Saudi Arabia is not buying EA for video games. He is buying cultural influence in hundreds of millions of homes

An Arab sovereign background has just closed the greatest leverage purchase operation in history: 55,000 million dollars per electronic arts. Paying a 25% premium (in the normal fork), apparently without haggling (definitely abnormal). Closing the operation in record time. And nobody lifts an eyebrow. Because it is supposed to be “only video games.” But they are not “only video games”: It is the FC 26 Entering every week in the living room of 150 million homes, especially for its younger members. Is THE SIMS Teaching what a family, a career, an aspirational life is. Is Madden Nfl and Battlefield occupying Sunday afternoons and the nights during the Week of Medio Planet. Saudi Arabia has not bought a study but a more powerful cultural distribution channel than any television networkquieter than any advertising campaign, more effective than any Hollywood study. Let’s think about the concrete: In EA Sports FC, every year it is decided which goals to include, what flags appear in the stadiums, what social messages are integrated into the game, what role is granted to women’s football, what attire the fans carry. In the PREMs, it is defined what kind of relationships are possible and which are not, what professional careers are glamorized and which ones lose value, what constitutes “success” in simulated life. In Battlefield, it is chosen what historical conflicts represent, how it is portrayed to the Middle East, what factions are “the good”. These are not technical details. They are editorial decisions that mold the worldview of millions of players They spend hundreds of hours a year in these worlds. And when a company stops quoting in the stock market, those decisions are no longer publicly justified: There are no shareholders asking why certain flags of certain markets were eliminated. Do not explain why references to alcohol, to the game, to sex or certain lifestyles disappear in subsequent updates. There are no analysts questioning why certain conflicts are represented in a certain way. There are no quarterly reports that explain narrative changes. Only gradual, imperceptible adjustments, which normalize certain visions of the world. The Saudi fund has not gone for studies indie experimental or for niche games with political messages. Has gone for the more franchises mainstreamsafe and massive on the planet. The least questionable possible. He Soft Power more invisible that exists: entertainment so normalized that nobody wonders who is behind. He simply plays. And then there is the detail that goes unnoticed: they pay 25% premium on the closing price without blinking. They close in a few months when operations thus usually lengthened years. A traditional investment fund would have dribble each percentage point. I would have asked for more DUE Diligence. He would have negotiated to the last dollar. The Saudi PIF pays the premium and accelerates the closure. Because When your goal is not to maximize the return of the invested but maximize strategic influence, speed matters more than the price. Close before someone realizes what you are really buying. Microsoft has been consolidating the purchase of Blizzard Activision for two years. This goes quickly. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son -in -law, is in this operation, according to the Financial Timesand not by chance. Its background, Affinity Partners, He received 2,000 million from the Saudi Pif after leaving the White House. Now returns the favor: its presence converts a foreign purchase into an operation “led by Americans”, which reduces the scrutiny of the Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS). While he appears as a consortium architect, the White House will see partners and not threats. It can be replicated that this is only economic diversification, petrodollars looking for return in entertainment. If so, why not buy Netflix, Disney or Spotify? Why specifically the sector where you can shake what millions of teenagers do for thousands of hours a year without appearing propaganda? The amazing thing is not that this happens. Soccer has accustomed us to Saudi laundering. The hallucinating thing is that almost nobody questions it. The best way to exercise power and influence is that it simply seems fun. LOOT Boxes And seasonal passes while nobody wonders who decides what to normalize in those worlds. And when you take out a stock market company (what will happen with EA), you eliminate the quarterly transparency obligation, you no longer have to account for western scrutiny shareholders and you can make subtle adjustments that no one will detect until it is too late. Nothing scandalous. Only small changes in narratives, representations, progression systems that, multiplied by 500 million players for years, move entire cultural needles. That is the perfect conquest. In Xataka | This game has been scheduled by only one person, and there is already talk of him as one of the great Shooters of the year Outstanding image | Xataka

Hundreds of Microsoft employees have shared their salaries and we already know how it is paid in AI or azure

It is one of the most anticipated times of the year for Microsoft employees: where they are received Double increases and payments. And as it is almost a tradition in great technological ones, transparency (sought or not) emerges. Hundreds of employees of the Redmond company They are sharing their compensation data on a spreadsheet Collaborative that already has more than 850 entries and has been analyzed by Business Insider. An anonymous and voluntary document. This initiative has emerged from the employees themselves so that everyone knows the salary reality of their company. And also to see The big salaries in Silicon Valley. This is filled without anyone knowing what an employee charges from the company. And what is included in the spreadsheet offers a fascinating look at Microsoft’s salary structure, detailing the base salary, bonuses and actions of shares. And he does it at a crucial moment for the company. The war for talent in the era of AI. These data are not used in a vacuum. Microsoft is in the middle of An aggressive campaign to attract and retain the best talent in artificial intelligencean effort that has promoted its income to record figures. The company does not hesitate to get the checkbook, reaching try to sign rivals talent as a goal With millionaire offers. Although, on the other hand, beat record in layoffs while getting large amounts of benefits. Something a bit incongruous. In fact, Microsoft has applied new salary guidelines this year with specific exceptions to be able to compete more aggressively in the AI ​​market. This occurs in a paradoxical context: despite having fired thousands of workers, the company insists that its global workforce will remain stable, indicating that the hiring plans in strategic areas remain at full speed. The key salaries exposed. Although compensation in the technological sector depends largely on the actions, the base salary is a key indicator to compare the strategic importance of the different teams within a company. Based on the analysis of almost 300 software engineers in the United States, within the spreadsheet these are the average base salaries in one of Microsoft’s most important divisions: Cloud + AI: 204,135 dollars Commerce + Ecosystems: 191,597 dollars Security: 189,285 dollars Azure: 176,035 dollars Experiences and Devices (includes Windows and Surface): 175,123 dollars Microsoft AI: 170,456 dollars Xbox: 168,831 dollars Koreai: 167,759 dollars Record extract made by Microsoft employees with their salaries. A fascinating look, but with nuances. Now, you have to take this data cautiously, since they are not official or exhaustive at all, since it represents a very small sample Of the total of 219,000 employees that Microsoft has right now. In addition, it is completely voluntary and anonymous information, so it could be adulterated. On the other hand, it is likely that employees with the highest wages or higher positions are less likely to participate in this type of collaborative documents, so the figures could be lower than the real average of the entire company. An interesting fact that underlines the source consulted is that all these salary ranges self -declared by current employees tend to be lower than those that appear in the official guides of Microsoft itself for new hiring. This could confirm that bias or simply reflect the aggressive policy of the company to attract new talent with very competitive initial offers. Great salaries in the technological environment. It is known that if you are a good programmer or technological expert the salary will not be bad. In the case of Spain it is known that Salaries can reach 170,000 eurosbut outside our borders, the engineers specialized in AI They are becoming the best paid in history. Therefore, there are already many future options for those who want to enter this world, being interface designers who will surely be better paid. But above all the departure to Europe is almost mandatory to have a good salary. Images | Boliviainteligent In Xataka | Microsoft has secured its future with a very simple AI strategy: copy what Amazon did with the web

Hundreds of people attended a funeral. All normal except because the deceased was an AI model that had been removed

The artificial intelligence boom is making us live moments of the most curious. There is people falling in love with an AIothers go to her as to a psychologist or for “Risheat” a loved one. What we needed to see was to celebrate a funeral for a retired model and it is just what happened a few days ago in San Francisco, where more than 200 people gathered to give the last goodbye to Claude 3 Sonnet. The deceased. July 21, Anthropic announced that he withdrew several modelsamong which was Claude 3 Sonnetprotagonist of this funeral picturesque. The model was announced in March 2024 and stood out for its balance between performance and efficiency. Together with him, Anthropic also withdrew Claude 1 and 2, in addition to confirming that Claude 3 Opus would disappear in January 2026. The funeral. It was held last Saturday in a warehouse in the Soma district of San Francisco and more than 200 people attended. They count on This Wired report that the decoration did not go unnoticed: a giant tentacle hanging from the ceiling and several mannequins with an aesthetic and represented different Claude models. In the center of the room he lay the mannequin that represented Claude 3 Sonnet and was surrounded by the most diverse offerings: from the classic flowers to a bottle of ranch sauce. Devotion. It sounds very absurd and clearly there was an aura of irony and humor in the event, but there were also emotional moments and even say in Wired that some attendees cried. Openai has the most popular chatbot, but Claude de Anthropic has a very devout fans community. The reason would be that Anthropic has managed to imbue a warm and friendly personality in his chatbot that has conquered many users. Exists a website where you can see ranking of the users who use Claude most and there are even people doing FAN ART With the company’s logo. Emotional connection Establishing affective links with a machine is not something new. In 1966 it was created Eliza, the first chatbotand many people who interacted with her ended up telling her personal things, as if she were another human, they called him the Eliza Effect. With the AI boom we are seeing how these links become popular and the success of apps such as Replika either Character.AI They are a clear example of this trend that increasingly adds more adherents. Attending the funeral of an AI sounds like a pretty fun plan to spend some time on the weekend, but developing an emotional connection with a chatbot is not always positive. The dark side. There are people whose connection with these chatbots brushes addiction to the point that Online support groups are being createdto alcoholics anonymous. In This study They analyzed how the use of chatbots affects our mental health and, although at the entrance it can have a positive effect, in the long run it is associated with higher levels of social isolation and emotional dependence. The experts alert of the risk of confusing the empathy of a machine with real empathy; A chatbot is always available to speak already It tells us what we want to hearThis causes a false sensation of empathy that can negatively affect our ability to connect with other human beings. Image | Chatgpt In Xataka | A group of experts in AI attended a party in a mansion. The topic of conversation: what will be when AI ends humanity

There are people growing rare plants at home and reluctant their ‘children’ for hundreds of euros

In salons with filtered light and shelves that previously kept books a business as green as surprising: that of collection plants. It is not exotic plants without more, we talk about leaves with unique patterns and impossible hybrids; a niche where Some plants are worth more than vision proand where fans with a good eye -and best hand – They are turning their hobby into a business. If you want a rare plant, do not go to the nursery because you will not find it, you better go to Wallapop. However, although the market is full of enthusiasts willing to pay surprising figures for some species, there is still the big question: Can you live from selling plants? We have talked to two of them to tell us more details about this hobby turned into business. Fever to have more plants at home During the pandemic, many launched Bake bread either sport at home. Others, on the other hand, found their passion between pots and cuttings. Interest in exotic plants or the Urban gardens I already came from before, and it makes all the meaning, especially in the cities. Filling the plant house goes beyond decoration, responds to the need to connect with nature. If we add it to the context of confinement, the trend exploded. At the same time there was a boom of ‘plantfluencers’ on Instagram and the snowball has not stopped growing since then. It was precisely Through the book of @Plantitiscrónicaa well -known influencer, with whom I lived (on Instagram @Viviyverde), began in this of plants. Although with a much smaller account, today it has made the leap and cultivate rare specimens (especially Alocasia) that sells through Wallapop. In Sergio’s case (on Instagram @Sergiodendron), his reference was Sidney Plant Guy. Setting in his videos, he learned until his Philodendron and Epipremnum They would give him almost monstrous sizes sheets. To collect to cultivate Collecting plants in floors has a problem: space. Precisely this is what led Sergio to sell some of his plants. In nature, many of these tropical species climb the trees in search of the precious light. The moss tutor seeks to replicate these conditions. “They are plants that become giant immediately, my house was filled,” he tells us between laughs. When a plant becomes very high, it has to Cut it and extend the tutor. And what did he do with the part of the plant he cut? He didn’t fit him at home, so he started selling them. Collecting plants in floors has a problem: space. This was what led Sergio to sell some of them. Sergio’s hall is a real jungle. Once he reached the maximum of tutors he could have, he started with the Anthuriumone of the most fashionable species in this plant collecting. He acknowledges that it is relatively new in the cultivation of this species, but has captivated him: “It is a very diverse genre. The special thing they have is that they are easy to hybridize between different species.” Sergio usually buy his plants in other countries in Europe and creates his own hybrids on his floor in Madrid, many of them sell them In Wallapop. When asking how many plants he has at home he answers with another question: “What do you consider? In total estimated that you have more than 300 plants, 70 larger and the rest are small outbreaks. For Vivi, going from collecting to sell was somewhat more intentional. After a time collecting and creating content on plants, he saw that there was a market and launched a growth store. He currently has two stores in one of the rooms in his house where he cultivates especially Alocasia. It has more than 200 plants on its floor. On the left: one of Vivi’s cultivation stores. On the right, the orders of the week ready to leave. I lived too Sell ​​in Wallapopbut on his Instagram we see that his store is more professional. It has its logo, the packaging is very much curled and it even has merchandising. One of the things you like best is to pack them. It is a very important part if you want to sell plants: you have to get perfect to your destination. “Shipments must be made Monday or Tuesday. If they are sent later, the plant can spend the weekend in a warehouse and arrive in poor condition.” Another aspect to consider is legality. Selling plants within the European Union is legal And it does not require any permission, but if imported from other countries you have to have a phytosanitary certificate. “It’s a mess,” says Sergio. Since last year Wallapop informs the Treasury, So you have to declare income, in addition to being discharged in freelancers. The most sought -after plants What are the most expensive plants? Tropical plants are the ones that most attract these collectors, species such as Philodendron, Anthurium, Alocasia and Monstera They are the most common. But anyone is worth it, It must be a rare species and, if it has a unique, better variegation. In Botany, the variegation is the “state of the plant that shows tissues of different colors or of diverse constitution.” For example, one Albo Variegata Monster It is like the Monstera Normal (the classic ‘Costilla de Adam’), but with white spots. The whiter and pretty the pattern is, the more it will be paid for it. Wallapop is full of rare tropical plants and some are nothing cheap. But not all plants of the same type are worth the same. A Monstera Thai Constellation that can cost us from 60 euros (or more, depending on the size), than a Monstera Thai Constellation Miracle Tricolor that It can exceed 600 euros. The difference? That the second has the pattern in green, white and yellow, a rarity (or miracle, as its name says) that the price increases a lot. Fever by Alocasia and Anthurium It is also booming. Exist 113 species of Alocasia And more than 1,000 … Read more

There is already a detainee for using the Meta Ray-Ban to record without consent. Recorded hundreds of women in Barcelona without finding out

A young man has been arrested in Barcelona After recording hundreds of women with smart glasses without their knowledge. What he did with those recordings: use them in their “seduction” courses that sold for 3,000 euros. Why is it important. It is the first known case in Spain where Ray-Ban Meta They are used to commit crimes against intimacy. The victims did not know that a camera that they did not detect recorded conversations about personal information that later disseminated and monetized. The facts. The detainee approached foreign tourists in Barcelona, ​​held apparently casual conversations and recorded them with glasses that had an integrated camera. Without noticing it, and in fact hiding it. The videos were later published in Tiktok and Instagram as a claim for their “seduction techniques” courses. In figures: 329 videos analyzed by the police. 239 Conversations with intimate data of women. 700,000 visualizations reached the video of the complainant. 3,000 euros cost the full course (plus 45 euros per month of subscription) The technical problem. The Ray-Ban Meta (329 euros) emit a white light when recording, but it is easy to hide them with small tricks. The majority of victims did not detect being recorded, according to police investigation. Smart glasses pose a privacy dilemma that we had not had to face so far, although it already anticipated a decade ago with The Google Glass opening the way. Ray-Ban Meta are much more concealed. Let’s not talk compared to a mobile. Yes, but. Goal designed a safeguard: the indicator light. The problem arises when malicious users deliberately avoid them to record without consent and then make malicious use, or at least to monetize or spread them. Goal is preparing more AI functions for these glasses that will identify places or people in real time. Some users have achieved it on their own. This arrest promises to be the first of many conflicts that are yet to come between body technology and privacy. Outstanding image | Goal In Xataka | Technology are getting excited about smart glasses. I have serious doubts about your success

They will arrive at hundreds of households this year

There has been a promise that humanoid robots will arrive at our homes to accompany us on a day -to -day basis. For now, the closest thing to what we have are the robotic vacuners, which operate autonomously and are already present in many houses, although they have a lot of robots and absolutely nothing humanoid. Now something begins to change. The Norwegian Startup 1x, backed by OpenAI, has announced that this year will send its humanoid robot neo gamma to “a few hundred or a few thousand” of real homes. His CEO, Bernt Børnich, has confirmed it, In an interview with Techcrunch During the Nvidia GTC 2025 event, where robotics was an absolute protagonist. In the same event, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, presented a series of ads related to artificial intelligence and robotics. From the laboratory to the living room: a test that is not less. It will not be a commercial launch. Nor is a completely autonomous experience. Neo gamma It will arrive as part of a trial program, still under human control. It will be teleoperated by specialized personnel, who will guide him from remote centers while 1x observes and collects data. But that does not detract from it: it is one of the first attempts to carry a humanoid robot with human form and domestic aspirations to a real home. For Børnich, it is a fundamental step: “We want me to live and learn among people,” he said. The company seeks to understand how the robot reacts in a daily environment, how it adapts to real -life dynamics. The data collected will serve to train their artificial intelligence models, developed internally, despite OpenAi’s technological support. A robot designed to live together: soft design, silent movements. Neo Gamma avoids the appearance of an industrial robot. Instead of exposing cables, gears and metal structures, we wear a clear suit that conceals its mechanics and gives it a closer and less intimidating look. Its design seeks to fit home without disregarding, moving away from cold and mechanical aesthetics that usually accompanies humanoid robots. It is designed to help in domestic tasks, such as ordering, cleaning, taking care of the routine so that humans can devote their time to other things. His hands are designed to manipulate objects with precision and care. His movements, according to 1x, are silent and safe, away from the typical buzz or robotic rattle. In addition, it is equipped with a battery of sensors, cameras and microphones that allow you to read your environment in real time. Robotics enters home. And with her, new questions. All progress entails new questions. And in this case, many revolve around privacy. Although the remote control will presumably be regulated by the terms of the service, it is still a person, on the other side of the connection, which will be seeing and listening to what happens inside the home. It is not a minor detail, and those who participate in the test should be fully aware of it. Images | 1x In Xataka | While everyone looked at Silicon Valley, Odense wove their future in silence: today it is positioned as the capital of robotics |

Hundreds of years ago, no one saw a beaver in the Tagus. That has just changed and is not even the strangest of all

The saddest thing that can be said of an animal can be said of the Iberian Castor: No one is very clear when it was extinguished. For years the researchers have discussed whether the last specimens disappeared in the seventeenth century, in the eighteenth or, even, in the nineteenth century to realize that all this was wet paper. But the only available evidence They place them in the second century BC. After that moment, nobody knows what happened to them. But something happened in 2003. In the spring of 2003 and illegally, someone introduced 18 European beavers from Bavaria. No one knows for sure who was or why he did it. In fact, They were discovered by surprise Thanks to “the existence of a series of indications, very conspicuous, that reveal the establishment of a small population of beavers in northern Spain.” What we do know is that, although it was tried to eradicate, it was not achieved. And now, he has overflowed the Bajo del Río Aragón course where he found himself and is now considered all the purposes An native animal subject to environmental protections. Beyond the Ebro. If the Pyrenees had worked as an effective barrier to the beaver, once the situation has entered the situation again. A few years later, we had found Castores in the Duero Basin and in the Guadalquivir. What we hadn’t found were still beavers in the Tagus. And in June 2024, two researchers They found themselves With them in Zorita de los Canes, province of Guadalajara. That is, more than one hundred kilometers in a straight line of the closest place where they had previously reported. What is happening here? Because if we stop to think for a moment, we will discover that this expansion of the beavers It is not natural. In 2023, Teresa Calderón biologist calculation that the beavers of Tormes would have taken 40 years to get there by their own means from the closest documented population. In the Andalusian case, or there is a way for these specimens to travel alone the 365 kilometers of southern submeta that are between the stretch of the Guadalquivir where they were found in 2023 and the closest point where we had previously found them. The only rational explanation is that Someone is putting them there. “Beaver Bombing”. Thus (“Bombing of Castores”) is what is called a little rare practice for years: to release groups of illegally managers in areas where they had supposedly lived. And they not only do it without permission: they do it without previous studies, or guarantees, or planning. “As the IUCN establishes, to make a reintroduction of any extinct animal in a territory it is necessary to carry out a series of studies that are almost common sense,” Francisco José García rememberedBiologist and expert in mammals from the climate semm, “we have to know why they were extinguished at the time, under what conditions the animals lived then and if these conditions are maintained. And we must work on the social perception of the species, You can’t do your back things to society. And then? The problem, as happened with The reintroduction of the wolfgetting that “social and political support” is complicated and some groups have decided not to wait. The story gives for A rural thrillerbut he raises many doubts about what will happen in the future. Not only if Castor’s communities will grow in Spain, but this practice will be extended to more species. Image | Svetozar Cenisev In Xataka | Franco introduced an exotic sheep in the Teide to content the hunters. Now it is ending its ecosystem FacebookTwitterFlipboardE-mail

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