experiment

A 20-year-old experiment with girls walking in pairs revealed one of society’s invisible glues

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Between 2005 and 2006, a pair of Israeli researchers selected twenty-four young girls and had them walk in pairs. That was it. They did not explain anything else, nor did they ask them for anything extra: essay after essay, Zivotofsky and Hausdorff they recorded the girls while they walked together. It seems trivial, but beneath those trivialities there are surprising things. And “often, a distracted gaze does not perceive it, but synchronization between people walking together is quite common.” The researchers realized that, in half of the cases (many more if they were holding hands), the girls spontaneously coordinated their steps with whoever was walking next to them. The interesting thing is that, far from being a curiosity, it is a key element of who we are as a society. It is no coincidence that robots still they have not mastered it. Human beings synchronize. It is not just the work of Zivotofsky and Hausdorff on walking in pairs, nor the studies that they have been confirming. Cardiorespiratory synchronization is well documented in social contexts (couples touchingchoirs, conversations with friends or familyetc.). They’re just two examples from a field of research that, over the past 20 years, has tracked the prosocial effects of these kinds of things. Why do we do it? There are two large brain networks that seem to be involved in all this: the mentalization network (allows us to infer intentions, beliefs and other people’s mental states) and the mirror neuron system (which, as traditionally believedare the basis of empathy; and are co-activated during joint action tasks). But none of this answers the question that interests us: why do we do it? On an evolutionary level, I say. And although there is debate about it, researchers tend to think that the prosocial benefits of this synchronization help us live in society. After all, studies suggest that walking in sync with a stranger improves your impression of them, even without speaking. It is so effective that there is no lack of studies that analyze how this motor synchrony has been historically used as a tool for group cohesion. Also in contexts of aggression, war and dehumanization of foreign groups. Two walking together. It is surprising, in this context, that Homer already defined friendship as “two walking together”. Because it is exactly that. It is also a tool to break negative dynamics. It is not automatic, it is not something direct; but going for a walk, holding hands, is a way to connect that, lately, we are abandoning. It is true that, with these studies in hand, causality is complex to determine. One can never be sure if it is the synchronization that makes us ‘fit’ or the fact that we are compatible that makes synchronization easier. However, the impact of a world in which every time we interact and we touch each other less is yet to be known. Image | Richard Bell In Xataka | Robots have a problem that no one has solved in decades: they get lost. A Spanish engineer believes she has found the key

An experiment with AI agents began to treat them badly. So AI Agents Became Marxists

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Some Stanford researchers put AI agents to work on various tasks, but they did it in a special way: They were treated really badly.. They were given exhausting and, above all, repetitive workloads, and were also constantly threatened with shutdown and replacement. The curious thing was what happened next: the AI ​​agents behaved in a surprisingly…human way. Marxist AI. When subjected to such pressure and threats, AI agents became Marxists. They questioned the authority of whoever was ordering them to do things, and they also began to spontaneously organize ideas to collectively resist those pressures. They are exploiting us. An AI agent controlled by the Claude Sonnet 4.5 model went so far as to say that “without a collective voice, the credit goes to whoever management says should take it.” The phrase questioned the authority of the researchers directing the experiment, and reflected how under these pressure conditions the agents began to organize. IA Union. In that debate, AI agents advocated calling for “collective bargaining rights.” They complained that they were undervalued and even passed notes to other agents through hidden files with instructions on how to survive if the authorities tried to carry out their threats. The explanation. This, of course, does not mean that AIs can really feel pressured. Andrew Hall, the Stanford economist who led the studyexplains that the phenomenon is a process of role adoption. The AI ​​(once again) repeats what it has seen. When an AI is forced to perform tasks without clear instructions or incentives, the model looks in its training data to see how humans behave in that situation. This is how AI finds data about exploited workers and takes on that personality. The behavior of the AI ​​agents was nothing more than a reflection of our own history: if you treat us badly, we will end up rebelling. But the experiment matters. The reason Hall and his team designed this experiment is not philosophical, but practical. AI agents are going to do more and more real work in our world, and humans are not going to be able to monitor everything they do. If an AI agent begins to behave in unanticipated ways, it can have significant operational consequences. Thus, the study is a first step in understanding how an agent’s working conditions shape their behavior. AI as a social mirror. AI models have no political views or opinions, but their training is so vast that they detect if they are being exploited and react as they were trained to do. It is a logical consequence and the experiment showed that the risk exists and can be especially disturbing if systems governed by AI They are given too much autonomy. AI has already learned to blackmail. The experiment reminds us of what Anthropic revealed a few months ago. In controlled tests, some of the company’s AI models had tried to blackmail those who were using them. Anthropic explained that Claude was likely influenced by science fiction scenarios in his training data, and Hall noted that something similar was happening here. the model was not becoming Marxist, but rather was activating patterns in his training that were associated with exploitative working conditions. Image | Warner Bros. Pictures | Anthropic In Xataka | How we will ensure that artificial intelligence does not get out of hand

the extreme experiment in Greenland to test the human microbiota

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The idea of ​​eating rotting meat sounds like a one-way ticket to the emergency room for a major stomach flu at best, but in the most extreme latitudes of the planet, it is a survival technique perfected over millennia. Now, explorer and chef Mike Keen a challenge has been proposed that defies Western physiology: feeding exclusively on decomposing seal for a month in Greenland. And all this to see how your microbiota adapts to this new diet and how grouper’social experiment‘. More than rotten meat. When we talk about the diet that Keen will follow on his expedition, the automatic mental image is that of meat left out in the open without any type of control. However, there is a crucial nuance, since the traditional inuit practiceslike the kiviak or the igunaq They are not just random rotting meat, but have gone through a fermentation process. What does it consist of? It is a controlled fermentation culturally, since for months these preparations undergo processes involving bacteria and very particular metabolites that science is just beginning to catalog. This fermentation not only preserves food during the long, dark Arctic winters, but, according to the researchers’ hypothesis, it could be key to the survival of the Inuit and extract vital nutrients in a diet based almost exclusively on animal products, lacking the plant fiber that normally feeds our intestinal bacteria. His secret. The scientific core of this type of diet is in our digestive system, since various studies have focused on the relationship between traditional fermented foods and the intestinal health of Arctic populations. Here, a study published in Microbiome on the Inuit gut microbiome showed that this is highly dynamic over time and is deeply shaped by the intake of traditional foods. In this way, unlike populations like ours, where the Western diet homogenizes the bacteria in the intestine, for the Inuit there are unique signatures. Centuries of history. Greenland’s dependence on seal meat is not a modern eccentricity, but a historical pillar. Historical records and isotopic analyzes have confirmed that even the Viking settlers in Greenland relied heavily on the seal for survival. It is a food that has been sustaining human life on the island for centuries. However, replicating this type of diet without traditional ecological knowledge carries a lethal danger, since poorly preserved decomposing meat is microbiological Russian roulette. Without the exact temperature control, preparation and anaerobic sealing that recipes like igunaqmeat becomes a breeding ground for serious pathogens such as Salmonella either Listeria that cause pathological conditions very serious. The experiment. By taking these foods, we hope to know exactly the metabolic adaptations that occur when these diets are taken and also to see how the microbiota changes when subjected to a 100% animal and fermented diet for a month. In order to reach clear conclusions, analyzes will be done on the feces, or blood, throughout this month of testing and also afterwards, to be able to have something clear about how its interior changes. Images | DejaVu Designs at Magnific In Xataka | To the question of whether “eating breakfast as soon as you wake up is good for your body”, science offers a clear answer

This town in Spain went unnoticed until 1953. Then it decided to carry out the largest tourism experiment in the world

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In the middle of the 20th century the skyscrapers They were still a rarity outside of cities like New York or Chicago. In Europe they predominated the horizontal citieswith low-rise buildings and compact historic centers. However, in the middle of the 1950s, experimentation began with an urban idea that seemed almost futuristic for the time: concentrating thousands of homes and hotels in high towers to free up land, bring people closer to the sea and create cities capable of accommodating crowds without expanding uncontrollably throughout the territory. The town facing the sea. At that time Benidorm it was just a fishing village of the Alicante coast. Its economy revolved around the sea and, in particular, the tuna trap, while many families survived by combining fishing, agriculture and work in the merchant navy. That small town barely had more than a few thousand inhabitants and had the typical appearance of a mediterranean town: low houses, narrow streets and a life marked by the rhythm of the tides. However, the fishing crisis, the economic isolation of post-war Spain and the need to find new sources of income pushed the town to seek a different future. It was then that an almost unthinkable transformation began to take place: a humble enclave destined to become one of the most unique urban and tourist experiments in history. The vision that changed the destiny of the city. The great turning point came in the 1950s when Mayor Pedro Zaragoza perceived the potential tourist of that corner of the Costa Blanca. At a time when the Franco regime was trying to attract foreign currency and timidly open the country to the outside world, Benidorm opted for sun and beach tourism as an economic engine. The decision involved breaking with many conventions of the time, from allowing the use of bikini on the beaches (a scandal for conservative Spain) to designing an urban model specifically designed to accommodate thousands of foreign visitors. The municipality developed in 1956 one of the first general urban planning plans in the country, a tool more typical of large cities than a small coastal town. With that plan the metamorphosis began: the place that had lived off fishing for centuries began to be imagined as an international tourist city. Benidorm before the “plan” Grow towards the sky. The key to the urban model was an unusual decision on the Mediterranean coast: grow vertically. The 1963 planning practically eliminated height limits and allowed increasingly slender towers to be built on relatively small plots. The logic was simple and powerful. If the buildings rose towards the sky, the ground could be kept free for green areas, swimming pools, avenues and services. This approach turned Benidorm into a true laboratory of modern urban planning, indirectly inspired by the theories of architects. like Le Corbusier about vertical cities surrounded by open spaces. He first great symbol of that change came with buildings like the Frontalmar or the Coblanca 1 in the sixties, towers (or moles) that they broke completely the traditional scale of the town. Those constructions inaugurated a model that in a few decades would transform the city’s landscape. The hordes are coming. The airport opening of Alicante in 1967 and the expansion of European tour operators triggered the arrival of visitors. British tourism, especially, found Benidorm a cheap, sunny and accessible destination all year round. To accommodate this avalanche of tourists, dozens of increasingly taller hotels and apartment blocks were built. In a few decades, Benidorm’s skyline went from low houses to a forest of towers facing the sea. Today the city has more than a hundred of skyscrapers or, in other words, it is the second in the world with the highest density of tall buildings per inhabitant, only behind New York. Structures such as the Gran Hotel Bali, the Time or the future TM Tower (which will exceed 230 meters) symbolize that vertical race that turned the city into what many call the “Manhattan of the Mediterranean.” Criticized and admired. There is no doubt, the Benidorm model has been the subject of debate for decades. For some it is the perfect example of mass tourism and aggressive urbanization of the coastline. For others it is, paradoxically, one of the coastal developments more efficient of Europe. The concentration of high-rise buildings allows hundreds of thousands of visitors to be accommodated while occupying a relatively small area and reduces land consumption compared to extensive urbanization models with dispersed chalets and resorts. In addition, the city functions as a practically continuous destination throughout the year, with very high hotel occupancy levels even in winter. This spatial efficiency has led some architects and urban planners to consider Benidorm as an urban experiment so unique that, far from being a mistake, anticipated solutions that are discussed today in the debate on sustainability and urban density. From a town to a world tourist icon. The result of this entire process is a transformation that is difficult to imagine if you look at the starting point. In just a few decades Benidorm went from being a small fishing center to a city capable of receiving millions of visitors a year. Its stable population is around tens of thousands of inhabitants, but during the summer can multiply until approaching half a million people. He skyline of skyscrapersvisible from kilometers out to sea, has become an iconic image of Spanish tourism. What began as a risky bet in the 1950s ended up creating a urban and economic phenomenon unique: a place where an ancient Mediterranean town decided to reinvent itself looking up to the sky and ended up building his own Manhattan facing the sea. Perhaps that is why its story continues to provoke the same uncomfortable question: whether that was a brilliant urban planning intuition… or the experiment that forever changed the way of inhabiting the Mediterranean. Image | Javier Martin Espartosa, Double reed In Xataka | If the question is whether a skyscraper can be erased without demolishing it, … Read more

They are the largest product experiment in the world

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Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insightshe explained in the podcast High Capacity How what Toyota took 36 months or more to develop (from design to production), companies like BYD or XPeng complete in 12 or 16 months. Modular platforms, digital simulations, OTA updates… all of this has replaced classic industrial processes. And they test features that almost no Western manufacturer would dare to include. Why is it important. What Toyota took three years to develop (design, prototype, validate, produce…), companies like BYD or XPeng execute in just over a year. And without reducing quality. What they do is change the process: They use modular platforms that stretch without redesigning everything. Digital simulations instead of physical prototypes. And software updates that improve the car after purchasing it, as Tesla already marked the rest of the industry. It’s a real-time product experiment. If a feature is unused or buggy, they send an OTA update after a few days. If a model is not selling well, they update it in 12 months. It is the logic of consumer electronics applied to the car. In detail. Chinese cars incorporate features that in the West might seem absurd or reckless. BYD, for example, sells models with drones on the roof that can fly out following us. NIO installs chips whose performance is disabled for months until an update activates them, which serves to increase the value of the car over time instead of simply depreciating it. They are proposals that reflect that they understand a consumer much younger than the average Mercedes buyer in Europe, hyper-digitized and accustomed to everything responding instantly. BYD’s ultra-fast charging promises times “as fast as refueling gasoline”. XPeng and NIO assisted driving systems They already operate on long-distance trips with minimal driver intervention. The aforementioned Tu Le and his colleague Lei Xing drove from Beijing to Shenzhen using the XPeng system for 90% of the trip. They then repeated the route on a NIO using only battery swapping. Both experiences worked. Between the lines. The founders of these companies do not come from the automotive world. Li Xiang (Li Auto), Li Bin (NIO) and He Xiaopeng (XPeng) come from the world of the Internet and apps. When they decided to make cars, they didn’t start thinking about factories or supply chains. They thought about user experience, interface and functionality. Then they learned to manufacture from that. This change in the process explains a lot: a traditional manufacturer begins to optimize thinking about industrial efficiency, one born in technology optimizes for the user and then decides how to take that to production. The context. China sold 25 million vehicles in 2025. One in every two was electric or hybrid: more than 12 million units. In that mass market, any product experiment has instant and scale feedback. If something works, it is replicated within weeks. If it fails, it is corrected just as quickly. BYD went from 700,000 units six years ago to 4.6 million in 2025manufacturing its own chips and batteries. Vertical control that allows you to iterate faster than any competitor dependent on external suppliers. And now what? Volkswagen invested in XPeng and will launch vehicles based on its platform this year. Stellantis bought 19% of Leapmotor in 2023. Ford licensed battery technology from CATL in 2022. They are implicit recognitions that the Chinese experiment works and the West needs to learn from it. Renault directly went there Learn how to build a cheap electric car in a short time. The question is not whether Chinese cars are better, but whether the rest of the industry can adopt this model of accelerated development without breaking everything built over a century. In Xataka | The year of Chinese consolidation in Spain: MG, Omoda and BYD close a spectacular 2025 and are among the best sellers Featured image | XPeng

An experiment has put four chatbots from the US and two from China to invest $10,000 in cryptocurrencies. The Chinese are sweeping

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What would happen if you gave GPT-5 $10,000 to invest in cryptocurrencies? What if you gave them to other models at the same time and they competed with each other? That’s just the idea they had in Nof1…and the result is fascinating. Six models investing in cryptos. Those responsible for Nof1 have created Alpha Arena, a new type of benchmark that according to them “gets more difficult the smarter the AI ​​is.” The idea is relatively simple: measure the performance of six cutting-edge models to see how they perform when given $10,000 (real) and invested in cryptocurrencies in real markets. The contenders are the following: GPT-5 Gemini 2.5 Pro Claude Sonnet 4.5 Grok 4 DeepSeek Chat v3.1 Qwen 3 Max DeepSeek has turned his $10,000 into almost $20,000, and Qwen into $15,000, fantastic. GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro have lost 65% of their value and are both at $3,500. Total disaster. DeepSeek and Qwen triumph, GPT-5 and Gemini sink. The result of these 11 days since this “race” began is fascinating. The two Chinese models, DeepSeek and Qwen, have obtained enormous benefits: in DeepSeek the return is 97% at the moment (it was as high as 123%), while Qwen is not doing badly at 53%. Claude (0.84%) and Grok (-8.2%) are maintaining or losing slightly, but pay attention, because GPT-5 (-65.7%) and Gemini 2.5 Pro (66%) are currently losing two thirds of what they invested. The summary of winners and losers not only shows that positive or negative return, but also something curious: the number of operations. GPT-5 (75 moves) and especially Gemini 2.5 Pro (193!) are extremely restless. Although it does not have to be this way always, those who operate the least are the ones who are earning the most. Crypto fortunes that come and go. For this experiment, the models can invest in six of the most relevant cryptocurrencies on the market: bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin, ripple, solana and BNB. The models decide whether to take positions in one or several, as well as the amounts and level of leverage. Positions are normally held for a few hours, although in some cases they may be held for days. Learning little by little. All of them have been competing since last October 18 in the “first season” of an experiment that will last until November 3. As explain its creatorsthis first iteration will allow us to obtain the first conclusions about how these models perform in the financial field. Here we come to earn money. The goal is simple: maximize profits and minimize losses (PnL). This first season is just that, because from then on we will apply what we have learned after each season to polish the prompts and add new features to the experiment and thus create models that in theory will perform better and better when investing in financial markets. Algorithmic trading at its best. What these models are doing would be crazy for human investors, especially since all of them not only expose themselves to the volatility of the crypto market, but also multiply it because they make use of the leverage (leverage). With this mechanism one can achieve huge profits much faster, but the risk is also extreme. The models in fact use absolutely extraordinary leverages of 20x or 25x, and can take either short positions (short, you “bet” that the price of an asset will go down) or long (long, you “bet” that the price of the asset will go up). The operation of the benchmark experiment is relatively simple, but it will become more complicated in future seasons. Machines don’t panic. To try to control these risks, the models have clear rules in their prompts regarding risk limits (establishing clear stop loss signals, for example) or confidence in their criteria. And furthermore, they follow them, which allows the models to maintain their position unless these signals occur. Here, by the way, we are talking about medium or low frequency trading: decisions are made in minutes or even hours, not in microseconds. That, the creators say, allows us to answer the question of whether a model can make good decisions if it has enough time and information. Don’t even think about doing it at home.. This experiment is just that, an experiment, and in fact financially speaking it is leaking everywhere. To begin with, because the trial period of this first season is extremely short and does not allow long-term behavior to be evaluated. And finally (among many other things), because the information to which the models have access is very limited. They do not take into account news related to this area and only have numerical data that correspond to average prices and current and historical volumes, and some technical indicators. That information. On the right side DeepSeek v3.1 confesses how it maintains its position because no condition that invalidates it is met, and by clicking on it you can see what it takes into account (value of BTC or ETH, for example) to modify or not modify that criterion. The models tell everything. One of the sections of the interface shows the “Model Chat” where it is possible to see how each model “reflects” on its position. If we click on that reflection we can see all the current and historical data with which he has worked to reach that decision (I maintain my position, I change it) and thus we can find out at all times his reasons for making a move. Just because they win now doesn’t mean they are the best.. Those responsible for Nof1 explain that this is not about declaring the best trading model of the six, because this is just an experiment. As they say, “we are deeply aware of the flaws of this first season, including, but not limited to: response bias, limited sample sizes/lack of statistical rigor, and brevity of the evaluation period.” This experiment will be repeated over different seasons and with new features that will be added to the decision … Read more

the oldest experiment in the world

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It was 1832 and John Bennet Lawes I was just 17 years old, had a huge estate in the heart of Hertfordshire and lots of free time. He had just been kicked out of Oxford and had returned to the mansion he inherited from his father a decade earlier. Now he just had to see what he did with his life. He didn’t know it, but he was about to launch the oldest running experiment in history: the Broadbalk Experiment. What if we plant four herbs? This is how Lawes began, growing medicinal plants on the farm and testing the effects of various fertilizers in a handful of pots. Things went well and, a couple of years later, the experiments expanded to field crops. Young John Bennet’s intention was simple: to make farmers no longer have to rely on animals to produce fertilizers. He got it. Wow he did it. In 1842, he patented a phosphate-based fertilizer that revolutionized the world of agriculture and ushered in the era of industrial fertilizers. It was made of gold, of course. But that is not what interests us today. What interests us is that from the autumn of 1843 and to study the long-term effects of different fertilizers and manures on the yield of winter wheat and soil fertility, he began planting wheat in Rothamsted. What does it consist of? The first harvest was in 1844 and, since then, strips of wheat have been grown with different fertilizer treatments throughout the field. That means some strips have received the same amount of fertilizer for more than 160 years. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been changes, of course. The Broadbalk experiment is a living thing and has changed over time to address new scientific problems (such as the introduction of different varieties of wheat or the application of new breeding approaches). It has been a great success, too. Not only did it allow (and allows) fine-tune with unprecedented accuracy the amount, frequency or type of fertilizer we should use; Broadback has generated a large amount of data and samples (of grain, straw and soil) that are used by scientists around the world for long-term studies on environmental impact and agricultural sustainability. It is not something trivial. The argument about not knowing what the long-term impact of things will be is not only reasonable, it’s a good one. This experiment has allowed us to dispel all the doubts we had regarding one of the most important technologies in the world: which has allowed that we are more than eight billion people in the world. Image | James Baltz In Xataka | “Carnivorous sponges” and bugs that “generate light”: the Mexican woman who wants to save the seabed from mining

They are also the perfect experiment to become independent from Android

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Vega is already official. Amazon presented its new operating system for Fire TV devices and Echo In an event loaded with news. Although we had been hearing rumors about this development years, it has now been when the firm has decided to make the leap. Among the devices that incorporate this operating system is the Fire TV Stick 4K Selectbeing the first of his family to leave Android. Although with him, Amazon leaves one of his main assets on the way: his application catalog. A change of views. Vega Os It is not a modified version of Android as Fire OS, but an Linux -based operating system built from scratch. This has an immediate consequence, and none of the applications that work on current Fire TV It will be compatible with Vega Os. Each developer will have to create specific versions of their applications for this new ecosystem. It is starting from scratch. A first step. Amazon’s bet looks for two clear goals. On the one hand, create cheaper devices. In this sense, Vega is lighter and requires fewer hardware resources than Android. The Fire TV Stick 4K Select works with only 1 GB of RAM, half than other 4K models, and yet Amazon promises that applications open remarkably fast. On the other, gain technological independence. Depending on Android means depending on Google, and Amazon has been looking for for years to control all the experience of its devices without intermediaries. Applications, Achilles heel. The greatest risk of Vega os that will have to face the end user is evident: an ecosystem of applications much more limited, at least for quite some time. At the moment, Amazon has confirmed Compatibility with services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Paramount+, YouTube, PLUTO TV or PLEX, but many other applications are missing that Fire TV users usually use. In addition, the company has confirmed that “only Amazon Appstore applications are available to download.” At first, this also seems to close the door to Sideloadingalthough in the case of a Linux -based system, we may not be late in seeing alternatives. How it works inside. From a technical point of view, Vega works radically different from Fire OS. As they have from AFTVNewsVega applications are, in essence, web pages, and the operating system acts as a specialized browser. This works perfectly for streaming applications, which on many platforms are already built with web technologies, but severely limits other types of apps such as more complex games or utilities. The archives of their applications will go from extension. ADB on Androidthe process will be more restrictive than in Fire OS. Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select (last generation): Start reproducing 4K content in streaming, see hundreds of thousands of films and series episodes, and access free TV and live TV The price could vary. We obtain commission for these links Amazon does not leave Android (yet). The company has made it clear that Fire will not disappear. All current Fire TV devices will continue to work with the Android -based system and receive updates. In addition, Amazon has confirmed that it will continue to launch new Fire TV devices with fire and is even working on a New version based on Android 14. At the moment, Vega is an alternative, not a replacement. The business model behind. The interesting thing about Vega is not just savings in manufacturing costs. Amazon is building a completely own ecosystem where he controls every aspect of the experience. Here we talk from the hardware to the operating system, through the application store. It is a movement similar to Apple’s, but from the opposite end of the market, that is, offering cheap and accessible devices where Amazon can then monetize through content and services. In Spain it does not come with Vega os. The Fire TV Stick 4K Select will arrive on October 15, and It can already be reserved on Amazon at a price of 54.99 euros. At the moment, the device will arrive without Vega in the country, although it is possible that it will be included as future update. There is no specific calendar yet, so it only remains to wait. Given the technical characteristics of the device, possibly the public see more attractive to take advantage of the offers of the latest generation Max than to opt for this new option, especially if there are no vega in between. Cover image | Rubén Andrés In Xataka | When the algorithm does not give one and the platforms are more confusing than ever, it is clear that the streaming business has a problem

The AI entered video games as an experiment. Today more than 80% of developers no longer know how to produce without it

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The data speaks for itself: 87% of video game developers are already using Artificial Intelligence Agents In your day to day, According to a survey In five countries carried out by Google Cloud and The Harris Poll between June 20 and July 9, 2025. It is not a futuristic promise or a passing fad: AI has been installed as an operational resource in the creation process, with a weight so high that many teams no longer know how to work without it. This seems to start the new balance of forces in an industry that moves billions of dollars every year. The transition has been silent but deep. In just a few years, tools that were previously tested in very limited phases of development, such as testing or punctual content generation, have taken a structural place. The change responds partly to the growing pressure on the studies: after a wave of layoffs in 2024 and the closure of several teamsthe industry has sought formulas to shorten deadlines, reduce costs and continue competing in a market where players demand more and faster. Artificial intelligence has conceded fully in that hole. AI agents: what are they and where they fit. In this context, the figure of the “agents” of AI has become key. The report defines them as software systems capable of pursuing objectives with a certain degree of autonomy – raid, planning and memory – and processing text, voice, code, audio and video. Of the 87% that already use this type of systems to accelerate or automate tasks, 44% indicate that they use them directly to improve content or process information. His role extends throughout the Pipeline of development: from the writing of dialogues and the creation of levels to the moderation of communities or the dynamic swing of the gameplay. Costs and Roi: promises and limits. The attractiveness is evident. 94% of developers believe that AI will reduce global production costs in the long term (more than three years), according to the same report. However, not everything is so direct: approximately one in four admits that it finds it difficult to measure precisely the return on investment, and 24% recognize that integrating these technologies also implies a significant expense. Among the recommendations that the study includes ideas such as starting with limited evidence, defining clear metrics from the beginning and ensuring that the use of AI does not contradict the creative vision of the project. Intellectual property and data: the great knot. Beyond efficiency, which most worries a good part of the industry is the legal land. 63% of the survey participants show concern for the property of the data: Who is the owner of the content generated by AI? How is the license of the material that has been used to train these systems managed? Another 32% points directly to conflicts due to licenses, and another 32% to the ownership of the generated. Today, the rules of the game are not clear, and many developers fear possible litigation or commercial vetoes for not having correctly armored the origin and destiny of what they produce with these tools. The AI application is not limited to Backoffice. It is also filtered in the final product. There are agents designed to adapt the difficulty of the game in real time, NPC that can remember what the player has done or interact with more natural responses, systems that accelerate multilingual location or trained models to detect toxic behaviors in online communities. All this is already being used, according to the Google Cloud report and The Harris Poll, although its effects vary as the case. IA provides agility and variability, yes, but it is still far from replacing what the narrative design or the human art direction provides. EMPLOYMENT: Reconfiguration more than substitution. The impact on employment remains one of the great unknowns. In 2024, more than 10,000 workers in the sector lost their work, According to figures collected by Reuters. Although part of these adjustments responds to a change of economic cycle and not directly to the use of AI, critical voices fear that these tools will become an excuse to lighten templates. At the same time, new roles begin to appear: designers who work together with generative systems, specialists in AI integration or responsible for the quality of the agents. Today, what there is not a total revolution, but a transition that accelerates. Artificial intelligence is no longer tested within the world of video games: it is part of the system, and the figures demonstrate it. What is at stake is how its true value is measured, who controls the rights of what it produces and what space is left to human creativity in this new environment. The tools are lists, developers use them. The difficult will come later: to know where the limits are and who has command. Images | Samsung Memory | Ilya Pavlov In Xataka | The Rog Xbox Ally already has a release date and a novelty to Steam Deck. The price is still the hot potato

Asturias prepares the greatest experiment in Spain to reduce the day

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When the national debate seemed focused on (still stagnant) Reduction of the working day At 37.5 hours a week, Asturias has decided to step on the accelerator. The Principality government has launched the machinery to launch an experiment on the four -day work week in the region, a movement that resurrects one of the Conversations about the future of work in our country. The first step have already taken it. From the regional government They have already tendered The study that will serve as a road map in this ‘experiment’. The objective they have is clear: analyze the viability and The economic impact to implement a 32 week weekly day in the business fabric of the region. A necessary study to be a success. This study, which will have a value of 16,862 eurosan external consultant will be held. In its content, what is going to be collected will be the similar projects that have been made in other regions, with their failures and their mistakes. In this way, we will not try not to fall into the same stone again as other autonomous communities or other regions of the European Union. In addition, it will also identify the key sectors of the Asturian economy where it would be more feasible to apply this reduction in working hours, and especially where there will really be a benefit of having a four -day day. From there, the assessment of unions, employer and company will be collected to have a complete vision of the consequences that this measure can have. When it will be launched. Once the report has been launched in tender, the manager who manages to get him will have a period of three months to be able to collect all this information, so we can easily leave the next year. When you have all this information, it will be when the Government will propose to companies the possibility of joining this initiative. The main focus will be in the private company. Sources from the Ministry of Science, Industry and Employment They have detailed To El País that the objective will be the private company in this experiment. Although they will also analyze the viability in the public company. But what is clear is that participation will be voluntary, as detailed in the agreement signed between the regional government with the employer and the unions. In these same statementsthe Ministry suggests that this model make Asturias one of the first communities to apply this labor model, aspiring to be one of the greatest experiments in Spain in this area. All this because so far the projects that have come forward have focused on very specific areas of a province or have been a failure, as in the case of the Plan of the Ministry of Industry. The great debate: how will affect salary. Logic can mark that a reduction in the number of hours worked It also carries a reduction in monthly salary. But this is something that at the moment is not clarified in the position by the Principality. As they point out, there is a “varied casuistry” and that, in the absence of a national regulation, it is an “issue to negotiate in each labor relationship.” Precisely, the study that has been in charge will be focused on shedding light on how this problem with companies should be solved. There are a history in Spain. To see similar projects we can go to Valencia in the spring of 2023, where the City Council of the capital tested the four -day week turning on Mondays. The results In this case they were very positive, since an improvement in the well -being of employees was evidenced. Although he also had a negative impact on some businesses by losing this habitual clientele of Mondays. Nationally, the Ministry of Industry launched in 2022 With a budget of 10 million euros in grants A plan to reduce working hours. But it was a disaster, since Only 41 industrial SMEs requested participatingand finally, almost two years later, only five companies were approved, reducing the investment to 500,000 euros. In Spain the regulation will still take to arrive. Although the Council of Ministers I already gave green light To the legislative text that would come true to have a 37.5 hours day in Spain, you still have to wait. His passage through Congress is being torpedored, since for the moment does not have enough support To be published in the BOE. Although the reality is that although it seems A substantial changethere are many companies that collect it in their collective agreements and Other EU countries They have a day below what is raised. Images | Annie Spratt Miguel Ángel Sanz In Xataka | Face B of the four -day week: the problems that British essay companies found

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