Human

more human intervention, not less

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The ‘dry’ advances through the pastures of western Spain. And it is normal, not only is it a serious disease that causes the death of holm oaks and cork oaks; It is the consequence of decades of bad forestry practices that have undermined the ecosystem from within. But that is not new. We have known for many years that the Iberian pasture has an expiration date. The news now is that Iberian ham producers have begun to realize the consequences of the problem and some of them have decided to take action on the matter. This is how acorn-fed ham wants to save one of the most characteristic forests of the Iberian Peninsula. What do we talk about when we talk about the pasture? Let’s start with the latter: despite what many may think from the top of the Vía de la Plata, the pasture is not “virgin nature”, or anything similar. It is about a very complex agro-silvo-pastoral system the result of centuries of forest clearing, extensive grazing and human uses of all kinds. We are used to ecosystems that are maintained despite economic activity, but in this case the example is the opposite: we are talking about a unique productive structure of four million hectares on which pastures, cork, game, honey and, of course, ham depend. If the pasture falls, the acorn falls and, with it, the ham falls. A nightmare called ‘Seca’. That is, at least, its popular name. It is a pathogen (Phytophthora cinnamomi), linked directly to the decay and death of these forests. The CICYTEX describes it as a major threat to the Iberian pasture. And, anyway, he is right. It is true that the fungus is, to some extent, opportunistic: requires water stress and alternating dry and wet periods to spread and infect trees. However, once it appears, it activates a whole series of functional changes (from defoliation and dieback of shoots and branches to necrosis of the root system) that lead to the death of the tree. That is why, little by little, the nightmare of the drought has become more terrible and distant. Intervention. To the point where the ham companies have taken action on the matter. The Joselito group, for example, has invested more than 6 million euros in R&D. Their bet is to change the focus, stop focusing on getting better fungicides and bet on the regeneration of ecosystems that can confront diseases. According to company datamore than 2,700 hectares have been intervened (Badajoz, Cáceres, Seville and Portugal) and, for the moment, an improvement of 7.5% has been achieved in vegetation indices in treated areas. It is not the only project and the truth is that, a priori, it is good news. It’s a drop in the ocean; but it is the beginning of what may be a new paradigm. And that, at least, allows us to face the situation with a little more hope. Whose pasture is it? Beyond marketing, the need for companies to maintain the pasture and the change in concept compared to Seca, the initiative generates many uncertainties. The main one has to do with the privatization of countryside conservation. It is good news that agricultural industries are beginning to show solidarity with the environment in which they carry out their activity. As we have learned in recent years, the trend is just the opposite. The risk. However, supporting the maintenance and management of four million hectares on the shoulders of the ham industry (or on the rest of those who “take advantage” of the productive infrastructure of the dehesa) is a risky decision. We have already seen how depopulation has destroyed the ecosystems of half the country: do we really want to leave it in the hands of such a fragile industry How does agriculture our natural heritage? Image | Miguel Angel Masegosa | Jose Antonio Rivero Forne In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

There are people investigating whether AIs are better hackers than human hackers. And we don’t have very nice news

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The technology companies do not stop talking about AGIalthough there are many doubts that it is so close how they want to sell us. General artificial intelligence is one that will be capable of surpassing humans in all facets of knowledge. We don’t know if it will be able to surpass us in everything, but there is already a niche in which it is overtaking us: hacking. The experiment. It was carried out by Stanford University researchers and we have known him through a Wall Street Journal report. What they did was develop a hacking bot called Artemis whose objective is to scan the network in search of possible bugs or vulnerabilities through which it can sneak in. They released Artemis into the university’s own engineering network and confronted her with ten pentestersprofessional hackers who are dedicated to simulating attacks to find bugs and then correct them. The bot had a ‘kill switch’ so it could be turned off at any time if things got complicated and the human hackers had instructions to force and test, but without actually penetrating the network. The results. To the surprise of its creators, Artemis achieved excellent results, outperforming nine of the ten human hackers. The bot managed to find bugs much faster than its competitors and, above all, at a much lower price. It is estimated that a pentester charges between $2,000 and $2,500 per day, while Artemis only “charges” $60 per hour. Another “look”. Artemis didn’t do everything right. At least 18% of his bug reports were false positives and he also ignored a very obvious bug on a website that human hackers saw the first time. Instead, he detected a bug that no human had detected. The reason is that the failure was on a website that did not work in Chrome or Firefox, the browsers used by hackers. Artemis is not a person and does not use browsers, but instead used a program and was able to read the website, finding the bug. AI and hacking. The Cybercriminals have been using AI for some time to make malware more effective. Recently Anthropic discovered that a Chinese hacking group was using Claude Code for a large-scale espionage campaign. What is striking is that Claude functioned as an agent who was in charge of the entire attack cycle, not just a part of the process. AI to do good. AI is lowering the barrier to entry for developing attacks, but it can also be used for protection. Research such as that from Stanford shows that AI can also be used to test insecure systems, find bugs and thus be able to patch them. The problem that arises is where the role of professionals such as pentesters will be if AI ends up doing its job for much less money. Image | Sora Shimazaki, Pexels In Xataka | Agents are the great promise of AI. They also aim to become the new favorite weapon of cybercriminals

‘human safaris’ for the rich

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Three decades ago Sarajevo earned a tragic place in history. Between April 1992 and February 1996 the city suffered the longest siege of our time: 1,425 days during which hundreds of thousands of people lived under the constant threat of mortars and snipers. It is estimated that they lost their lives more than 11,000 civilians (including 1,601 children) and about 50,000 people suffered injuries in one of the most tragic episodes of the Bosnian War. Now that bloody siege threatens to slip back into the history books for an even (even) more terrifying episode. The Milan Prosecutor’s Office is investigating If while thousands of inhabitants of Sarajevo were living hell on earth, a small, opulent and, above all, heartless group of foreigners who were fond of weapons were dedicated to practicing ‘human safaris’. Four years of hell. The 20th century was generous in tragedies, but the Sarajevo site by the Bosnian Serb militias stands out among all of them for its data: it lasted nearly four years, left more than 11,000 civilians dead, tens of thousands injured, more than a thousand and a half corpses of children and scenes of heartbreaking harshness, such as the murder of Admira and Boškoa couple of unarmed young men killed in May 1993 while crossing a bridge. At the mercy of snipers. The photo of the young lovers, embraced on the ground, lifeless, stirred stomachs beyond the city and inspired the documentary ‘Romero and Juliet in Sarajevo’released just a year later by the Canadian filmmaker John Zaritsky. In reality, the story of Admira and Boško was just one more drop in the turbulent and gloomy ocean of that siege. During the siege the street also became popular Zmaja od Bosne and the boulevard Messe Selimovicthen nicknamed ‘Sniper Avenue’. your name says it all: those who crossed it risked slipping into the sights of some gunman willing to pull the trigger without paying attention to who would receive the bullet, civilian or military, man or woman, child, adult or elderly. Something more than a war? That wars are fertile ground for barbarism is nothing new. We keep checking it still in the middle of 2025. The question that has now arisen in Europe, more specifically in Italy, is whether all the people who fired bullets during the siege of Sarajevo were militiamen, soldiers, people desperate to protect their lives… or were there also foreigners who simply wanted to participate in ‘manhunts’. That is, people willing to pay large sums of money to take their rifle, travel to another country located hundreds of kilometers away and dedicate themselves to hunting people like someone who goes out to hunting grounds in search of wild boar, roe deer or hares. An ancient hum. It’s actually not a new suspicion. Rumors have circulated since the 1990s about ‘human safaris’, war tourism and rifle-wielding foreigners during the siege of Sarajevo. Perhaps one of the most controversial documents on the subject is a short recording showing the Russian writer Eduard Limonov together with Radovan Karadzic (today convicted of genocide) and snipers in full action. At one point Limonov is seen taking a gun, although there is no suspicion that he participated in ‘human safaris’. A few years ago the Slovenian director Miran Xupanič even recorded a documentary (‘Sarajevo Safari’) in which it talks about how supposedly during the 90s wealthy foreigners paid to shoot the residents of the city. A complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office. If the issue is in the news today it is because, almost 30 years after the siege, the Milan Prosecutor’s Office has decided open an investigation to clarify whether there were indeed people with a lot of money and little or no heart who participated in ‘safaris’ taking advantage of the siege of Sarajevo. Specifically, it studies whether there were groups of foreigners (not only Italians) who paid large sums, between 80,000 and 100,000 euros to the current change, to get on a plane in Trieste, land in Belgrade and then be taken to one of the hills of Sarajevo to hold a rifle and give free rein to their sadism. But… Why now? That the Milan Prosecutor’s Office has made a move just now, 30 years later, is no coincidence. The process has been launched following a complaint filed by the journalist Ezio Gavazzeniresident in Milan and who has dedicated himself to collecting evidence that points to the existence of these ‘human safaris’. Thanks to his investigations, Gavazzeni has prepared a 17-page complaint that has the support of two notable figures: Guido Salvini, a former magistrate, and Benjamina Karic, who governed Sarajevo between 2021 and 2024. The existence of this weekend war tourism has confirmed it also in recent weeks a leading figure in the Italian diplomatic mission in Sarajevo during the Bosnia-Herzegovina war. In an interview he has acknowledged both the existence of those bloody ‘safaris’ and that in his day the Italian secret services (SISMI) received information about what was happening in Sarajevo, which led them to investigate it and put an end to it shortly after. “There were Germans, French, English…” Gavazzeni recognize that rumors about ‘sniper tourism’ are not new. He remembers having read reports about similar cases already in the 1990s, but what triggered his investigative spring, what led him to investigate the case further and finally present the complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office was Zupanič’s documentary. “I began a correspondence with the director and, from there, I expanded my research until I gathered enough material,” relates to Guardian. After collecting this material, he defends that there were “many Italians” involved, although he also speaks of Germans, French, English… Even “rich and relevant Spaniards”. “People from all Western countries who paid large sums of money to be taken there to shoot civilians,” summarizes the researcher. One complaint, two achievements. For now, Gavanezzi has already achieved two objectives. First, that the Milan Prosecutor’s Office initiate an investigation for an alleged crime of voluntary manslaughter with aggravating cruelty and abject motives. … Read more

Of course there is a museum with more than 900 rocks with the “face” of a human being. And of course it’s in Japan.

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Japan is a country that seems taken from another dimension, where the craziest and strangest things (for us Westerners) can happen. The only place where we can find beautiful manhole coversmajestic snow sculptures, very strange contestsbizarre television seriesas well as restaurants with robots and a few other wonders that leave us with our mouths open. Rocks with human faces. Today’s protagonist is another gem that can only be in Japan, since it is the only museum in the world that exhibits more than 1,700 rocks, of which 900 have one characteristic in common: they all have the appearance of a human face, well, or at least a face with eyes and a mouth. It is about from the Chinsekikan museum. Where. In Chichibutwo hours northwest of Tokyo, we will find a very peculiar and unique place in the world, a museum with an impressive collection of rocks, which were collected for more than 50 years by its founder Shozo Hayama, and where we will find rocks that resemble everything from the face of Jesus to Elvis Presley. Its origin. The museum, which means ‘The Hall of Curious Rocks‘, is currently managed and curated by Yoshiko Hayama, the wife of the founder who died in 2010, and it is she who maintains the museum as her husband left it, since she wanted to pay tribute to him after dedicating much of her life to collecting ‘jinmenseki’ (rocks with a human face). All stones are like this, they occur as is in nature, and do not have any type of modification. The names. Mr. Hayama not only collected the rocks, but also named them according to their features, which is why we will find rocks named in honor of Boris Yeltsin and even fictional characters such as Donkey Kong, ET, Nemo, and many more. However, there are still several unnamed rocks, so occasionally Mrs. Hayama comes out to welcome visitors and takes the opportunity to ask opinions about possible names for the rocks that have not been named. In Xataka | Japan depends too much on Tokyo. So you are already thinking about a “reserve” capital just in case In Xataka | In Tokyo, schools are threatening to use lawyers and police. The reason: “monster parents” In Xataka | The tea that was born to stop time now runs against it: the matcha crisis in Japan Image | Chinsekikan Museum

While we wait for solid-state batteries, the University of Córdoba has an idea for the electric car: human poop

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The automotive industry has launched itself into electrification arms. Be with the hybrids, plug-ins either 100% electricthey all have batteries, and the key to convincing more users of make the jump from your combustion car is guarantee greater autonomy. The solid state batteries are one of the technologies in researchbut there are other very promising ones such as lithium-sulfur, and the University of Córdoba believes that there are two secret ingredients to improve the formula. Urine and excrement. Li-S. They are not new. We have been talking about the lithium sulfide batteriesand while we find the economy of scale necessary for solid-state ones to establish themselves, lithium-sulfur ones are one of the hopes for electric cars. They have twice the real energy density of lithium-ion, sulfur is extremely abundant and economical compared to critical materials such as cobalt or nickel, It is not something that China controlsit is safer because the risk of thermal runaway is lower and the environmental impact is reduced. They are not perfect, since the conductivity is low, the manufacturing processes are not as optimized as those of current alternatives and, above all, the current useful life is very limited: although they are moving forward In this sense, just 300-500 charge cycles compared to between 1,000 and 3,000 for lithium-ion batteries. However, as we say, they have become a promising technology, and the University of Córdoba wants one of the ingredients in the battery to be… poop. Batteries from waste. The Chemical Institute for Energy and the Environment, or IQUEMA, of the University of Córdoba has published a study in which they test the potential of sludge from a municipal treatment plant when converting it into activated carbon. It is an essential material for lithium-sulfur batteries, since it works as a conductor, and they consider it to be the answer to the challenge of optimizing the electrodes of these batteries. As we said, sulfur has advantages, but one of the great deficiencies is its conductivity index. This requires active carbon and other conductive matrices that are expensive to produce. But of course, if this conductive matrix is ​​created from waste that all cities in the world produce no matter what, things change. Villaviciosa de Córdoba. To do this, IQUEMA has used sludge from the wastewater station of Villaviciosa de Córdoba. This plant uses a treatment system that generates a sludge with an interesting composition to carry out the experiment: It is rich in organic matter. Also in metals, nitrogen and phosphorus. Combining them can create a material with a good electrochemical performance index. The process is as follows: Drying: the mud is dried and pulverized. Chemical modification: Potash is added as a chemical agent to make the material more porous. Pyrolysis: the mixture is subjected to temperatures of 800º to convert the organic matter into activated carbon. Mixture with sulfur: thus it is trapped in the active carbon matrix and the last step would be to integrate it into the battery electrodes. Promising. The researchers have found that the activated carbon obtained has ideal properties to be used as a material in these batteries. Its porous structure and nitrogen doping improve the transport of electrons and ions, and the resulting material has a high sulfur content. This allows the battery to have great electrochemical stability. That is to say, one of the big problems of this technology, the low conductivity of sulfur for the cathode, is something that mitigates the matrix created from the Villaviciosa de Córdoba sludge. And because its raw material is what it is, it is easier to recycle than other conventional batteries for which you have to develop tadjacent technologies for sustainability. According to the researchers, it is an avenue worth exploring because “triple the storage capacity of a lithium-ion battery”. “It is a great advance that we achieved from a waste that we considered problematic” – IQUEMA researchers Beyond the poop. Considering the results, it is likely that we will see more studies in the same direction. It is something that solves a double problem: the municipal waste management by converting it into a key material to solve one of the challenges of lithium-sulfur batteries. And the interesting thing is that IQUEMA has not remained only in the sludge of the sewage treatment plant. Previously explored the potential of agroindustrial byproductslike the olive pits and avocados, but also almond and pistachio shells. The problem is that these materials are already in demand in other sectors (such as composting or heating), and that is where the great advantage of human excrement lies: “no one” wants them. Images | ACE, Thomas Freres In Xataka | No, China has not turned off the tap on batteries for electric cars. The reality is much more complex

What happens to human creativity when thousands of human creatives fall in love with AI

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It is not every day that one attends an event taking a walk with the sea and the sunrise in the background. But that’s just what happened to us Upscale Confa conference organized by the Spanish company freepik. The objective: to serve as a meeting point for a creative community that is absolutely dedicated to the world of AI. It is the third edition of Upscale Confthe second in Malaga —San Francisco was the other venue in May—and it is clear that we are facing what is little by little becoming one of the great events of the intersection between human creativity and creativity? of generative AI models. It doesn’t seem like attendees have too many doubts about it. After the almost inevitable queue for accreditations, two days of talks, workshops and much, much begin. networking. Showing a QR code on your mobile to connect to LinkedIn is the modern version of the business cards of yesteryear. To me, a very occasional user of this network, I find that surprising and very invasive: hey, I might not want to follow you on LinkedIn. I liked it better when you simply asked for the email—which didn’t commit you as much—and even more when people gave you their business card, which was almost like a trading card from before. You didn’t just keep business cards: you almost collected them. That time seems to have almost vanished. AI democratizes creativity made into an image Be that as it may, once inside the atmosphere is surprisingly optimistic. No one here seems to be worried about being replaced by an AI, something that It has already begun to be seen in China in 2023 in creative works. There are no nerves or restlessness in the respectable: only expectation and acceptance of an apparent reality. The one that AI is here and no one is going to stop it. Compared to other conferences with a more technical background, here is a scent of discovery. Wanting to know what this can give. To listen to the people who are trying to be the spearhead explain how their relationship with AI is going in what was theoretically the last frontier that AI would never conquer, human creativity. I come across attendees from here and there and I ask two of them what their motivation is for attending Upscale Conf. Andy and Antonio are from a tourism agency in Malaga and they explain to me that they already use AI in the software development part, but curiously, not so much in the visual and creative part. The argument is forceful: “in the tourism sector, using artificial photos can be very dangerous.” And yet, they come to take the pulse of this apparent revolution and learn from it. What I find everywhere are very diverse profiles and, curiously, not necessarily linked to the creative segment. I speak with (another) Antonio, who like me has gray hair and who, like me, is also optimistic about the future of AI. He is not creative, but rather helps companies understand the potential of AI for a fundamental aspect: productivity. And like the kids from Malaga, you are here to learn, discover and be inspired. Four guys who are talking animatedly tell me the same thing practically when I interrupt them and ask them what sectors they come from. There is a little bit of everything. One of the boys, a content creator, took advantage of current tools to demonstrate that kitten olympics They can have a lot of pull. DEPT’s Marten Kuipers made it clear that not everyone sees this creative AI thing as a good idea. He, like the rest of the attendees, has a different opinion. Two others, in the real estate segment, are investigating possible uses of generative image and video AI for their business. The fourth, in the consulting branch, explains to me that the other great reason is not only to learn, but a classic of events: networking. Meet people and make yourself known. Putting faces to people with whom you had been exchanging messages for months (or years?) on Twitter (sorry, X) or on Instagram or LinkedIn. From IG or TikTok influencers to creatives who take advantage of AI But in all cases, we insist, absolutely optimistic atmosphere between professionals from both sides who seem to see this as an opportunity. One in which some are certainly making gold: several of the speakers at the event are new stars in the firmament of content creators. PJ Accetturo during his presentation explaining how to make a viral video. The idea is still the important thing, the process and the prompts are surprisingly “normal”. For example, PJ Accetturo, creator of the famous trailer for ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in Studio Ghibli style…before OpenAI I would copy the idea. Or Yonatan Dor, who have managed to get their gritty videos created with AI—using the image of Trump, Musk or Kamala Harris—become viral phenomena that already have hundreds of millions of visits. AI helps, but it doesn’t come close to doing everything. Laura Pin showed in her 90-minute workshop how she combines Midjourney, nanobanana, Magnific, Topaz AI, Photoshop and Lightroom to achieve just what she had in her head. The attention to detail is extraordinary. We walked through the different conferences and workshops and, as in any event, we found a little of everything. The days begin with the entrance of Linus Ekenstam (@LinusEkenstam), popularizer and influencer of this segment, who acts as master of ceremonies throughout the event. As a good communicator, you know some useful tricks: Start with a good personal story to hook attendees. He tells how when he was little a friend gave him a computer and he slept with the machine next to him, like a stuffed animal, because he was afraid that that treasure would be stolen. Joaquín Cuenca, CEO of Freepik, announcing the launch of the new collaborative service on his platform, called Freepik Spaces. Then it comes Joaquin Cuencafounder and CEO … Read more

There are people listening to Drake on Spotify 23 hours a day. Or maybe they are not human and it is a ‘royalty’ fraud

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That Spotify pays artists quite poorly It’s no secret, but now they are being accused of something else: there are artists inflating their reproductions in order to reduce the payment for the rest since the distribution is proportional. The demand. They count in Ars Technica which is a class action lawsuit proposed by American rapper RBX. In it, the platform is accused of having allowed Drake to inflate his views. Currently, the rapper holds the record on the platform with 120,000 million views. Although Drake is at the center of the lawsuit, he goes further and claims that Spotify ignores “millions of fraudulent streams.” The signs. According to RBX, Spotify ignored at least 37 billion inauthentic streams of Drake’s music over the past three and a half years. To do this, they have analyzed listening patterns and have detected strange behaviors such as “months of significant increases” without the release of new music to explain those peaks. But the most suspicious of all is that certain accounts only played Drake’s music for 23 hours a day, something they consider “astonishing and irregular” and why Spotify had detected it. The payment system. Spotify does not pay artists for each play, but instead uses a proportional model. Every month a “pool” of money is created and each artist receives a proportional share based on the reproductions they have had in that period. Thus, if one month the sum amounts to 1 million euros, an artist who has achieved 1% of the total reproductions would take home 10,000 euros. It affects everyone. With the proportional system, if one artist inflates his figures, it negatively affects all the other artists competing for a piece of the pie. Although they have not given details of how they arrived at that figure, the lawsuit speaks of “hundreds of millions of dollars.” If the judge accepts the case, it could cover more than 100,000 copyright owners who use the platform. It’s not something new. Years ago we talked about the techniques to manipulate the charts on the platform. The most famous case was that of Justin Bieber, who In 2020 he asked his followers to loop his song ‘Yummy’ to take it to number one on the charts. But the normal thing is that it is done undercover, using fake accounts hidden under a VPN that hides the real location. In statements to Rolling Stonea Spotify representative has denied benefiting from fake plays and claims to invest in systems to protect artists and eliminate fake plays. Image | Wikipedia, Pexels In Xataka | The problem is no longer that Spotify has been filled with AI artists: it is that AI is “reviving” dead musicians

human hands connected from the Philippines

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Thousands of kilometers from Japan, in an office building in Manila’s financial district, a group of young people watches the inside of stores where they have never been. In front of them, monitors show the movements of robotic arms that place drinks on refrigerated shelves. They are the same robots that many Japanese customers believe are fully autonomous. In reality, their apparent independence depends on these Filipino operators who, connected by Internet, correct errors in these machines. When a can falls, they are the ones who give back control. The automata that supply the shelves of Japanese stores They work independently almost all the time. Still, there are times when they fail. When a drink slips or a container is misplaced, an operator from Manila puts on a virtual reality headset and regains control. In a few minutes, move the robotic arm precisely until the error is corrected. These interventions are specific, about 4% of operationsbut they ensure that everything keeps moving without anyone noticing from the other side of the counter. When robots make mistakes, it’s humans who save them The operation of this system depends on a peculiar alliance between companies from two countries. Telexistencebased in Tokyo, designs and manages the robots that operate in Japanese stores, relying on Microsoft and Nvidia platforms. From Manila, Astro Robotics runs the control room where technicians monitor and assist the machines. It’s an example of how chains keep their operations going in Tokyo thanks to a mix of robotics, connectivity and remote workforce. Located at the heart of this operation, the TX SCARA model is a compact and fast robotic arm created to handle drinks in the narrow warehouses of Japanese stores. The system analyzes sales data to decide which products to replenish at any given time. If an error occurs, as we say, it switches to teleoperation mode. The deployment of these robots began in 2022 and since then their presence has multiplied in Japanese stores. What started as a controlled test is today a stable operating system that keeps refrigerators stocked without interruptions. Adoption responds to a clear need: Japan faces a chronic shortage of retail workers, exacerbated by an aging population. In this scenario, automation has become a strategy to sustain the service without expanding the human workforce. Now, while Japan boasts advanced automation, part of its “efficiency” relies on Filipino workers who They charge between 250 and 315 dollars a month, according to Rest of World. It is the same amount that a call center agent earns, but with much more technical and demanding tasks. For Japanese companies, the model is ideal: robots that don’t ask for breaks and remote operators that cost a fraction of the local minimum wage. Innovation, in this case, also externalizes inequality. The work of operators in Manila may seem simple, but it has its complexity. Each one monitors dozens of robots simultaneously and must react quickly when something goes wrong. The pressure to keep the flow constant is high, and shifts lengthen in front of multiple screens. In addition, the use of the virtual helmet can cause dizziness and disorientation after several minutes of use. All this, according to an employee who spoke with the aforementioned media. Every move the operators make in Manila not only keeps the system running: it also teaches the robots to be more autonomous. Telexistence collects that teleoperation data to perfect artificial intelligence models that control the TX SCARA. The information is used to improve the machines’ coordination, grip and responsiveness. In June, the company announced a collaboration with the American startup Physical Intelligence to develop foundational models that give robots more human-like “physical intelligence.” The rise of automation is not limited to Japan. On a global scale, the industry is advancing with unprecedented speed. The market of the so-calledartificial intelligence agents”—programs capable of acting autonomously—could multiply by eight and reach almost $43 billion in 2030, consulting firm MarkNtel Advisors projects. What we can see is that the global demand for technological labor seems to be putting the Philippines in a strategic position. A Penbrothers report notes that foreign companies look there technical talent at low cost for artificial intelligence, automation and robotics projects. Local professionals have access to more qualified jobs, but they continue to earn less than their counterparts in the United States or Europe. The next step will be to see how far this collaboration between humans and machines goes. Telexistence plans to expand the number of connected stores and improve the autonomy of its robots, while experimenting with new gripping and handling systems. It will also be necessary to observe how the percentage of human intervention, still necessary today in part of the operations, evolves. Another key point will be the treatment of data generated in Manila, which feeds artificial intelligence models and raises questions about privacy and ownership of information. Images | Telexistence In Xataka | Amazon has calculated how much it costs to lay off 600,000 employees: 30 cents per item sold and many robots

A company has developed a head that gestures like a human

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When we think of a convincing humanoid, we imagine him looking into our eyes, blinking and accompanying the words with gestures that give context. Robotics advances at a good pace and there are machines that Solve acrobatics with solvencybut they still transmit more mechanics than humanity. What is missing for interaction to flow is the gesture that completes the message. In recent months, ads and tests in China have started exploring that layer. From muscle to the face. For a long time, the bar was to get a robot to move autonomy and exceed resistance tests. That chapter begins to be resolved with increasingly solid models in the mechanical plane. What is now raised is another challenge: reproducing the nonverbal communication that people take for granted. From a gesture of approval to a surprise reaction, they are signs that open the door to a real dialogue between humans and machines. A head that gestures. The Chinese company Aheadform has shown a prototype that materializes this transition. In a video broadcast on YouTube You see a robotic head that blinks, nods and follows the environment with a surprisingly convincing look. The company, founded in 2024, Explain on your website that its objective is to achieve more natural interactions between people and machines. To do this, it seeks to integrate advanced language models with realistic facial expressions that allow to respond in real time. Under the ‘skin: To make the prototype look alive engines Brushlesssmall silent devices capable of coordinating precise movements. The model, baptized as Origin M1, integrates up to 25 of these actuators that control the different expressions. In their pupils, cameras are hidden that allow registering what happens around, while microphones and speakers facilitate real -time interaction. The combination of these elements explains subtle movements and response capacity. Integration of a robotic head of Aheadform into an experimental body The company ensures that the usefulness of these developments will go beyond the simple technical demonstration. It projects scenarios such as customer service, teaching or health care, where trust is also built with gestures and expressions. The approach is that a robot that smiles or nods more close than one with a neutral face. For now, these are declared intentions: the models are not commercially available. Academic support. Behind the video there is also peer reviewed research. In Science Robotics, in 2024Yuhang Hu and several collaborators presented a robot capable of predicting and reproducing human expressions as they occurred. The study provided evidence that real -time facial recognition and synchronized mechanical response are possible. It does not confirm that the current prototype is the same study system, but is consistent with the orientation that the company describes. Aheadform works in robotic heads with pupils that hide cameras An effort that goes further. China’s will to place humanoid robotics in the front line is a reality. It is not only about heads capable of gesturing, but also public exhibitions where complete bodies are tested. In the CMG World Robot Contest Series held in Hangzhou, for example, Four Unitree G1 starred in fighting Kickboxing Transmitted by TV. These humanoids showed coordination and agility, in a staging that reinforced the narrative of a country determined to lead the sector. The most recent closure of this agenda was the Half Marathon of Beijing, in which 21 robots toured a circuit parallel to that of human corridors. The organization highlighted the uniqueness of the event, but the implementation showed limitations: permanent technical assistance, battery replacement and route separation. Images | Aheadform In Xataka | Goal has begun to show its game in robotics. What you are looking for is clear: to be the Android of the robots thanks to the software

Trying to understand why human beings like alcohol so much, these scientists have just found a fundamental clue: drunken monkeys

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More than two decades ago, Robert Dudley wondered how it was possible that we liked alcohol. In 2014, the evolutionary biologist of the University of California in Berkeley published “El Mono drunk”, a book where he explored The evolutionary roots of that transcultural hobby to alcohol. According to Dudley, it is the fans of primates to fermented fruits (rich in sugars and with a very light alcoholic content) what is behind all this. The problem, as with all the hypotheses of evolutionary biology, was to demonstrate it. Now we have found some tests. Because Science Advance magazine He has just published a study which shows that wild chimpanzees consume the alcoholic equivalent to one or two human cups. That is, exposure to this substance is regular and “probably” was also in our past as a kind, as Dudley said. How have you discovered it? The team analyzed the fruits consumed by the wild chimpanzees in Uganda and in Ivory Coast. Thus, they discovered that these 21 species had a concentration of 0.3% alcohol on average. To the extent that these animals consume about 4.5 kilos of fruit, the amount of ethanol consumed daily is more than the 14 grams that has a standard glass in the US. Of course, “by adjusting for body weight, which in chimpanzees is around 40 kilos in front of about 70 in humans, the exposure equals almost two glasses,” Explain in SINKSEY MARO, main author of the study. It is true, however, that as consumed throughout the day, researchers have not found signs of drunkenness in chimpanzees. So drink alcohol is something natural? This is a usual confusion when we put on the table lAs evolutionary explanationsbut evidently it is not prices. To start because there is nothing ‘natural’ per se. The Natural-artificial ‘distinction It is something that has very little scientific, philosophical or social basis. We have reached a point where everything is artificial. But, on the other hand, the world has changed a lot. Although the hypothesis can explain the origin of the taste for alcohol in all human societies, constant exposure to alcohol of great concentration such as the one we suffer today has nothing to do with that of our ancestors. Therefore, our taste for alcohol may have a certain evolutionary base; The abuse of ethanol and the health problems it causes are something else. Something much more dangerous. Image | Adam Wyles In Xataka | The greatest fear of the alcohol industry is summarized in just five words: being abstemious is fashionable

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