race

The artificial intelligence race is pushing the US towards an unexpected energy solution: looking to the military sphere

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The artificial intelligence race is not only being fought in laboratories, chips or data centers, it is increasingly being played in the field of energy. In the United States, the accelerated growth of electrical demand associated with AI has exposed a barely visible fragility: the network is not expanding at the same pace as technological ambitions. This imbalance is forcing us to look beyond conventional solutions and reopen debates that seemed closed, including some that connect directly with the military sphere. What has been put on the table. HGP has submitted an application formal to the United States Department of Energy to redirect two nuclear reactors removed from Navy ships to a civil project linked to data centers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The request was channeled through a letter addressed to the Department’s own Office of Energy Dominance Financing, and is part of the so-called Genesis Mission promoted from the White House. According to the documentation, the installation could provide between 450 and 520 megawatts of continuous electricity, aimed at intensive and stable consumption. The main argument in favor of this idea is time. Faced with the construction of new civil reactors, whether large plants or smaller designs, which tend to move on long schedules, or the start-up of large gas plants, also conditioned by permits and infrastructure, the reuse of existing reactors is proposed as a way to gain speed. The logic is simple: start from equipment that is already manufactured and tested, and convert it into a firm supply for the network. It is, at least on paper, a way to add base power while other solutions mature. Behind the scenes of the proposal. The initiative does not come from a newly created startup or from an unknown actor in the energy sector. HGP Intelligent Energy It is a recently created division, but it is presented as part of a developer with previous experience in the US market, supported, according to the company itself, in energy storage projects, electric mobility and development of network-scale assets. At the helm is Gregory Alvaro Forero, president of the division, which appears on your LinkedIn profile as president of HGP Storage since November 2013. That detail helps frame the approach outside of the improvised company pattern. What technology would be reused and at what price. The reactors cited in the proposal come from the US naval nuclear fleet, where aircraft carriers operate with two reactors and submarines typically operate with one. Models A4W, manufactured by Westinghouse, and S8G, developed by General Electric, are mentioned. Adaptation for civil use would have an estimated cost of between one and four million dollars per megawatt, and the project would also require between 1.8 and 2.1 billion dollars in private capital for associated infrastructure. The proposal includes revenue sharing with the Government, a fund for future decommissioning and the intention to request a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, with a first phase “as soon as 2029”. Just because the idea sounds direct doesn’t mean the path is. Bloomberg notes that Reusing military reactors for civilian use would be unexplored territory, and inevitable questions arise: how is it authorized, who operates, under what standards and with what responsibilities if something fails. Coordination between federal agencies and regulators also comes into play, as well as the logistics of moving and adapting equipment designed for ships, not a grid-connected plant. For now, everything remains at the proposal level. Energy sovereignty as a security argument. HGP tries to support its approach with a framework that goes beyond electricity for data centers. In its materials, the company summarizes the idea with an explicit equation, “Energy Supply Chain Sovereignty = National Defense,” and links supply chain resilience to the country’s ability to secure strategic infrastructure, even noting how geopolitical events or social media posts by managers can affect operations and investments. It is the story with which it seeks political and institutional legitimacy. To reinforce the idea that naval nuclear is not synonymous with improvisation, the context of the World Association of Nuclear Operators enters. According to WANOthe US Navy has accumulated more than 6,200 reactor-years of experience without radiological incidents, with 526 reactor cores, as of 2021. The association attributes that history to the standardization of systems, maintenance and quality of training. It is a relevant fact for the public debate, but it does not close it: a solid record in a military environment does not automatically imply that the jump to civilian use will be immediate or easy. Images | General Dynamics Electric Boat | Igor Omilaev | İsmail Enes Ayhan In Xataka | The race to bring data centers to space promises a lot. Physics says otherwise Images | General Dynamics Electric Boat | Igor Omilaev | İsmail Enes Ayhan In Xataka | The race to bring data centers to space promises a lot. Physics says otherwise

that China loses the AI ​​race, but wins the economic war by bleeding them dry

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The AI ​​race has two main players, but their bets are very different. While the United States has already spent $350 billion in AI (and plan to spend much more), China has only invested 100,000 million. Silicon Valley optimists start from the belief that AI will radically change the world and whoever masters AI will dominate the future. And if not? As they say in financial times, The United States could win this battle, but lose the economic war. USA. You have put all your eggs in the same basket. Exorbitant investments are guided by the belief that AI will change the world as we know it, that AGI will make humans finally stop working. It is an epic speech in which AI is presented to us as a kind of messiah that will save the world, one that completely ignores the alternative: that AI is a great technological leap, yes, but neither so revolutionary nor, above all, such a great business. And it’s not just a technology thing, investors are absorbed in the same obsession. China. In 2017, China announced the “Development Plan for a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence” in which they defined AI as a strategic technology. For China, AI is a national priority, but its approach is more pragmatic and much less speculative. You just have to look at their AI models, like DeepSeek, effective but very far from the very expensive ‘frontier models’ in which the US is investing. His vision for AI is not so much to transform the world, but rather to function as a tool to be even more efficient in different processes. a few months ago They announced the “AI+” planwhere they detailed the deployment of AI in six sectors: scientific and technological development, industrial applications, consumer services, public welfare, governance and security, and international collaborations. The AI ​​war. We always hear the idea of ​​this stark battle to dominate AI from the American side. In many cases, the AI ​​war, like AGI, is another point of pressure for Silicon Valley to justify the tremendous expense or achieve its objectives. We have seen it recently with Jensen Huang pushing for the government to let him sell his chips in China and his argument revolved around the idea that China will achieve technological independence and then win the AI ​​war. The paradox for the United States is that its own invention is benefiting its enemy. The AI ​​war also functions as a pressure point for China: forcing the US to mortgage its economy to the technology they consider the future, while they overtake them in everything else. The economic war. The United States is betting everything on a single winning horse, while China has not stopped investing to ensure its dominance in other key sectors, such as electric cars, batteries, robotics and, above all, renewable energy. For China there are many futures, for the US only one. The commitment to diversification is going well. In 2024 China already manufactured 76% of electric cars sold worldwide and 80% of all lithium batteries. They are also the country with more industrial robot installationswhich gives them an advantage to continue being the factory of the world. There is much more, they are also undisputed leaders in other sectors such as the manufacture of drones, solar panels, high-speed trains and graphene. China’s AI is energy. China carries years investing in clean energy. According to Carbon Brief reportIn 2024 alone, China invested $940 billion, and it is not the year it spent the most. The curious thing is that energy is key for many sectors, especially AI. The United States knows this well and has already encountered a wall: They don’t have power for so many chips. Not only is China producing more energy, it is also is subsidizing it. Jensen Huang warned about this situation, ensuring that “China is going to win the AI ​​race” thanks to the government’s energy aid. Trump, for his part, has discouraged renewable energies and the electric car industry. In the end it will turn out that, for the United States, it is AI to win or nothing to win. Image | Gemini In Xataka | China already has an army of 5.8 million engineers. His new plan involves accelerating doctorates

The CNI joins the race to find the best talent

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Maybe you hadn’t noticed because they are very discreet, but the generational change has become an urgent need for the National Intelligence Center (CNI). As is the case in a large part of the Administration, the average age of its staff increases steadily and requires the incorporation of young profiles constantly. a report 2021 already pointed out this trend in the workforce, which presents the Intelligence Center as an increasingly veteran structure and a growing demand for specialists capable of covering strategic areas, from cybersecurity to the operation of sensitive infrastructure. Much more than analysts and technicians. Although the CNI is usually associated with highly qualified profiles in intelligence, technology or languages, the range of real vacancies is wider and, as many other companiesyou are also noticing the staff shortage maintenance. As and how I collected InfobaeIn the latest recruitment processes, the Intelligence agency has insisted on the need for essential trades for the operation of its facilities: locksmiths, electricians, plumbers, air conditioning technicians or industrial maintenance specialists. Just visit your job portal to realize the number of job offers for this type of professionals. The detail: they are more than plumbers. However, there is something in these offers that draws attention: in addition to the qualification that accredits technical knowledge, having a B2 level of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic or Chinese is valued. It’s not a coincidence. In the CNI, even electricians are potential agents. “Not only are they profiles to work in the CNI facilities, but sometimes they are necessary for certain operations that we carry out,” declared to Infobae a CNI agent with 20 years of experience. Beyond that detail, the reason for having your own internal maintenance team is simple: they are critical positions for the physical security of complexes where any intervention, no matter how small, must remain under internal supervision, reducing the intervention of external contractors. The CNI finds you. As and how he published The Newspaperthe National Intelligence Center has launched a talent hunt, gaining visibility in cybersecurity events and job fairs. According to CNI sources consulted by the newspaper, thanks to this job opening, 4,000 interviews have already been carried out with different technical profiles so far this year. Not only do the CNI’s Human Resources staff intervene in these job interviews, but in some of them the section heads who demand candidates also intervene discreetly. In this way, it is those responsible for the CNI themselves who choose its future members. Spies are not officials. CNI workers are not officials comparable to the rest of the Administration. His status is that of statutory staff of the CNI, governed by its own regulations that determines access, internal mobility, evaluation and working conditions. This framework responds to the nature of the organization: an intelligence service that works with sensitive and, sometimes, classified national security information. Competition from private companies. Contrary to what happens with the rest of the Administrationone of the most complex obstacles to the CNI’s generational change is competition from the private sector. The recruitment of technological profiles (cybersecurity, data analysis, systems engineering) forces us to compete with private companies that are offering higher salaries, greater work flexibility and teleworking options. Although the employment section of the CNI specifies that it is not mandatory to live in Madrid, new candidates must complete prior training at the facilities that the organization has in the capital. However, one of its biggest drawbacks is that, even if they take place anywhere in Spain, many positions require physical presence and do not allow the use of external connections. Any external access implies potential risk, which limits the adoption of hybrid modalities. This collides head-on with the flexibility claim of these technical profiles. An inevitable renewal. As detailed by the CNI sources consulted by The newspaper, The internal challenge of the CNI for the coming years will be to maintain this constant flow of new talent while the generation of baby boom he retires Moving in an environment where discretion, operational restrictions and the impossibility of giving too much information about the nature of the work play against the needs of a secret service. Now we know that, if you are interested in working for the CNI, they are not always the ones who will try to recruit you. You can also send them the resume. In Xataka | “We are absolutely certain that it is an external attack.” The phones of Pedro Sánchez and the Minister of Defense have been infected with Pegasus, according to the Government Image | Unsplash (Chris Yang)

Your race to modernize is breaking what has always worked

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The promise of Windows 11 was to deliver a modern operating system, but four years later, that modernization feels like a permanent work in progress. While adoption of the system remains slow—although reached Windows 10— some users face an experience weighed down by patches that often turn into bugs. An invisible change that breaks things. From 2023Microsoft accelerated an under-the-hood migration: abandoning the classic and efficient technology that drew windows, to embrace WinUI and the XAML-based Windows App SDK. The goal is to unify the design, but the execution is taking its toll. WinUI introduces changes which, if not optimized perfectly, make the system suffer: it chokes waiting for data in the same thread that draws the interface. This explains why the browser feels heavy or why the start menu and taskbar they disappear after security updates. In fact, in a community meeting which you can see on YouTube, confirm their mission to migrate legacy surfaces to WinUI 3 to modernize the OS, admitting the difficulties that have arisen. It’s not just design. Beyond the UI layer, the latest version of the OS has been a minefield where Microsoft has had to constantly rectify. The result is components that have been failing, both due to WinUI and for reasons unrelated to it: The interface: contextual menus were born slow and cluttered, forcing Redmond’s redesign them now to fix the usability problem they created. Even their own managers have admitted publicly that the Start Menu “is very annoying” and needs corrections. Stability: we have suffered since updates that caused blue screens for processor incompatibilities to specific performance issues on AMD chipspassing through surreal glitches where the file explorer overlapped to other windows. Security: the renewal of the OS has reached disrupt vital functions such as “Local Authority Protection” (LSA), unintentionally disabling it with a patch. The community acts as a patch and resistance. Given the slowness to fix latest visual bugusers have taken control. The discovery is revealing: disabling the modern command bar (based on WinUI) using tools not only eliminates white flashes, but speeds up program loading and reduces RAM consumption. But this community has also been reluctant to Windows 11: they use tools like Rufus to bypass the TPM requirement (controversial at launch) or modified versions like Tiny11 to clean bloatware. It seems that the advanced and enthusiastic user prefers to modify the system rather than accept Redmond’s official vision. The nostalgia cycle. All this fuels the eternal debate about the “good” and “bad” versions of Windows. Today many idealize Windows 10 for its stability, forgetting that in its first years it suffered fierce criticism for forced updates and privacy. Windows 11 seems to be stuck in that difficult phase of the cycle, aggravated by requirements that left out many functional PCs. Open Source to the rescue? As Microsoft pours resources into the ARM revolution and Copilot+ PCsthe desktop does not finish fine-tuning. The company seems aware and recently announced plans to make WinUI open sourcein order to accelerate the improvement of the base technology that currently hinders the system. Perhaps involving more developers will help make this interface development framework cleaner and more stable, although it does not imply that the bugs in Windows 11 (proprietary code) will be fixed because of this. However, the developer community is skeptical, pointing in specialized forums that WinUI has performance issues. Until Microsoft manages to make this new element as solid as the classic, and satisfy the enormous hardware park that installs it, Windows 11 will continue to pay the toll of modernity with some occasional instability. Cover image | Composition with images by Pepu Ricca and Javier Penalva for Xataka In Xataka | The ghost of IBM: Satya Nadella’s great challenge is to prevent Microsoft from becoming a technological fossil

A Bugatti Mistral costs five million dollars. Launching it includes convincing the police to organize a race

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It’s not every day that you can brand new a Bugatti Mistrala supercar valued at more than five million and that the CEO of Bugatti himself come deliver it to you in person. However, it is not so common that for this delivery, the CEO has to convince the police that it is a good idea to cut off one of Miami’s coastal roads to traffic to debut the supercar by racing between the Mistral and a custom-built sports yacht for the same owner. Although it may seem very bizarre, these things can happen when you are millionaire enough. A very particular premiere in Miami The delivery of a Bugatti Mistral is never a routine event. It’s a exclusive supercar of which only 99 units were manufactured that were they sold the same day that was put up for sale. However, when you pay five million euros for one of these exclusive jewels, the least you expect is that the CEO of Bugatti himself will come to deliver it to you in person. According to published Luxury Launchesthat’s what happened to Anthony Hsieh, a millionaire from Miami who received the exclusive unit of this supercar. The staging, far from being limited to a simple presentation in the dealer who had sold it to himincluded an unusual proposal: a race in front of the sea competing head to head with one of the exclusive yachts for sport fishing that Hsieh’s company builds. Bugatti’s CEO also joins in Mate Rimac, founder of the brand Rimac supercarscurrent CEO of Bugatti and a true speed enthusiast, did not want to miss the race and got so involved that he finally ended up offering to drive the Mistral in its race against the yacht. Obviously, the CEO wasn’t going to risk getting pulled over by the police or having the car’s owner fined, so he opted to convince Miami traffic authorities to close one of Miami’s busy coastal roads for the race, and This is how he told it on his networks social. A routine delivery for a Bugatti. Bugatti Mistral W16 engine The Bugatti Mistral uses the brand’s legendary W16 engine, an engineering gem what brand the end of an era for the brand since this is the last production model that will carry this 8-liter, 4-turbo block that delivers a power of 1,600 hp. Such a beast catapults the Mistral at a speed above 453 km/h. Her opponent was not exactly a cruising yacht. It is about the Badco 50 Gameboata boat designed for sport fishing of tuna and billfish (a large species similar to swordfish) and therefore must have agile and powerful engines that allow it to navigate at speeds of up to 44 knots. Like the Bugatti, the Badco 50 are customized to the owner’s taste with materials of the highest quality and resistance. Saying that the Badco 50 is a simple fishing boat is like saying that the Mistral is just a car. Furthermore, it so happens that the company that manufactures the Badco 50 is Bad Company Fishing Adventures, It is owned by the millionaire who bought the Mistral, so organizing this race, which as you can see in the video that was recordedis more symbolic than real, the brand sought to turn the delivery of the supercar into an unrepeatable experience for its customer. It’s not every day that the head of a supercar brand makes you luxury chauffeur in the car that has just been delivered to you and all followed by a police escort. If at this point you are still wondering who was the overall winner of the racethe answer is more than obvious: Mate Rimac, and not just by driving the car fasterbut because he took in his pocket the five million that the Bugatti Mistral costs and the absolute loyalty of a customer who will never again receive a car like Bugatti did with his Mistral. In Xataka | Bugatti has discovered that millionaires no longer want to buy luxury cars: they want to buy unique works of art Image | Bad Company Fishing Adventures

In the midst of a race towards immortality, China believes it has found a way for us to live 150 years: with grapes

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Aging is the objective that a good part of society has right now with different diets to look younger, ‘anti-aging’ treatments or even cocktails that promise this (although our biology has a fairly clear limit). Now, China is targeting a biotechnology company that affirms be developing a pill capable of prolonging human life to 150 years. A simple grape. A priori it seems that it has nothing to do with human aging, but we are quite wrong. The Shenzhen biotechnology company claims to have identified in its seeds a compound called procyyanidin C1 (PCC1) which achieves the effect that many want and has a great antioxidant effect. Zombie cells. To understand how this supposed miracle compound works, we must first talk about the enemy of aging: senescence cellular. As time goes by, some of our cells stop dividing, but they do not die. They remain in a state of limbo, accumulating in the tissues and secreting inflammatory substances that damage neighboring cells that are not so lazy and continue dividing. These cells that do not want to die is what known as ‘zombie cells’ because in the end there are quite a few parallels. As. Once taken into account, this is where PCC1 comes into play, which is nothing more than a natural flavonoid. Where the interesting begins is in a key study published in Nature Metabolism where it is pointed out that PCC1 acts as a senolytic agent. This means that it has a fairly important selective capacity to act on the cells that are bothering us the most. Specifically, at low doses, PCC1 inhibits the toxic substances emitted by zombie cells, but at high doses it kills them without harming healthy cells. And up to this point everything is quite solid, since it has been scientifically proven. There are ‘buts’. The scientific basis that the Chinese laboratory uses for its claims comes almost exclusively from animal models to whom this substance was applied. In this way, the researchers achieved several things by applying PCC1 on old mice: Reduce the load of senescent cells in vital organs. Reverse motor dysfunctions, making the mouse have more strength and better balance. Increase life expectancy between 9 and 60%. The big ‘but’ we found is that it has only been tested on mice and not on humans. And given this we can ask ourselves something quite simple: why are we skeptical about the claim of 150 years in humans? There are several reasons to be so. The first of them is that saying that because a mouse lives 60% longer, a human will live 60% longer is also a biological fallacy. The metabolism of mice and humans is not similar at all, and that is why there are drugs that, although they have worked in a mouse, have failed in humans. we are not equal with the mice. That’s why we don’t age in the same way. Although it is true that humans have senescent cells that are related to aging, we are much more complex. Aging involves genomic instability, telomere shortening, mitochondrial dysfunction, and stem cell exhaustion. That is why cleaning the ‘zombie cells’ could improve health in old agebut it is unlikely that on its own it will make us exceed the current biological limit of our species. This is also added to the fact that to date there are no published clinical trials that support the safety and effectiveness of using this compound in the human body. That is why, in conclusion, we can conclude that PCC1 is a very important finding to identify a door to therapies that make us age better. But talking about extending life to 150 years undoubtedly presents many doubts, since surely this ‘Chinese pill’ will not make us immortal overnight. Images | Maja Petric Daniel Franco In Xataka | Not all brain cells age at the same time: we have found a “hot spot” of aging

In a financial carom, Google has stood up to NVIDIA, leaving an unexpected winner in the crazy AI race: Larry Page

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NVIDIA promised them very happy being the best-positioned AI chip manufacturer. At least it was until Google has started making chips. This new scenario has excited investors, who have rushed to buy Alphabet shares, making your price goes up up to 6.3% from one day to the next, and accumulating an advance of more than 75% since its August price. This increase in the value of Google’s parent company has also coincided with a dip in Oracle’s valuation, which has caused chaos on the podium of the world’s largest fortunes. according to Forbes. What AI gives you, AI takes away. A few months ago, Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle rose as the second largest fortune in the world, overtaking Mark Zuckerberg. His fortune reached 291.6 billion thanks to the good growth prospects posed by the construction of the data centers for AI. In fact, the Oracle founder’s fortune grew so much that he was close enough to the unattainable Elon Musk as to threaten its position on that list. Just as AI raised Larry Ellison to become the world’s second-largest fortune, AI he has taken that place away to hand it over to Larry Page, who reaches that position with a fortune of 261.5 billion dollars. Google rises, Oracle falls. He Google stock rally contrasts with the downturn suffered by the main architect of the cloud infrastructure in which AI lives, leaving up to 6.79% of its price in recent days. This decline has meant that Ellison’s fortune, with a strong influence of Oracle on its income balance, has suffered, falling to $256.7 billion, being displaced to third position. That same stock market momentum of Google has taken another founding partner, Sergei Brin, to fourth position, with a fortune of 242.4 billion dollars, while Alphabet shares brought the company closer to a market capitalization of almost 4 billion dollars. Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos didn’t even see it coming. The most pronounced falls in recent months have been those of Jeff Bezos and, above all, Mark Zuckerberg, who, accustomed to remaining in the Top 3 of the greatest fortunes, fall to fifth and sixth position in the ranking of Forbes. The decline in Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune is especially striking, due to the poor performance of Meta shares in recent weeks. Interestingly, Meta shares have broken their downward trend following Google’s announcement to get into the semiconductor business for AI and the rumors that Zuckerberg could change NVIDIA processors for the Tensor Processing Unit manufactured by Alphabet. Larry Page and Sergei Brin: same company, different fortunes. Although Page and Brin co-founded Google and share control of the company through their shares, both millionaires do not own exactly the same number of shares, and that detail makes a big difference in their assets. According to public statements of Alphabet before the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), between the two magnates they concentrate 87.9% of Alphabet’s class B shares, which grant 10 votes per title. However, the figures show that Page has just over 389 million shares, while Brin account with some 362.7 million of these shares, which makes Page the main beneficiary of the rally in the shares of the company they founded. Brin has been more generous with science. The key to this gap is that Sergei Brin has been much more active than Page in donating and selling part of his stake in Alphabet, and that has reduced his share package over time. Brin has been targeting large volumes of Alphabet and Tesla shares to research donations of treatment against Parkinson’s disease, bipolar disorder or autism, after being discovered a genetic mutation which made him prone to developing that disease. In Xataka | Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google and became millionaires. Now they are dedicated to collecting gigantic airplanes Image | Flickr (Fortune Global Forum, TED Conference)

We are discovering how the brain “hacks” us to make us hungry. And it is a key step in the race towards losing weight.

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Right now, treatments to lose weight are the order of the day, with a clear protagonist like Ozempic. The problem is that beyond the aesthetic effects that are achieved, there are many doubts about both the side effects as well as all the effects it has on the body. But little by little science you understand much better how they achieve their effectwhich seems like a real miracle for many. What we knew. In general, these treatments They are ‘copies’ of GLP-1 which is a hormone that we produce normally in our body and makes us have the feeling of satiety. The moment we increase it exogenously we have a greater feeling of satiety that allows patients to lose weight (although with a risk of bouncing when treatment is stopped). But beyond this effect, the action it could have directly on the brain was something that had only been explored in animals. Now, a new study published in Nature has crossed this frontier thanks to Casey Halpern’s team, which has taken advantage of a “unique opportunity” to observe, for the first time in humans, the impact of Mounjaro (tirzepatide) directly into the reward center of the brain. Why it is important. The discovery of how the brain can ‘hack’ our body to eat much less opens many doors for us in the field of pharmacology to be able to continue working on definitive treatment. against obesitybecause we are seeing that it is something in high demand by many people who find it necessary to have this help (although it is not a miracle) to be able to reduce their weight. And we even see how in the United States purchasing is becoming more and more accessible. And we say that it is a miracle, because Ozempic or Mounjaro does part of the work, but we must not leave aside the change in eating habits to adjust the diet and be able to maintain it after stopping the treatment. The problem is that there are people who after stopping the treatment continue eating normally, and logically they see that there was no miracle involved. How it was done. The study focused on a 60-year-old woman with treatment-resistant obesity and type 2 diabetes. This patient was already taking Mounjaro for diabetes, and coincidentally, she was participating in another trial to treat dysregulated eating. This coincidence allowed the researchers to do something unprecedented: use the electrodes, already implanted in its nucleus accumbens (NAc)for hear brain activity while the drug took effect. And this brain nucleus is really important as it is the center of pleasure in humans and reward, that is, it is the point that can be modulated to restrict food consumption. The sign of craving. Those cravings we have for eating a little chocolate, a greasy pizza or a hamburger are something we all have because it is what gives us pleasure. In this case it was seen that the signal changed over the months, specifically the delta-theta frequency band. In the first months of treatments with Mounjaro, the patient had no desire for food in that sense of craving. Something that corresponded to a null signal in this nucleus, so it could be said that the medication was silencing this ‘noise’ that is generated in the pleasure center. The problem is that in the fifth to seventh months, despite being on the maximum dose of medication, the patient again had severe concern about food. And here again the signal in the nucleus had spiked to match that of those people who had no treatment. An advantage for the future. The most important finding here is that the change in the brain preceded the behavior. That is, before having a relapse this signal was increasing as if it were a warning signal. That is, a future where a sensor can detect this brain signature and alert the patient or doctor that the effectiveness of the drug is decreasing, before that the person will feel the cravings again in an uncontrolled way. Much ahead. This is a study with a single person, and it has many limitations and its conclusions logically cannot condition the clinical activity of the use of these medications. What it is useful for (and a lot) is to understand that the brain has a lot to do with this weight loss as if it were a real button to control eating habits. Perhaps silencing this brain nucleus in a very specific and sustained way may be the ‘holy grail’ that weight loss science seeks to control these cravings that can ruin a diet imposed by specialists. Although there is still a lot to investigate and it is only a first door for other medications that can complement Ozempic or Mounjaro, which has given great results. Images | Shawn Day Victoria Shes In Xataka | This is the great hope of the competition to replace Ozempic. Your weapon: banish needles with a pill

China is quietly winning the AI ​​race thanks to something very simple: cheap energy

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“China is going to win the artificial intelligence race,” warned Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Many thought he was exaggerating, interested in fueling demand for his chips. But, as analyst June Yoon explained in her column for the Financial TimesHuang’s argument contains an uncomfortable truth: the availability of electricity—not chips—is becoming the critical factor for the development of AI. A model like GPT-4 can consume more than 460,000 megawatt-hours per year, the equivalent of the energy consumption of 35,000 American homes, according to a study. The world’s data centers—already colossal—could double their electricity consumption before 2030. And that changes the rules of the game. When there are plenty of chips, but there are no plugs. The race for AI It started with a GPU fever. Big tech companies rushed to buy every Nvidia chip available, but they soon discovered something more worrying: there weren’t enough sockets to connect them. Satya Nadella himself, CEO of Microsoft, he said it bluntly: “The biggest problem we have now is not excess chips, but energy.” Electricity demand has skyrocketed so much that Google, Microsoft and Amazon are already contemplating build nuclear reactors to keep your servers on. The paradox sums up the moment well: the digital leadership of the West encounters a physical limit, that of cheap energy. Energy as a new geopolitics. Analyst June Yoon throw a question that reorders the technological map: what if the AI ​​race had nothing to do with chips, but with electricity? If the last century was defined by oil, this one will be defined by the current China no longer lives off oil: generates it. It has gone from being a petrostate dependent on crude oil to becoming the first electrostate on the planet. More than one quarter of your electricity It comes from renewable sources and its network is growing at a speed that no other country can match. Now that energy sovereignty fuels a new front: artificial intelligence. How did you find the formula? Since September, the Chinese Government Subsidizes up to 50% of energy costs of data centers that use national chips. The inland provinces—Guizhou, Gansu, Inner Mongolia—have become “electric hearts” of Chinese AI: there energy is abundant and cheapand local governments offer historically low rates of just 0.4 yuan per kilowatt-hour. The measure has a dual purpose: Compensate for the lower efficiency of domestic chips compared to Nvidia’s. Promote technological independence in the midst of a trade war. As Bloomberg has detailedthese regions are connected by ultra-high voltage (UHV) lines that transport renewable energy from the interior to the coastal areas where big technology companies, such as Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, are concentrated. The goal is clear: ensure abundant, low-cost energy for AI training clusters. According to Rystad Energythe electricity consumption of data centers could more than double before 2030, reaching 1,800 terawatt-hours in 2040. Beijing is preparing to absorb it. The result is a planned, centralized energy ecosystem designed to scale AI. An example is the Talatan Solar Parkwhich extends like a sea of ​​metal mirrors: more than 600 square kilometers of panels that are combined with wind and hydroelectric parks. From there, the power travels along high-voltage lines to data centers on the coast. It is a postcard of the new Chinese power: sun, wind and silicon. China’s electrical advantage. The strategy is also working in the markets. According to Bloombergshares of Chinese power companies have risen up to 40% in a week, driven by demand for AI data centers. UBS forecasts that electricity demand in China will grow 8% annually until 2028. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Trump administration has launched an AI Action Plan to accelerate the construction of data centers and remove obstacles to energy projects. But, as FT analysts point outchip improvements are stuck in single digits, while Chinese renewable energy grows by double digits every year. The power is in the socket. In the race for artificial intelligence, chips are the brain. But the heart beats with electricity. The United States retains leadership and has the best semiconductors (for now); China, the network that keeps them on. As June Yoon wroteall the technological superpowers in history—from coal England to oil America—were built on a source of cheap energy. Today, artificial intelligence needs electricity as it once needed steam. And on that new board, China seems to have found the key: plug in the future before anyone else. Image | Pixabay and Hanwha Xataka | SoftBank abandons the king of chips in its prime. And he bets everything on OpenAI

Sateliot is the great Spanish hope to have its own voice in the new satellite space race

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There is a new space race and no one wants to miss it. Rivaling with Starlink seems like a utopia, but a Spanish company has managed to get ahead to the American giant on a specific point: 5G. While Elon Musk’s satellite company remains anchored in 4G, Sateliot boasts of being a pioneer in offering 5G connectivity from space, not only to IoT devices, but also to conventional mobile phones. This milestone has not gone unnoticed by the governments of Spain and Europe. Sateliot brings together all the ingredients to become an option for technological sovereignty in the satellite race. A race where Starlink dominates with more than 90% of global launches, but where any advance of its own is seen as a great victory. Now Sateliot inaugurates the Europe’s first 5G satellite development center. A pioneering center located in Barcelona that has more than 100 employees, two laboratories, a control room and a clean room of more than 100 square meters. From Xataka we have visited the center of the Catalan satellite company and learned about its ambitious plans. Triton, the new generation of satellites moves to full 5G Since 2018, Sateliot has launched six satellites, the last four in orbit since August 2024. They plan to launch five more next year. However, beyond getting ahead with 5Git will be with their second generation of satellites when they will begin to have a more competitive service. Triton, in homage to the Montseny amphibian, is the name chosen for its new satellites, about four meters long and 150 kilograms in weight. These new satellites represent a radical advance compared to those already sent by Sateliot, because in addition to having a capacity up to 16 times greater, they also change their concept. Tritón not only offers connectivity to IoT devices, but will offer 5G connectivity for data, voice and video to conventional 5G mobiles. Without the need to add any antenna or modifications to these phones and compatible with all operators (3GPP). The satellite, with a cost 10 times higher than the first generation, will allow Sateliot to offer a service that will range from critical security applications to civil protection and defense. The company explains that its satellite connection service will not focus on providing specific coverage to specific consumersbut serve for industrial, maritime, energy or location applications. Jaume Sanpera, CEO of Sateliot, together with the monitoring of its four satellites in orbit The first Triton satellite is scheduled to launch during the first quarter of 2027from Vandenberg (California), one of SpaceX’s two launch bases. The future goal is to be able to use European launchers, such as the Vega and Ariane of the European Space Agency. In this space race, the dates given are no coincidence. 2027 is the date on which it is also planned that Starlink begins upgrading its satellites to 5G. Barcelona bets on aerospace technology Jaume SanperaCEO of Sateliot, is proud that his satellites are “100% manufactured in Barcelona.” Now they have inaugurated the development center, but in the future they plan for the industrial phase to also have a factory in Barcelona. A phase that is still far away. “Next year we will exceed 200 employees. Being more than 80% engineers and having doubled the staff in the last year,” Sanpera explains to Xataka. “We have agreed to expand to the ground floor,” he points out in reference to the recently inaugurated offices. An inauguration that was also attended by multiple public authorities, including the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa. “You have to lose your shyness. Everything outside is better and seems to come from the US or China. Well no: Here we also do very powerful things that no one else has“Illa defended. Salvador Illa, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, visits the clean room of the new 5G satellite development center | Satellite Sateliot is a startup that currently brings together much of what Europe is looking for: cutting-edge technology companies and local development. The new development center wants to become the base of a cluster of aerospace companies in Barcelona. And investors are taking note. Sanpera assures that at this time Sateliot is not looking for a new round, although defines it as a company “that requires a lot of capital”. Last March, the The Spanish government announced an investment of around 14 million euros in Sateliotfor a total of a round of about 70 million euros. In addition to the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), Global Portfolio Investments, Indra, Cellnex and SEPIDES have also invested and 30 million euros have been loaned from the European Investment Bank (EIB). For the moment, since his birth They have invested about 50 million euros in R&D. According to Sateliot, they already have signed contracts worth 285 million euros annually and offer coverage in 58 different countries. In total 734 different contracts to connect a total of 10 million devices that cannot have good coverage and where the satellite service opens a whole field of possibilities. The new development center in Barcelona employs 110 employees (80% engineers), with plans to exceed 200 in 2026. “We have 30 different patent applications“, they explain to us. During the explanation of how satellite monitoring works, the CEO of Sateliot hints that not all of its advances have been patented, in order to “not give clues to the competition”, pointing out that there is a high level of industrial espionage in the sector. “The difficulty is in the radio, in the antenna,” says Sanpera. Sateliot cannot compete against Starlink in quantity, but unlike the American company, they are betting on satellites whose connectivity is more modern and, above all, widely compatible. The Triton satellites have a 7 year shelf lifecompared to four or five years for the first generation. The main limiting factor is the radio and software. The company points out that this information is important, because “space debris is a problem for everyone and can prevent us from launching more … Read more

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