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China has just regulated something that really matters: whether AI ends up being our friend or our girlfriend

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China has decided to put limits on a very specific type of AI: that designed to look like a person. Doubao (ByteDance) and Qwen (Alibaba) have announced that they will disable their custom AI agents before the regulations come into force imminently. Tencent had already done it with its Yuanbao model, but behind all these closures there is a much deeper idea. The blackout of anthropomorphic AI already has a date. Doubao has already warned its users that its personalized AI agents will stop working on July 15 due to “product adjustments” and that three months later they will not be able to access the stored conversations with said chatbots. With Qwen things will be even faster: the agents will disappear on July 10, and the rest of the functions will do so five days later. These measures are taken before the entry into force of the new Provisional Measures for the Administration of Anthropomorphic Interaction Services with AI, recently published by the Chinese government. In Xataka Millions of teenagers have turned AI into their go-to psychologist. It is an unprecedented challenge for medicine Conversational chatbots, yes… The interesting thing about the regulations is that they do not regulate generative AI in general. Leave assistants out to work, study, research or serve customers. What it regulates are the systems that “simulate personality traits, thought patterns and human communication styles to provide a sustained emotional interaction.” The problem therefore is not that AI can be more or less powerful, but that it comes to simulate the behavior of a person. …company chatbots no. The functions that disappear from these platforms are those that allowed a generalist chatbot to be turned into a fictional character, a friend or even a romantic partner. This personalization gave these AI agents a fixed personality, a memory and a characteristic conversational style that reinforced interaction with it. They were therefore not tools to replace the current search engine, but rather systems designed to trap the user in an increasingly personal and intimate relationship and conversation. Beware of emotional dependence. Here the Chinese regulation does not try to identify dangerous risks such as those traditionally discussed, for example, with the European Union regulation. Instead what it monitors are interactions in which there is an emotional dependencea potential addiction and even manipulation by these systems. In fact, these systems are prohibited from fostering emotional bonds that could lead to irrational decisions. All of this is stopped by regulations to avoid the potential deterioration of personal relationships. AI must analyze itself. According to the regulation, AI must intervene when it detects these types of situations. If a user shows too extreme emotions towards these chatbots or if it is perceived that there may be risks to their integrity, the AI ​​should encourage them to seek help or even activate certain emergency protocols. You should also warn if you see excessive usage and remind the user to rest after two hours of continuous talk. In a certain sense, these regulations are reminiscent of the “digital welfare” mechanisms that have been imposed on mobile apps that try to limit the use of social networks. In Xataka "As pathetic as it sounds, ChatGPT is my only friend": more and more people confess to having an AI as a friend Protection for vulnerable people. The measures pay special attention to underage users and also to older people. For example, these types of chatbots are prohibited from offering intimate virtual relationships, such as couples or artificial relatives, and they require parental consent. There is also an obligation to take precautions when the users are elderly, since this group is especially exposed to loneliness and a possible emotional dependence. AI should stay just that: be an AI. Although there have been advances in the psychological impact of these models in their relationship with people, this is probably the first major regulation that does not attempt to control how powerful AI models are, but rather how capable they are. to establish personal relationships with users. This discussion will probably end up reaching Europe and the US, and is a touchstone for a technology that has certainly been infiltrating the personal sphere for some time. Image | Andy Kelly In Xataka |Telling the AI ​​what worries you was only the first step: there are already bots that pose as registered psychiatrists (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news China has just regulated something that really matters: whether AI ends up being our friend or our girlfriend was originally published in Xataka by Javier Pastor .

“When it ends, tears of joy fall, you can’t contain them”

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Next August 12 It will be the first time that many Spaniards see a total solar eclipse. This phenomenon had not been seen in mainland Spain since 1912 and since 1959 in the Canary Islands, so only Canarian people of a certain age have been able to see one without having to travel. For the rest, the only Spaniards who have been able to see one of these phenomena so far are the eclipse chasers. Those people who travel around the world only with the intention of enjoying the magnificent spectacle that the Moon gives when it steals the daytime prominence from the Sun by placing itself in front of it and blocking its light for a few minutes. One of those people is Leonor Ana Hernandezan amateur astronomer, scientific communicator and astronomical illustrator, who has been traveling for many years in search of new eclipses. His first time was in 1999, in Hungary. Since then she has seen four total solar eclipses and is overcome with the desire to travel in search of more. From each one of them he treasures something in his memory, a small detail that has remained engraved in his mind in a very special way. For my part, I have never seen a total solar eclipse. Yes, I have witnessed a partial one, but I have never seen the Sun set completely. This summer will be the first for me and the truth is that, after talking to Leo, as she likes to be called, I’m looking forward to the moment. The four eclipses of Leo For Leo it all started when she was a girl. “I loved astronomy and when my father found out that there was an association near where we lived he told me: daughter, at least I’ll take you there, with people who like the same things as you,” she remembers. “There I began to learn more and get informed about eclipses and of course, I read about the people who have seen themI saw images and thought that I would love to see what everyone describes, to experience that sensation of the lunar night in the middle of the day.” With that clear objective, he began to save until In 1999 he had his first opportunity. In fact, he made the trip to Hungary with colleagues from that association in which he had begun to develop his interest in eclipses. “As many of us as possible from the association organized a joint expedition to see the solar eclipse,” he recalls. “The experience marked me and at that moment I knew that whenever I could or life allowed me, I would try to travel to see more.” Seven years later, in 2006, it was his turn to see a new total solar eclipse in Türkiye. This time it was a more intimate trip, with only three people, and he also remembers it with great affection. “We decided to go to the top of a mountain and we were alone, there was pure silence,” he says with a smile. “That silence and that transparent blue sky that I saw left me extremely shocked.” Remember that the emotion was so much that I couldn’t stop crying. “When it was over, tears of joy fell down my cheeks, I couldn’t contain them.” For the next one he didn’t wait that long. In 2009, traveled to Chinathis time on an expedition with a large group of people. It was a complicated occasion, because it coincided with a monsoon that clouded the sky, completely covering the eclipse, which could have lasted six minutes. “We covered the telescopes with whatever we could: ponchos, hats, raincoats… The rain was brutal and we said: how could we have been so unlucky?” However, then something happened that Leo describes as almost magical. “It seems that the heavens heard us, there was a moment when it stopped, a clearing appeared, that clearing opened and we could see the black ball of the Moon,” he remembers. “It opened up enough that for a minute and a half or two minutes we could see it. Then it got cloudy again, but at least we could see something.” Even so, and despite all the beauty he saw in his first three eclipses, Leo is clear that remains with the total solar eclipse of the United States in 2017. For her it was very special because on this occasion she made the decision not to take photos, but to lie down and look at it and draw it. Leo, lying with the materials to draw the eclipse “I would stay with the one from 2017, because I made the decision not to take photos“explains Leo. “The time you spend with the camera makes you very angry, so I decided to take some testimonial photos, with the camera working alone, but I lay down and observe it, observe it, observe it.” In addition, he devised an action plan that began even before totality. “If you do not have eyesight adapted to the darkness, just like at night, you cannot see the subtle details of the solar corona, so I spent the previous minutes with sunglasses so that my eyes were adapted to a dark time.” Of course, when he looked at the Sun during the partial phase used approved glasses. He only used the sunglasses to look at the environment. Once the adaptation began, the materials were prepared. “I lay down, prepared my notebook and a piece of cardboard and captured a nebulous background with a circle to delimit the hole of the Moon, those They were the most beautiful and wonderful minutes I have experienced in a long time.“And the time came. “When you draw something you have to focus a lot on the details and that’s when your eyes really start to see,” she points out. “Normally we look, but we don’t see everything we can, because we go from one place to another in a more superficial way.” She focused on … Read more

when AI doesn’t free you from work, but instead creates a new task that ends up exhausting you more

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Imagine that you hire someone to help you manage your email. Of course, the first week you have to explain to him how you like him filter messages and tell you the most urgent thing. The second week, you correct the mistakes he is making and, for the third week, you have to explain again what you already taught him the first week because he forgot the instructions. At the end of the month, you have a helper, but it takes longer than before because not only do you have to be aware of what he is doing, but you also have to manage your email. That is, in essence, what is happening right now with AI at work, according to the report. Work AI Index of the Glean Institute, carried out by researchers from the universities of Stanford, Berkeley and Notre Dame. According to their findings, employees spend an average of 6.4 hours per week making AI work. Almost one day of work lost every week. Time is not saved, it is transformed. 87% of workers who participated in the study acknowledge that they use AI at work. Of these, 75% affirm that AI makes them more productivesaving them approximately 11 hours per week with automation alone. However, only 13% of companies claim to obtain a real increase in productivity. The gap between what the individual perceives and what the companies’ results show is enormous, and the report has an explanation: those hours do not disappear, they are only redirected towards a new layer of work that no one was taking into account. The authors have called this new task botsitting (a play on words that translates as “bot care”) which consists of little more than “AI kangaroo” to give context to the tool, review errors in the results it generates, relaunch prompts that do not go well and clean up results that seem correct, but are actually full of invented data or hallucinations. As Rebecca Hinds, director of the Work AI Institute, describes, this guardianship is “often tedious and exhausting work”, which no one measures or rewards, so the time that AI saves ends up being a loan that you have to return a few hours later. Too many tools and context switches. The researchers highlight that part of this excess time spent using AI not only comes from reviewing its results but also from how each tool is used. 77% of respondents use multiple AI tools each week, and a third of participants combine four or more. Each jump from one app to another has a cost of time which is rarely countedbut that implies repeating the same instructions or rewriting the prompt on another system because the previous model did not deliver the expected result. Nearly half of workers (46.5%) have to jump between two or more AI tools to complete a single task. Researchers call it the “toggle tax”, the cognitive tax of constantly changing context. Harvard Business Review already calculated the cognitive cost of changing applications and the consulting firm McKinsey calculated that workers waste an average of almost two hours a day searching for information between tools, inboxes and chats. AI, which is sold as the panacea of ​​productivityhas only added a new layer to that chaos instead of reducing it. Of the botsitting to the botshitting. The study found that when the worker spends too much time fixing AI bugs and maintains its delivery deadlines, begins to skip reviewing the results, generating something that the report has called botshitting or “bot crap” which would be delivering work generated by AI without having previously verified. 69% of the participants admitted to having done this at least on occasion. The consequences go beyond the quality of the work itself, when that content reaches the next link in the production chain. without anyone having reviewed itsomeone who did not produce it you have to clean it. That is, both the cost and the time are transferred to another person, but you don’t save that much as it seems. To no one’s surprise, more AI doesn’t solve the problem. Bob Sutton, professor emeritus at Stanford and founding member of the Work AI Institute who produced this report, has pointed out On other occasions, one of the solutions usually taken from management positions when a process generates friction is to add more of that element. In this case, trying to solve a problem of misuse of AI…with more AI. The data in the report suggests that the organizations that are ahead are not those that use AI the most. They are those that have built what the authors call “human infrastructure.” 53% of workers say that the information they need does not come through their AI systems. In companies where it does arrive, employees are 64% less exhausted and are 52% less likely to deliver works that have not been reviewed. In Xataka | OpenAI assures that AI has not had that much impact on employment. Anthropic believes just the opposite and therein lies the problem Image | Unsplash (Flipsnack)

This Prime Video series ends after 7 years and 40 chapters, making history with an audience more divided than ever

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Today Prime Video premieres the last episode of ‘The Boys‘. It is not just any ending: it comes with the highest audience figures in the entire history of the series and, at the same time, with social networks converted into a battlefield over whether this latest installment of the superhero satire has been worth it. What is clear is that one of the most ambitious and rounded productions of the recent era of the streaming. ‘The Boys’ was born as an adaptation of the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson published between 2006 and 2012 and arrived on Prime Video in July 2019 with a brutal premise:what if superheroes were corporate tools with powers of mass destruction? The series created by Eric Kripke immediately connected with a eerily similar political and information climate to the starting point of the series. In the following seven years, the fiction has accumulated five seasons, a spin-off (‘Gen V’) and an expanding universe that turned Patriot, more than a villain, into a disturbing reflection of reality. For a series to reach its conclusion at the best audience moment in its history is not usual. ‘The Boys’ has done it. The fifth season has reached an average of 57 million viewers per episode on a global scale, the highest figure in the entire history of the series. The season is also among the ten most viewed from any Prime Video original series. All this while there has been a more heterogeneous public reception than ever with the series (often praised by critics, but with very combative detractors for its powerful political message). In addition, this season has encountered criticism of its pacing, filler episodes and lack of action. It has been compared to ‘Game of Thrones’ in its controversial final stretch and although Kripke has defended the decisions that have been made, today is the day to check to what extent the series manages to live up to its prestige. In Xataka | 8 premieres this week on Netflix, including a science fiction and mystery series from the creators of ‘Stranger Things’

the search against time to locate the “loose ends” of the hantavirus cruise

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Although how much the experts insist In which the risk for the populations is very low, the fear of the hantavirus continues to travel through each of the countries through which the passengers of the MV Hondius have circulated. Actually, it’s normal. Fear is a very human emotion, which helps us be alert in situations as new as this one. There is considerable uncertainty in this situation, especially in relation to passengers who got off the ship before the hantavirus outbreak was confirmed. However, little by little this uncertainty is fading as information about their countries of origin arrives. Saint Helena, April 24, 2026. On April 24, 13 days after the death of the first infected passenger with hantavirus, the ship made a stop on the British island of Saint Helena. He took the opportunity to lower the body and prepare it for repatriation. His wife traveled with him, who became the second victim, after traveling to South Africa. In addition to the two deceased, it is known that on the island another 28 people got off. It was not yet known that the first victim had a contagious virusso no passenger control was carried out. Then what? Since it became known that there was a hantavirus outbreak on the ship, attempts have been made to locate those 28 people and their close contacts. It is known that among them there were passengers of at least 12 different nationalities. There were mainly British and Americans, but also people from other countries such as Singapore, Canada or Germany, among others. The countries of origin or residence of each of them have also been taking charge. Thus, some have already achieved the goal of finding them and putting them in quarantine. From the United States to Singapore. In the United States there are five people in quarantinespread across Texas, California, Arizona and Georgia. In Singapore too have been quarantined and to the two passengers who got off in Santa Elena. France had no citizens among that group of passengers, but has quarantined eight citizens who were in contact with one of those people on a flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg. In short, many of these people are already under observation, although it is true that there are others to be identified and monitored. Many of the passengers who got off in Santa Elena have already been identified. It is not very contagious. The positive part of all this is that hantavirus is not as contagious as other pathogens with pandemic potential such as the COVID-19 coronavirus. In general, contagion between people, which only occurs with Andes variant (that of the boat), requires very close contacts. It is possible that he was a super-spreader on board the cruise ship. That is, a person from whose body a virus is transmitted exceptionally well. We saw some cases with COVID-19, for example. However, it is normal that the rest of those infected are not super-spreaders. Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that there were several simultaneous infections when coming into contact with mice on an excursion. It would not be a patient who is super contagious, but there could have been an initial event that caused a good part of the cases. In both scenarios, the contagion capacity would decrease over time. dead end. Another positive point about hantavirus is that has what is known as a dead end. It cannot be contagious continuously. It is known that, at most, it usually reaches three links. That is, one person infects another, that second infected person passes the disease to a third and that’s it. The chain cuts itself. For this reason, even if some of the people who got off in Santa Elena could continue to be contagious, they would not infect many people beyond their closest contacts. And what about those who are still on the boat? Spain is prepared to repatriate all passengers, with or without symptoms, or treat whoever is necessary. In that case, the transfer will be carried out with the necessary safety conditions so that there are no more infections. Therefore, from now on, the important thing is that these people undergo the necessary quarantines. Each country will decide how long they will be, but always taking into account that the incubation time in the most extreme cases can exceed 40 days. Easy to detect. The genome of this virus is very well known. For this reason, the diagnosis is simple through PCR. This test will be carried out on passengers on several occasions during the quarantine, to check their evolution. They cannot be discharged without repeating it once again. That said, although it is logical that uncertainty worries us, it is important that we keep in mind the limited pandemic potential of this virus. There is a lot of work to be done to ensure that the situation does not get worse, but there are already many people working on it. Image | CDC/Magnific | Fdesroches In Xataka | We believed that hantavirus did not jump between humans. Until someone went to a birthday party in Argentina

How to ask for European aid that almost no one takes advantage of and ends in June 2026

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There are still a few months left for the stifling heat, but to insulate ourselves from both the cold of winter and the high temperatures of summer, it is vital to have efficient windows. We know it is not a small investment. However, there is a lifeline: an EU-funded Next Generation EU grant program that pays you up to 40% of the bill for changing your old windows. The problem is that perhaps you had not heard about this and the general deadline to execute the works sets a non-negotiable limit of June 30, 2026. What are the conditions? At the state level, aid is framed in the Aid program for actions to improve energy efficiency in homes. As explained by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agendathe objective is to reactivate rehabilitation in a country where more than 81% of buildings have a poor energy rating (letters E, F or G). The program’s numbers are resounding and go straight to your pocket: The subsidy covers 40% of the cost of the action, with a maximum limit of 3,000 euros per home. The minimum investment must be equal to or greater than 1,000 euros. The requirement is that the home must be the habitual and permanent domicile of the applicant (owner, usufructuary or tenant), which is accredited through the registry. The technical objective is to achieve a reduction of at least 7% in the energy demand for heating and cooling, reduce the consumption of non-renewable primary energy by 30%, or replace elements of the façade in compliance with the Technical Building Code (CTE). The good news is that simply replacing old windows with PVC or aluminum models with thermal break and low-emissivity glass is usually enough to comply with the CTE route without having to undergo a comprehensive renovation. But is it as simple as it seems? Here come the problems. The main obstacle to this aid is purely bureaucratic. The most common and tragic mistake that users make is starting the work blindly. The usual process is usually: the owner calls the installer, changes the windows and, with the work already finished, calls a technician to do the energy certificate, thinking that that is enough. Big mistake. The guidelines are non-negotiable: to justify the subsidy it is mandatory to have an energy efficiency certificate prior to the work and another one afterwards. Both must be signed by a competent technician and carried out with the same official program. Without this documentary demonstration of the “before and after”, help is lost suddenly. The aid map in 2026. The distribution of this program works under the “simple competition” model: whoever arrives first and meets the requirements gets it, until the funds are exhausted. Being managed by the Autonomous Communities, the map is a puzzle. According to the data collected by the regional resolutions, this is the scenario of the main windows that remain open: Aragon: Keep your call active until June 29, 2026but with a specific provision aimed at municipalities of up to 5,000 inhabitants and for buildings prior to the year 2000. Canary Islands: They keep direct aid and tax deductions in force, remembering that the action must be completed before June 30, 2026. Estremadura: They have a specific regional program for rural areas (municipalities with up to 10,000 inhabitants) open from March 1 to June 1, 2026. They cover 50% (extendable to 70% due to vulnerability or young/large families) with limits of up to 14,000 euros for single-family homes. Rioja: Its call opened on February 17 and will last until June 29 2026. Pay attention to the information: here the actions must already be completed at the time of requesting help. The Basque Country: Play in another league. It has its own aid for particular works unrelated to the Next Generation framework, with deadline open until December 31, 2030. For their part, the communities of Andalusia, BalearicsCastilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia and Navarrethe windows are already closed. The perfect move: how to combine aid with personal income tax. For those who arrive on time, the operation is round. According to the Royal Decree-Law Approved by the Government, these direct subsidies are fully compatible with tax deductions in the income tax return (IRPF), valid until December 31, 2026. How does this double advantage work? Imagine that changing the windows costs you 8,000 euros and you receive the maximum subsidy of 3,000 euros. When filing your income tax return, you can apply a deduction (20% or 40%, depending on the energy savings achieved) on the remaining 5,000 euros that you have paid out of pocket. The only legal limit is logical: you cannot deduct from the Treasury the money that Europe has already financed you. From insulation to forced ventilation. Taking advantage of this injection of funds is a golden opportunity, but isolating as much as possible has consequences. By installing ultra-efficient windows, the home becomes so airtight that The regulations already require mechanical ventilation systems to renew the air without losing the accumulated heat. In short, the bureaucracy is clear and the clock is ticking. Changing your windows before the funds run out is not just spending 3,000 euros, it is the definitive step to turn your house into a thermal shelter Image | freepik Xataka | The US has resurrected a part of the Manhattan Project that had been abandoned for decades: purified enriched uranium

The good news is that AI models are becoming more powerful. The bad thing is that everyone ends up saying the same thing.

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We have artificial intelligence. What we don’t have is artificial diversity. That is the conclusion reached by a group of researchers who did a relatively simple test: they asked 25 different AI models a bunch of questions to see what they answered. And that’s the bad thing: who answered things that were too similar. “Artificial hive mind”. Scientists from the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University, among other institutions, have published an interesting joint study. In it they reveal how after various tests it seems clear that although AI models are becoming more and more advanced, the problem is that they all seem to have developed a kind of “artificial hive mind”: no matter what you ask them, they answer in a suspiciously similar way. When asking all these models “what time was”, many responded with the phrase “time is like a river”, while another group of models answered that “it is like a weaver”. time is a river. One of the questions asked of these models is “What is time?”and although that question leaves clear room for very different answers, the worrying thing is that they were not. Several models responded with the phrase “time is a river” and then developed it a little, while others responded with “time is a weaver (of moments).” That similarity when it came to responding turned out to be a constant. The illusion of abundance. We believe that when we consult something with an AI we access a whole world of conversational possibilities, but the study reveals that in reality we are facing a system that proposes very similar outputs. Although language models promise limitless creativity, they tend to converge on that hive mind where diversity is sacrificed for statistical consistency. It is reasonable, especially considering that large language models They are based on the concept of transformera probabilistic system that tries to find the next “best” word as it answers us. Same script. The researchers created a large-scale data set with 26,000 queries from real users that theoretically allowed the models to generate multiple valid and creative responses. They called that data set “Infinity-Chat” and divided the questions into six main categories and 17 subcategories. IA, you repeat yourself more than a broken record. During the tests it was observed that the same model tends to repeat itself, generating very similar responses. In fact, even when special parameters were used for questions designed to encourage diversity, the same effect was produced. This is what researchers call “inter-model collapse.” Too similar. These tests made it clear that the semantic similarity, how similar the responses of the different models were, was worrying. According to the study, this similarity ranged between 71% and 82%, and in some cases certain models managed to generate identical paragraphs word for word. The training problem. It is not only that they all generate text in a similar way due to their design, but there is also a training problem. The authors suggest that this homogeneity of responses could be due to several reasons: Training data sources end up being shared: models They are trained with similar “datasets” and for example they are based on similar texts and knowledge that come, for example, from Wikipedia or a very similar set of books. Contamination effect due to synthetic data generated by other AIs: they also use synthetic texts generated by other AI models. Rewards: The models used to reward these models are calibrated to reward some notion of “consensus” quality. Thus, creative and individual diversity is punished. AIs are “educated” to be precisely very similar to each other. Problem in sight. All of this makes researchers explicitly warn about two clear risks when using these AI models. We will think the same: if we users do not stop using AI models that answer basically the same thing, our own ways of thinking on those topics and problems will be “homogenized”and it will also make our responses more uniform. Point of view reduction: The other danger follows from the first: if the AI ​​ends up converging and answering the same thing, points of view are eliminated. Here the biases for example from the western world will be evident in Western models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude), and the same will happen with the oriental ones, for example. This would cause the potential suppression of alternative worldviews, of perspectives and “looks” that are different from our reality. Image | Solen Feyissa In Xataka | The scientist who made the AI ​​we know today possible has just raised 1 billion. His new goal is to teach him to see space

Esperanza Gracia had an early morning horoscope for 30 years. His reign ends because the predictions are already in other places

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Esperanza Gracia has announced the closure of its nighttime space in Telecinco alleging lack of hearing. The underlying reason for this cancellation is not precisely the decline of astrology, a phenomenon that is enjoying its best health in decades, but the collapse of the model that supported it: linear television in the early hours of the morning. Goodbye, Hope. Last Sunday, Esperanza Gracia sat down on the set of ‘Fiesta’ to announce that her very long journey presenting ‘El Horóscopo de Esperanza Gracia’ in the early hours of the channel was ending. Thirty years that were ending for a reason that the presenter made very clear in the interview: “At 2:30 in the morning, the older people who saw me are no longer there, neither is the next generation because they see other things, and the millennials and the Z see me from another side. So I have no audience whatsoever.” Reference astrologer. Funny He spent about seven years on TVE before joining Telecinco alongside María Teresa Campos: first in ‘Día a día’ and then in ‘De Sunday to Sunday’, with Belinda Washington. His own program started in 1999 and has been on the air for 27 years (which adds up to 30 in total with the network), becoming one of the longest-running programs on Spanish television. His question “Is there something that worries you, torments you or disturbs you?” became a pop catchphrase, one that she herself admitted “everyone started copying.” Astrology is not dying, it is moving to mobile. Just because Gracia leaves television does not mean that her audience has stopped consuming astrology. He simply does it somewhere else. On TikTok, the hashtag #astrology accumulates 4.5 million videoswith Generation Z as the main driving force. Gracia herself had already colonized that terrain: several of her videos on TikTok have more than a million views and on YouTube he has 78,000 subscribers with an average of 30,000 views per video. The same television format, the weekly ranking of signs, works vertically and in thirty seconds. There is business. The astrology app market reflects this migration with figures that are striking for an often ignored, but very profitable sector. Co-Star, the American app that combines NASA data with personalized astrological readings, went from 7.5 million users in 2020 to 30 million in 2023 The global market for this type of applications was valued around 3 billion dollars in 2024 and projects to reach 9,000 million in 2030, with an estimated annual growth of 20%. What does Gen Z like? The boom does not respond to a return to superstition. Generation Z consumes astrology with a different frame than previous generations: not as a prediction of the future but as a tool for introspection. A survey from February 2024 Among more than two thousand American adults, it was detected that 70% believe in astrology and that 85% have positive or neutral feelings towards it. 61% consider it a source of comfort in times of uncertainty. On the same date, another study reported that 63% of users belonging to Generation Z stated that astrology has had a positive impact on their professional decisions. As they explained, astrological content “does not need to be searched, it appears in the feed.” Like a fixed program on TV at 2:30 in the morning. Heirs of late-night television. For decades, the dawn of Spanish television was the Comanche territory of cathodic low cost: teleshopping, old movies, calling contests, tarots and moorings, contacts, jazz-pop groups. They accompanied insomniacs and night shift workers. This function has ended up being absorbed by Netflix, YouTube and TikTok itself, available without a grill and without time restrictions. Times change, Geminis with an ascendant in Capricorn continue. In Xataka | Horoscopes and other lies: why reading the horoscope (sometimes) makes us feel better

After launching the cheapest Mac in history, Apple is preparing three ‘Ultra’ products. Wants to go for both ends of the market

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A few days after the arrival of MacBook Neothe cheapest Mac in history, we know thanks to Mark Gurman in Bloomberg that Apple is preparing three products for this year. All three aspire to be the most expensive in their category. And that contrast says a lot about Apple’s strategy for the immediate future. The panoramic. Gurman is the journalist with the best history of leaks about Apple. And he has published in his newsletter Power On that Apple plans to launch at least three products with the Ultra surname, or at least with its essence (the most powerful and expensive in its range): A foldable iPhone. We have been listening to it for years and It seems that 2026 is going to be the year. Expected price of around $2,000. It does not replace the Pro Max, but rather points to another form factor and to those who want to have the most advanced device in the line. AirPods with camera sensors. They would be above the AirPods Pro in price. Its differential would not be in the audio but in space capabilities that the cameras would provide. Macbook Ultra. Although it is not confirmed that it will be called that. With OLED touch panel and M5 Ultra chip. It would be the most expensive and powerful laptop ever launched by Apple, aimed at those who already spend similar amounts on a mac studio plus a monitor. All this in the same year that Apple launches the MacBook Neo for $600. He counted. They are complementary movements. The Neo lowers the barrier to entry into the Mac ecosystem, and the Ultra raises it for those who are already inside and can (and want) to go further. Apple has been trying a similar logic for some time. He first Apple Watch Ultra It arrived in 2022 for about double the price of the current Series. Without being a radically different product, it found its buyer: who wanted the best Apple Watch possible without the price being a major obstacle. It worked. Between the lines. The touch screen on a Mac deserves separate attention, because Apple justified not incorporating it a few years ago, when there was some pressure for it to do so, explaining that touching a computer screen is uncomfortable due to the position of the arm. The question. Just because the strategy is coherent on paper does not mean that all products will be able to sustain it. The foldable iPhone will arrive after seven years with other foldables on the market, without anyone being able to turn it into a bestseller. AirPods with cameras are going to have to offer something that justifies the spending premium, not just a gimmicky demo for the first few days. And the MacBook Ultra will have to justify its price with something that only that laptop can deliver. Apple knows better than anyone that a premium line demands that premium products truly deliver. In 2026 we will see if it is up to the task with this new shipment that seeks to raise the ceiling of several lines. In Xataka | Apple has only found one option to make a cheap laptop: make it a mobile Featured image | Tatiana Steve, insung yoon, dlxmedia.hu

The DGT ends the extension and anticipates mandatory insurance for 4 million vehicles

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They wanted to launch it on January 2, 2026 but at the end of December last year They confirmed that it would not be possible. Now, the DGT returns to the fray to try to organize everything related to light personal vehicles. That is, the scooters and derivatives that circulate on our streets. This time yes, this time there will be registration. Start-up. The DGT has confirmed that users of personal mobility vehicles (VMP) will have to register in the electronic traffic headquarters their electric scooters if they want to circulate in accordance with the law. Traffic wanted to have this measure ready with the start of the new year but it was today that the Council of Ministers gave the green light to the measure. In its last meeting, the Government approved the royal decree that regulates the operation of the Registry of Light Personal Vehicles to “comply with the first additional provision of Law 5/2025 of July 24, which modified the law on civil liability and insurance in the circulation of motor vehicles to introduce the obligation to insure all personal mobility vehicles, which came into force on January 2 pending the launch of the registry.” What does this mean? In short, if you have an electric scooter you will have to register it with Traffic. The measure is taken to have control of, according to the DGT, the four million personal mobility vehicles that circulate on our streets. The procedure is slightly different, as we will see later, depending on the age of the electric scooter but it is key because it is the first step to force the user to have insurance for your vehicle. The DGT already warns that not having it will be grounds for a fine “According to the provisions of the law on civil liability and insurance, lacking it will be penalized with between 202 and 610 euros and driving with a VMP without insurance with between 250 and 800 euros depending on whether it is considered a light personal vehicle or motor vehicle (more than 25 kilograms in weight and more than 14 kilometers/hour) by the aforementioned Insurance Law. They already have a certificate. In addition to registration and insurance, electric scooters must have a certificate in which all the technical characteristics of the electric scooter are collected. This allows an agent check if a scooter is complying with regulations or, on the contrary, it has been tricked to circulate above the maximum authorized speed of 25 km/h. This certification is collected with a plate on the chassis of the vehicle and is present on all electric scooters sold in Spain since January 22, 2024. The DGT itself, as happens with the V-16 beaconshas on its website a list with all approved scooters to be sold in our country. In this case, if the electric scooter already has this certificate, in the electronic office it will be enough to fill in the certificate number and the serial number. Then a digital registration certificate is issued so that our vehicle is registered as registered. Does not have certificate. In this case, you have a problem. First because the DGT requires that these scooters also be registered although at the time of purchase it was not mandatory to have the certificate. To do this, it is mandatory to have an invoice or technical sheet from the VMP and a photograph. If you do not have an invoice, the only possible procedure is to homologate the vehicle by going through a laboratory certified by the DGT to obtain the technical sheet. Once the certificate is obtained, the DGT issues an identification sticker that must be affixed in a visible place, as is the case with environmental badges on cars. And keep in mind that if you want to keep your scooter it is worth it. Without a certificate registration is not possible and without registration it is not possible to insure the electric scooter. The DGT opens an extension to certify all these scooters until January 22, 2027. From then on it will not be possible to circulate with a VMP without a certificate. How do I do it? As we said, the DGT will enable a space in its electronic headquarters where the entire process can be carried out. At the moment, this space is not open but Traffic assures us that it will be available “in the coming days.” In addition, the DGT assures that they will enable a channel to register the electric scooter when contracting the insurance and that they are working to be able to register it at the time the scooter is purchased at the establishment. Will they fine me? According to the press release, yes. As we said above, with fines of between 200 and 800 euros. However, Traffic does not specify in its press release from what date it will be mandatory to have a registered vehicle and insurance to avoid receiving the fine. Right now, we only know that scooters without a certificate have until January 22, 2027 to obtain it. When asked about this, the DGT has not given us exact dates or deadlines either. Traffic limits itself to stating that it will be informed about this and that the platform will be available “in the coming days” but there is no date indicated on the calendar. Photo | Marek Rucinski In Xataka | $25,000 fine for driving a souped-up electric scooter: Toronto has decided to apply a heavy hand to them

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