reality

The latest Stranger Things deepfake is so amazing that it shows that reality is beginning to be optional

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This week, a Brazilian content creator named ederxavier3d published an amazing video on his Instagram account. In it they appeared several of the protagonists of the series ‘Stranger Things’ making just the gestures and expressions that he made in the lower window. He explained that he had achieved it in a simple way and thanks to the new Kling 2.6 and its characteristic Motion Control. This option allows the movements we make in a video to be transferred to any real or fictitious person, regardless of the style in which they are represented (it can be a comic book character) with an amazing result. And in the case of the Brazilian creator’s video it can be clearly seen: these videos could perfectly pass for real in almost all cases. It is true that if you look closely you can sense that something is wrong, but only because the video has been shared making it clear that it was created with AI. This video has once again awakened a debate that has been linked to this type of deepfakes for some time. Justine Moore, partner at investment firm a16z, explained that “we are not prepared for how quickly (video) production flows are going to change with AI. Some of the latest video models have immediate implications for Hollywood. Endless character swaps at negligible costs.” How the story has changed. In April 2023 we proposed a little game to all of you who read us: Would you be able to distinguish a real image from one generated by AI? At that time, AI was already achieving remarkable results—the image of the Pope with the coat proved it—but the feeling was that we could still tell whether an image had been created with an AI or not. With the video things were even clearer.because at that time AI video generation I was in diapers. Three years later things are very different, and there are several AI platforms (I see 3, Sora 2Kling, Runway) that generate videos that anyone could easily confuse without problems. Tell Will Smith. ederxavier3d’s video also demonstrates this, and in fact something unique happened with it: there were rumors that the Stranger Things characters had actually recorded those appearances and the creator had imitated their movements, and then rumors appeared that denied that this was true and that suggested that from the beginning the videos were nothing more than what they seemed: deepfakes created with AI. A priori everything would suggest that this is the case: the Kling 2.6 feature is not at all new and other platforms allow our movements and gestures – and even our voice – to be transferred to a character generated by AI. The problem is that At this point it is almost impossible to distinguish whether that person who appears on the screen is real or not. This technology is extraordinarily striking and causes that “wow effect” that AI companies so seek, but despite the creative options it offers, the risks here seem especially notable. The identity theft It is now easier to achieve than ever, and that will probably mean that we will see many more dangerous cases. It is enough to remind the employee that transferred 25 million dollars believing that the person who told him via videoconference was his real boss. It is not clear how, for example, Hollywood studios will react to this technology, but for now some are already taking action on the matter to try to protect themselves. The best example is Matthew McConaughey, who these days has “patented himself” to have one more legal resource (which we are not sure is necessary) to protect yourself against possible videos impersonating you. The implications are enormous, and we are entering an era in which something disturbing is going to happen: We will not be able to trust what we see on a screen. In Xataka | “Hello, I’m your grandson and I need $3,000”: there are already scams on the elderly with voices generated by AI

The director of the DGT says that in the future cars will not enter cities. It’s more of a wish than a reality

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Today is January 14, 2026 but, really, it doesn’t matter when you read this: Pere Navarro, director of the DGT, is once again in the news for some controversial statements. We could have titled this article that way, in fact, because the truth is that every time the Director of Traffic speaks at an event broadcast by the media there is something to scratch. This time it was at an event organized by Europa Press where Navarro showed off this particular superpower. There, he has assured the following: “We are all day with emissions, yes emissions, no such and such. Don’t look, you don’t go to the city center with electric, diesel or gasoline. Let’s not make a mistake. You go with public transportation and if you’re in a hurry, taxi, Uber or Cabify” They are literal words. There is no possible misinterpretation or audio cuts to take the message out of context. You can check it yourself in the tweet that accompanies this article. Click on the image to go to the original tweet The words clearly point to an ambition: to get the car out of the city center. It doesn’t matter if it’s gasoline, diesel or electric. There is a goal and that goal is vehicle sharing and public transportation. We could put our hands on our heads. We could say that they want to prohibit us from moving where the elites want. Of course, there will be those who relate this to 15 minute cities. However, we have been hearing similar messages for so long and the measures to be taken have been so lukewarm that, without fear of being wrong, I say: calm down. Once again, the same old thing This is not the first time, far from it, that we have heard this type of message from the director of the DGT. For two years, news and articles have been recurring that point to supposed prohibitions on using our cars if they are only occupied by one person. One of the most repeated formulas is found in these words from Navarro himself at an event called Global Mobility Call held in Madrid in 2024: “The future of traffic will be shared or it will not be (…) we must make a collective change in mentality that allows us to encourage high vehicle occupancy, because we cannot afford to move 1,500 kg every day to move a single person. Increasing vehicle occupancy is a challenge and a necessity” Navarro too has come to be described as “luxury” moving a single person in a vehicle. And in November he insisted again in that it doesn’t matter if the car is electric or not because the future of cities depends on public transport. However, the DGT has not taken any action that points in this direction nor is there anything on the table to debate it. The closest thing is the creation of a Bus-HOV lane at the entrance to Madrid where cars with two or more people traveling inside are rewarded. And that in 2019 it was also advocated from the DGT magazine for a city “with more pedestrians and fewer cars.” The statements have also been used to fill the network with articles pointing out that we will not be able to enter the center of our cities by car, linking them with the creation of low-emission zones. But the truth is that these low-emission zones have a very limited scope. In some of them, such as Madrid or Barcelonavehicles without a label are prevented from entering, but either there are exceptions or they allow all cars with a label to enter the very center of the city. It is true that sometimes you are forced to park in a parking lot but the passage, if our car has at least label Bit is open. Despite many statements by the DGT, the truth is that the efforts to reduce or not reduce traffic in cities go through the municipal corporations of each place. A context that has led to turning the issue of urban mobility into a political weapon. To the point of defending that traffic jams can be “a hallmark” of a city. The comparison between Madrid and Barcelona are two good examples. In the capital, the Popular Party won an election by ensuring that it was going to lift all circulation restrictions, something he didn’t do and that, in fact, he maintained to eliminate all unmarked cars (regardless of whether the driver lives in Madrid or not) from the city. Barcelona en Comú promoted a completely different way of understanding the city in Barcelona, ​​betting on pedestrianization, reduction of lanes in the city center and the creation of what are known as Superilles. It has also been promoted to be more aggressive and fence off the entrance to the city from the most polluting vehicles. Two different approaches that, however, have given a very similar result. And the measures against the car have been very lukewarm. In both cities, if the vehicle has an environmental label it can circulate inside, just taking into account a series of obligations that, in practice, barely change our daily lives. In Madrid, the idea of ​​preventing unlabeled cars from being banned was finally scrapped (as long as they are registered in Madrid). And prohibiting entry to city centers with cars is not something that is catching on in Europe either. Yes, the main cities have restrictions and barriers that discourage its use, but in all of them you can continue to travel to the city center by car. In London you want reduce traffic with tollsin Paris punishing street parking and in Berlin you are also forced to drive with certain modern vehicles. Be that as it may, the only certainty is that total prohibitions do not come and if citizens end up leaving their cars aside in the cities it is because they have been transversal jobs in different areas and sustained over timewith investments … Read more

While half the world looks for an alternative to Taiwan, Jensen Huang is very clear about the harsh reality: there is no

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In the technological world, the United States AIthe China’s semiconductor breakthroughs and the robotics explosion They were protagonists during the last months. But if there is something essential for these industries to function, it is Taiwan. In semiconductors, Taiwan is the one who splits the cod, and its technological diamond is TSMC. And the CEO of NVIDIA is clear that it is not worth burning money looking for the new TSMC immediately. Because it’s something that will take decades to replicate. Resilience. TSMC is about to turn 40 years old and is the company that manufactures for the elephants of the semiconductor sector such as AMD, Apple, ARM, MediaTek, Qualcomm or NVIDIA itself, among many others. They are the ones that have the most advanced machines of the European ASMLthose that have refined their processes to the extreme and are used even by manufacturers that have their own factories, such as Intel or Texas Instruments. It is something that affects the user directly, proof of this is that a mobile chip manufactured by TSMC is not the same as almost the same one made by Samsung. And to these processes is added a brutal manufacturing capacity that has dominated the industry. And, of course, looking to bite into that pie, different countries have tried to find their own TSMC. However, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has commented that efforts to diversify production must be made from the angle of resilience, not replacement. You don’t have to burn money like crazy. In recent months, Europe and the United States have begun to add manufacturing capacity in the semiconductor segment. The problem is that you cannot build a competitive industry in a short time: experience is needed and failure is not allowed. That, in an industry that is evolving at a very rapid pace due to the needs for chips for feed the artificial intelligenceis not contemplated. That is why Huang believes that the market is becoming selective and if guarantees are needed to manufacture chips, the one who gives those guarantees is turned to. Huang has been giving interviews for a few days and touching on key topics. For example, pointing out that The breakup between the US and China makes no sense because China is a very powerful trading partner, but also ensuring that Taiwan, as much as certain countries may not like it, will be the axis in the development of advanced computing in the coming years. China and the US investing millions. SIA is the acronym for Semiconductor Industry Association. It is the organization that seeks to advance policies that help the growth of the manufacturing industry in the United States. In your report Last year, they targeted 100 projects in 28 states totaling more than half a trillion dollars of private investment to triple the capacity of American industry by 2032. amd wants to be one of the protagonists of this operationbut also an Intel that seeks to position itself as a key factory on American soil and that has received strong government support. China is not far behind. With the explosion of robotics and AI, companies like SMIC or Huawei are developing alternatives to American technology to fuel their computing needs. They are looking for something else: industrial autonomy, and for that the Government has been releasing a series of funds to become one of the biggest names in the sector. If a subsidy package was launched in 2024 $47.5 billiona few weeks ago, other of up to 70,000 million to support that industry. Rvalidates directly with the US CHIPS of 52,000 million and 43,000 European million. The objective in both cases is the same: allocate obscene amounts of money to areas such as design, equipment, manufacturing and materials, as well as energy solutions that allow chips to be manufactured, but also to feed the companies in each country’s ecosystem. In the case of China, furthermore, there is an urgency to achieve these objectives as it is not able to have the advanced ASML machines and NVIDIA chips, something that the United States, Europe and Taiwan do have. India more of the same. But this is not a question of two great poles. South Korea also seeks become one of the great players of semiconductors, and another country that is designing an ambitious strategy to attract investment in semiconductors is India. Over the last few months they have been approving a series of aid packages (the last in January of this year, of 4.6 billion dollars) to boost the manufacturing of electronic components in the country. Apart from investing in their first state-of-the-art semiconductor factory (an investment of 11 billion dollars is estimated to achieve this), they are launching other aid and tax advantages to attract companies such as Samsung, Foxconn (also Taiwanese) or Apple to their territory. The goal is not to be a country that assembles the final product, but rather to manufacture critical components and move up the industrial value chain. Taiwanese expansion. The “problem” for these countries, and a great advantage for TSMC, is that they all seem to be very far away. India wants to achieve a chip made in 28 nanometer lithography, which is something that TSMC surpassed generations ago. AND China is fighting over 7 and 5 nm. Meanwhile, TSMC has refined its 3nm process and, as we say, TSMC’s great asset is not only that they have the experience and technology, but the ability to manufacture the best chips for customers who need those terribly refined chips. But there’s more: if China, Europe, the United States and India are moving, TSMC itself is diversifying. Yes Europe aspires to manufacture 20% of the planet’s semiconductorsit will be thanks to the TSMC plant planned in Germany. And although the US hates that it is a foreign company the one who has the upper hand in this great technological – and monetary – adventure of AI, TSMC has already settled on US soil. In the end, each territory seeks its … Read more

Tesla wanted to make 20 million cars in 2030. The reality in 2025 is that Tesla has crashed and BYD is already leading

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Tesla has had another setback in 2025. And it has accumulated two years in a row of decline. The company had experienced a meteoric rise until 2023 but has accumulated two years of clear decline. And the most worrying thing is that their promises were to multiply their sales but, above all, to take advantage of the pull of an electric car that is gaining followers. When it is easier to sell electric cars, Tesla falls. 1,636,129. These have been the cars delivered by Tesla in 2025. Of them, 1,585,279 correspond to the sum of the Model Y and Model 3, which leaves the S, X and Cybertruck slightly above 50,000 units in an entire year. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? For the second year in a row, Tesla falls. If we review the figures for 2024, the company put about 150,000 more electric cars on the market than this year. to get it pressed the accelerator to the floor in the last quarter of the year but this time it has not worked for him. two years. Although Elon Musk’s team tried by all means to stop the fall in 2024, this time it has been impossible. The drop in deliveries is significant but it is much more so if we look at 2023. That continues to be a record year for the company. So they put 1.81 million cars on the market. If we look back, Tesla has stopped selling around 10% of electric cars compared to two years ago. That year, Tesla positioned the Tesla Model Y as the best selling car in the world. With his final push, Tesla managed to stop BYD from overtaking him. But it was a victory with an expiration date because the Chinese company has far surpassed it in 2025. According to data collected by ElectrekBYD has sold 2.25 million electric cars in 2025 (exceeding 4.5 million cars in total). 20 million. Tesla’s data is especially concerning for the company because its promises were enormous. In 2022, Elon Musk aimed to In 2030 they would sell 20 million cars. To give us an idea, it is the sum of all the sales of Toyota and the Volkswagen Group together. The problem for Elon Musk’s company is not just that its growth has stagnated. The real problem is that it does so just when the electric car market is broader than ever. In the absence of knowing the definitive data for 2025, the truth is that Every year the electric car market is broader and the possibilities of placing a car in it are broader. In the European Union (with data from November) The electric car has grown by 27.6%. And the share of electric cars has grown by three points, standing above 16%. According to ACEA data, only in Croatia, Estonia, Luxembourg and Romania have fewer electric cars been sold than in 2024. And sales of electric cars in China continue to grow. Because? There are several factors that explain Tesla’s sharp sales decline. Elon Musk’s company has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in 2025. The first stages of the year They didn’t anticipate a good workout. and it has ended up being confirmed: And he has made efforts. And the company has tried to turn the tables. The most obvious efforts are the redesign of the Tesla Model 3 (September 2023) and Tesla Model Y. The latter has undoubtedly had to impact its production in 2025 but it is clear that it has not managed to gain traction as expected in the market. But, in addition, the company has put on the market two shortened versions called Standard. The objective is clear: to make the product more attractive while raising the price of the previous options so that anyone interested in them would have to spend some extra money. At the same time, it looks like a great car to sell to large fleets. No gap. The other big problem for Tesla is that rivals seem to have entered territory that seemed limited for the company. In China, the market has long turn towards local products and in Europe more attractive sized versions are arriving. And the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are large for the size they are usually purchased in Europe. Before, with less competition, they seemed like the ideal product. and for price They are still one of the best options of the market but unaffordable for those looking for cars of about four and a half meters. Tesla is also not managing to carry out options that are clearly cut from the Model 3 or Model Y. The company had the objective of launching an electric car smaller than these two models but if it has not launched them on the market it is because can’t make them profitable. Photo | Bram Van Oost In Xataka | The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y Standard confirms a story. The story of what I want and I can’t of Tesla’s 25,000 euro car

AI already generates photos indistinguishable from reality, so people are using it to collect fake returns

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The photo on the left was taken by me on my bathroom counter, the second is the result of asking Nano Banana to simulate that it had been hit during transport. If it weren’t for the Gemini logo in the lower right corner (which can be removed very easily), it would pass perfectly for a real photo. Online stores have a problem. what’s happening. There is an increasingly common trend in the world of online sales. Some customers are taking advantage of imaging models like Nano Banana to request product returns. Is what this person did: He ordered a carton of eggs from a fast home delivery service. One of the 24 eggs was broken. He took a photo and asked Gemini to add more broken eggs. He sent it to customer service and voilà: return completed. Why is it important. The images are no longer proof of anything, we saw it with the first images generated with Nano Banana Pro that went viral, and we are going to have to learn to live with it. Not only will we doubt absolutely every image we see, it also means that anything that could be verified with images may now be false. There are many more scenarios: cheat on your boss telling you that you had an accident on the way to work, exaggerating the damages to your insurance company, lying to your partner… China has the advantage. They count in South China Morning Post that the trend of deceiving online sales companies with AI is a trend that is spreading like wildfire. During the pass 11.11 celebrationseveral stores received images of customers asking for a refund using AI-generated images, such as a rusty electric toothbrush, a frayed item of clothing, or a broken ceramic mug. There is a case that has been echoed Wiredin which a customer who bought live crabs demanded a refund because many had arrived dead. To prove it, he sent images and even videos, but the sellers noticed that the video was not real because there were crabs with more legs. The problem with these detected cases is that the images were not credible, but that makes us think of all the more subtle images that will be considered good. There are more cases. China has the largest online trading systemso it makes sense that more cases have been detected, but it is not a trend exclusive to one country. The egg case that we mentioned above occurred in India and cases have also been detected in the United States. According to the fraud detection firm Forterthe use of AI images for this type of deception has increased by 15% by 2025, coinciding with the arrival of more capable imaging models. With Nano Banana Pro it looks like the trend is going to give a significant boost. Returns without return. Obviously, this technique cannot be used with just any product. There are cases in which stores refund our money without it being necessary for us to return the product. It can be applied in the case of perishable, fragile products and, in general, low-value products. If the images are no longer proof, they will have to change the strategy. Sending us a broken bottle of shampoo, I don’t know if it would be the best option, but they could force that the photos sent can only be taken from the app itself and not upload the ones we have in the camera roll. Image | Amparo Babiloni, Xataka In Xataka | FACUA believes that a lot of V16 beacons “approved by the DGT” are not legal. And there’s a way to sum it up: fraud.

AI promised to free senior employees from tedious work. In reality it is loading them with more tasks

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Imagine a young recent graduate in finance, eager to join a large consulting firm. He dreams of learning the trade from below. That inexorably involves preparing reports, researching markets, creating presentations, etc. But along comes AI and suddenly those routine tasks are automated. He produce more and faster, but all that torrent of documents lands on the desk of the person in charge of supervising him, a senior manager who is now passing hours checking errors that have been overlooked. This scenario is what reveals a study prepared by the consulting firm UpSlide and its conclusion leaves an unexpected twist: artificial intelligence not only removes the access ladder for new workers, but also burdens the most veteran workers.​​ AI takes away opportunities for recent graduates. According to the data that they are being collected In different studies on the impact of AI on recent graduates, job offers for entry-level positions have been reduced between 11% and 20% in the last year. The reason: AI now takes over the basic administrative tasks that before these young people did. Furthermore, a elaborate study by researchers from the University of Navarra and IESE Business School, based on data from 138 million workers in the United States, reveals that in companies exposed to generative AI, average salaries fall by 4.5% compared to those not exposed. In the most affected, the salary drop reaches 7.7%, with the initial salaries of juniors decreasing by 6.3%, while those of seniors remain stable or increase slightly.​ Juniors produce more, seniors review more. The UpSlide report indicates that younger employees use the AI ​​tools their companies have implemented to improve their efficiency in distribution (24%) and research (22%) tasks. On the other hand, the use of AI for senior profiles implies an increase in the review and quality control tasks of their work. According to the authors of the study, while juniors have stepped on the accelerator producing more content and documentation with AI, seniors have had no choice but to dedicate more time in their day to review all that new AI generated content. “Rather than reducing workload, AI is displacing: it places more pressure on senior professionals, who must now review, validate and correct a growing volume of AI-generated content. This bottleneck is especially critical in high-value operations, where the margins of error are minimal,” the study’s authors underline. AI overloads seniors. The data indicates that 41% of the seniors participating in the study dedicate more than 11 hours per week to reviews, such as checking errors in the figures of financial presentations or formats. 83% of them recognize greater pressure on seniors for quality reviews, and 82% see more risk of those errors finally reaching the client. “While the technology is very impressive, it just doesn’t beat the professional touch. That’s why we’re making sure to create review checkpoints with humans in the workflow,” said Joshua Stolarz, Managing Director at KPMG in the study.​​ A model that makes the revision more expensive. Yes, as they point out the evidenceAI automates training tasks for junior profiles, concentrating review on seniors, one of the arguments used by the main CEOs of technology companies that the use of AI would allow the most senior profiles to free yourself from administrative tasks to focus on giving value to the products. By leaving them with the burden of reviewing AI-generated content, you actually bury them in more administrative work. If the trend pointed out by the study is consolidated, companies could opt for more veteran profiles in their hiring, which would reverse the dynamics of fire these employees when the cuts come. However, these more experienced profiles also they earn better salariesso many companies could rethink implementing AI if it means increasing your labor costs. In Xataka | Jensen Huang is clear: at this point no one should learn to program, AI will do it for us Image | Unsplash (Omid Ajorlo)

While Big Brother sinks, ‘The House of Twins 2’ triumphs with a wild, online and unfiltered reality show

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This past December 7, a digital reality show achieved what seemed impossible: surpassing the format that for decades had been the undisputed king of Spanish reality shows, ‘Big Brother’. ‘La Casa de los Gemelos 2’, produced by brothers Carlos and Daniel Ramos for YouTube and Kick, attracted more than 200,000 simultaneous viewers during its inaugural gala. The figure is especially significant when compared to the parallel collapse of ‘Big Brother 20’, which Mediaset has been forced to cancel early after registering historic audience lows. But what is broken is not the format, but how it is presented. The first edition. How we count on your daythe first edition of ‘The House of Twins’, released on October 12, 2025, raised questions about the limits of unfiltered entertainment. That experiment, an imitation of ‘Big Brother’ that worked with the fauna cultivated in the Twins’ debates, completely lacked structure: there was no presenter or rules, and the Ramos trusted that the mere coexistence of explosive TikTok personalities would generate content for a full week. The result was both an operational disaster and a viral phenomenon. The program reached peaks of 48,000 viewers connected simultaneously and exceeded one million accumulated views in just nine hours of broadcast. The house became the scene of physical fights between contestants such as La Marrash and La Falete, there was visible consumption of alcohol and substances, destruction of furniture and moments of tension that they bordered on criminal. The program was emergency canceled in the early hours of October 13. A subsequent debate attracted 150,000 spectators and became trending topics number one in Spain. Reality television without filters. The next step was to professionalize the format, but without losing that fundamental idea along the way. And the Ramos bet heavily on this new iteration. As revealed by Kiko Hernández himself in the program ‘We are nobody’, the production has a budget of more than 600,000 euros, a figure well above what is usual in Spanish digital entertainment. The prize for the winner is doubled compared to the first edition: 100,000 euros for those who resist until December 31. Familiar faces. The creators have gone directly to the Mediaset ecosystem and derivatives: José Labrador, from ‘Gandía Shore’; Eros Vidal and Gabriella Barbu, from ‘Temptation Island’; Nissy Lahr, from ‘Secret Story’, make up a core of personalities that the Spanish public already knows. Them they add up Kiko Hernández as master of ceremonies, Víctor Sandoval as “dictator” of the house, and Coto Matamoros as “executioner” in charge of punishments. To bait the audience. From the first moment at the premiere, audiences skyrocketed and the program became trending on social networks. Among the most significant moments, an accidental nude of La Marrash during a moment of lack of control or the reunion between Kiko Hernández and Coto Matamoros, two figures who had not met on screen since ‘Crónicas Marcianas’, and between whom great tension was palpable. Kiko took the opportunity to attack Mediaset and to the fame that ‘Big Brother’ drags: “There has never been a rape here, right?”, he said in reference to the case of Carlota Prado in ‘Big Brother Revolution’. The ‘Big Brother’ disaster. While ‘The House of Twins 2’ celebrated its digital success, ‘Big Brother 20’ was the star of the most resounding failure in the history of the format. The premiere in September 2024 it barely achieved a 17.4% sharesetting the program’s worst inaugural mark. But the decline accelerated week after week until hitting rock bottom in November with a devastating 11.3% share and only 636,000 viewers. The panic in Mediaset was unleashed with the abrupt cancellation of the daily strip and erratic programming decisions. The domino effect reached the entire chain: Telecinco closed November with a 9% monthly quota, its worst historical record for that month, chaining five consecutive months under the 10% threshold. On December 5, Mediaset decided close the program before Christmasproducing a triple expulsion to accelerate the pace of the programs. Two months in broadcast, record down. The problem is not the format. Some analysts talk about a flat casting and without charisma, too sweetened content, and viewers have complained that practices that gave excitement to the galas, such as on-set interviews, have been abandoned. ‘The House of Twins 2’ recovered precisely the elements that made the original ‘Big Brother’ great: 24-hour retransmission without manipulative editing, authentic profiles even if they are uncomfortable, and freedom for conflicts to develop organically. While Telecinco must comply with strict regulations on child protection schedules, advertising limits and content control, the Ramos brothers operate on YouTube and Kick with almost total freedom which allows them to experiment without corsets. The program allows itself the morbidity and transgression that the public demands, but without the restrictions that paralyze conventional television. In Xataka | ‘Temptation Island’ is one of the few things that works on Telecinco. So much so that they are already recording a new season

OpenAI and Google deny that they are going to put ads in ChatGPT and Gemini. The reality is that accounts do not come only with subscriptions

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What AI has a profitability problem It is something well known. All you have to do is look at the OpenAI accounts, which in the last consolidated quarter lost a whopping $11.5 billion. The subscriptions were presented as a way to monetize chatbotsbut ChatGPT barely has 5% of the total users on one of your payment plans. The numbers do not come out and, although companies deny it, the shadow of advertising hangs over AI. what’s happening. Rumors that some very popular chatbots are integrating ads are intensifying in recent days. First they began to circulate alleged screenshots of an ad on ChatGPT and later a media specialized in advertising claimed that Gemini will have announcements in 2026. Companies deny it. Google has been quick to deny the information, ensuring that Gemini has no ads and “there are currently no plans in place to change it.” What stands out above all is that “currently”, which continues to leave the door open to include advertising in the future. For its part, OpenAI has come out to deny it ensuring that what appeared in that screenshot “was either not real or it was not an advertisement.” What was seen was a suggestion to connect the account of Target, the popular American hypermarket chain. When the river sounds… Despite the forcefulness in denying it, a few days ago we learned that OpenAI is preparing the ground to include advertising in ChatGPT. ChatGPT beta version for Android includes explicit references to an ad feature and tags like “content bazaar” and “ad carousel.” Additionally, the company is hiring experts in advertising platformsso the appearance of ads is not a question of “if”, but of “when.” In the case of Google, we haven’t seen any screenshots or traces in the code, so there isn’t that sense of imminence. However, there are rumors that there will be announcements in AI summaries and taking into account that advertising is the company’s main business, it does not sound crazy that they end up integrating ads into their chatbot. Investment vs return. The imbalance between what technology companies are spending on AI with what they are earning is totally unbalanced. Big tech companies like Google are increasing their revenue, but It is not thanks to AI, but to its cloud services. In the case of OpenAI, without an infrastructure to minimize the impact, the disconnection between expenses and income is brutal. Subscriptions are not enough. AI has managed to penetrate the general public and, according to the consulting firm Menlo Venturesalready has 1.8 billion users around the world. The problem is that only 3% pay any type of subscription. OpenAI currently has 5% paying users and expects that by 2030 the figure will increase to 8.5%. It is still not enough to achieve the desired profitability. According to a study by JP Morgan, For the AI ​​industry to achieve a 10% return on everything they have spent, it would take $650 billion a year, which is the same as saying that 1.4 billion people pay more than $400 each year to use AI. They may succeed, but for now ads seem like a faster way to generate income. Image | Generated with Gemini In Xataka | AI has become the best example that if you don’t pay for the product, you are the product

It looks like a conch, in reality it is a “sound technology” manufactured 6,000 years ago in Neolithic Catalonia

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When we think of the Neolithicthe truth is that we imagine the use of polished stone tools, how they began to flirt with ceramics or how they killed each other. But to this we must now add the acoustic engineeringwhich seems to have also been somewhat dominated thanks to the conch shells. Something that happened right here in Spain. The investigation. It was the University of Barcelona that was able to confirm that twelve sea shells found in the sites of Catalonia They were not leftover food or decorations, but rather sophisticated musical and communication instruments that are capable of producing a powerful and modulable sound similar to that of a modern horn. Something that can be considered the first musical instrument in history. This finding has been published in the scientific journal Antiquity and suggests that these shells Charonia lampas They were modified by the locals themselves to become what is now called one of the “oldest sound production technologies known to man.” The shells. Without a doubt the protagonists of this study and that have been dated between the end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth millennium BC. That is, about 6,000 years ago. Some pieces that have been collected from different locations in Catalonia such as the Gavà variscite minessettlements in the Penedes and the Llobregat basin. But beyond how old they are, their technical intention also stands out, since these conch shells were not collected to eat the mollusk. Science suggests that they were collected already empty and collected for their size and ergonomics to be used as a musical instrument. From this raw material, the tips were precisely removed from all the pieces to create a mouthpiece to generate the sound. The idea in this case was to have the right size to be able to carry it with you and have an adequate sound. Testing the sound. Beyond having the conch on the table, we also wanted to know what prehistory was listening to. To do this, they chose the eight conch shells that were in good condition and blew through them. The result was very spectacular: when blowing through them, vibrating the lips in the same way as is done with the current brass instruments (like a trumpet or trombone), the shells came to life. The resulting sound was powerful, stable and with a timbre similar to that of a French horn. But although it may seem that he only had one note available, the reality is that by inserting his hand into the shells he could lower the pitch and change the note. And even if the tongue was articulated, the texture of the sound was modified. In this way, in prehistory they not only made an instrument, but also had the possibility of ‘playing’ with the sound. A telephone. Beyond their musical capacity, these objects fulfilled a vital function as long distance communication tools. The study itself points out that in a world where there were logically no telephones or WhatsApp, trumpets served as a communication system to coordinate communities. Six of the conch shells were found in the Gavà mines, suggesting their use to send signals between workers in the different underground galleries or to communicate with surrounding agricultural settlements. Its importance. This discovery is not trivial, since it opens up the debate on the origin of music in humanity. The question is quite clear: Was it born out of pure utilitarian need (coordinate hunting, warning of dangers) or out of an aesthetic and emotional need? For now, it can be concluded that both functions were used together. They were pragmatic tools for social management and work in the mines, but their melodic capacity could also be used in the rituals or celebrations of different tribes. Images | Steve Adams In Xataka | Neither lions nor hyenas: at the top of the food chain 30 million years ago, there was a “pig” weighing more than a thousand kilos

The US has insisted that TSMC manufacture chips in Arizona. The reality: it is a disastrous idea

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TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, has long been pushing for unprecedented expansion outside Taiwan. The initiative includes large projects in the United States, Japan and Germany, but does not respond to market demand, but rather to geopolitical pressure and a chip war that wants to try to “repatriate” this type of process. It’s a terrible idea. Morris Chang knows it’s a mistake. Despite the political urgency, the economic viability of these factories abroad has been questioned by TSMC founder Dr. Morris Chang. He already had the previous experience with the WafertTech factory in the US in 1996, and has qualified Arizona initiative as “a very expensive exercise in futility” Everything one hour away. Chang’s skepticism is based on the belief that TSMC’s operations and profitability are intrinsically dependent on its ecosystem, which is entirely concentrated in Taiwan. The Hsinchu Science Park “cluster” allows hundreds of technology partners to operate within a “one-hour” radius, facilitating problem resolution and providing ultra-fast logistics and unparalleled coordination. TSMC is still 90% Taiwanese. Despite that global expansion, TSMC remains deeply Taiwanese, with more than 90% of its manufacturing capacity and nearly 90% of its employees on the island. That’s where your massive, highly trained and qualified engineering talent base is. That is again a key factor in its competitive advantage, and in fact the company has already warned its employees in the US that they should adhere to the work culture of the Taiwanese company. Arizona produces, but it is more expensive. That attempt to replicate Taiwanese efficiency in Arizona has revealed something important: although TSMC has achieved competitive performance in its first production runs with 4nm photolithography, the cost of the wafers is significantly higher. The local supply of raw materials and equipment remains insufficient, making the factory dependent on Asia and is a bottleneck for the efficiency of the production cycle. Skilled labor shortages and permitting and bureaucracy, which further slow things down, add considerable operational costs. Japan and Germany, next objectives. TSMC has two major expansion projects in Japan (JASM) and Germany (ESMC). These locations will focus on much less advanced photolithographic nodes (28/16 nm) and will focus on meeting the demand of some specialized customers such as Sony for image sensors in Japan or Bosch in Europe. The scale of these investments is less than that of Arizona, which aims to be the world’s largest advanced chip factory… if planned future phases are completed. A double edged sword. TSMC’s expansion has two sides. On the one hand, TSMC consolidates its technological leadership and its strategic role as a “silicon shield” against China. On the other hand, it generates internal anxiety about the possible “leakage” of advanced technology and talent that could weaken national sovereignty in the long term. US pressure even extended to veto the possibility of establishing a TSMC factory in the United Arab Emirates. TSMC does not expand by pleasure, but by pressure. Traditionally, TSMC only builds new factories in response to real demand from its customers. Here the reason has been very different, and geopolitical pressure has forced moves that the company would probably never have made otherwise. Here the different subsidy programs (CHIPS Act in the US, European Chip Law) try to repatriate part of the manufacturing and thus mitigate Asian dependence, but it’s not clear at all that they achieve it. Image | TSMC In Xataka | Japan is rapidly reconquering the chip industry. It has just successfully manufactured its first 2nm transistor

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