Portago, who would lose his life on Italian roads aboard a Ferrari that burst a tire while traveling at 250 km/h. His accident was, in fact, the death of the Mille Miglia, which would not be run again in the wild conditions of the time, at full speed dodging cars in open traffic. The Spanish was the living image of playboy that Enzo Ferrari could have in mind when he sold his cars. He drove for the company in five Formula 1 grands prix and had moved to the endurance team when he took the wheel of the Ferrari 335 Sa beast for the time with V12 engine and the ability to reach 300 km/h top speed. … Read more

the company has been chosen to modernize the Washington DC metro

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Among all the projects it is in charge of, the Spanish technology company has also won the contract to renew the ticket terminals in the 98 Washington DC metro stations, in an agreement that could reach 75 million dollars. Below these lines we tell you all the details. Contract. Just like account The company in its official press release, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the body that manages the Washington DC metro, has selected Indra to replace all the ticket sales machines in its network. The starting amount is 38.9 million dollars (about 33 million euros), but the contract includes additional options that could raise it to 75 million dollars (about 65 million euros). At stake are 450 new terminals spread across the five lines and 98 stations of a network that moves more than 500,000 travelers every day. What’s included exactly the order. In addition to manufacturing and delivering the equipment, Indra will also have to be responsible for the design, installation and maintenance for the next 15 years. The new machines will replace the current Fare Vending Machines, the terminals that have been in service on the network for years. According to affirms company, the new devices will have high-resolution touch screens with an interface very similar to that of mobile phones, will support payments by card, mobile phone and digital wallets (EMV and ABT technology), and will be available in up to 15 languages. The design must also comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including assisted audio and tactile elements for people with reduced mobility or vision. According to the company, part of the assembly will be carried out in the new plant that Indra has just inaugurated in Olathe, within the Kansas City metropolitan area. Indra puts its foot in North America. In recent months, Indra has been accumulating positions in the North American market. At the beginning of this year it was awarded a contract of nearly 300 million dollars to modernize FAA air traffic control, and more recently signed another agreement with Nav Canada to integrate drones and commercial aviation into Canadian airspace. It also has previous experience in railway ticketing in the US, since it was the company that installed the last two generations of self-sales machines in the St. Louis (Missouri) metro. Winning a contract in Washington DC is at another level in terms of visibility, since WMATA is one of the largest public transportation agencies in the country, and consolidates Indra as a reference in a highly contested market. What each part says. Raúl Ripio, general director of Mobility & Technology at Indra Group, assures that the company has been betting decisively on the United States for some time, where in addition to this project it develops traffic, connected vehicle and communications initiatives. For his part, Randy Clarke, CEO of Washington Metro, said in a statement that the investment “modernizes a critical part” of the system and that the new terminals incorporate payment technologies that users increasingly demand. International expansion. This move comes months after Indra won the contract to modernize access to public transport in Londonvalued at around 1,000 million euros, one of the largest in its recent history. The one in Washington is more modest in numbers, but strategically it is just as relevant, since the company is fully integrated into the mobility infrastructure of the US capital, a country that is increasingly taking center stage among its expansion plans. Cover image | Matthew Bornhorst In Xataka | Seville has had serious traffic problems on the SE-30 for decades: a 3.5 kilometer megabridge aims to solve them

Mozilla just revealed how many times Firefox was chosen

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For years, choosing a browser has been one of those decisions that seemed to be in our hands, but in practice were quite conditioned by the device we took out of the box. On the iPhone there was Safari. On many Android phones, Chrome. And although we have always been able to install alternatives, the truth is that changing a hidden setting is not the same as receiving a clear question at the right time. That is precisely the crack that Digital Markets Act (DMA) has tried to open in Europe: to turn a theoretical choice into a visible decision. The data that puts figures. Mozilla assures thatsince the DMA obligations began to apply in March 2024, Firefox has accumulated more than six million selections through browser selection screens. According to the organization that develops the browser, that equates to one election every 10 seconds. The movement does not stop at downloading or installing: it also states that retention is five times higher when users reach Firefox that way. The difference. The jump, however, has not been the same on all devices. Mozilla cites academic analysis which compares daily active users of Firefox in the EU with 43 non-EU countries and places the impact on iOS well above that of Android: 113% more than would be expected without the DMA compared to 12%. One thing to keep in mind: on iPhone and iPad the screen appears when you open Safari for the first time, while on Android it appears when you start a new device or after resetting it from the factory. Mozilla adds that, on Android, Firefox started from a higher usage base and that the deployment has been more uneven. A real victory? In its post, Mozilla insists that the DMA is bearing fruit in some areas, but “not everywhere, not perfectly, and not without effective enforcement.” That nuance matters because choice displays alone don’t eliminate years of vertical integration, default settings, and usage habits. TechCrunch pointed out in 2024 such as Aloha, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi, also recorded significant increases in the first days and weeks after the application of the European standard. The mobile moves, the desktop not so much. For Mozilla, the advance in mobile phones leaves one question pending: what happens with computers. The organization maintains that the desktop remains “largely intact” and estimates that some 310 million desktops and laptops in the EU do not have an equivalent selection screen. Their criticism is especially directed at Windows, where, according to Mozilla, users are exposed to deceptive design tactics and are not given an active choice. Beyond the numbers. What Mozilla announced leaves us with invaluable information: when the choice appears before the user, inertia stops being so automatic. It doesn’t mean that everyone will abandon Chrome or Safari, nor that selection screens alone will solve digital competency problems. But it does point to something measurable: if the alternative is clearly shown, there are users who choose it. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | Europe changes the standards for mobile batteries in 2027. The striking thing is that no manufacturer has complained

OpenAI had to choose between “being the company that has erotic AI” or competing with Anthropic. And he has chosen the obvious

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Sam Altman wasn’t afraid to try things. That people want to create Studio Ghibli style images? Forward. AI Videos hyperrealistic? Go for it. A browser with AI? we have it. Wherever I saw an option to add AI, OpenAI added it. But that was before, because these projects are being put on the back burner or directly closed for a simple reason: they are blank bullets. ChatGPT is not going to flirt with you. According to the Financial TimesOpenAI has canceled its plans to launch an erotic chatbot, and now the goal is to focus its resources on its most important products. The decision is partly a response to tensions and internal criticism from employees and investors when offering sexualized AI content. One former employee noted that “AI shouldn’t replace your friends or family; you should have human connections.” Making an erotic chatbot is not that easy. In addition to the social impact, it seems that OpenAI has had to face really complex technical challenges when creating this type of chatbot. Training an AI model to do something that “normal” models were trying to avoid was causing problems. For example, when including data sets with explicit content it was necessary to eliminate illegal behavior, such as bestiality or incest. That adult mode, called “Citron mode” internally, could have required users to prove that they were over 18 years old. Too much risk. The move to launch an “adult mode” of ChatGPT was reputationally risky, and people familiar with the decision have indicated that OpenAI wants to begin a long-term investigation into the effects of explicitly sexual chats and the emotional bonds that this type of interaction can create in users. They point out that at the moment there is no “empirical evidence” about the impact, but for now they are clear. And yet, there is another great reason to cancel it indefinitely. Let’s focus on what makes money. In recent weeks we have seen how the new pretty girl of the world of AI is Anthropic, which with Claude has managed to conquer precisely the market sector that is beginning to generate income decent for AI: the companies. OpenAI had been especially focused on end users, but the steps it has taken to try to convince us to pay for ChatGPT Plus/Pro They don’t quite work. No ads, no shopping. A few months ago OpenAI announced that ChatGPT was already capable of buy things for you with its Instant Checkout. The feature was really promising and proposed a paradigm shift in the rules of traditional e-commerce, but this launch seems to have had much less impact than expected. The decision to place ads during conversations seems not going to make ChatGPT’s revenue skyrocket either, so the solution is becoming clearer: if we have to be like Anthropic, we will be more Anthropic, we imagine Sam Altman is saying. Goodbye Sora… The ads don’t quite work, neither does Instant Checkout, and many other launches have not gone beyond generating a fleeting expectation. It happened with Sora: that OpenAI I abandoned her It is a disturbing sign that the company prefers to completely recalibrate. …hello superapp. Another sign of this reorganization is the fact that OpenAI is preparing a desktop tool that will unify its chatbot, its code platform (Codex) and the Atlas browser. The objective, to create a super app with agentic capabilities, not only oriented to code, but also to productivity. It is not clear if they will launch it as a solution for end users or the destination will be the company, where Anthropic is winning the game. New ‘Spud’ model in sight. In The Information indicated this week that OpenAI had recently completed development of a new AI model called Spud. OpenAI is expected to launch it in the coming weeks, and Altman reportedly told his employees that such a model “can really accelerate the economy.” It is not clear what it refers to (agent capabilities?), but with it OpenAI may be able to regain some of the ground lost with Anthropic. If Anthropic lets him, which we doubt. Image | Universal Pictures In Xataka | Wikipedia has banned using AI to write or rewrite articles in English. Human knowledge begins to raise barriers

OpenAI had to choose between being the star app of the US army and its users. And the users have chosen for it

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Last Saturday there were 295% more uninstallations of the ChatGPT mobile app in the United States. Many users felt terrible that OpenAI reached a theoretically unethical agreement with the US Department of Defense to replace Anthropic, and they have punished it with a “Cancel ChatGPT” movement on social networks which has also had an impact on those uninstallations. what has happened. The consulting firm Sensor Tower, which monitors the status of mobile application stores, has indicated that the ChatGPT uninstall rate has increased by 295% on Saturday, February 28 compared to the previous day. Normally, the uninstall rate is around 9% from one day to the next, but that day it was clear that many users decided to get rid of the app at the same time. The reason is obvious. The Pentagon vs. Anthropic. The pentagon it had been months working with Claude, Anthropic’s AI, which was already used on classified documents. Anthropic had made it a condition not to use its AI for mass espionage and the development of autonomous weapons, but the Department of Defense (DoD, which many now call the “War Department”) wanted Anthropic remove those limitations. Anthropic refusedand that’s where OpenAI comes in. and opportunistic. Sam Altman first praised Anthropic’s stance. A few hours later he announced that they had reached an agreement with the DoD to replace Claude with ChatGPT. This has been widely criticized for OpenAI’s lack of ethics and opportunistic attitude, and led to a “ChatGPT cancellation” movement which has had an immediate impact on the downloads and uninstallations of this chatbot. Altman wants to clear things up. He OpenAI announcement It was unclear whether OpenAI actually imposed the same limits that Anthropic had imposed, but Altman soon announced that had added amendments to the agreement to avoid any confusion. Apparently they have been added protections against mass surveillancebut nothing is mentioned about the development of lethal autonomous weapons. Punishment for OpenAI. Not only has it been noticeably uninstalled, but in the opinions of the ChatGPT app many users have given a single star out of five in a very high proportion: those bad opinions grew by 775% on Saturday and then by 100% on Sunday according to Sensor Tower. Five-star reviews fell by 50%. Claude has overtaken ChatGPT in downloads as a result of the latest events with the Pentagon. Source: Appfigures. And Claude already surpasses it in downloads. Another consultancy that monitors the download market, appfiguresindicated that on Saturday Claude’s downloads surpassed those of ChatGPT in the US for the first time. In fact, Claude has become the most downloaded app in at least six countries outside the US: Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland. Streisand Effect. We are facing another case of Streisand effect: trying to censor certain information or a certain company ends up being counterproductive. The Pentagon tried to make Anthropic the bad guy, but what has happened is that the company is now seen as the great defender of ethics and “AI alignment.” This has made people perceive it as a more morally respectable option than ChatGPT. But Anthropic has problems. According to Reuters Several US government departments and agencies have made the switch to OpenAI and have begun to stop using Anthropic models for their work. That is already a problem for Anthropicbut even more so is the fact that their recent investment round, in which they raised 60,000 million dollars, could be in danger. If the DoD decides to label Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” its contracts and agreements with dozens of companies would be at risk, and its own future as a company would be at risk. It would be an extraordinary measure and it seems unlikely that the US would go to that point, but nothing is certain today. Image | Village Global In Xataka | The war between Anthropic and the Pentagon points to something terrifying: a new “Oppenheimer Moment”

has chosen the most risky

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17:01 this Friday, February 27. That was the deadline that the United States gave Anthropic to grant full powers to the Pentagon about the use of your AI. It is your software that is fully integrated with Palantir and the Department of Defense systems, but the US believes it has a problem: Anthropic has tied its AI to some moral rules that shouldn’t exist. So this week Defense sent them a message: either they give them an AI without restrictions or there will be consequences. And Anthropic has answered with a resounding “no.” Monumental friction. Here we are not facing a conflict between companies: it is a company against its Government. Anthropic offered its AI to the Pentagon for integration into its systems. He did it at a symbolic price: one dollar. The Pentagon accepted and the response was a $200 million contract. The Department of Defense began integrate Anthropic AI into your systemswith everything that entails: full access to documents that no one outside the Pentagon can access. The US also wants be a field toolbut there is a problem: that AI is ‘programmed’ so that it cannot be used for mass surveillance of American citizens, for the development of weapons or for the use of autonomous weapons. This is precisely what the Pentagon wants to do. The Secretary of Defense sent a message to Anthropic: or they give them AI without limits or they make them a Huawei. These are my principles. We imagine that they have been some intense days, but Dario Amodei, CEO of the company, has answered on its blog. His opening sentence is powerful: “I deeply believe in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies to defeat our autocratic adversaries.” Good start to what seems to be a statement in which he gives in, but… no. After a review of what they have “given up” so that their AI is in the Department of Defense systems and criticize that the US removes the tasting from the Defense Production Act of 1950 to terrorize an Anthropic that will go public this year, the resolution is firm: “we cannot agree in good conscience to the request.” The company is clear that its AI can be very helpful to the Government, but it continues to oppose, mainly, two specific uses: Mass espionage because AI can put together complete databases of anyone’s life. The use of autonomous weapons that cannot be trusted for decision making, since they do not have the judgment that a professional soldier does (or that a professional soldier should have). An AI does not question, has no remorse, does not wonder if it is right or wrong or if the goal is a false positive. An AI… executes. We have breastfed for you. In the statement, Amodei launches almost a plea, a “with everything I have given you,” stating that this commitment to the leadership of the United States has been against the interests of the company itself. They point out that they have given up “several hundred million dollars to prevent Claude from being used in companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party” and that this cost some attacks by China, with some of their companies trying to abuse Claude. And it is an open letter, a declaration of intent that has been endorsed by competitors’ employees. For 219 from Google and another 65 from OpenAI. Many have given their names, many others have signed anonymously, but all with the same goal: to reject the Department of Defense’s demands to use their models for mass surveillance and “autonomously kill people without human supervision.” “In any case, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience agree to your request” There is no middle ground. No matter how nice and romantic the statement from Google and OpenAI employees sounds, the reality is different. They are challenging the Government, a Government that is continually demonstrating that it is going to execute whatever they want (there is ICE, the climate movements, the departure of the WHO, tariffs or threats to partners and allies). And the problem is that Anthropic has a lot to lose, much more than that $200 million that is pocket change in the context of AI investments. If they give in, it would mean taking a step back in an almost founding aspect of the company. If they do not give in, they become the “prestige brand” of AI. They demonstrate that they have the model that today’s most technologically advanced army needs and that they are untouchable, at least as long as a United States that is already moving towards alternatives such as Google, X and OpenAI finds an alternative. But they run the risk of, as we said, being blacklisted by the US. The Government has threatened to condemn Anthropic to being a company that poses a “supply chain risk”. As Amodei points out in the statement, it is a label reserved for the country’s adversaries and has never been applied to an American company. It would put Anthropic in the same bag as Huawei and other Chinese companies and would prevent the rest of the American partners from making deals with them. But, even if they do not give in, the US can take over AI by force with the letter of the Defense Production Act. Through this decree, if they consider that this tool is necessary and essential for national security, it does not matter what Amodei says. On the roof of the Pentagon. That’s where the ball is right now, and time is running out. As we said before, it is not an operation between companies, it is not a fight between politicians: it is a company that is being threatened by its own country. A threat that is a “give this to us by fair means or we will take it from you by bad means”. In any case, we have to wait to see how … Read more

Mexico knows that the future lies in technological sovereignty and has already chosen its “Silicon Valley: Jalisco and Sonora

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Mexico has undertaken the adventure of technological sovereignty. With her arrival to the presidency, Claudia Sheinbaum set the modest goal of “continuing to make Mexico the best country in the world.” To this end, he presented the ‘Mexico Plan‘, a roadmap to attract investment and develop industries such as biotechnology, electric cars or that of semiconductors. And the foundations for that ambitious chip manufacturing plan are already being built with a single idea in mind. Technological sovereignty. Kutsari. Silicon is extracted from sand and this is precisely what ‘kutsari’ means in Purépecha. It is also the name of Kutsari Project that seeks to stop importing a large part of the semiconductors that Mexico needs for the products it already manufactures. Puebla, Jalisco and Sonora are the three locations chosen to develop a plan that only pursues one objective: to stop being a country that assembles chips to become one that designs, manufactures and sells them. Jalisco moves. Since the project was announced, steps have been taken to get it started, and as we read in MillenniumJalisco has not wasted time. One of the poles of Kutsari will be the Cinvestav -Center for Research and Advanced Studies-. The reason is that it is the only institution in the country that has an agreement with Intel to generate integrated circuits in 16 nanometer lithography. Jalisco was already a semiconductor manufacturing point at the end of the last century and the Intel Design Center is located in the same area. That is why Jalisco has already been nicknamed the ‘Silicon Valley of Latin America’, a ‘hub’ in which different technology companies are settling, especially those dedicated to semiconductors, and which is bringing foreign investment. According to Pablo Lemusgovernor of Jalisco, if Mexico’s economy grew by 0.5%, due to that investment Jalisco’s grew by 4%. Sonora winks at the US. Another of the axes in this objective of technological sovereignty is Sonora. Recently, it signed an agreement to locate the Semiconductor Research and Development Center at the University of Sonora. Apart from being another thinking mind in the semiconductor strategy, Sonora has an advantage: the Mexico-US Trade Corridor, which seeks greater investment and regional connectivity. In the end, Sonora and Jalisco are taking steps in the same direction: investment, consolidation of already established infrastructures, construction of new buildings and strengthening agreements to attract talent. Goal: 2028. As they say, things in the palace move slowly, and currently both states are in a phase that we could classify as pre-production. They are preparing the ground in parallel, making advances in design, but also in talent and the ecosystem to create the chip production chain. Let’s remember the importance of having all this tied up (and the closer, the better), since it is one of the secrets behind the leadership of the Taiwanese TSMC. Once everything is ready, the manufacturing phase will begin, and in this sense, we also have to talk about the state of Puebla. In the municipality of Cholula will locate one of Mexico’s semiconductor production plants, one that will take advantage of all that knowledge developed by Jalisco and Sonora and that, it is expected, will begin producing chips by 2028 with an eye toward commercialization by 2029. Competence. It seems like a long time, but it is really a very short period to shape an industry as complex as semiconductors. But, obviously, you have to start somewhere and the latest advances in the Kutsari project show that Mexico remains determined to achieve a certain sovereignty in the chip segment. Now, we will see how far Mexico’s aspirations go and if its production is sufficient to satisfy the global market or it has to “settle” for the domestic market. The reason is that the component crisis of 2020 and the current RAM crisis It is teaching us something: you cannot depend on one country or a handful of companies. And there, Vietnam, India and China are strengthening for break technological hegemony which is currently in the hands of a few. This implies greater competition, but if Mexico’s plans go well, it also represents an opportunity that should not be missed. Image | ASML (edited) In Xataka | There is a global race to gain hegemony of critical minerals. And Mexico has just taken a key step

A third of the planet’s ships depend on a single Norwegian company. And they have chosen Alicante for their global expansion

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In the world of shipping, there is a silent giant whose technology is responsible for ensuring that a third of the world’s fleet is not lost at ocean or collided in port. This is Kongsberg, the Norwegian conglomerate controlled mostly by its State, which has turned the province of Alicante into an indispensable piece of its global chess board. Today, more than 30,000 ships they are capable of plowing the seas thanks to systems that are managed, maintained and repaired from offices located between La Vila Joiosa and the NOBO business center in the capital of Alicante. A strategic divorce to conquer the stock market. The news that has shaken the foundations of the industry this year is the segregation of the matrix. According to the company itselfKongsberg Gruppen ASA has decided to split into two independent entities to gain agility: on the one hand, the Defense and “Discovery” division (fishing and research); and on the other, Kongsberg Maritime, the jewel in the crown dedicated to navigation systems, which will begin trading separately on the Oslo Stock Exchange on April 23, 2026. This financial independence is backed by solid figures on Spanish soil. According to the newspaper The Informationthe Spanish subsidiary invoiced a total of 31.7 million euros in 2024, with a profit of more than five million. It is not surprising that Lisa Edvardsen Haugan, future CEO of the new independent company, claim that they are “unitarily positioned for value creation in the global maritime sector.” Why Alicante and not Vigo or Algeciras? The story of how a Nordic power ended up installing its nerve center in the province of Alicante has a component that is as human as it is strategic. In 1995, the company was looking for a headquarters in Spain. Although ports like Vigo or Barcelona seemed logical options, the executive in charge of the expansion opted for the coast of Alicante. The reason was the existence of a historical and consolidated colony of Norwegians in municipalities such as La Vila Joiosa or Altea. However, what began as a small delegation for the fishing sector—under the name Simrad Spain— has mutated into something much more ambitious. After the purchase of the maritime division of Rolls-Royce, the structure became too small. Today, the move of Kongsberg Maritime to the NOBO business center in the capital of Alicante responds to a need to attract talent. Miguel Ángel González, general director in Spain, points out that this change seeks to increase the attractiveness of the firm to retain engineers and software developers, in addition to reducing emissions due to staff travel by 30%. The brain of the autonomous boat. Alicante is not a simple administrative office; It is one of the only three resource hubs that the group has on the planet, along with Poland and Norway itself, capable of serving ships around the world thanks to its strategic position between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. As explained by the company itselfnaval autonomy is not new — they have been developing Dynamic Positioning Systems (DPS) for 40 years that allow a ship to remain stationary at an exact point in the ocean without using anchors — but now the technology has reached a “critical mass.” Yara Birkeland: The world now look in amazement to the world’s first fully electric, autonomous and zero-emission container ship, developed by Kongsberg together with YARA. Reach Remote: This is a series of unmanned surface vessels (USV) that are controlled from a remote center. According to senior designer Erik Leendersthis allows a single captain to control several ships at once from dry land. The “Jewel in the Crown”: The DPS system is what allows that Sasemar (Maritime Rescue) oil platforms or rescue ships operate with extreme safety on the high seas. The horizon. The future of navigation involves electric motors that generate your own energy with the rotation of the propellers. To manage this complex flow of data, the firm Kognifai has launchedan Artificial Intelligence platform that optimizes ship operations. Although the technology is ready, the company’s technical report warns that the biggest current challenge is not engineering, but legislation. As the firm warnswe are in “uncharted territory” and the IMO still needs to define the rules for these ships without humans. What was born in 1995 as a fishing office in La Vila has become in 2026 the command post from which Norway and Alicante dictate the rules of the future of global trade by sea. Image | Kongsberg Xataka | The ships of the oil “ghost fleet” turn off their GPS to avoid being detected. Malaysia is going to hunt them with drones

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