generate

The ‘Chinese Netflix’ has designed a plan for AI to generate the majority of its content within five years. It sounds risky

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iQiyi, China’s largest video streaming service with more than 400 million monthly active users, announced in its annual content presentation in Beijing which expects AI to generate most of its movies and series within five years. Its founder and CEO, Gong Yu, summed it up before a room of producers and directors with a succinct phrase: “It’s a once-in-a-decade opportunity. We have to go with the tide.” Why is it important. iQiyi is not a minor platform betting on a trend. It is the subsidiary of streaming of Baidu, shares with Alibaba and Tencent the online video oligopoly in China, and operates in the streaming largest in the world by number of users. Whether it decides to pivot towards content generated entirely by AI affects how the rest of the platforms that tend to follow in its footsteps will produce, distribute and monetize audiovisual entertainment. The context. iQiyi has been losing audience for years to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok owned by ByteDance. Short video has cut into the time that Chinese users spend on long video platforms. The result is that its revenue has fallen by 13% in the first quarter of 2026. The company, listed on Nasdaq, has also applied for a second listing in Hong Kong seeking closer capital. The announcement of the pivot towards AI comes from a certain pressure. In detail. The center of the plan is Nadou Proa suite of AI tools that the company presented on April 20 and that, it says, can manage practically the entire film production process: script, storyboardvideo generation and final assembly. The software does not work with its own models, but rather integrates those of several direct competitors: Alibaba, ByteDance and Kuaishou for the domestic market; Seedance 2.0 and Google I Spy 3.1 for the international version. iQiyi has also launched a library of virtual assets and “signed” talent for third-party creators to generate new content using the platform’s characters and universes. The incentive strategy to attract these external creators involves… An extra 20% on advertising and subscription revenue for those who produce content with Nadou Pro. An inaugural catalog of 16 AI-generated films, in science fiction and anime. A public goal: release a commercially successful AI-generated film before the end of summer 2026. Yes, but. The question that remains to be seen is whether anyone will want to pay to see that. Recent history does not invite optimism. AI-generated video has shown some traction on TikTok and Instagram, where the cost of user attention is practically zero and the scroll Erase any disappointment in a tenth of a second. That this tolerance is transferred to a two-hour feature film for which someone pays a monthly subscription is another story. Between the lines. Gong Yu has said that iQiyi will continue investing in professional production, but in the same sentence he has clarified that this type of content will reduce its relative weight on the platform. The direction is quite clear. The risk is that viewers of C-dramas and the anime Koreans who have made iQiyi great are exactly the type of audience that has the least tolerance for ‘AI slop‘. Main loser? The producers and directors who filled that room in Beijing when Gong Yu announced the pivot. iQiyi has designed a system where independent creators can use Nadou Pro to generate content and earn a percentage of the advertising revenue. It’s the same model that YouTube has applied for years with human content, now transferred to AI. In this scheme, professionals in the sector go from being the protagonists of the production chain to being, in the best case, supervisors of a process that they no longer control. In Xataka | In China, 470 series made with AI are produced per day. 99.9% of them do not reach anyone Featured image | iQiyi, Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

now generate Excel files, PDFs and much more directly

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Generative artificial intelligence has changed many things, but it has not eliminated a very everyday scene: asking the chatbot for something, receiving a useful response and ending up taking it by hand to another document. A proposal that ends up in Word, a table that ends up in Excel, some ideas that someone later converts into slides or a summary that must be left clean to send. That middle layer is still time-consuming, even if it seems small. Google just pointed right there with Gemini: less copy and paste, and more converting a request into a file that we can use directly. The novelty. The update announced by Google seeks to put that idea into practice within the Gemini application itself. According to the company, The assistant can now create PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files, and other formats directly from the chat with a simple request. Sundar Pichai pointed out in a publication that the function is now available to all users of the Gemini app globally. More formats. The complete list helps to understand the scope of the function, but the underlying idea is simpler: Gemini is not locked into the Google ecosystem. The company includes Workspace files, Microsoft Office formats and options such as CSV, TXT, RTF, Markdown or LaTeX, more common in data, documentation or structured content tasks. This allows the assistant to fit better into very different routines. The key is that Gemini can not only receive an order, but also context. For example, we could upload several notes to the chatbot and ask for a study guide in PDF, with structure, visual elements and equations if we want a more complete result. That’s the kind of scenario where novelty gains meaning. A scenario where we can also work with our own materials and with tailored instructions to obtain a specific output. Time to create (and review). We are facing a function that promises, especially because it attacks one of those small wastes of time that are repeated every day without us paying too much attention to them. Now, just because Gemini can create a file doesn’t mean that file will be ready to send, publish, or present without looking at it calmly. As with any AI-generated output, we should spend time reviewing the data, including tone, structure, and format. Images | Google In Xataka | The “freemium” model of AI is dying: GitHub Copilot and Claude are putting more and more fees and costs

A year ago, Warner wanted to sink Suno’s AI to generate songs. Today he has decided to ally with her

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From chaos to order: when AI burst onto the music scene it seemed like everything was going to fall apart. And some of the latest news in that field seems to go in that direction: uncontrolled multiplication of false groups created with AI on streaming platforms, accelerated sophistication of AIs that allow the creation of music indistinguishable from that created by humans… however, the majors of the industry have taken action on the matter to turn the situation in their favor. And no, it is not that they have won the multiple lawsuits they filed against the AI ​​companies. It is, perhaps, something much more disturbing: they have reached agreements. What has happened? In just eighteen months, Warner Music Group has completed a radical strategic pivot regarding its relationship with AI. In June 2024the record company sued Suno along with Sony and Universal for massive copyright infringement, accusing the platform of training its models with millions of songs it owned and without authorization. But now he announces an alliance with that same company to license its complete catalog. What is Suno? A music generator through artificial intelligence that has attracted almost 100 million users in two years, and allows complete songs to be created from simple textual descriptions. Users can specify genre, mood, instrumentation and tempo, and the system generates two versions of the requested song in about 15 seconds. To achieve this, Suno combines its own musical model with ChatGPT, and from there come both the music and the lyrics, creating pieces that can include voices and instrumentation or be purely instrumental. What the agreement consists of. The pact establishes that Suno will launch in 2026 new advanced and licensed models that will completely replace your current systems. Artists in Warner’s catalog (Lady Gaga, Coldplay or Ed Sheeran, among many others) will have control over whether or not they allow their names, images, voices and compositions to be used in that AI-generated music. Neither Warner nor Suno disclosed the financial terms of the deal, although Warner CEO Robert Kyncl stated that the goal is to “compensate and protect artists, songwriters and the creative community.” As part of the deal, Suno acquired SongkickWarner’s concert discovery platform. Besides, from now on Song downloads generated by Suno will require a paid account, with download limits and options to purchase additional downloads, a bit like the usage limits established by the level free of other AI models. The original demand. The complaint of 2024 accused Suno and Udio of massive infringement of protected recordings. The record companies they requested damages up to $150,000 per infringed song. Suno admitted that he had trained his model with tens of millions of protected recordings but defended that it was “fair use” (the famous fair use Anglo-Saxon) And what is the reason for the change in Warner and company’s strategy? Suno closed a $250 million financing round at a valuation of $2.45 billion just a week ago, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They are not the first. This is not a desperate deal major allying himself with someone who just a year ago he considered an enemy. It is an industry trend: in June 2024, for example Universal Music reached an agreement with SoundLabs to offer its artists vocal cloning tools through the plugin MicroDrop. In November of this same year, Universal, Sony and Warner themselves closed separate agreements with the brand new startup KLAY to train your “Large Music Model” with licensed music Without a doubt, they are significant agreements, especially because, unlike the cinema wave pressto mention other leisure and communication sectors strongly impacted by AI, majors of music are the first to bury the hatchet. With what it may mean for hostilities to soften in other fields. A doubtful future. For a startSony and Warner maintain active lawsuits against Udio and Suno. And there are multiple doubts about the scope of the contract: supposedly the artists have the right to veto, but As Irving Azoff saysfounder of the Music Artists Coalition, “artists end up on the margins with crumbs.” Other analysts like Frankie Pizá They are even more pessimistic: “What some of us see as a collapse in what we understood as artistry/authorship is quietly becoming a new order regulated by the major record labels themselves” Pizá adds: “The music industry has been perfecting its ability to absorb any technological disruption for decades. It did so with Napster, with YouTube, with the streaming and now with generative AI. The pattern repeats itself: first moral resistance, then demands, then agreement and finally implementation.” Header | Amin Asbaghipour in Unsplash

A Chinese laboratory has managed to generate electricity directly from rain, without occupying land or using metal

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Until now, the electricity from a storm came only from lightning. A Chinese team has just added another protagonist: a device that converts raindrops into usable energy. The invention comes from the Frontier Science Institute of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) and will open a new avenue for renewable energies. Its technical name is Water-integrated Droplet Electricity Generator, or simply W-DEG. The discovery. What differentiates this generator from the rest is not its power, but its logic. According to the published article in National Science Reviewthe device floats on water and uses that same water as part of the electrical circuit. It requires no metals or heavy structures, and yet each drop of rain can release spikes of up to 250 volts. Light, cheap and efficient: a small hydrovoltaic revolution. Rain as a source of clean energy. The physical principle behind W-DEG combines two known phenomena: contact electrification and electrostatic induction. When a droplet impacts a floating dielectric film, electrical charges are instantly redistributed between the surface of the material and the water, generating an electrical pulse. Water acts at the same time as a lower electrode and structural support, thanks to its high surface tension and incompressibility: it is firm enough to withstand the impact of drops, but fluid enough to stabilize the system. To prevent pooled water from blocking new discharges, the researchers added micro-drainage holes that allow liquid to flow downward, but not upward. This design keeps the surface clean even during heavy rain and prevents loss of efficiency. A small prototype. The Nanjing team built a 0.3 square meter prototype. Floating on water, the device was able to illuminate 50 LED diodes simultaneously and charge capacitors in a matter of minutes. Its modular design allows it to be easily expanded to power environmental sensors, water quality monitoring systems or small electrical equipment in rainy areas. Furthermore, the W-DEG is a “soilless” system: it does not occupy agricultural or urban land and can be installed on bodies of water without heavy infrastructure. This makes it an ideal candidate for regions where rain is abundant and space is scarce, or where other renewable sources – such as solar or wind – are less constant. The rise of floating energies. The new Chinese generator arrives at a time when floating energy is experiencing a global boom. Floating solar panels are being installed on ponds and reservoirs around the world, from India until the swiss alpsto produce electricity and reduce water evaporation. However, a study from Cornell University revealed an unexpected effect: in small ponds, these installations can increase methane and carbon dioxide emissions by up to 27%, by altering the balance of aquatic ecosystems. Faced with this challenge, the W-DEG emerges as a more environmentally friendly alternative. By not covering the entire surface of the water or blocking sunlight, it allows energy to be generated without altering aquatic life or natural gas exchange. Will storms generate light? The technology is still in the experimental phase. The NUAA team itself recognizes that it will have to optimize the device’s response to droplets of different sizes and speeds, something essential for real conditions. But the potential is undeniable: a lightweight, economical and durable generator, capable of obtaining energy directly from the natural water cycle, without occupying land or generating waste. Researchers imagine swarms of these devices floating in lakes or reservoirs, charging environmental sensors or powering local microgrids during rain. If every storm could turn on a light or power a system, gray days would no longer be synonymous with a blackout. With inventions like this, the border between water and energy blurs, and nature begins—literally—to generate its own electricity. Image | Unsplash Xataka | China has launched its first floating solar park in the sea: panels that rise and fall with the tide

Science already knows why they generate an indestructible bond with their grandchildren.

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It is often said that some family traits skip a generation, and we have some scientific evidence that this is true. But people have four grandparents. Are there any that have some evolutionary favoritism when it comes to perpetuating their traits? The secret of longevity. Scientists have been asking for years why humans survive for a long period of time. after their reproductive agesomething that differentiates us from practically all animals, even those closest to us evolutionarily. This is especially notable since women generally live many years past menopause. We still don’t have a clear answer to this question, but the “grandmother’s hypothesis” postulates that the reason is that the presence of these relatives represented a survival advantage for the little ones. Evidence of the importance of grandmothers. Theories are of little use without evidence to support them, and one of the first was provided by Finnish researchers in a study published in the magazine Current Biology. In it they verified that the survival of children between 2 and 5 years old was positively correlated with the presence of grandmothers. The researchers found that the age and general health of the grandmothers were also associated with that of the child: the older and more frail the grandmothers, the less the benefits. The results were similar whether the grandmothers were maternal or paternal, except when they were very old or in poor health. Health status matters. This is where one of the most curious results of this study can be found: the possibility of competition. The authors postulated that grandmothers in worse condition could have a negative effect on the well-being of their grandchildren by “competing” for care, that is, since adults in good health should distribute these tasks among more people. This effect was greater in the case of paternal grandmothers, although the authors explain why. Different forms of care. The way in which ties are established can also have a lot to do with how relationships are established in families. The idea that parents take on a harsh role in the upbringing of children, while grandparents tend more towards indulgence, is widespread. A sort of familiar good cop and bad cop that makes us see people in a different way. And why science can have it too: a study, this one published in the magazine Proceedings of the Royal Society B analyzed the brain responses of grandmothers to images of two family generations and other control images. The team observed that the brain response was more pronounced with grandchildren even with the children. Environment and genetics. Not everything depends on care. Genetics matter too. One of the most obvious reasons is the possible presence of certain diseases that can manifest in the first years of life, many of which may have a genetic origin. This is where we can find a curious fact brought to light by biostatistics. Clarice R. Weinberg through an article published in the magazine American Journal of Human Genetics. In it he reported a curious anomaly with respect to what genetics predicted, and it was a greater matrilineal genetic contribution. The explanation given in the article was the transfer of phenotypes between mother and offspring during the nine months of pregnancy. Therefore, the genetic imprint of the maternal grandmothers would be greater than that left by the rest of the ancestors. Although the difference is not great, the effects can be great when it concerns diseases related to genetics, some of them serious. Matrilineal inheritance. Matrilineal genetic inheritance has greatly helped scientific development, in this case thanks to mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA, which is transmitted solely and exclusively through the mother, has allowed us to solve the most varied mysteries, from crimes until the death of the cave bearand of course, it has helped us better understand our origins. Each family, a world. Tolstoy began his Anna Karenina by saying the famous phrase: “All happy families are similar to each other, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” It will surely fall short because surely every happy family is also a world. This implies that differences can be large from one family unit to another, but also between countries and regions and between periods. It is difficult to know what will the relationships be like? between alternate generations in the future, but at least we are getting a better idea of the bases of this relationship. Image | Ekaterina Shakharova In Xataka | The connection between a grandmother and her grandchildren is greater than with her children. And science has studied why

We have a new winner to generate images with AI. And he is not American, but Chinese

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Tencent has just launched a new model of AI capable of Generate images from a text prompt. Traditionally the proprietary models have dominated this type of creative task, but the Tencent model has given the surprise and according to various benchmarks is able to generate images better than the rest of competitors, including those of Google and Openai. Hunyuan Image 3.0. This is the name of the new Tencent model, which in the LMARENA classification Of more powerful models for the generation of images from text has managed to overcome Gemini 2.5 Flash image preview (popularly known as Nano Banana), in addition to other proprietary models such as GPT-IMAGE-1, FLUX-1-KONTEXT-MAX or QWEN-IMAGE. The Tencent image model has already managed to overcome its competitors according to LM Arena experts. Blind vote. This LM Arena classification works through a blind voting system in which the users choose their favorite images without knowing what model generated them. And according to this vote, this Tencent model surpassed all its opponents, including Google’s popular “Nano Banana”. Of course: the vote also takes into account long -term results, and the short period that has been available Hunyuan Image 3.0 makes the results qualify as “preliminary” and not definitive. How it works. Those responsible for Tencent explain in the description of the model How they have used a new diffusion architecture that makes use of dual encoders (a multimodal llm and another that better understands characters in different languages) and RLHF optimization (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback, which refines the previous result) for the creation of higher quality images. The system makes use in addition to a compression system so that the entire process consumes less resources without loss of quality. Open pesos and commercial license. Hunyuan Image 3.0 is a model that shares Your code in github and that offers A license surprisingly permissive. In fact it is possible to use it for commercial and professional purposes. The price is not entirely economic. Although the model can be tested for free in the Project websitein our tests we could only create an image (10 credits). The platform allows you to buy monthly credits: $ 8 per month allow Buy 500 creditswhich a priori would allow us to create 50 images of 10 credits each. Each would go to $ 0.16, when Nano Banana It has a cost of $ 0.039, four times lower. There are other options to try it, such as Hugging Face “Spaces”. It is also possible to get an API key In Tencent Cloud To use the locally. Gemini continues to win as “editor”. Although the Tencent model is interesting and remarkable, Nano Banana continues to win the game if we consider that it has become a unique substitute for the traditional Photoshop. Many users no longer edit photos but carry one in Gemini and then they tell the AI ​​what changes they want to make in that image. Alibaba, more conversational. Although Hunyuan Image 3.0 can allow something like that – in fact There are demos In this regard – the interface is now more aimed at a single prompt to generate images, not to a “conversation” as GEMINI allows. Another of the protagonists of this land is Alibaba, who with Qwen-Image-Editor adopts the same approach as Google with Gemini and Nano-Banana. In that Alibaba model “you speak” with your image to ask for changes, something that at the moment does not seem that the Tencent model does so directly (although it does not seem difficult for him to get it). But be careful. The differential here is that the generation of images, which seemed to be dominated by proprietary models, can be apparently equally good (or even superior) through open models. One more time The Chinese commitment to that philosophy is remarkable and contrasts with the closed approach and owner of most American companies that develop AI models to generate images and text (or, of course, video). Image | Hunyuan In Xataka | In China they do not conform to create advanced robots: a company has developed a head that gestures like a human

Generate day energy and hunt asteroids at night

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At the time they seemed the future of solar energy for their ability to follow the sun with oscillating mirrors. Today the solar concentration plants, which direct the light by heliostats towards a large central tower, They cannot compete with photovoltaic prices collapse. But when a door closes, sometimes a window opens to the universe. Short. A pilot project in the United States has begun to take advantage of these gigantic mirrors when the sun falls for the Planetary Defense. For the day, heliostats generate energy concentrating sunlight in a tower connected to steam turbines. At night, they defend the planet of potentially dangerous asteroids. The figures are devastating. The thermoelectric solar energy has lost the battle against photovoltaic by win. In 2023, the world installed the record figure of 345.5 gigawatts in solar panels, but the solar thermos I barely added 0.3 GW in total. And what is worse, since then construction is not started of no new plant. Although Spain, the world leader in concentration technology, maintains its centrals working, other projects are canceled or reconvisaged. Morocco has replaced the Termosolar part of the MEGACOMPLEJO NOOR MIDELT by photovoltaic after qualifying it as “immature and face technology”. And iconic projects, such as the gigantic Ivanpah plant in Californianow face their closure for not being able to compete with the low price of photovoltaic kilowatt. Save the planet, and incidentally investment. Given this panorama, what can be done with these huge and expensive infrastructure? John Sandusky, scientific researcher at Sandia laboratories, has been turning an idea for almost 20 years. “Heliostat fields do not have a night job. They are simply there, without using,” Explain in a statement. “We have the opportunity to give a night work at a relatively low cost to find objects close to Earth.” The proposal is not to use heliostats to take photos of the sky. Its optical quality is not enough to form crisp images such as a telescope. The genius of the proposal, embodied in a Study of the late 2024 That has already been put into practice, lies in using what these mirrors do best: concentrate light. A lot of light. How it works. The traditional method seeks in the long exposure images the steles that the asteroids leave when moving against the fund of fixed stars. Sandusky’s method is radically different and is based on frequency analysis. Instead of aiming at a fixed point, the plant’s software causes the heliostats (mirrors designed to follow the sun) oscillate, sweeping a small portion of the sky at a constant and repetitive rate. The light of the stars, swept at this constant pace, generates a signal in the tower receiver with a specific and predictable frequency. It is the “tone” base of the sky. If an asteroid crosses that field of vision, moves at a different angular velocity from that of the stars. This makes the light that reflects generates a signal with a slightly different frequency from that of the “tone” base. It is a tiny change, but measurable with current technology. And can be used to detect asteroids due to its speed relative to the stars. From theory to practice. A team has demonstrated its viability using a single heliostat, and is already working to climb the project to a large solar plant to increase sensitivity and to detect smaller and more distant objects. Even tracking satellites and other objects in the cislunar space, to sell the idea to the space force. Sandusky’s idea is a masterful example of lateral thought. Instead of building new and very expensive observatories, it reuses a multimillion -dollar infrastructure that would otherwise be inactive half of the time. A technology that fights to survive in the competitive energy market and that could find a second life, a second job. Image | Pexels In Xataka | It was inaugurated in 2014 as the largest solar thermal energy plant in the world. Will close after setting fire to birds

How to generate one in voice artificial intelligence from a text: Create your personalized announcer

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Let’s tell you How to generate a voice with AIto be able to tell things from a text you write to him. This will allow you to have a personalized announcer or broadcaster to create your own podcasts or audiobooks, and to read you anything you want. First, we are going to give you a series of previous tips for you to know what you should have in mind to use these tools for artificial intelligence. Then we will tell you four free tools you can use To move from text to voice and use voices by AI to create audios. Before starting, some tips Before put to create locutions with a voice made by artificial intelligence you must think about What do you want to get with her. Think about whether you want it to be a natural voice or a robotic narrative, and also in the language, the tone or accent you want to use. It is very important have written a well structured text so that then the voice of the say it. Use the punctuation marks well so that the intonation sounds natural, and if it can be, divide the text into short phrases to also improve naturalness. Tests before getting seriouslyUse some short phrases to test your voice and see if you are using a tool or configuration that convenient you. And before that, Listen to several voice examples If the tool has several available to better choose the one you want to use. Finally, be aware of the limitations of the platform you use. Most are paying, and In their free ways they have limits by number of characters or minutes of audio generated. Therefore, if you see it necessary, you may have to divide a long text into different fragments instead of trying to make it whole. Generates phrases with notebooklm The first tool you can use is Notebooklmwhich is free and from Google. In this case, You can only make audio summaries Of one or more issues that you upload on the web, you will not be able to write what you want me to say the voice. But it is totally free. To use it you have to enter Notebooklm.google.comand on the main page click on the option of Create notebook. It is also available In Google Play For Android and In the App Store For the iPhone. Notebooklm is divided into notebooks, which are work spaces. The first thing you will have to do, therefore, is to create a new one. Once inside, You will have three columns or sections. On the left you have the fountains. Here, You can add one or more sources. Everything you upload will be what analyzes Google’s artificial intelligence when you ask you questions or ask for content. They can be text documents, slides, PDF, YouTube videos or links to web pages or online items. Then you have the section of Chatwhich is where you will be able to ask Google’s AI all the questions you want and get answers based on the sources. And then you have the section of Studio. In it, you will be able to create an audio with a summary of the sources provided in this project. If you click on the Customize Audio Summary buttonthen you will be able to determine how the summary that your voice will make, giving indications on the subject to speak or the source to focus, and you can also have the way this voice speaks. Elevenlabs Elevenlabs is a platform with several artificial intelligence resources, including one for AUDIO TEXT. You can find it on the web Elevenlabs.io/es/text-to-speechand although you can try it without registering you will need to create an account to download the audio you generate. It is very easy to use. First you write or fight the text you want to narrate, and then you will have to Choose the voice and language What do you want to use, being able to determine the model to be used and the speed at which it is discussed. There are voices in Spanish from Spain, and also Latinas. Then you press in Play And ready, reproduce. Here, the bad news is that The free account has limit In the number of characters to process every month. Specifically, you can create 10 minutes monthly of high quality text -based audio. TTSMaker This is another tool to move from text to voice with artificial intelligence, which is characteristic by Do not need to create account To use it for free. You just have to write the text, choose the language and ready, generate what you have written in voice. You can use it from the web TTSMaker.com. Here, you should know that each audio has a maximum of 1,000 characters, and that you can Use 20,000 characters a week being a free user. For more, you will have to pay. They are very generous margins, although the web has enough advertising. You also have options how to choose the audio format you want to generate, or listen only to the first 50 characters before creating the audio to make sure you are to your liking. You can also configure the speed, volume, audio quality, the length of each pause. Many things. Clipchamp This is a Microsoft tool to create videos, including the option to do so for the. However, You have an option of Text to voice When creating, with which you can write a text you want and choose the voice to use. You will need to enter the website clipchamp.com and log in with your Microsoft account (Hotmail or Outlook). Once the text option is chosen to voice, You will have the creation options in the right column. There, you can hit the text you want, choose the language and voice. In addition, there are advanced options to choose the voice passage and the rhythm you use to read what you write. And ready, with this, what you write will … Read more

While France and Switzerland turn off reactors by heat, Spain continues to generate electricity. The difference is in the forecast

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Europe is living Your worst heat wave with temperatures that have exceeded 40 ° C in several countries. The most unheard of, if one can see the situation, is that some European plants have had to close temporarily. An unusual fact. The heat not only feels in the streets: it is also affecting the heart of the European energy system. According to Euronews, This week three nuclear reactors have been disconnected in France and Switzerland for the temperature rise in the rivers they use to cool. In Girfch, to the south of France, one of the reactors stopped as the Garona River approached at 28 ° C. In Switzerland, the Beznau Central did the same: one of the reactors was out of service and the second was operating in half capacity by heat in the Aare River. Preventive measures. The reason behind this temporal closures responds to an environmental regulation that forces to reduce production when river water is excessively heated, since it could affect the ecosystem by being returned even longer, such as have detailed in Euronews. In addition, restrictions or power reductions have been applied in French centrals such as Buity, Blayais and Cruas. The origin of the problem. Water is key in any nuclear power plant. Without it, there is no way to keep the reactor temperature under control. But with increasingly hot rivers, especially during heat wavesthat function begins to fail. The worst thing is that many of these plants were built between 60 and 80, when climate change was not a factor to take into account. Now the consequences are clear: According to The New York TimesFrance could end up losing up to four times more electricity in summer if this type of closures becomes usual. A problem that aggravates. During the heat waves, more electricity is needed to light the air conditioners or fans, so the demand increases at the same time as the generation capacity falls. This has generated a domino effect on the European electricity market. According to the economistthe megavatio hour has come to double in a matter of days in France, affecting countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium that depend on gala electricity. And in Spain? Despite registering equal or even higher temperatures, Spain has not had to close any heat power plant. As He explained The economist, the key is in infrastructure and design. Unlike France, where many plants depend directly on rivers such as Garona or Rhone, in Spain solutions such as cooling towers have been adopted, which cool the water before returning it to the natural environment. A paradigmatic example is the Trillo plant, whose ability to operate during heat waves is due to this type of system. Also, like We have detailed in this mediumSpanish nuclear power plants are designed with a triple cooling system: a closed primary circuit that contains the fuel bars, a secondary circuit that generates the steam to move the turbines, and a third external circuit that introduces cold water – teacher of rivers, reservoirs or towers – to condense the steam. In addition, after Fukushima, all centrals incorporated portable and self -employment systems, capable of maintaining cooling functions even to climatic emergencies or electrical cuts. More interconnection? The situation that France and Switzerland are going through is not an isolated event, but a symptom of an still fragmented energy Europe. While in southern France reactors by heat go out, Spain keeps its centrals operational and could even contribute more electricity to the continent if there are better interconnections. These situations show the bottleneck that limits the electrical export capacity of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain has a nuclear park adapted to heat and a growing renewable base – specially solar and wind – that could serve as an energy lung for a Europe increasingly affected by extreme events. The energy future of the continent not only goes to adapt to heat, but also by connecting better. Image | Pixabay Xataka | Israel has been bombing the nuclear facilities that build other countries around its surroundings. This is the real risk of collapse

There is a ‘cover’ in the business that will generate the increase in defense spending: Telefónica

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Telefónica is not just the dean and leader in clients of Spanish telecos: it is also the one who dominates the technological tenders of the Ministry of Defense. It is no accident. AND will go to more. Why is it important. Spain has adhered to the plan to reach 5% of GDP in military spending, although maintains your plan not to invest more than 2%. In any case, there is a horizon to increase that item that will result in more than a dozen billions of euros additional to current investment. And everything indicates that Telefónica will be one of the great beneficiaries of this expansion. In figures. It is not a monopoly because there is plurality of winners, but the concentration is very high. The context. The State is the main shareholder of Telefónica with the 10% that invested –2.3 billion– in May 2024. Marc Murtrathe president who arrived six months ago, came from Indra, another participated by the State, after the SEPI forced the change in management. In detail. In the last two years, Telefónica has multiplied its presence in defense. Among the main recent contracts include: Yes, but. This concentration in state companies has a geopolitical logic. The government wants to shield military communications against foreign technological dependencies. Especially after The recent rupture with Israeli suppliers such as Elbit Systems that advocates the government. The beneficiary, according to an exclusive The confidentialit will be most likely Indra. In any case, national security justifies state control. The threat. For private competition, the panorama is complicated. With the increase in defense spending and preference for companies participated by the State, opportunities for other operators are reduced. It is a market that is nationalized by the back door. The Declaration of Murtra in Congress three weeks ago He speaks for himself: “Telefónica wants to invest in defense, but always subordinated to the defense policy that marks the ministry,” he said. Translation: We are an executing arm of the state, not an independent competitor. Deepen. The new budget of 34,000 million for 31 Special Modernization Programs It will be the great test. Telecommunications, cybersecurity, command and control systems: Everything goes through the digital infrastructure already controls. It is your time to capitalize years of investment. In Xataka | Spain refuses to spend 5% of GDP on artillery. Because what you really want is to sell it to Europe Outstanding image | Xataka

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