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OpenAI thought putting an erotic mode on ChatGPT was a good idea. His wellness advisors call him “a sexy suicide coach”

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Treat adults like adults. This is how Sam Altman announced OpenAI’s decision to allow a “adult mode” on ChatGPT to have erotic conversations. It makes economic sense since it will be a paid function, but the doubts from an ethical point of view are also there. In fact, it has been the company’s own wellness team that has been against this product, causing its launch to be delayed. Internal opposition. In an exclusive Wall Street Journalsay that earlier this year, OpenAI consulted with its board of wellness experts about ChatGPT’s adult mode and the response was unanimous: it’s a terrible idea. At a meeting, experts warned that these types of interactions with AI can foster emotional dependency, especially among younger users. One of the committee members brought up the topic of teenagers who committed suicide, allegedly encouraged by ChatGPTand said it would be like launching a “sexy suicide coach.” Demolishing. Risks. People are already forming emotional bonds with AI chatbotsif we add sexual content to the one that has the most users in the world, it is, to say the least, delicate. According to internal documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the wellness council’s experts identified several problems, such as the risk of compulsive use, a tendency toward extreme content, and the displacement of real romantic relationships in favor of virtual ones. Age verification. Is the crucial step that ensures that such a tool does not end up in the hands of minor users. The problem OpenAI has is that its verification system fails more than a fairground shotgun. According to internal sources, the system failed to identify 12% of the time. It may seem like a relatively low figure, but in practice we are talking about millions of teenagers accessing this function. What OpenAI says. The company wants us to be able to ‘sext’ with ChatGPT, but with certain limits. An OpenAI spokesperson says they will block harmful content – such as sexual and child-related abuse -, will integrate safeguards such as reminding users to have relationships in the real world, and will also avoid encouraging exclusive relationships. Another measure involves monitoring the long-term effect that this adult mode has on users. Adult mode will be exclusively text and will not allow the creation of images or videos. Regarding age verification, the spokesperson states that the performance is similar to that of other industry proposals and that “they will never be totally infallible.” It was planned for the first quarter, but now that it has been postponed there is no date for its launch. Background. OpenAI already has a history of accusations related to harmful effects on mental health. One of the most famous cases It was Adam Raine’sa teenager who shared his suicidal ideations with ChatGPT. When his parents discovered the conversations, They sued OpenAI. And he hasn’t been the only one. There is several legal proceedings underway for similar cases and there have also been cases where ChatGPT has been accused of encourage delusional thoughts and cause psychotic breaks. Saying that AI is solely responsible is simplify a much more complex realitybut it is no less true that OpenAI has taken steps to make its chatbot more secure for minors and has been shown committed to taking care of the mental health of its users. That is, they recognize that the problem exists. The question now is how launching a version of the same chatbot that has sex with users fits into this discourse. In Xataka | “I can’t stop”: the addiction to talking to AI is already here and there are even support groups to quit it Image | Cottonbro studio, Pexels

two mine hunters and a fleet in the opposite direction are putting Iran in the face of Vietnam

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In the vietnam warthe United States came to deploy more than 500,000 soldiers in Southeast Asia and still failed to impose a clear victory. Decades later, that conflict remains the classic example of how an overwhelming military power can become trapped in a war that, on paper, seemed much simpler. The war begins to mutate. The war between the United States and Israel against Iran has entered a different phase because two strategic moves are happening at the same time and the satellites have clearly revealed their destinations. While the United States strengthens the region with marine units capable of rapidly deploying troops ashore, two major US ships ready to clear mines in the Gulf have appeared in Malaysiathousands of kilometers from Hormuz. There is no doubt, this combination is, to say the least, strange: if the immediate objective was to reopen the strait through a classic naval operation, those ships displaced from the East should be precisely there. The contrast suggests that Washington is beginning to assume that the problem it won’t solve itself from the sea and that the conflict can lead to a more complex and prolonged phase. Hormuz: the perfect bottleneck. The strait favors especially Iran because it turns an American technological advantage into a logistical problem. It is a passage, pardon the redundancy, narrow, surrounded by a hostile coast and saturated with underwater noise, which makes it difficult to detect mines and defend ships. As we count last week, Iran can combine speedboats, drones, mobile missiles and mines of different types to sow uncertainty with cheap means. The suspicion of a minefield is enough to paralyze navigation, trigger maritime insurance and force Washington to spend enormous resources on escorts and surveillance. The asymmetry of the mines. naval mines they explain much of the problem. Placing them is relatively simple and cheap: they can be launched from small boats, submarines or even civilian ships. However, removing them It’s much more difficult. Mine-clearing ships must move slowly, use sonar, drones and helicopters, and examine the seabed in great detail. Plus: during this process they are vulnerable to attacks from the coast. That’s why even a few devices can block an entire strait and force the world’s most powerful navy to act with extreme caution. The USS Canberra somewhere in the Middle East in 2025 Where are the minesweepers? In that context, the absence of the LCS Americans prepared for countermines is especially striking. He USS Tulsa and the USS Santa Barbara They were deployed in Bahrain precisely to replace the old Avenger minehunters retired from the Gulf. But satellite images recent ones place them on the other side of the world, in Malaysia. This means that two-thirds of the ships destined for that mission are no longer in the area where they are most needed. The decision may have tactical explanationssuch as preventing them from being exposed to Iranian attacks in port, but the result is more or less clear: the American ability to clear mines in Hormuz is now much more limited. The limits of the naval solution. Even if such ships were present, clearing the strait would not be quick, of course. They counted the TWZ analysts that the new LCS are not dedicated minehunters like the old Avenger, but rather multipurpose platforms that depend on drones, helicopters and remote sensors to locate each device. In other words, the process aims to slow and requires air protection constant. In the middle of war, with missiles and drones flying from the Iranian coastthe operation becomes even more risky and almost suicidal. That is why many analysts warn that reopening Hormuz only from the sea could lead to weeks or months. Uss Tripoli The marines arrive. This is where the other big piece of the board comes in. The United States is sending a Marine Expeditionary Unitthat is, a rapid response force of about 2,200 marines embarked on amphibious ships with helicopters, F-35B and landing vehicles. These units are designed for assault operationsraids and temporary terrain control. In the case of Hormuz, and although everything is a hypothesis, its mission could include attack nearby islands into the strait, destroy missile launchers or neutralize bases from which mines are placed. School or attack. This change implies, a priori, a conceptual shift. Instead of just escorting oil tankers and clearing mines, the United States could try to eliminate threats on land. That would mean attacks on strategic islands, military depots or launching positions off the Iranian coast. Under that scenario, amphibious operations would allow open temporary windows security for navigation, but they would also introduce US troops into a hostile environment where the enemy can respond with missiles, drones or maritime guerrillas. Marine Expeditionary Unit on the move in the Pacific The risk of escalation. The problem with this type of operation is that tend to expand. The main reason? An incursion on an island requires protecting the deployed troops. Not only that. Then you have to maintain control of the place, reinforce defenses and secure supply lines. And if Iran reoccupies the area once the marines withdraw, the cycle begins again. This is how operations intended as quick hits can be transformed into prolonged missions. The mirror of Vietnam. May the main countermine warships have fled thousands of kilometers from Hormuz while marines arrive does not suggest a simple maritime reopening operation, but rather the possibility that Washington begins to assume that the real problem is no longer just in the water, but on the coastin the islands and in the Iranian capacity to reappear again and again with mobile, dispersed and cheap means. And that brings the war closer, saving all historical distances, to a very logical similar to vietnam. Not because Iran is going to reproduce that conflict exactly, but because the central risk is the same: a technologically superior superpower enters with objectives that seem limited and rational, discovers that the terrain forces it to expand the mission, and ends up trapped in a … Read more

India has been wanting to be the new China for years. The Iran war is putting it on a plate

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The iran war is demonstrating, once again, the fragility of globalization. Just look at this graph: Graphic: Xataka The price of a barrel of crude oil has rampaged because Iran is attacking refineries, the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of the world’s crude oil passes It is abuzz and there is instability in the ‘oil well of the world’. Refineries are targetedbut also the new mine of the world economy: data centers. Iran has attacked data centers of Amazon in Saudi Arabia and Big Tech are setting their eyes on nearby countries where they can move. And what is very attentive is an India that has been pursuing an ambitious goal for years: to become the new China. They have been tempting big technology companies for years and with the narrative of being a safe and reliable country in which to manufacture. The war in Iran is now giving it another argument: kamikaze drones do not fall in its data centers. In short. Data centers have become critical infrastructure. They are from the moment you are investing in them. more than we invested to go to the Moonthe economy of some companies and countries is being linked to their success and, above all, they have been since the AI ​​fever has put the world of hardware in an alley. In war and love, anything goes (or so some apply), and this time we are seeing how they bomb schools, hotels and data centers. On March 1 and 2, Iran attacked with its drones two of the Amazon Web Services, or AWS, facilities in the United Arab Emirates and another center in Bahrain. This has forced the technology company to pause activity in those facilities, asking that companies that had services running on their servers migrate to those in other countries. Solutions. Latency plays a fundamental role in certain operations, so they must be servers that are relatively close to those that have been attacked. And that’s where they come into play both that Amazon has in India, specifically the one in Munbai and the one in Hyderabad. These are data centers from Amazon, yes, but the country has big plans to create an industrial fabric based on this type of infrastructure. At the beginning of last year we echoed a mega data center hard to believe. When most of the world’s large facilities remain below 1 GW of energy capacity, an Indian company wants to create a single data center with a capacity of 3 GW. If we return to the Amazon centers in northern Virginia, in the United States, we see that about 300 installations add up to a total of 2.5 GW. And now India wants one to only have 3 GW. And it wants to have it by 2027, a date as ambitious as its own dimensions. Rain of millions. It is estimated that such a facility would cost between 20,000 and 30,000 million dollars, but it is something that today’s India cares little about: they are burning money to attract industry and steal what they can from China. The country has been offering hundreds of millions of dollars to each technology company that wants to settle in its territory. It’s not just money. India is developingits market is growing and something important: young Chinese are increasingly more qualified and labor is getting more expensive. A cheaper workforce in India, added to government incentives, are two powerful arguments for some giants in the technology sector to move to the country. And, little by little, they are achieving it. Xiaomi, Motorola and even Huawei manufacture complete models of some of their lines in India. Asus, HTC, Samsung, Microsoft and LG have plants for some parts and Apple has taken the production of parts to India. old iPhone models. Another one is Micron, one of the main players in the memory segment. tempting everyone. The country wants more and it is gone sitting with representatives of heavyweights such as the aforementioned Apple… and Samsung. They want the South Koreans don’t just make a few piecesbut rather that they invest in artificial intelligence, hardware and in something that India is eagerly seeking: semiconductor research and development. Samsung is one of the world’s leading foundries and is investing millions outside of South Korea. India seeks to be part of that equation. To do this, they have something called PLI. This is a government initiative that encourages the production of a complete portfolio of products. That is to say: the more complete products a same brand manufactures in the country, the more incentives and economic advantages it receives. They also promise less economic friction with the West, although looking at the issue of tariffs and their ups and downs, it is something that can change from one day to the next. And it’s not all about pure and simple money: India is the most populous country on the planet and it is estimated that the average level of income will continue to rise over the next five years, which also “promise” a good national market for those products that companies manufacture on their soil. The Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park project And the result, with Hyundai being the only one with a significant presence and many open fields, buildings under construction… broken dreams. According to estimates, electronics manufacturing in India was a market of 115,000 million dollars and it is expected triple it by 2027. My colleague Laura already detailed that they were executing the technique of being a steamroller based on releasing billsalthough two things must be said. The first is that one of those objectives, the become the foundry of the worldit’s going to be complicated. TSMC is leading the conversation and is moving both on home soil -Taiwan- and in Europe and, above all, the United States. And what is truly worrying for the country is that, in this search for talent at all costs, it has invested a lot of money in the construction of technological cities that … Read more

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

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

The big problem with putting robots everywhere is that they get lost. An engineer from Elche believes she has the solution

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It is no surprise that we see more and more robots in our daily lives: in a restaurant bringing orders to the table, in the field as a seasonal workermaking him courier delivery competition…and that’s not to mention its applications in automation on an industrial scale. Robots don’t need to rest, they don’t have labor rights, and they don’t complain. But they get lost. And that is a real, very common problem for which a research team from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche has found solution. The context. Autonomous robots need to know where they are to function and that does not always happen: when the location reference is lost, either because someone moves it, it is turned off or the environment changes without warning, the robot is unable to recover its position. Something as normal as running out of battery can be a technical drama. This phenomenon is not something isolated, in fact it even has a name in robotics: the “kidnapped robot problem“. Although we see more and more robots everywhere, this incident is a pending issue that has not been resolved in a robust way for decades. Without going any further, because resorting to GPS is something that can fail in settings such as indoors or near tall buildings. As deepens Míriam Máximolead author of the article: “It is a classic problem and very difficult to solve, especially in large environments.” The solution. What the team from the University of Elche has implemented is MCL-DLF, the acronym for Monte Carlo Localization – Deep Local Feature, a system that combines two technologies: on the one hand, a 3D LiDAR that emits laser pulses to draw a three-dimensional map of the environment similar to that of robot vacuum cleaners. On the other hand, an artificial intelligence that learns which elements of the environment are most useful for orientation. Why is it important. Because having a reliable location system is essential for any robotic deployment in real life: autonomous vehicles, delivery and logistics, assistance… its presence may be increasingly common, but it is still tremendously dependent on supervision: knowing where it is is essential for it to operate safely. The implemented method also introduces an important change: it is independent, in that it does not require external infrastructure to function like GPS, so its base is more robust and versatile in the face of different use scenarios in the real world. How it works. Its approach is hierarchical, so it first recognizes large structures and then fine details, similar to how people do. When you arrive at an unknown place, first you keep the essentials: what neighborhood you are in, for example. Then you look for more specific references to refine further. Furthermore, the system does not play everything on one card: it maintains several position hypotheses simultaneously and discards or refines them as the sensor captures more information. Tests carried out for months on the university campus with different lighting conditions, vegetation or simply the weather have shown more consistency than conventional methods. A good start with pending subjects. Beyond its promising results, the most striking thing about this research is its commitment to sensory autonomy: it does not depend on networks of beacons or GPS, but on its own sensors. This makes it a potentially more versatile system. However, it faces the great historical challenge of robot placement: how fragile it is in the face of changing environments. It is true that they have tested it in different conditions, but it has been within the campus: making the leap to more complex and constantly changing environments is their litmus test, in addition to additional validation in extreme conditions. Finally, before an eventual real commercial deployment, we will have to see how it integrates with other navigation systems and its computational cost. In Xataka | Tesla has been building the Optimus for years. China has just presented itself with fifteen companies and factories already set up In Xataka | We already have so many “humanoid” robots that it is difficult to differentiate one from the other. This graph fixes it Cover | Enchanted Tools

China has spent 2025 putting things into orbit. Now they have gone further by launching a reusable space plane

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Where I said ‘Mars’, I say ‘Moon’. For years, Elon Musk and SpaceX have maintained that colonize Mars It was humanity’s next great leap. While others (and NASA itself) considered the Moon still interesting, SpaceX looked down on her. Until recently, whenThe company has taken a step back recognizing that colonizing the Moon is easier than Mars. And of course, on the other side of the world we can have an explanation: China has the Moon in its sights. And they have just done another test with their mysterious reusable ship. The test. Last Saturday, and in the most aseptic way possible, China launched a reusable spacecraft. This was confirmed by the state news media Xinhua through an release Which leaves more questions than answers. Officially, we only know that, from one of its multiple launch bases, the country launched the vehicle on the back of a Long March-2F rocket. Mission? “The experimental spacecraft will carry out technological verification of reusable spacecraft, providing data and technical support for the peaceful use of space.” What technologies? Why do you want to know that, good night. TOP SECRET. This vehicle it’s not new. In fact, this would be the fourth trip since 2020 of an experimental ship whose characteristics are being kept in a state of absolute secrecy. On the first trip, this model would have been orbiting the Earth for two days. In 2022 it was launched again and returned in 2023 after 276 days going around. And in September 2024 there was another launch that returned after 268 days. As we say, the secrecy is total, so we do not know what type of vehicle it is, but there has been speculation that it may be the answer to the X-37B robotic vehicle of the United States Air Force. Neither Reuters nor Xinhua comment that it could be the Shenlong, the Chinese ‘Divine Dragon’ which is the competition of the aforementioned X-37B. Because if we talk about reusable rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon, China also has an answer: the LandSpace. They don’t stop throwing things. Beyond the reusable ship, China has gotten right into the space race. Like Europeis another of the countries that seeks space sovereignty, and one of the toughest tests was carried out at the beginning of December. To test the overload capacity of its systems and analyze whether they can handle several missions at the same time, in early December, China completed four space missions in four days. In total, there were 80 orbital launches in 2025, surpassing the previous record of 68 launches and achieving with this proof of this something only within the reach of the current SpaceX. And it seems that 2026 has started as last year ended. Target: Moon. Among China’s medium-term objectives is to take astronauts to the Moon before 2030. They want to compete against the NASA and its Artemis mission for establish a research base on the satellite while they finalize the building your own space station. The Moon has become that last piece of cheese on the plate, but instead of giving it up, the great powers want to get hold of it. Reason? Its great value to carry out experiments to expand sovereignty on other planets, but also with regard to resources that can be exploited and sent to Earth refers. Image | Baijiahao In Xataka | We have not known for 10 years what the US fighter jets saw in the sky. Until a Chinese copy has appeared

be in favor of putting more taxes

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In addition to being the CEO of NVIDIA (the most valuable company on the planet), Jensen Huang is in the top 10 richest people in the world according to Forbes. He has a net worth of $160.7 billion, a salary of $1.5 million a year (rose 50% last summer) with 49.9 million bonuses and 3% of his company’s shares. There it is nothing. As for properties, he owns a luxurious mansion on Billionaire’s Row in San Francisco and another, considered as your habitual residence due to its proximity to NVIDIA’s headquarters in Santa Clara, in Los Altos Hills. In the first I had David Sacks as a neighbor and in the second the founders of Google. The use of the past tense is not a mistake: they have all moved away to avoid the tax on the rich of 2026. For the CEO of NVIDIA it is not a problem: ““I’m perfectly fine.” with California’s new multibillion-dollar tax. Jensen Huang is not alone. But they are an absolute minority In an interview with Bloomberg TV last Tuesday, Huang said that “We choose to live in Silicon Valley, and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it” and that he had not thought about moving even once and that, despite the fact that his company has offices in several countries: “we work in Silicon Valley because that is where the talent pool is.” This new law, which would go into effect on January 1, 2026 retroactively if it passes the vote in November this year, imposes a flat 5% tax on people with a net worth greater than $1 billion to fund health programs. Considering his Jensen Huang net worth, we are talking about a fiscal bite more than 8 billion dollars. Jensen Huang’s position is rare bird insofar as it goes against the trend of many other technology magnates, who have packed their bags to avoid tax burdens. But NVIDIA CEO is not alone: There are other millionaires who are favorable to paying taxes. Of course, they are a minority. Without going any further, one of the most famous defenders is Warren Buffet, who almost 15 years ago proposed the ‘Buffet rule’ arguing that it is unfair that he pays a lower percentage of taxes than his secretary. Bill Gates has also repeated a few times that taxes are raised on the rich and the tax burden on capital gains and inheritances is increased. Incredible as it may seem, the fervent defender of capitalism Mark Cuban has advocated for paying taxes as “the most patriotic thing to do.” And speaking of patriotism, there is even an organization known as “Patriotic Millionaires” where the Disney heiress or the philanthropist George Soros ask that their taxes be raised. By the way, the current president of the board is Morris Pearl, former CEO of Blackrock. The budding law is the new “well, I’m going to Andorra” As we mentioned in the intro, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have already migrated T-Rex LLC to Delaware, according to Business Insider. After, Page has acquired a residence in Miami following in the footsteps of Jeff Bezos, who we will talk about later. The Guardian collects the intention of Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel or investor David Sacks to move to other states with a more favorable tax policy such as Texas or Florida. For the majority of these businessmen, these types of taxes discourage innovation, cause capital flight or directly, they consider that the government wastes money on these types of social welfare concepts. One of the most critical tycoons with the tax burdens is Elon Musk, who moved his residence from California to Texas due to the tax pressure. For the CEO of SpaceX and Starlink, taxes on millionaires are stupid: instead they should invest in reaching Mars, declared for the public entity PBS. Jeff Bezos is much less controversial than Musk on his social networks, but his recent move to Florida (which lacks a state income tax) after several decades in Washington has been interpreted as a measure to escape taxes. Ken Griffin, founder of the financial company Citadel, has also gone to Miami after criticize the fiscal policies and security of Chicago (Illinois), his previous residence. Reid Hoffman​, founder of LinkedIn, who is a large donor to the Democratic cause, has recently spoken out against this Californian tax alleging which is poorly designed and harmful to innovation. In Xataka | Warren Buffett sold half of his Apple shares. You will now pay taxes equivalent to Spotify’s annual income In Xataka | SpaceX is on track to have more money than NASA. He has achieved this, in part, because he does not pay taxes Cover | NVIDIA

While all cities are removing their last phone booths, Mexico City is putting them back

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The 21st century is that of smartphonesInternet, networks, 24/7 365 connectivity, virality and immediacy, a scenario in which telephone booths seem like an almost antediluvian vestige. Spain began to retire them a few years agoalthough many had been out of play for some time, vandalized, converted into little more than billboard posts. After all… Who wants a cabin when most of us walk around with a cell phone in our pockets? In Mexico you have the answer. In fact, the country is so convinced that booths make sense that it is installing hundreds and hundreds in its streets. What has happened? That Mexico is doing something (apparently) extemporaneous in the era of smartphonesInternet, social networks and permanent connectivity: the public company CFE Telecomunicaciones is installing hundreds of telephone booths. The diary Expansion talks about 848distributed mainly in the southeast of the country, in states such as Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas. It’s actually nothing surprising. In February 2024 CFE already announced their plans to “roll out” telephone booths throughout the country. But… Why? Because even though in 2026 the smartphones have become masters and lords of our pockets, not everyone has one, nor does they feel comfortable handling them. With the cabins CFE wants precisely that: to close the “generational or digital gap” in the country and “guarantee the connection” of the entire population. Hence, telephone poles are being installed especially in rural areas after reaching agreements with local authorities. “The project adds an alternative to guarantee the connection of the population who, due to the generational or digital divide, may see their communication with their loved ones affected,” claims the company. The idea, precise The Countryis that the phones can be accessed at no cost and the devices also offer an Internet connection and the possibility of making calls outside of Mexico, to the US or Canada. On your website CFE recalls that the project is carried out with “institutional linkage” and agreements with local administrations. And how many cabins are there? That is one of the most curious details of the initiative. And also those who have given the most talk. Expansion assures that CFE Telecomunicaciones has installed at least 848 booths, especially in the southeast, but the same media recalls that throughout Mexico there are still thousands of the old booths that people went to years ago, before cell phones and WhatsApp radically changed our way of communicating. Are they all the same? According to the Federal Telecommunications Institute, in December there were still 580,199 cabinsa considerable number, although they represent 10.6% less than in 2019. The majority are in the hands of Telmex, although the firm BBG Comunicación is also present in the market. This inheritance has not been without controversy, especially due to the state of some booths. Not long ago the Congress of Mexico City proposed withdrawal and dismantling cabins that are disused, abandoned or obsolete. The reason: from being key pieces for communication, they have become annoying obstacles that hinder pedestrian crossing and generate a bad image. It may seem exaggerated, but according to authorities’ calculationsin the country there are thousands of population centers that still have “public telephony” and most of their facilities “no longer function correctly.” Many of the booths are not removed despite being obsolete because prevents it an agreement from the 90s. Do you all agree? Although the country seems determined To find a way to end the digital divide, not everyone considers that the installation of new booths in rural areas will be the solution. This is what Jorge Bravo, for example, from the Mexican Association of the Right to Information warns (Amedi), who warns that the booths are part of an anachronistic connectivity model. “There are no clear criteria for the installation of these cabins. Although I have observed some in good condition, I have never seen people using the service,” he says. Images | Honorable Municipal Council of Silacayoápam (Facebook) and Mateusz D (Unsplash) In Xataka | Americans have been devouring pizza for generations. Now they are changing them for something else: Mexican food

is putting them in front of stores

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There are those who are clear that, not soon, robots will be like current smartphones: we will all have one. There is not enough time for prices to become as democratized as to get to that pointbut if there is a country that has taken the lead when it comes to push humanoid roboticsthat’s China. And the Hobbs W1 is the latest example: a humanoid robot with a human face, and hands capable of doing fine motor work. And they have already put it to work. Hobbs W1. A far cry from Star Wars robots and closer to the uncanny valley. Hobbs W1 still looks like a robot, but the fact that they have given it a face and a body with an absurdly stylized female silhouette is a declaration of intent: they want us to feel “comfortable” with their presence. Very low on the evolutionary scale of robots are those tray holder (or Sardinator) with faces that look like emojis and cat ears: the Hobbs W1 has no legsbut it does have a face, upper joints and a screen. They are tools that are used to give instructions to people. Because Hobbs W1 is already working and those responsible, the Pekingese Noetix Roboticsthey point to a very clear segment: commercial spaces where you can guide clients, answer questions and perform reception tasks. great players. Noetix is ​​one of the many – many – Chinese startups that the country itself is promoting. The strategy of China is to become a robotics power (technological, in general, especially promoted by the ‘Delete A’ plan), and although there are many companies, we can now talk about very prominent names. Hobbs W1 It is estimated that Unitree, UBTECH and AgiBot they control practically the humanoid robot market in China. It is still a small market, but these three companies are looking to position themselves as soon as possible. Its key is the ability to manufacture at scale, but also specialization: Unitree may be the best known name. The most direct comparison would be with Boston Dynamics, since it has its ‘robodog’ – the Unitree Go2 – and its humanoid, the G1. Unitree is already selling units to end customers. In fact, you can buy that Go2 on Amazon. UBTECH has the Walker S1, a robot focused more on professional use. It is the one that directly seeks to replace humans on assembly lines and, in fact, it is already working in one of the plants Geely -manufacturer of electric cars-. AgiBot It is the third in contention. Instead of being specific, it has specialized in being multiplatform and going to volume so that they can do tasks in different sectors. It has humanoid robots from its X series, but also much more specialized ones from the A and G series (although they also give them faces to humanize them. Image: Unitree. Muscle and brain. These companies are closely linked to the development of another of China’s priorities, lto artificial intelligencebut there is a fourth that stands out for its focus. It’s Galbot, and he’s taken a less conventional route. Instead of focusing on promoting their robots as mountebanks or capable of lift heavy weights in factoriesGalbot has developed multimodal AI models with one thing very clear in mind: that they can now care for humans in the real world. When we talk about topics of this type, it is always difficult to know to what extent it is smoke, promises or there is someone with the controls behind the scenes. In the case of Galbot and his G1I can say that, although slow, it works. It already serves a store of just 10 m² in Beijing and you can order drinks perfectly. There is no human nearby and the company plans to expand with more than a hundred automated stores throughout the rest of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. From the laboratory to the store. Therefore, the Hobbs W1 is just one more of those humanoid robots that China has already put to work. And the truth is that it contrasts with what we see in the West. We have been talking about robotics for many years, but the proper names were different. China has arrived later in this racebut it has managed to position itself as the country to beat. And the reason is your approach. While Tesla promises to have “many” Optimus and Boston Dynamics continues to show his Atlas performing jumpsChinese robots are already in stores, but also walking through the subway supplying the 7 Eleven either extinguishing fires with real firefighters. The vast majority of the startups that are starring in the conversation have been created in the last two years and make it clear that the country is very interested in leading the sector. It’s not only to show off. And it may not just be a strategy to demonstrate technological muscle. we come it counting for months: China faces a future with many more elderly and, as a consequence, much less labor. Have a tremendous rate of youth unemploymentbut even so in the medium term the country faces a dramatic demographic contraction. Putting the elderly to work It’s an option –also in Japan-, but at a certain moment, and with a low birth ratehaving only the elderly work is not an option. That’s where the country’s strategy comes into play: leading the conversation in roboticsattract talent and, in addition, develop robots that can fill that job hole that is anticipated in a few years. Stepping on the accelerator. In whatever way and for whatever reason, it is clear that both the country and the startups are in a hurry. HE they estimate 800 humanoid robots sold in 2024 compared to more than 4,000 in 2025. By 2045, the projection is that they will have more than 100 million operational units with a market of 1.4 billion dollars. And the main advantage is that economy of scale, the national push and being able to access key elements in the … Read more

All tech companies are putting AI in all their products. The problem is that nobody wants them

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It’s been a year and a half and it seems like 10 have passed. In May 2024, Microsoft announced the launching Windows Recallan artificial intelligence option that allowed us to remember and recover things we had done on our PC. It seemed like an interesting idea, but soon he was criticized his approach to privacy and security and the company had to delay it and then relaunch it without making too much noise. That was one of those AI features that promised to transform our PC experience, but three years after the launch of ChatGPT, one thing is certain: AI has not meant no revolution. Not at least on the PC, we insist. Microsoft, of course, has not stopped adding more and more AI functions to Windows 11. We have co-pilots and theoretically revolutionary functions to bore, and that obsession with putting AI even in the soup has been demonstrated with the legendary Notepadwhich has gone from being a minimalist app to one that is losing focus. Microsoft’s reasons are legitimate: they have invested a real fortune in AI and they will want to take advantage of it. Surely the intention was good (at least, in part) when it came to offering new ways of working and enjoying our PC. The problem is that good intentions have caused just the opposite of what Microsoft intended. Instead of us wanting to use Windows 11 more and more, is making us want to use it less and less. We have seen it with renewed interest for some Linux distributionsbut also with the appearance of an app that is exclusively dedicated to eradicating Windows 11 any trace of AI functions. AI fatigue The same thing is happening with AI browsers. Comet, Day and Atlas They are two striking proposals for this integration of AI functions, but neither of them seems to have caught on, and Microsoft Edge – which of course has integrated Copilot – has not proposed any change in trend either: the browsers we want to use, at least for the moment, continue to be the traditional ones, without AI. And there is the key. In what We users have not asked for so much AI. That is precisely the great criticism of these industry efforts to boast that their products have AI. Those two magic letters no longer get expectations. What they are starting to get is rejection. Firefox is the latest example. Mozilla has just appointed a new CEO, and in its first public statement it pointed out its intention to transform Firefox into a product in which AI was the central axis. The users of this browser – and I count myself among them – are not at all clear, and the unified response message has been clear: “Firefox does not need AI, but rather listen to its users“. What has happened and is happening with Windows 11 and Firefox shows that we are entering a new stage in which AI no longer excites, but rather fatigues. It’s everywhere: The list is of course much longer, and in many cases there is another added problem: that AI is the excuse to raise prices. Microsoft is here again a notable example with Microsoft 365but we have also seen it in Adobe, which He raised the price to his customers right off the bat because now they could enjoy an AI that they had not asked for. It’s happening everywhere because the promised AI revolution still hasn’t happened. There are, of course, areas in which it has proven to be transformative—programming is the clear case—but in many others that acronym has lost its meaning. The industry’s commitment to making this work is logical: companies have invested hundreds of billions of dollars invested with the idea that this was going to explode… and so far it hasn’t. But they continue to fill everything with AI. And as often happens, that’s the bad thing. It tires you a lot…And if we haven’t asked for it, even more so. In Xataka | Adobe has presented itself as the champion of copyright in the AI ​​era. Now we know that maybe not so much

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