King

Japan was the king of semiconductors in the 80s. Rapidus is its only hope to compete in this market again

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In the 1980s, Japan did not compete in semiconductors and technology. It was devastating. In 1988, Japanese companies controlled more than half of the world semiconductor market, and NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi and Fujitsu were above giants of the time in the US such as Motorola, Texas Instruments or Intel. That golden era ended with the hyperspecialization that emerged both in South Korea and China and (especially) in Taiwan, but now Japan wants to make a splash again. what has happened. A year ago the technology industry was surprised by the birth of Rapidus Corporationa company born from the alliance of several Japanese giants (Sony, Toyota, SoftBank) with the aim of returning to Japan part of its relevance in the field of semiconductors. The initial plan was very ambitious: they wanted to jump directly to 2 nm by 2027. As we will see later, they have had to delay that forecast, but what has also changed (a lot) is the structure of the company. Japan like main investor. The Japanese government has decided to make Rapidus a centerpiece of national security, and is taking unprecedented control of the company. He will become the largest shareholder, although initially he will only exercise 10% of the voting rights to leave management in private hands. Of course: the State reserves the right to raise that participation above 50% if the company is experiencing difficulties. Total capital has skyrocketed to 420 billion yen ($2.7 billion), when in 2022 the investment did not exceed 50 million. The golden action. The Japanese executive has made use of a legal mechanism by acquiring the so-called “golden shares” with which he can exercise his veto in critical decisions such as changes in management or mergers. The objective is to shield Rapidus against foreign capital acquisitions and guarantee the sovereignty of the project. Which is exactly the same thing we are seeing around the world, of course: each country wants to have its own apples in its basket. Investors who are also clients. Financial support comes from the Japanese government, but also from some large Japanese business groups such as the aforementioned Sony and Toyota or Denso. In total, 32 companies have invested 167.6 billion yen (1.075 billion dollars) and will contribute to this commitment by also being customers of the silicon that Rapidus can produce. They remain just as ambitious… or more. Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike has adjusted the development plans for his chips, and has delayed the arrival of mass production to March 2028. That’s bad news, but not so much when we discover that the company has plans to go beyond 2nm and is preparing to be able to make 1.4nm chips and even 1 nm. Fast as gunpowder. One of the factors that want to differentiate Rapidus is its promise of rapid delivery of semiconductors. The project aims to automate both the manufacturing, packaging and testing of the chips. These last two are processes with great manual intervention, but at Rapidus they believe they have the key to making them much more autonomous. If they succeed, they could reduce the cycle time of semiconductors by 66% and thus beat even giants like TSMC by the way. Japan turns to chips. Japan’s aspiration is striking, and its Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, seems to be clear that the commitment to this segment must be notable. In fact, Japan is investing a proportion of its GDP (0.71%) in semiconductors much higher than that of the US (0.21%) or Germany (0.41%). Challenges. The strategy, of course, has its critics. Takero Doi, professor at Keio University, point “There are many cases in which public-private investment has led to systems that lacked accountability. It is important to clarify who will lead the project, the private sector or the government.” Plan B. Although the plan with Rapidus is ambitious, the country is actually playing both sides. While boosting its own business, the government has made commitments with TSMC to upgrade its manufacturing plants in Japan. This makes it have a hybrid ecosystem: it attracts the experience and knowledge of the semiconductor giant while on the other hand trying to create a national alternative. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | Panasonic was the bastion of 100% Japanese TVs after Sony’s step back. Now it has surrendered to China

There was a time when Japan was the king of TVs. All its giants have ended up surrendering to the evidence

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Not so many years ago, talking about Japanese televisions was talking about the kings of the market. Not so much for volume but for quality. The Sony Trinitron were (and still are) to play retro video games) legendary, but there were the technologies of Sharp, Toshiba or the plasma from Panasonic. However, first South Korea and now China have run over Japanese brands. And Panasonic is the latest “victim.” And it may be for the best. The Panasonic case. Bluntly: Panasonic, which was once on the podium of the great Japanese manufacturers, has just announce that the Chinese company skyworth From now on, it will be in charge of producing and selling its televisions. At the catalog presentation event for this year, representatives of the Japanese brand they commented that the new partner “will lead sales, marketing and logistics while Panasonic provides expertise and quality assurance.” Speaking to FlatpanelsHD, Panasonic said Skyworth will take care of everything, but the resulting product will still be one that will have the “Panasonic” name. Turn towards China. The company had been outsourcing the production and functions of its models for years. mid-range and entrybut now that loss of identity is complete. With the move, the firm hopes to once again become one of the largest in both Europe and the United States, and the curious thing is that this announcement comes just a few weeks after Sony will outsource the production of its televisions to TCL. It is a symbolic turn because the Japan that previously led the technological conversation was gradually eclipsed by South Korea, Taiwan and, now, China. Both TCL and Skyworth are Chinese companies and, although TCL is much better known, Skyworth is not exactly small. Headquartered in Shenzhen, it has intermittently strained in the conversation of the main television manufacturers Android TV. It makes… sense. In statements to FlatpanelsHD, both companies will jointly develop the high-end OLED TVsand the movement has a very clear reading: it is a win-win for both companies, but as in the case of Sony-TCL, one wins -much- more than the other. Chinese companies have made a very strong investment in recent years in plants capable of producing an enormous quantity of large-inch panels. Televisions are manufactured from what is known as “mother glass”plates that, the larger the size, the more derived large-inch televisions will be produced. And if more televisions can be produced at a time, they can be sold at a lower price. TCL has state-of-the-art factories focused on that large-inch production, which helps explain why they sell 65- and 75-inch models at ridiculous prices. Therefore, with these associations, the Japanese hope that the muscle of the Chinese will help them achieve greater penetration. But, of course, it is undeniable that the names ‘Sony Bravia’ and ‘Panasonic’ are much more powerful than those of any Chinese brand, and now it is TCL and Skyworth that can exploit it in the market. Tears in the rain. In the end, as they say, of those muds, these muds. Panasonic, which was once one of the spearheads in terms of television technology thanks to plasma, had not made much of a splash for years in a conversation dominated by LG, Samsung and, by leaps and bounds, the Chinese. They were, along with Sony, the stronghold of a Japanese industry that had already seen how giants like Sharp, Pioneer or Toshiba they stayed in the gutter to be, in some cases, rescued by… Chinese companies (Toshiba by Hisense) or Taiwanese (Sharp by Foxconn). As they say, ‘mistakes were made’ and Panasonic held on for too many years to a plasma technology which was impressive, but also very expensive to produce and a huge ship that could not correct course when better LCD and OLED panels began to come out. As we say, we have to wait to see what this translates into in terms of market share, but in Japan it is a blow. Only with the joint venture of Sony and TCL, esteem that 50% of the Japanese market will be controlled by Chinese capital. The last pride they could hold on to was Panasonic. In Xataka |

There was a time when Megaupload conquered the world of downloads. And their king was Kim Dotcom: Crossover 1×39

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At the beginning of the 2000s there were practically no legitimate alternatives to access film, series or music content through streaming, so there were those who took advantage of the circumstance to propose “dark” options. P2P networks were clearly one of those options, but we also attend at that time at the birth of phenomena like Megaupload. This platform became an absolute internet giant, and its creator, Kim Dotcom, is already a living part of the history of the network of networks. This hacker and entrepreneur managed to put an entire industry in suspense while making gold and living like a king. However, justice ended up going after him, and that spelled the end of Megaupload. The raid that ended with his arrest It became news with worldwide coverage, and that marked the definitive end of that platform. Two years later, Mega would appear, a much more “formal” and less obscure alternative, but Dotcom would end up breaking away from it shortly after creating it. Since then this entrepreneur has become a kind of political activist who tries by all means to ensure that justice I couldn’t unload all my weight against him. Whether he does or not remains unknown, but one thing is certain: the story of Kim Dotcom and Megaupload They deserved their own episode. of Crossover. On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | Megaupload, rise and fall from grace of the portal that changed downloads on the Internet forever

ChatGPT seemed like the untouchable king of AI. Over the last year Google has eaten up almost all of its lead

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Apple and Google have closed an agreement historic for the next generation of Apple Foundation Models to rely on Gemini models and Google cloud technology. In other words, the expected new Siri It will take Google’s artificial intelligence technology underneath. Beyond the news, the agreement places Google in a position that it has been pursuing for years: that of, finally, being the main winner in this latest AI cycle. The agreement. Quick context: The AI ​​race has led Apple to lean on Gemini to reinvent Siri. Since he announced Apple Intelligence In 2024, Apple showed that it needs OpenAI for advanced responses from Siri (given by ChatGPT) and third parties like Google for functions such as Visual Search. Following the new agreement, it is confirmed that the next Apple Intelligence features will be built on Google’s cloud and its Gemini models. A victory for a Google that has been achieving the unthinkable with its AI model since last year. ChatGPT no longer competes alone. Until just a year ago, talking about AI was talking almost exclusively about ChatGPT. The rest of the competitors were minority alternatives intended for very specific uses such as development environments, image generation, or rich web browsers. Gemini is making the picture change, ChatGPT seemed to be everything in AI, it is no longer. From blow to blow. Google is managing to position Gemini as an alternative to ChatGPT by hitting the table. With Nano Bananaforced OpenAI to update its image generation models, since the distance between them was abysmal. With Antigravity it is a before and after for personal programming projects. Google is pressing the accelerator with your flash modelskeys to one of the greatest demands of the average user: response speed. Muscle and checkbook. Google plays in another league compared to OpenAI when it comes to cash generation. AI is not its main business model, it operates its own data centers and has complete control of the hardware necessary for its development. OpenAI depends on agreements with giants like Microsoft and Amazon, and you are going through hell to become profitable. Earn a lot of money, but the numbers still don’t come out. A clear strategy. Google has a well-defined strategy and a key that none of its rivals can compete with: it is the distributor of the most used mobile operating system in the world. Billions of smartphones that land on the market every year and that, just a year ago, They arrive with Gemini as the default assistant. Google had the user base, it just needed the product. Now that you have it, the question is how long OpenAI can hold off Gemini’s dam. Image | Xataka In Xataka | OpenAI fully enters health for a simple reason: ChatGPT is already our front-line doctor (although we don’t want to admit it)

the historic king of the mid-range returns with more battery (and more expensive) than ever

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Xiaomi has just renewed its most legendary mid-range and, as usual, it is a range with quite a few models and a bit chaotic, but we are going to focus on just one model, the most advanced. His name is Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro+ 5G. Technical data sheet of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro+ 5G XIAOMI REDMI NOTE 15 PRO+ 5G DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT Brown: 163.34 x 78.31 x 8.47mm and 208g Blue and black: 163.34 x 78.31 x 8.19 mm and 207.1g SCREEN 6.83 inch AMOLED 2772 x 1280 resolution Refresh up to 120 Hz 3,200 nits peak brightness HDR 10+ and Dolby Vision Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 PROCESSOR Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 MEMORY 8GB/12GB LPDDR4X STORAGE 256GB / 512GB UFS 2.2 BATTERY 6,500 mAh HyperCharge 100W fast charging Reverse charging 22.5W REAR CAMERAS Major: 200 MP f/1.7 with OIS Wide angle: 8MP, f/2.2 FRONT CAMERA 32MP, f/2.2 Operating system Xiaomi HyperOS, Android 15 SOUND Dual stereo speakers Volume boost 400% CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi 6E 5G Bluetooth 5.4 Dual SIM NFC USB-C OTHERS IP68 certification On-screen fingerprint reader Xiaomi HyperAI PRICE 8/256GB: 499 euros 12/512GB: 529 euros This is how Xiaomi makes money – they attract you and trap you Long live continuity The new Redmi Note 5 Pro+ (we’ll skip the 5G, so as not to mess it up so much) shares quite a few features with his predecessorstarting with the design. It still has that characteristic square camera module with rounded edges and comes in new colors: black, blue and brown with vegan leather finish. One detail to keep in mind is that the dimensions and weight vary slightly between the brown version and the other two, but there is barely a gram difference. Speaking of cameras, we have a 200-megapixel main sensor and an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor. Xiaomi has removed the macro lens which did come in the previous model, leaving only a dual camera system. The macro is a sensor for a very specific use and does not usually give very good results, so it is not a loss to regret. For the front camera we have a 32 megapixel sensor. Regarding the screen, it is a 6.83-inch AMOLED with FullHD+ resolution. It reaches peaks of 3,200 nits, supports HDR10+, Dolby Vision and offers a 120Hz refresh rate. Battery for a while One thing that changes for the better is the battery. The previous model had 5,110 mAh and the new one has risen to no less than 6,500 mAh, a huge increase especially considering that the size and weight have barely changed. Very good there Xiaomi. Supports fast charging up to 100W. The processor is a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, Qualcomm’s mid-range chip for this generation, and is accompanied by 8 or 12 GB of LPDDRX4 RAM depending on the version. Regarding storage, you can choose between 256 or 512GB. Other features of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro+ include a double stereo speaker with a volume boost mode, fingerprint reader under the screen, IP68 resistance and Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Of course it comes with HyperOS, Xiaomi’s layer, well watered with AI features like Ai Writing, Ai Search, interpreter and more. Versions and prices of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro+ 5G The Redmi Note 15 range is now official, but you will not be able to get one of them until January 5, the date on which pre-purchase begins on the official website. As we said, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro+ 5G comes in brown, blue or black and several memory versions. Regarding the price, the model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB capacity will cost 499 euros and the 12GB with 512GB goes up to 529 eurosbecoming the most expensive Redmi Note to date. In Xataka | Ford CEO considers Xiaomi “the Apple of China.” The key is not just the Xiaomi SU7: it is the ecosystem

In 1934 a Russian aristocrat proclaimed himself king of Andorra. He was actually the craziest scammer of the 20th century.

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Boris Skossyreff was a man of longevity. He died in 1989just turned 93 years old, in a nursing home in Boppardin what was then West Germany. However, even that long existence seems to fall short when we remember the many lives that Skossyreff chained: he was born into a rich family in Vilnius, but the Bolshevik Revolution forced him very soon to leave his country and look for a life, trying his fortune as a swindler, spy, forger, gigolo, translator and even contender for the throne of Andorra. Added to this extensive resume is his status as a troublemaker, born drinker, lover of good bad life, seducer, fortune hunter and possessor of an elastic morality that, among other things, allowed him to act as triple spy (they say that he served as such for Germany, Great Britain and the United States) and survive in concentration camps and gulags, even at the cost of collaborating with the Nazis. Anything to survive. His life may not be exemplary, but it is exciting enough to have made him the protagonist of a documentary and a bookboth titled ‘Boris Skossyreff, the swindler who was king’ and signed by Jorge Cebrián. Reconstructing his story did not only require years of interviews and diving into archives and newspaper archives. As confesses the director and authorthe work has had to go beyond the “myths, half-truths and lies” that surround the figure of Boris to discover the authentic character without “simplifying or romanticizing him.” And the Russian Revolution came Skossyreff’s must have been a life of privileges, comforts and income. At least those were the letters he found when he was born, in 1896, in Vilnius, today the capital of Lithuania but at that time part of the Russian dominions. Theirs was a good family, rich and aristocratic. The problem is that those cards turned against him when the Red Revolution of 1917 broke out. Young Boris had no choice but to run away and look for a life outside the country. He ended up in the Royal Navy British, maintaining a more or less comfortable life based on scams, bad checks and a lot of gossip. In addition to its good perch, they say that Skossyreff was a polyglot (he spoke at least Russian, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, although he raised the list of languages ​​​​that he knew 20), he took such care of his appearance that he even walked around with a monocle in a prison camp and above all he exuded a charisma that opened doors for him. Among other things, he achieved a Nansen passport which allowed him to move around Europe even with the safe conduct already expired. His wanderings through Great Britain did not last long. From there he ended up going to the Netherlands, where he presented himself as a distinguished aristocrat in the service of the queen, and continued his life journey through Spain, Marseille and finally Spain again, where he ended up in Mallorca. His problems with the law haunt him, but he manages to gain the trust of two women: Marie Louise Parata rich divorcee 14 years older than him, whom he ends up marrying; and Florence Marmonex-wife of an automobile industry magnate, with whom he indulges in a life of debauchery. So many that it ends up forcing him to pack his bags and leave Mallorca. Boris I of Andorra After passing through Sitges accompanied by his lover, the Russian hustler decided to launch himself into the biggest and craziest of all his coups: invent an aristocratic lineage that would make him, he argued, the prince of Andorra. He even introduced himself as Boris I. The fact that he noticed just that portion of Pyrenean terrain is not causality. At that time Andorra was governed by the bishop of Seu d’Urgel and the president of France and presented a series of shortcomings (and potentialities) in which Skossyreff saw a huge opportunity. He encouraged the Andorrans to break with their rulersdelve into their independence and undertake a series of projects to modernize following the example of Monaco. In front, of course, he would put himself, something to which his family tree supposedly (supposedly) entitled him. Skossyreff managed to make noise and aroused the interest of the press. It is counted that even The New York Times (among other newspapers) came to give visibility to that extravagant aristocrat who insisted that he was born to occupy the throne of Andorra. The truth is that Boris was not content with moving papers and launching advertisements. In 1934 He even proclaimed himself Boris I, sovereign of Andorra, a daring move that did not last long. Fed up with his adventures, the bishop of La Seu d’Urgell notified the Civil Guard to stop him. His supposed (supposed) reign lasted just nine days. That could have been the final chapter for Boris Skossyreff, but he managed to navigate the turbulent 20th century, moving through Europe with astonishing ease. It does not matter that the civil war caught him in Spain, that France sent him to a republican refugee camp, that after the outbreak of World War II he ended up in a Dachau concentration camp or that, once Hitler fell, the Russians condemned him to more than two decades of forced labor in the icy Siberia. Like the most seasoned cat, he always managed to land on his feet. To achieve this, he had no qualms about dazzling women who sent him money or taking advantage of his linguistic skills to serve as a translator for the Nazis. If there is an anecdote that portrays his ability to survive, it is the one that circulates about his stay in the Dachau camp, where, makes sure In the documentary filmed by Cebrián, “he did not take off his monocle not even to clean the latrines“. Not even Siberia could put an end to it. In the mid-1950s he managed to return to Germany. He first settled with his French wife, then … Read more

We have had Stephen King releases for several weeks in a row. Don’t we know how to do anything else?

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The fall of 2025 has brought with it an avalanche of Stephen King: almost in consecutive weeks we have had the premiere of ‘The long march‘ and ‘The Running Man‘, and shortly before the series started ‘It: Welcome to Derry‘ on HBO Max. Three great productions in just one month. Are we facing an unimaginative industry that constantly turns to the same author, or is it that King continues to offer something that others cannot? The answer has three keys: the so-called Kingaissance, the decisive factor of the streaming and the current value of King, which has not been devalued by bad adaptations. Debunking the myth. To deny King’s supposed dependence on the horror genre, just look at the last twelve months of releases. Independent horror is enjoying an unsuspected golden age: ‘Longlegs’, for example, grossed more than one hundred million dollars at the box office with a budget of just ten, and films like ‘The substance‘ have given terror a life-long breath of quality, including Oscar nominations. Classic franchises such as ‘Final Destination’ are recovered, ‘Frankenstein’ is sweeping Netflix and a star system from horror creators: the aforementioned Perkins, Prano Bailey-Bond, Danny and Michael Philippou, Zach Creggar and Rose Glass, among others. The Kingaissance. The Anglo-Saxon media coined a term to describe what is happening: the “Kingaissance“, a revival that has a precise birth date. In September 2017, ‘It’ by Andy Muschietti became an unexpected cultural phenomenon: With a budget of just thirty-five million, it grossed more than seven hundred globally, becoming the highest-grossing horror film in history without adjusting for inflation. What followed was an avalanche. Without exhaustiveness: ‘Doctor Sleep’, ‘Animal Graveyard’, ‘Eyes of Fire’, ‘Salem’s Lot’, ‘In the Tall Grass’, the series ‘Apocalypse’ and ‘Chapelwaite’… And now, three more adaptations, to which will be added the future television ‘Carrie’ by Mike Flanagan, ‘The Talisman’ for Netflix and perhaps a new ‘Cujo’. The difference with the eighties is abysmal. Back then, TV movies and B series predominated: now they are series on HBO and films with established directors. King himself often has creative control and serves as executive producer on many of these projects. The factor streaming. For decades, adaptations of King’s longer novels have been handicapped by having to compress their length to the margins of the feature film. He streaming changed the rules of the game: platforms now allow series of eight or ten episodes that respect the author’s narrative complexity, something that had previously only been experienced in miniseries format, in productions such as the first version of ‘It’ or ‘The Store’. It happened with ‘11.22.63’, with ‘The Stranger’, with ‘Lisey’s Story’ (which King personally wrote)… Now it is the turn of the prequel to the latest version of ‘It’, and it is clear how the logic of the platforms works: they look for recognizable IPs, and King offers dozens of stories with a bomb-proof dramatic structure. But there were bad adaptations of King. And they didn’t kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. It’s always happened: there are adaptations in miniseries format in the nineties, like ‘The Langoliers’ or ‘The Shining’ that are a pain. Since the nineties there have been as many weak King films as there have been notable ones. Very recent is the horrendous ‘The Dark Tower’ from 2017, which compressed eight novels into 95 disastrous minutes. Or ‘Cell’, absolutely forgettable. Why didn’t these catastrophes sink King’s value? First, the original novels remain, at worst, more than readable, and at best, downright excellent: the source material is indestructible. Second, readers clearly distinguish between author and adaptation, continue to appreciate the writer, and continue to try their hand at adaptations. Third, the good adaptations (‘The Shining,’ ‘Carrie,’ ‘It,’ ‘Misery,’ the original ‘Pet Sematary’) are so good that we’ll always come back for more. Why we return to King. The answer, despite appearances, is not a lack of ideas, but rather that we are faced with a name of proven effectiveness, even in its worst moments: few have that commercial hook combined with minimum standards of quality and entertainment. King has more than 65 novels and 200 short stories, an inexhaustible mine whose themes will never go out of style and are universal: generational traumas, addictions, the problems of the working class, invisible threats, the corruption of power, the weight of our past… And to top it off, we are in the era of the IP. So it is not an issue that affects only him. Marvel, DC, Disney… In 2024, the ten highest-grossing films They all came from pre-existing intellectual properties. And Hollywood seeks familiarity: from the Agatha Christie films directed by Kenneth Branagh to the explosion of video game adaptations like ‘fallout‘, ‘The Last of Us‘ and ‘Super Mario Bros.: The Movie‘. An ideal scenario for a brand that, undoubtedly, has had its ups and downs, but that right now enjoys unexpected iron health. In Xataka | There is a book by Stephen King that sells for around 100 euros and I got it for five: the strange story of ‘Rage’

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard removed all their songs from Spotify. Immediately afterwards some mysterious versions took their place

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You can leave Spotify, but you don’t leave it completely until Spotify allows you to. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard just found out the hard way: They left the platform in protest of the CEO’s investmentsbut there are still his songs inside. The terrifying thing about it: they are not the ones who composed or recorded them. We go, or not. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard left Spotify in July 2025: it was a protest against Daniel Ek’s investments in military technology. Weeks later, however, they discovered that several of the group’s songs were still available on the platform. But they were not the originals, but rather instrumental versions that imitated the original songs, with the same artist name, identical titles and official covers. According to Platformer accountthese songs managed to accumulate more than 10 million views before being detected. The trick. Spotify presented these tracks as authentic. As a fan of the band tells Platformer, when playing ‘Deadstick’ from the album ‘Phantom Island’, what sounded was a simplified version, almost a cell phone ringtone, a kind of low-quality version. But without knowing the original song (and especially taking into account how fond of jokes and experimentation this unclassifiable and prolific band is) any listener could have confused it with the real song. The same thing happened with other songs on the album such as ‘Aerodynamic’ and ‘Grow Wings and Fly’. The article sparked a wave of protests that led Spotify to remove the content, confirming that it violated its anti-phishing policy. There are currently no songs from the group on the platform. It is not an isolated case. According to data from the company itself published in September 2025Spotify has removed 75 million tracks classified as spam over the last year. The consulting firm Luminate estimates that about 99,000 songs are uploaded daily to streaming services, often through distributors that do not verify the identity of the artist. The situation is accentuated on other platforms, in what seems to be a widespread problem with a clear trigger: the ease with which songs can be generated using AI. Deezer, for example, counted this same month which receives more than 50,000 tracks completely generated by artificial intelligence every day, 34% of all the content that reaches its servers. 70% of AI-generated music plays, he says, are unauthorized songs or songs that replace real artists. The Ghost of The Velvet Sundown. In June 2025, a band called The Velvet Sundown reached more than one million monthly listeners on Spotify. Its promotional photos had that artificial appearance characteristic of images generated by AI, and its members did not exist on any social network, but the group started with 550,000 monthly listeners after being recommended by the platform’s algorithm. After weeks of denying the accusations, those responsible admitted it was an “artistic provocation” created with artificial intelligence. His songs are still available on Spotify. The dead artists. However, in terms of impersonated artists, the case of deceased artists is more disturbing: numerous songs generated by AI began to appear in official profiles of deceased musicians. The page of Blaze Foley, country singer-songwriter murdered in 1989, received new songs. It also happened with Guy Clark, a Grammy winner who died in 2016, Sophie, an electronic artist who died in 2021, and Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy’s former band from Wilco. All of these tracks were uploaded by distributors without any verification and remained active for weeks before being detected. A systemic problem. Although Spotify is the visible head of this chaos, there is a real mess at many points on the diffusion scale. For example, distributors like DistroKid allow massive topic uploads without verifying the real identity of the artist. In the aforementioned September communication, Spotify announced new anti-spoofing policies and an anti-spam filter, but at the moment its effectiveness has not been proven. For now, the King Gizzard case raises a devastating question: after abandoning a platform, you do not abandon it completely. Maybe you’ll never do it. Header | Paul Hudson

The new King of the AI ​​Open Source is Alibaba. And its strategy is simple: to be tired

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Alibaba qwen3 -omni has become the new jewel of the AI ​​Open Source segment. This model, launched last week by the Chinese giant, manages to compete in various benchmarks with some of the best models of OpenAi or Google. But the important thing is not so much as the fact that it alibba Not stop taking AI models at a frantic pace and almost strenuous. QWEN models succeed. The QWEN3-OMNI-30B-A3B-INSTRUCT model is one of the variants of the QWEN3-OMNI family newly launched by Alibaba. This version has become the most popular model in the Ranking of available models in Hugging Face. Since it appeared there, almost 100,000 times has been downloaded, but it is not alone. The new QWEN3-Max-Thinking manages to match or overcome models such as Grok 4 or GPT-5 Pro. They do not stop launching models. As they point out In SCMPto date Alibaba has published more than 300 Open Source models that have served for other developers and companies to launch their own. In fact, it is estimated that there are more than 170,000 derived models, which seems to have managed to have Alibaba right now the world’s largest ecosystem. The data were shared in The APSARA conference Organized by Alibaba Cloud in Hangzhou last week. Some recent examples of that frantic rhythm: Alibaba Copa the ranking. Although they were released in April, the QWEN3 models have not stopped renewing in recent months with new capacities in the generation of text, images, audio and even video. The improvements in multimodal behavior have helped create this new “OMNI” family – which precisely handles all kinds of entrances and exits – and with it with it returns that yield They even rival with the best proprietary models of firms such as Google and Openai. Models for all tastes. If one looks That rankingfive of the first 10 models are from Alibaba. Tencent has two others, IBM Granite surprises in fourth position and also We have Deepseek-V3.1-terminus Already a voice text model called VoxCPM. Source: The Atom Project. Llama, missing. Meanwhile, the traditional dominator of said scope, The Meta Llama Modelis totally missing from the first positions of this ranking and appears in position 41. OpenAI and its GPT-Oss-20b model It is also quite displaced (position 30). The responsible for The Atom (American Truly Open Models) Project recently revealed A study in which they highlighted how accumulated discharges of Open Source models already come from Chinese models than US models. Llama was the most downloaded open model until recently. Now that position is occupied by the Models of the Qwen family of Alibaba. Source: The Atom Project. Be careful, downloads are something else. It must be said that the ranking focuses on “trending” models, that is, those whose recent popularity is high. The Openai model has in fact downloaded 6.71 million times, while Alibaba’s most downloaded model is QWEN3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct, with 2.63 million downloads. Llama-3.1-8b-Instruct surpasses both (for now) with 7.18 million. In The Atom Project, yes, they point out that the accumulated discharges of the different flame variants have just fell below those of the Qwen variants. The reason is simple. Alibaba does not stop getting more and more models. Alibaba’s strategy has been overwhelming, and since in April it launched the first QWEN3 models, it has not gone from maintaining a frantic pace of launching of improved and derived versions such as QWEN3-Next, QWEN3-OMNI or QWEN3-MAX, in addition to specific models for generation of images as qwen-image-editordirect competitor of the famous Nano Banana, from Google. In Xataka | There are many “internal” races within the great AI race. And the Open Source is winning Alibaba

For years the chicken was the king of protein. Now the beans and lentils want to dethrone it

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For decades they told us that the healthy thing was to change red meat by chicken or fish. The recommendation was so assumed that it became a kind of nutritional mantra. However, a change begins to glimpse either on supermarket shelves, gyms or social networks, the word “protein” appears more than ever. And the striking thing is that it is increasingly associated with meat, but plant foods. The question is inevitable: why now the vegetable protein? Vegetable protein in the center. The advisory committee of the United States food guides wants to turn the pyramid. According to a report by The Washington Postfor the first time it is proposed that vegetable proteins have priority. Not even chicken or fish, for years synonymous with healthy food, would occupy that place. Christopher Gardner, a professor at Stanford, summed it up with a simple phrase: “The beans, peas and lentils would lead the list of protein sources.” Red meat would be, on the other hand, in the last position. The evidence that supports this turn. The recommendation does not come from nothing. Rahman, clinical director of Barnard Medical Center, remembered the same media than those who eat more plants have less risk of cancer, diabetes, obesity and even deterioration of memory. In a study, Published in the American Journal of Clinical NutritionThey analyzed some 50,000 women, where they concluded that diets rich in plant proteins favor a healthier aging than those based on animal proteins. Beyond the guides, reality speaks for itself. According to The New York Timeslegumes are a pillar of the Mediterranean diet. A single cup of lentils or beans provides about 15 grams of protein, to which fiber, iron, magnesium, folate and vitamin E should be added. Vegetable or animal? Here the nuance appears. In Men’s Health They point to something that usually goes unnoticed In the middle of the vegetable boom: animal protein still plays with advantage. The reason is how we take advantage of it. Its essential amino acids – that our body cannot manufacture – are absorbed more effectively than those of plant origin. The simplest example is on the plate: 85 grams of chicken add up to 20 grams of protein. The same amount of chickpeas stays at six. Marie Spano, sports dietitian cited by the magazinewarns that those who follow exclusively vegetable diets need more daily total protein. Even so, the solution is to combine legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds throughout the day. The great nuance: natural vs. ultraprocessed. Not all vegetable proteins are the same and here the most critical point appears. In The New York Times They warn of risk to trust ultra -processed that “disguise” healthy. A clinical trial showed that, even with good nutritional profile on the label, the ultra -processed (including shakes and vegetable meals) They do not offer the same benefits than minimally processed foods. In the study, the participants who followed a diet with little processed foods – fruits, natural yogurt, homemade legumes – lost twice as much weight and body fat that those who consumed “healthy” ultraprocesses such as vegetable lasagers ready to heat or protein smoothies. As the epidemiologist Filippa Juul summarized, cited by the NYT: “Ultraprocesses have less texture, chew faster and stimulate appetite artificially.” The world revolves around protein. The boom is not only nutritional, also cultural and commercial. We live in full “It was protein chic”: Protein has become a symbol of sculpted bodies and aspirational well -being. Social networks such as Tiktok popularize extreme routines, hyperproteic milkshakes and diets that touch the obsession, sometimes linked to eating disorders. The food industry has not been left behind. Product containers “High in protein” They adopt aggressive visual codes, with black and red typefaces designed to attract the male public. A strategy that remembers what happened in its day with the “Light” products in pink, aimed at women worried about weight loss. Protein is no longer just a nutrient: it is marketing, identity and business. So the powder protein? The most recognizable symbol of the protein boom may not be lentils or vegetable hamburgers, but the shake that is stirred in the locker room of any gym. But is it essential? The expert’s response is nuanced. Nutritionist Saray López defends it in Xataka As a practical tool: “It has no contraindications and can help reach daily requirements.” But others, such as the dietitian Jesús Guardiola, They underline this same medium that with a balanced diet it is not necessary to resort to supplements: “The problem is when the shake replaces real food.” Specialists agree that dust protein can be useful in concrete contexts: older people with difficulties in chewing, patients in recovery, who seek to gain muscle mass or even workers who barely have time to eat. But they insist that it is not a universal or magical solution. Everything indicates that it is not a passenger fashion. Protein has become the star of the global food conversation. From the official guides to the shelves of the supermarket, of the fitness routines to the homemade cooking recipes, everything seems to revolve around it. But beyond the boom, the background debate is not only how much protein we eat, but from what sources it comes and how it is processed. Image | Freepik Xataka | Powder protein has become the star accessory of modern well -being. Nutritionists have something to say

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