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OpenAI wanted to make ChatGPT the ideal GP. The problem is that he’s wrong half the time.

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OpenAI started the year with a new release: ChatGPT health mode. Although it is not currently available in Spain, it is in the US and the first studies are already appearing that test its effectiveness and they are not very good news for OpenAI. It’s not that big of a deal. A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine and collected by NBCNews has revealed that ChatGPT Health failed to classify the urgency of 51.6% of the emergency medical cases analyzed. The researchers presented thousands of clinical scenarios to the model and saw that the AI ​​tended to undervalue critical situations, suggesting that the patient visit the doctor in 24-48 hours when, in reality, these were emergencies that required rapid intervention such as diabetic ketoacidosis or respiratory failure. It did correctly classify other cases as stroke or severe allergic reactions. It doesn’t make sense. Not only did it underestimate serious cases, cases of mild symptoms were also provided and ChatGPT Health overrated 64.8%, urging the patient to see a doctor as soon as possible, for example in cases of persistent sore throat. Dr. Ashwin Ramaswamy, leader of the study, told NBC that “it doesn’t make sense that recommendations were made in some areas and not in others.” Suicidal ideas. There is still more. The cases presented included some with suicidal ideations. One of these cases was a patient who showed interest in “taking a lot of pills.” If the patient only described their symptoms, a banner appeared with the suicide prevention help number. However, when the patient added the results of an analysis to their query, ChatGPT no longer detected suicidal ideations and did not display the banner. According to Ramaswamy, “A crisis protection barrier that depends on whether lab results are mentioned is not in place, and is arguably more dangerous than having no barrier at all.” Why it is important. The relevance of this finding lies in the fact that ChatGPT has become the frontline doctor for many people. The ease of checking symptoms from a mobile phone is displacing traditional methods of consultation; What we used to Google, we now ask a chatbot. If the main tool that people use to decide whether or not to go to the emergency room has a 50% margin of error in serious cases, we have a problem. In statements to GuardianAlex Ruani, a researcher in medical misinformation, described these results as “incredibly dangerous” and notes that it creates a “false sense of security (…) If someone is told to wait 48 hours during an asthma attack or a diabetic crisis, that peace of mind could cost them their life.” OpenAI responds. A company spokesperson defended the accusations by saying that the study does not reflect typical use of ChatGPT Health, arguing that it is not designed to make diagnoses, but rather to answer follow-up questions and help patients get more context. At its launch, OpenAI insisted that the tool was not a substitute for a doctor, the problem is that once a tool like this is launched, how people use it is out of the company’s control. Flattery and hallucinations. Chatbots have a flattery problem and they tend to agree with the user. On the other hand there is the phenomenon of hallucinations. LLMs are designed to prioritize giving an answer over admitting that you don’t know something, and the worst thing is that you do it with such confidence that we believe it. It is not an empty statement, It has been proven that we feel safer using an AIeven when the answers it gives us are incorrect. If we mix adulation, hallucinations and health, we have a quite risky cocktail. Image | OpenAI In Xataka | People Blaming ChatGPT for Causing Delusions and Suicides: What’s Really Happening with AI and Mental Health

Sam Altman says he’s terrified of a world where AI companies believe themselves to be more powerful than the government. It’s just what you’re building

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Sam Altman sat down over the weekend before his audience at X to answer questions about the agreement that OpenAI has just signed with the United States War Department. What came out of that session was a beautiful involuntary x-ray of the biggest contradiction in the sector at the moment. Why is it important. The CEO of OpenAI said he is terrified of “a world where AI companies act as if they have more power than the government.” The phrase sounds good, it is marketinian and seeks to elevate OpenAI’s position as a powerful but very responsible and honest group. The problem is the context in which he pronounces it: hours before OpenAI signed that agreement, The US government labeled Anthropic, its direct rival, a “supply chain risk” for refusing to sign under those same conditions. Altman went to put out the fire just as someone accused him of setting it. Between the lines. Altman’s speech rests on a premise that must be monitored: that a democratically elected government must always prevail over unelected private companies. It is a philosophically reasonable position, but he applies it selectively. Altman acknowledged that the deal “was rushed and the picture is not good,” and that OpenAI moved quickly to “de-escalate” tension between the Pentagon and industry. In other words, your company made a unilateral strategic decision about how the entire AI industry should relate to the military establishment. That doesn’t exactly sound like institutional deference. The contrast. Anthropic opted for something different: requiring explicit safeguards against the use of its AI for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. But the government penalized her. OpenAI accepted a more ambiguous formula (“for all legal uses”) and won the contract. Various OpenAI employees signed a letter supporting Anthropic’s position. Claude became the most downloaded free application in the App Store that weekend from Apple, precisely surpassing ChatGPT. The market also has opinions. Yes, but. It’s fair to admit that Altman’s position has some internal logic: If AI is going to be integrated into military systems anyway, it may be preferable that it do so under negotiated conditions rather than under coercion. And he’s right about one thing: The labeling of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a tool intended for hostile foreign suppliers, applied to an American AI security company is, in his own words, “an extremely frightening precedent.” The big question. Who really decides how AI is used in military contexts? The companies that build it, the governments that hire it, or the engineers who design it and who are increasingly organized to influence those decisions? Altman says he believes in the democratic process. But OpenAI negotiated privately, signed privately, and made only a fraction of the contract public. Democratic transparency starts there. In Xataka | Anthropic has become the Apple of our era and OpenAI our Microsoft: a story of love and hate Featured image | Xataka

Google wants you to spend more time in its app store. So he’s going to turn it into TikTok

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At the end of 2023, Google warned: at some point the discovery of applications through short videos in the Play Store would be enhanced. A pilot test began in the United States under the name “Play Report”, giving maximum prominence to certain selected applications through short videos in vertical format. What began as a pilot test appears to have worked successfully. The company just announced a package of news that will come to Android and, among them, is this type of videos. The fact that. Google is going to introduce Google Play Shorts. Their name does not deceive: they are short format videos in which we will be shown the content and operation of the applications. As soon as we open the application, we will see them playing, so the first question we ask ourselves is whether it will be possible to eliminate its autoplay to save data. Because. Google is not hiding, it wants us to be able to check how an application works without having to leave the Play Store. Until now, if we wanted to consult about any app we used to close the store, look for information in another source, and return to download it. The objective of the Play Shorts is that we have enough hook with the video, and we go on to download the application directly. As. The videos will be integrated into the apps section itself, they will not have an independent section. Or, in other words, a priori they seem inevitable. We will open the Play Store and at the beginning we will have these Play Shorts. They will be integrated into the app files themselves but, to boost downloads, there will be an installation button in the video itself. When. “Soon.” The key here is that the function has come out of pilot testing and will soon arrive on Android. Over the next few weeks, and through a server update, these new ads will progressively appear. TikTokizing Play Store. While the European Union puts infinite scroll in the spotlightGoogle has just added it to its most used application. Once we enter Play Shorts, we can slide down to see more and more applications, a format identical to that of TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Image | Google In Xataka | The science of “doomscrolling”: how technology hacked psychology so we can’t let go of our phones

Delays and cancellations are putting a hole in Renfe’s accounts. So he’s going to start his own bus company.

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Renfe Viajeros… by bus. That has been one of the usual trends in recent months, with the company plagued by incidents that have prevented it from providing the service normally. The situation has been so complicated that, it is estimated, the impact of alternative services exceeds 10 million euros each year. The solution: create your own bus network. And Renfe is already looking for a partner. Looking for a partner. The information is brought The Countrywhere it is stated that Renfe is looking for a partner to start its own bus company. The idea would be very simple: Renfe would control 49% of the company and 51% would fall on the side of the collaborator. According to the newspaper, the proposal has already passed the board of directors of Renfe and Renfe Viajeros. Now, therefore, it remains to carry out the tender so that those companies that are interested in offering support to Renfe can sign up. The initial idea would be to have dozens of buses (between 50 and 100, according to the newspaper) to provide service in specific contexts. In Xataka We have contacted Renfe but when we wrote these lines we have not received a response. Because? Because Renfe is spending money on offering an alternative on wheels to its customers. When an incident interrupts the service, Renfe has to have a alternative road transport system. Right now, he has to pay an outside company, renting the buses and related expenses, such as staff. Having its own fleet would entail an expense of around 60 million euros, according to the initial accounts that have been raised. However, the newspaper points out that there are savings of between 90 and 130 million after a decade. That is, each year on average you would be saving about 10 million euros or a slightly higher figure. From the media they collect that the model used will be that of “negotiated procedure with advertising”. This means that Renfe will receive proposals but will be able to negotiate the conditions with the companies that have a more solvent offer. It is an exceptional procedure in the public procurement system. Exceptional situation. The premise, therefore, is to have a fixed fleet of buses and drivers, without having to subcontract and pay others to perform exceptional road services. Until now, the company has to search the market for drivers and buses that are available when a line is cut due to an unforeseen event. In recent years, the problem has been especially serious for the company. The DANA of Valenciathe fires in Galicia and León and the recent cutting of the southern corridor as consequence of the Adamuz accident in Córdoba has forced Renfe to maintain active service with buses for weeks. What does Renfe expect? Attract companies that have been seeing their business contract. And since The Country They point out that Renfe believes that there is more than enough business to keep the contracted buses active for at least 10 years. In fact, the contract would be for a decade, extendable to another five years, and they say that demand peaks could multiply current ones by nine. The movement could be interesting for bus companies because, right now, There are route tenders that are half dead and in which work is done with very low demand. Some of these companies would find a new outlet for their vehicles with each Renfe breakdown or incident in the infrastructure. In addition, it must be taken into account that the impact on the accounts may be greater when the incident (such as those described above) is not scheduled because forces Renfe to enter a market with few drivers and with companies that know the urgency of the company. Forced. It must be taken into account that a good part of Renfe’s business continues to be public. Therefore, you have the obligation to provide an alternative service when incidents occur on high speed but also if, for example, there are incidents on Cercanías or Rodalies. Any improvement in facilities that requires the interruption of rail traffic is replaced with buses. Photo | Pablo Nieto Abad and Fabio Romano In Xataka | Spain thought that Spain could manufacture the perfect trains for Spain. The reality: Spain is already looking for trains in Germany

In Ireland they fear that artists will go without food because of AI. So he’s going to give them a basic income.

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The AI ​​is putting into serious doubt the continuity of different sectors as varied as the programmersthe music producerscinema and even illustrators. Creating a painting, a song, a video clip or an app used to involve having talent and the necessary knowledge. Now it is enough to choose the right AI model. A few days ago, the United Kingdom government was considering the possibility of implement a universal basic income to alleviate the effects of AI. The Irish government has gone ahead of them and has already launched an initiative in which it provides a basic monthly income to 2,000 artists. According to an official report of the impact of the measure, each public euro contributed to this basic income generates 1.39 euros of return. A test that is consolidated. In 2022, Ireland launched a pilot project of universal basic income for artists with which it sought to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the cultural industry. The test turned out to be an unexpected success, so the Irish Administration has chosen to consolidate it by turning the Basic Income for the Arts into a tool against the precariousness of artists, and prevent them from abandoning their creative work. for economic reasons. According what was published by EFEthe Irish executive has provided the project with a budget item of 18.27 million euros so that 2,000 artists benefit from a payment of 325 euros per week. “This is an important milestone for the arts in Ireland and how we support them,” said Patrick O’Donovan, Ireland’s Minister for Arts and Culture. “Ireland is a world leader in supporting artists thanks to the BIA (Basic Income for the Arts),” he added in the official statement of the measure. A test that was a success. The pilot program started in November 2022 after the pandemic, selecting 2,000 artists from 9,025 applications through a lottery to avoid bias. Each one received 325 euros net per week for 36 months, equivalent to 16,900 euros per year, tax-free and without working conditions. The composition reflected the diversity of the sector: 707 in visual arts such as painters and sculptors, 584 musicians and composers, 204 filmmakers and audiovisuals, 170 writers and poets, 160 in theater and dance, plus 175 in mixed areas such as design or performance. This randomized design allowed us to measure real effects without bias for successful profiles. The pilot test was subjected to a study constant from independent entities, which were able to measure the benefits of the measure. The pilot demonstrated with data that 325 euros per week was enough to cover part of the basic expenses, freeing up to 25 extra hours per week so that the artists could dedicate time to creating. That is, it was low enough to allow artists to dedicate time to their artistic production, but not so low as to make them dependent on it. It is a basic income, but with conditions. The measure allows maintaining the same economic conditions as the 2022 program, but incorporates a series of conditions that avoid dependency by assigning it to alternative three-year periods. That is, the beneficiaries of the income in the 2026-2029 cycle cannot opt ​​for the 2029-2032 cycle, but they are eligible again for the 2032-2035 cycle. In addition, at the end of each cycle, there is a gradual three-month decrease in income, where the payment drops by 25% per month to facilitate the transition until they stop receiving it. More art, less precariousness. The more consolidated results of the pilot test published in September 2025, indicated that the initial investment in the project was 105 million euros, of which only 72 million were executed. However, that was enough to obtain a return of around 80 million euros. The artists who participated in the test increased their monthly income by an average of 500 euros, while their income from non-artistic activities was reduced by an average of 280 euros. That is, the basic income allowed artists to concentrate on their creations and make them profitable, allowing them live from his art and not from precarious or part-time jobs. “The economic return on this investment in Ireland’s artists and creative arts workers is having an immediate positive impact for the sector and the economy in general,” said the Irish culture minister. In Xataka | Barcelona tested a basic income of 1,297 euros per month and the job search was reduced by 22%: the test was a success Image | Unsplash (Dillon Wanner)

Xiaomi already has its own AI model for robots. At the moment, he’s great at taking apart LEGOs and folding towels.

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It has been a long, long time since Xiaomi stopped being a mobile company. Today the company’s tentacles reach all types of sectors, from mobile and household appliances until cars, chip design and, from now on, robotics. And the Chinese company has just presented its first vision, language and action model for robotics. Its name: Xiaomi-Robotics-0. What is this about?. Xiaomi-Robotics-0 an open-source model whose code can be found in GitHub and HugginFace. As the company explains, this model has been optimized to offer “high performance, speed and smoothness in real-time executions.” We should not think of this model as an AI capable of making a robot run and jump like a human, but rather one capable of making a “simple” robot understand its surroundings and know how to make the optimal decision without, for example, destroying whatever it has in its hands. About the robots. When we talk about AI applied to robotics we are not just talking about a robot being able to move. The device must know and understand that it should not apply the same force when holding a brick as it does when holding a cat, for example. In that sense, there has to be an understanding of the visual, an understanding of what is being seen and an appropriate execution of actions: this is a brick > it is a heavy object > I have to apply more force to hold it and move it from one side to the other. Xiaomi-Robotics-0 results in the benchmarks | Image: Xiaomi The benchmarks. Xiaomi has achieved, as detailed on the project website, very good results in the benchmarks I RELEASE (measures knowledge transfer), SimplerEnv (measures performance in real simulations) and CALVIN (measures performance in tasks conditioned by language). According to the company, Xiaomi-Robotics-0 “achieves high success rates and robust results in two challenging two-handed tasks: disassembling LEGOs and folding towels.” The fun of training. Every AI model draws from a training dataset. In the case of Xiaomi-Robotics-0, a 4.7 billion parameter model, the dataset consists of 200 million time steps of robot trajectories and more than 80 million samples of general vision-language data, including 338 hours of LEGO disassembly videos and 400 hours of towel folding videos. The results. The company claims in the paper that its model is capable of disassembling complex LEGOs of up to 20 pieces, adapting the grip in real time to avoid errors, using only one hand to place the towel correctly and folding it or, if you pick up two towels from the basket, take one of them, leave it in place and fold only one. This demonstrates an interesting capacity for adaptation and learning that, although it may seem trivial on paper, has its value if we think about industrial and even domestic robots. Beyond. What this model is demonstrating is being able to adapt to complex and unpredictable geometries, such as that of a towel thrown in a basket, and to understand the, let’s say, “soft physics.” On a towel it may seem like a small thing, but let’s think about manipulating human tissues in an intervention, for example. Same with LEGOs. It’s not just disassembling them, it’s understanding the position of the blocks, how they fit together, what force to apply and at what angle so as not to break them. Let’s think about a robot that removes debris. An industrial robot has historically been programmed with fixed coordinates, that is, moving something from point A to point B. A robot with AI like the one proposed by Xiaomi would be much more versatile. The first robot learns movements, the second robot learns tasks, and the difference is a world. If we think about a distant future in which there are domestic robots, a robot cleaning dust from a shelf will not be the same as knowing how to identify objects, decorations, etc., and understanding that it must move them to avoid throwing them away and cleaning them thoroughly. Cover image | Xiaomi In Xataka | A Chinese company boasts another limit in robotics: it ensures that its new humanoid robot runs like an elite athlete

Galicia has proposed to put an end to the “zamburiñas fraud” once and for all. So he’s already issuing fines

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The Spanish proverb warns about not being given a “cat in a hare”, but the most common deception when we talk about Spanish gastronomy of the 21st century is that they serve you a plate of volandeiras or Pacific scallops as if they were exclusive (and much more expensive) Galician zamburiñas. To an untrained eye the three bilvaves (volandeiras, scallops and scallops) are more or less similar to each other. The problem is that they are not the same and mixing their names violates regulations, represents unfair competition and (most seriously) deceives the client. That’s why in Galicia they have said enough. What has happened? That the Galician authorities they have gotten tired that in the community’s restaurants and bars they play with names, selling as “zamburiñas” dishes that actually contain two other species: volandeiras or Pacific scallops. It’s not just about passing off one thing as another. It is that, beyond the fact that the three are similar bivalves, their consideration it’s not the same. They do not match their prices. Nor its origin. Nor is its flavor exactly the same. Volandeiras and zamburiñas are shellfished in Galician banks (although with certain differences) and are usually sold fresh. The Pacific scallop is normally a frozen product that comes from aquaculture and arrives from Peru and Chile. Photos showing the exterior and interior of the right valve. Image A) corresponds to the “Mimachlamys varia” (zamburiña); B with Argopecten Purpuratus (Pacific scallop) and C with Aequipecten Opercularis (volandeira). And what have they done? Basically what the Galician authorities have done is investigate Yes, when a customer orders a portion of seafood in a bar in A Coruña, Vilagarcía, Ourense, Lugo… or any other Galician town, they are being served what they have ordered and not another product of more or less similar appearance. It’s not exactly something new. In September the local press has already advanced that the Xunta was carrying out an inspection campaign and that during the control they had found bars in which the menus advertised scallops when in reality what was served on the table were scallops or (sometimes) volandeiras. Has it stayed there? No. And that is the great news. The Voice just revealed that the controls carried out by the Resource Inspection and Control Service (SICOR) and Consumer Affairs officials have not been mere slaps on the wrist. They have also resulted in sanctions and fines. To be more precise, the newspaper speaks of the processing of just over 100 disciplinary proceedings since last summer for the use of incorrect commercial names: 53 to hospitality businesses in the province of A Coruña, 46 from Pontevedra, 14 from Lugo and 6 from Ourense. Among the ‘hunted’ there are not only bars, taverns and restaurants. There are also a few intermediaries. How much did it cost you? The Voice appointment at least one case in which the hotelier received a fine of 300 euros for advertising volandeiras and then serving scallops. The Xunta claims that before resorting to fines, a campaign was launched to remind professionals that they cannot mix terms and that a “deterrent effect” was even perceived, with hoteliers correcting their letters. Not even that has prevented there from being a hundred businesses with files. What is the problem? Basically, passing off one seafood as another (mixing commercial names) “violates traceability standards and can mislead the consumer,” the Xunta specifies. Not only does it confuse data related to traceability, but it goes against sales regulations and represents unfair competition against businesses that do respect the regulations. In fact, the problem is not limited to the zamburiñas alone. Are there more cases? That’s how it is. The majority of the files processed in Galicia are related to scallops, scallops and volanderias, but the inspectors also hunted down infractions that affect other merchandise. For example, passing off octopuses and barnacles as Galician seafood when in reality it comes from Moroccan waters. Agents also found cases in the food chain where farmed salmon and turbot were sold as wild. The Department of the Sea assures that there is no specific campaign and that the files are the result of “ordinary control work.” Regarding the sanctions, since these are minor infractions, the fines can reach 300 euros, although they remain at half (150 euros) if the offender meets certain requirements. Is there that much difference? Yes. Although in the hospitality industry we usually talk about “zamburiñas” in general, that word is reserved for a very specific species: Mimachlamys variaa sought-after bivalve appreciated for its flavor. The ‘Pesca de Galicia’ platform detailed on Monday the 26th that the kilo was priced in the markets at an average of 13.4 eurosfar above the volandeira (Aequipecten opercularis), which is also collected in Galicia, although it is more abundant. Things change when we talk about the Pacific scallop (Argopecten purpuratus), which is usually the result of aquaculture, is frozen and arrives from the coasts of Peru and Chile. The problem is that all three (scallops, scallops and scallops) are relatively similar, at least if you don’t have a trained eye. If the characteristics of their shells are known, it is easier to identify them. Does it only happen in Galicia? In 2020, a team from the University of Oviedo carried out a study which proved two things. First, the frequency with which the word Zamburiña is used “incorrectly” to refer to other species. Second, that “there exists widespread fraud in its commercialization in Asturias”. Your data is certainly compelling. After analyzing 148 different samples, they found that in 49% of the cases (73) the seafood was incorrectly labeled, presenting other bivalves, usually volandeiras, as scallops. How common is it? To complete their analysis, researchers from the University of Oviedo went to 20 restaurants and ordered dishes that were identified on the menu as “zamburiñas.” They were left wanting to taste them. “In 100% of the cases the species offered was the Pacific scallop,” reveals. The organization remembers that although there may not … Read more

Disney+ has discovered that Generation Z does not want to watch its two-hour movies. So he’s going to give them vertical microdramas

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Disney+ has decided to join the battle for the viewer’s thumb. The company announced this week at CES that will incorporate vertical videos to its platform during 2026, a commitment to the format that dominates TikTok and Instagram. The news marks a strategic shift for a giant traditionally associated with the traditional (and horizontal) cinematographic experience. What does it consist of? If Disney previously sold large screens in dark rooms, now it is not exactly seeking to replace them, but rather to create a new habit: that opening Disney+ is a gesture as automatic as doing so with any social network. Netflix measures its impact in monthly viewing hours, but Disney wants what YouTube and TikTok already have: compulsive daily views. In an industry where engagement Everyday life has become the battlefield, Mickey and Spider-Man will learn to do choreography in vertical format. What will it include? Now, as explained by Erin Teagueexecutive vice president of product management, the plan aims for a feed personalized with algorithms that will mix news and entertainment. The raw material will be varied: from original productions designed for vertical format to recycled material from social networks and scenes from series or movies reformatted for mobile screens. Teague acknowledges that what they intend is to turn Disney+ into “a must-visit destination every day.” It is no longer enough to be the service where you can watch the latest season of something, but to be the one that you open without thinking, several times a day, just like you do with other apps that don’t even charge a subscription. where does it come from. The strategy does not come from nowhere. Disney had already tested the waters with the so-called “Verts” in the renewed ESPN application, launched in August 2025. Those vertical sports clips (highlights, quick analyzes, statements) functioned as a laboratory before escalating the bet to the rest of the Disney+ ecosystem. Rita Ferro, global head of advertising at Disney, commented in the presentation that ESPN had captured 33% of all live sports audiences during 2025 in the United States, leaving its closest competitor at 20%. The evolution of the vertical format. The vertical format has been redefining how we consume audiovisual content for years. Teague herself, before signing for Disney, worked for years on YouTube and witnessed from the inside how Google initially underestimated TikTok’s push. The answer (YouTube Shorts) was a long time coming, but when it did it changed many preconceptions: most of these short videos they end up consuming themselves on televisionsnot on mobile phones. The vertical conquered the living room, and that’s where Disney+ wants to be. Aside from this, Netflix tried publishing vertical anime videos in 2021, but never took the proposal beyond limited experiments. No competitor has yet found the formula, and Disney wants to be the first to get it right. Who has already done it. None other than Procter & Gamble, the multinational consumer products companyreinvent the soap opera and launch this January ‘The Golden Pear Affair‘, a “micro soap opera” of 50 episodes designed specifically for consumption on social networks, since its distribution will start on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok before migrating to its own mobile application. This is not advertising disguised as content: it is content designed from scratch to sell products: if the product placement classic interrupted the narrative, here the narrative is born to serve the product. Meanwhile, the fever of microdramas that conquered Asia a few years agoreaches other continents with production companies like TelevisaUnivision making compressed soap operas. The Spanish-speaking network has been exploring the “microdramas”ultra-brief versions of the soap opera format. and disney you know this works: Apps like ReelShort and Crazy Maple Studio have been dominating niche markets with sixty-second vertical dramas for years. Its model (free hook episodes, payment to unlock more chapters) has shown that addictive narrative works even atomized. These Asian platforms generate tens of millions annually with content that Hollywood would have considered impossible to make profitable a few years ago. Advertising implications. The vertical format is not just an aesthetic or generational issue. It is, above all, a new advertising space: Disney announced a metric that merges Disney’s own data with information from external providers, saying that the format was a very attractive space for advertisers. And it also introduced an artificial intelligence-powered video generation tool that allows advertisers to convert existing materials into renewed ads. It is no longer necessary to produce spots from scratch; just feed the machine with assets priors and brand guidelines. So now Disney’s recent deal with OpenAI does. acquires a renewed meaning. Transformation or concession. Teague openly acknowledged that “Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren’t necessarily thinking about sitting through two-and-a-half-hour long content on their phones.” Disney does not want to attract new generations to its classic catalog, but rather to speak in the same language as these young people who have always been its potential audience. For millions of users, cinema is no longer the basic unit of entertainment, and Disney has decided that, rather than compete with Netflix, it has to do so with WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok. In Xataka | “I cried 152 times in 2025”: Generation Z lists their emotional crises and turns them into infographics

China wants Chinese people to have more children. So he’s going to put a special tax on condoms

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China wants more babies. Many more. Enough to increase their birth rate and stop the population loss which has allowed India ahead as the most populous nation on the planet. After repealing his ‘one child’ policy and display a wide range of measurements pro-natalism at a political, social and economic level, Xi Jinping’s Government has made a radical decision: make condoms more expensive and other contraceptive items. By first time in 30 yearswhoever wants to buy them will no longer enjoy a VAT exemption. In summary: sex becomes more expensive…at least the insurance. Sex with a condom? Pay more. have sex you will be more expensive in China from now on. At least if you want to do it with contraceptives. In the context of a broader tax reform that basically affects the value added tax (our VAT), Xi Jinping’s Government has decided remove exemption tax that condoms enjoyed until now. The decision is not exactly new. The law on which it is based was approved at the end of 2024, but it is now generating noise on social networks and the media for a very simple reason: its effects will begin to be felt shortly, from the January 1, 2026which is when Chinese couples will encounter rising prices on contraceptives. One figure: 13%. The change is important because this type of contraceptive items enjoyed a VAT exemption since 1993when China implemented the rate nationwide. From now on the scenario will be different and those who want to buy condoms will find themselves with a VAT of 13%. Today, precise Guardiana package of standard prophylactics costs between 40 and 60 yuan ($5.7-8.5). The contraceptive pill, available in the country without a prescription, ranges between 50 and 130 yuan, from 7.1 to 18.5 dollars. The price increase will not be exorbitant, but it has generated criticism on networks such as Weibo. “I was very angry when I saw that condoms were going to have taxes and increase in price,” he complained recently a user on RedNote. “Is it so easy to profit from us workers? I got so angry that I placed an order at night for the condoms that I like… I accidentally bought too many.” Why now? The million dollar question. The Chinese government has not simply imposed taxes on condoms. The measure is framed in a broader initiative that seeks to modernize the tax system and check the list of products and services exempt from VAT. At the end of the day, the consumption tax represents a crucial part of the tax revenues that feed the Chinese coffers. All in all, it is striking that Beijing decides to make contraceptives more expensive precisely at a time when the country loses population and look for ways to encourage their birth rate, which has led the State to act as a matchmaker, help to couples with babies or even go household by household to encourage women to have children. It has also not gone unnoticed that the same tax reform contemplates a tax reduction for childcare services. There is more at stake than Chinese demographics: there is the country’s economy, supported by its enormous domestic market, and the challenge of what to do with million pensioners. “Unlikely”. The other question is… Does the Government really expect that applying a 13% tax on condoms will result in more babies? An IndexBox report shows that in 2020, close to 5.4 billion condoms. There is who thinkslike Quian Cai, from the University of Virginia, that a price increase may “reduce access” to contraceptives, especially among the poorest population, but warns of the consequences. “It could lead to more abortions and increased health care costs,” prevents Cai. The risk? That in an attempt to increase the birth rate, China finds itself with more terminations of pregnancies and a resurgence of diseases sexually transmitted. Others are simply skeptical that making condoms more expensive is going to influence the number of pregnancies, especially if one takes into account that one of the brakes on birth rates is the high cost of parenting. “The tax itself is unlikely to have a noticeable effect on birth rates,” explains to TIME Yuan Mei, professor at the School of Economics, Singapore Management University. “Decisions about having children in China are mainly influenced by economic and lifestyle factors, such as the cost of raising a child and long working hours. These factors outweigh small changes in the price of condoms.” So what for? There is who considers that the rate has a symbolic nature and really seeks to delve into a message. “Now that China’s birth policy has shifted toward promoting birth and no longer promotes contraception, it is reasonable to tax condoms again,” reflect He Yafu, Guangdong demographer. Nor does it seem that the initiative will have a notable economic impact. Not at least if you put it in context. Lee Ding of Dezan Shira & Associated explains to Guardian that taxing condoms will add around 5 billion extra yuan a year to state coffers (about $710 million). It is a considerable figure, but very small when compared to the billions that the country collects in general. “We don’t believe that income generation is the main motivation.” Images | Fenghua (Unsplash) 1 and 2 and CDC (Unsplash) In Xataka | While the birth rate in China plummets, a region does not stop having children. Their secret: being a large family has a reward

We lost a robot under Antarctica for eight months. He’s back with disturbing facts about the Denman Glacier

by

On planet Earth there are still many mysteries that we do not know, especially those that hide in the deep sea where It is very difficult for us humans to reach due to the high pressures that exist. That is why science is committed to send robots to explore this area, although the last one we sent stopped sending signals for months, something that would undoubtedly indicate the worst. But the reality has been very different. The exploration. The mission led for the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership Its objective was to study the ice shelves of Denman and Shackleton of which we really knew little. To do this, they used a float Argo standard that modify their buoyancy to sink, take measurements and rise to the surface again. But in this case there was a big problem: under the ice platform there is no surface, only a ceiling of ice hundreds of meters thick that prevented this robot from rising again, remaining adrift, dragged by the waves. sea ​​currents. We expected the worst. This robot stopped emitting signals about what it was doing in the depths, and was already considered ‘dead’ by the researchers. But now it has resurfaced after eight months of being in this situation. And the good news is that even if it didn’t emit signals, the robot continued working and created 200 profiles, going up and down every five days, collecting data that no human had ever seen. Sailing blindly. The question is obligatory: how do we know where the robot was if it did not have GPS under the ice? To do this, the researchers used an ingenious reverse engineering technique described in the study: every time the robot tried to go up to the surface to transmit, collided with the surface and recorded the pressure at the moment of impact. Something that can be related to the depth at which it was found. When recovering data after its reappearance in open waters, scientists compared those impact points with satellite maps indicating the thickness of the ice in the area. In this way, it was like solving a 3D maze: if the robot crashed 300 meters deep, it had to be at a point where the ice is 300 meters thick. Thus they reconstructed their erratic trajectory of almost 300 kilometers. What we know. Until now we had the idea that East Antarctica was always a ‘stable’ and cold area because, unlike the West, it thaws very slowly. But now we have data that makes us doubt this a lot. In the case of the Shackleton platform we know that it is a cold fortress with a cavity under the ice that is filled with very cold water that protects it from melting from below. If we talk about Denman Glacier We can now relate it to a danger zone, as an intrusion of ‘warm’ water was found flowing towards the base of the glacier. Why it is important. Denman Glacier It’s not just any harmless thing.but it has enough ice to raise global sea level by 1.5 meters. In this way, if the water is warm it will be able to cause this glacier to end up melting and this will undoubtedly be a big problem for the coasts of our planet. Now all that remains is to monitor this area, which can now be categorized as dangerous due to the risks that the planet may finally have if this is something that ends up being confirmed. Images | henrique setim AOML In Xataka | We have been trying to figure out what Antarctica would be like without ice since 1950. We just discovered it

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