realized

In 1832 Britain realized that it didn’t have much sun. Since then, a law requires that houses have good light

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If there is something that the United Kingdom could blame for its geography and climate, it is the gray days. Rare is the moment when the sun is not covered by clouds in Mary Poppins’ country, where natural light has become a scarce commodity to fight for. So much so, that there is a “right to light” by which homeowners can legally prevent new construction that obstructs natural light rays into their homes. This law is actually an easement established in 1832 by which the owner of a building with windows that have received natural light for more than 20 years has the right to prohibit adjacent constructions that limit it. That is, historically, a person was entitled to this if natural light and air had passed freely through their windows during that time and been enjoyed without disturbance. And these homes protected by the ordinance were marked with the “Ancient Lights” sign. Therefore, if a neighbor tried to violate this by building a structure or planting trees, the owner had the power to sue him for the “nuisance”. Of course, it is important to note that these do not only affect direct sunlight. But it gives the right to a minimum level of natural lighting, not direct rays of the sun. Although this urban planning law has undergone quite a few changes since its inception, the power of property owners to demand natural light continues to be debated in British cities. Nowadays, These “Ancient Lights” signs are still found on buildings around London and other counties such as Dorset and Kent. And the law, more than 100 years later, continues to be the protagonist of all types of litigation, becoming a headache for judges, lawyers and construction companies. The idea of ​​”having the right to light” Let’s go into more detail. A question that arises from this concept is: how much natural light does a person have the right to? And that is precisely where this law has several legal loopholes. Because a building owner’s windows don’t even have to be completely blocked by a neighboring obstruction for that right to be invoked. You simply have to maintain the same level of lighting that the owner has experienced for twenty years, something that is quite diffuse. In the 1920s, Percy Waldram, an expert in this law, proposed a system to standardize the sufficient amount of light that people could claim. He suggested that “common people” required at least one foot-candle (a measure of light intensity) for reading and other work. If the builder, including a homeowner planning an extension, identifies a risk affecting light rights, they must notify the affected homeowner and engage with them to reach an amicable agreement. This could be as compensation or a redesign to rectify or mitigate the problem. However, if there is a dispute, There are two ways to take legal action: damages and/or a court order. The first consists of granting a sum of money to compensate for the loss. The second may require demolition of part or all of the new building unless some other structural change can remedy the problem. The latter is usually too expensive. The idea for many years was that if a property owner did not take immediate steps to obtain a court order, the only remedy available to them was damages. However, a 2010 case left builders stunnedas the court held that it was possible to obtain an injunction even after the completion of the new building. In another more recent case from 2020the court granted an injunction to a property owner two years after the completion of the infringing work. The court found that the builder had proceeded with full knowledge of the risk he was taking. Is there a similar law in Spain? The easements They also exist in Spain. It is the right that the owner of a property has over the adjoining property that limits the proprietary powers of the owner thereof. In fact, it is not so uncommon to find cases in our country (especially in individual homes), in which Your neighbor has one or more windows that face directly onto your property. Is it legal? As regulated by the Civil Code in article 580no party wall can, without the consent of the other, open any window or opening in a party wall. Otherwise, the owner of a wall that is not a party wall and that is adjacent to the back of another owner may open windows or openings in the same wall. to receive lightsas long as it complies with the premises established in article 581 of the Civil Code. Furthermore, as stipulated in the article 582 of the Civil Code: “You cannot open windows with straight views, nor balconies or other similar overhangs, over the neighbor’s property, if there is not two meters of distance between the wall on which they are built and said property. Nor can you have side or oblique views over the same property, if there is not 60 cm of distance.” In Xataka | If your renovation is a pain, think about the house that cost 120 times more than its original cost: a masterpiece In Xataka | If the question is whether they forgot the elevator shaft in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain, the answer is simple: it was much worse Image | Chris Flexen

Microsoft has finally realized what the community has been shouting at it for months: we don’t want so much AI

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The people are fed up with the avalanche of AI that has flooded Windows and Microsoft turned a deaf ear to the numerous community complaints. They have put AI even in Notepadwhich is saying something. Microsoft’s obsession has caused the Windows image to sufferbut finally it seems that they are listening to the users. We are still passing. One of the things Microsoft has been doing in its pro-AI crusade is add Copilot buttons everywhere. It’s in Paint, in Notepad and even they want to put it in file explorer. Although Microsoft has not commented, according to Windows Central fontsthe company is rethinking its AI strategy and one of the things that is under review are these buttons that they have been adding almost indiscriminately. Maybe they end up eliminating some or just being more selective from now on. Windows Recall. “It’s like having a photographic memory.” This is how Microsoft sold what aimed to be the PC+Copilot star feature. What followed were many doubts about your safety and so many criticisms that Microsoft had to delay the project for more than a year. Recall is already implemented, but according to Windows Central the company is not satisfied with how it is working and wants to correct course. How they will do it at the moment is unknown. There will still be AI. Microsoft still has a lot of AI features in the works and nothing indicates that they will stop, so if you were rubbing your hands at the idea of ​​a Windows 11 without AI, that is not the case. Some of the initiatives they have underway are: agentic functions which they announced in November of last year (to which The community flatly refused.by the way) and developer features like Windows ML or semantic search. The complaints have been heard. There will probably still be more AI features than the community would like, but it seems that Microsoft has heard the feedback and they are going to take their foot off the accelerator. The obsession with AI has not been the only reason for discontent, there have also been highly criticized decisions such as force to use an online account to upgrade to Windows 11 or the stability problems after updating. Despite everything, Windows 11 is advancing unstoppably and It is already on more than 1 billion devices. Image | Microsoft, edited In Xataka | I have decided to become independent from all US technology and embrace European technology. This is how I’m getting it

Saudi Arabia has realized that to attract wealthy expats and Western tourists it needs something: alcohol

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Maybe the Spanish we are moving away little by little from alcohol, but beer, wine and spirits continue to be a pillar of Western leisure. Saudi Arabia knows this well, as in its efforts to modernize and gain appeal to Westerners (both expats wealthy as tourists) has decided to make more flexible access to the drink in the country, where its purchase has been radically restricted for more than 70 years. The change is being made timidly, silently, almost underground; but it tells us a lot about how the kingdom is transforming. The news that they are coming in drops to the West they leave a resounding reading: foreigners will be able to buy alcohol in Saudi Arabia… as long as they meet a series of requirements that focus in your wallet. Looking to the 20th century. If you like to share a few beers with friends, have dinner with a glass of wine or drink a cocktail when you go out, Saudi Arabia is not your country. Or it hasn’t been at least for the last seven decades. The kingdom is governed by shariawhich vetoes alcohol. Even Foreign Affairs reminds Spaniards traveling to the country that public consumption “is strictly prohibited” and landing with bottles can lead to “severe fines” and an accusation of smuggling. Saudi Arabia’s zeal to ban the drink dates back to at least the mid-20th century. And not only because of Koranic law and the fact that the kingdom claims to be the guardian of the sacred places of Islam. In the early 1950s, King Abdul Aziz banned the sale of alcohol after one of his sons, Prince Mishari, assassinate a diplomat British drunk. For diplomats. Although getting alcohol in Saudi Arabia is much (very much) more difficult than in Europe or even in Dubaisomething is changing in the Islamic kingdom. The first sign came just two years ago, beginning of 2024when the Saudis saw the first liquor store in more than 70 years. Of course, the business was launched with certain limitations. To begin with, the establishment only sold alcohol to non-Muslim diplomats. In fact, it opened precisely in the neighborhood of the city where they work. At least at first The Executive also intended that customers would have to register through an app, obtain an authorization code and respect certain quotas. A small (big) step. That first store may not look anything like the liquor stores of Europe, but its debut marked a milestone in Saudi Arabia and began to break the long taboo that prevailed in the kingdom around alcohol. Last November that opening was confirmed when agencies such as Reuters either Bloomberg revealed that the country planned to open two new liquor stores: one in Dhrahan, in a complex owned by the oil company Aramco, and another in Jeddah. The first would be designed for non-Muslim employees of the company. The second would be located again in an area frequented by diplomats. Expanding the market. In November, both Reuters and Bloomberg reported another relevant news that is now has confirmed The Wall Street Journal: The Riyadh liquor store that was theoretically intended for foreign diplomats will also sell bottles to certain residents of Saudi Arabia. To whom? Especially non-Muslim foreigners with Premium Residence. These residence permits are basically granted to businessmen, large investors, wealthy foreigners and qualified professionals who work in strategic sectors or for the Government. In December Bloomberg needed In fact, customers who want to buy wine or spirits in Riyadh have to prove that they earn at least 50,000 riyals per month, about $13,300. Reporter Vivian Nereim, from The New York Times, came in person outside the Riyadh liquor store and spoke with customers of the business who (among other issues) confirmed that one price is applied to diplomats and another, higher price, to the rest of the buyers. A bottle of mid-priced white wine cost about $85, about five times the US price. “Something was coming”. Against this backdrop, recently TWSJ public a chronicle which goes one step further. According to the American newspaper, Saudi Arabia plans to continue making its relationship with alcohol more flexible with another historic decision: allowing its consumption in luxury hotels and resorts in the Red Sea. “We always knew it was going to happen, that Saudi Arabia was preparing for something,” explains Michael Ratneyformer US ambassador, who speaks of “physical signs” that have been seen for years: “You went into restaurants and they all had bars. They didn’t offer alcohol, but the infrastructure was emerging.” The example of Dubai. The objective is clear: to reinforce the country’s attractiveness for expats, investors and tourists as part of the policy promoted by Prince Mohammed bin Salman to modernize the nation, diversify its economy and reduce your fiscal deficit. In recent years the kingdom has already taken several steps in that direction in different areas (in 2018 allowed women get behind the wheel of a car and in 2034 will host the World Cup) and there are those who point that in terms of leisure and alcohol will look to the United Arab Emirates. Especially to Dubai. In part of the UAE, access to alcohol is limited, but it is relatively easy to obtain in Dubai, a city that has stood out for its ability to attract tourists and wealthy foreigners. For years, those who wanted to access alcohol in Saudi Arabia had to resort to the diplomatic courierartisanal manufacturing at home or the black market, with the risks that it entails. The question is to what extent the kingdom is willing to change that to attract foreign assets. Images | سيف الظاهر (Unsplash), Ambitious Studio*-Rick Barrett (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is an age at which we should stop drinking alcohol forever. Neuroscience is clear why

Microsoft has reduced its ambition with AI. It has been realized that almost no one uses Copilot, they say in The Information

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There is Satya Nadella, in his office, like an influencer. Since the Excel World Championship has been held, he wants to see how good he is at handling it… with the help of Copilot. The video is nice and seems to show that Microsoft’s promise that AI will be able to do many things for you is fulfilled. However, reality says otherwise, and the company itself seems to recognize it, because its sales objectives have been cut, according to The Information. Optimism has cooled. According to internal sources in the Azure division cited in said newspaper, the company has made an unusual decision: lowering sales growth quotas for its AI products and services. The objectives were not achieved in the fiscal year that ended in June, and that has now caused the sales teams’ goals to be adjusted downward, reaching close to 25% growth. That Microsoft makes such a change is a clear indicator that the market is not responding at the speed expected. Microsoft denies it. The Information’s claims have been denied by Microsoft. Those responsible indicated on Bloomberg that that article “inaccurately conflates the concepts of growth and sales quotas” and that “aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been reduced.” Which chatbot is used the most? (in USA). Meanwhile, the consulting firm FirstPageSage has published the market shares of the main chatbots on the market in the US. According to this data, ChatGPT clearly dominates that market with 61.30% of queries, while Microsoft is second with 14.10%. However, it is interesting to look at the details of the estimated growth: at Microsoft it is only 2%, while at Gemini it grows 12% and Claude 14%. AI chatbot usage rate in December 2025 in the US. Source: FirstPageSage AI doesn’t quite work. Corporate clients are finding it difficult to justify the return on investment from AI. It is difficult to measure the real savings that AI represents for writing reports or analyzing sales leads, for example. But there are sectors such as finance or cybersecurity in which the tolerance for error is zero. We still cannot trust AI, and that means that its real scope, especially in companies, is limited. An MIT report already warned that 95% of companies that have opted for the use of AI they have seen no measurable return in real income. An example. In the topic of The Information we talk about the Carlyle private equity fund. They started using Copilot Studio to automate meeting summaries and financial models, but hit a technical roadblock: the AI ​​was having trouble pulling reliable data from other external applications. Given the situation, Carlyle reduced its spending on AI and is now much more selective with the AI ​​solutions it pays for, although its overall investment in technology is growing. Bad on one hand, good on the other. It must be made clear that the AI ​​business is not in crisis, but it is very polarized. Azure is still going strong and GirHub works really well, for example. The problem is convincing traditional companies to pay extra for automated AI agents. Especially when using them is much more complex than installing a simple chatbot and starting to use it. Even OpenAI adjusts expectations. OpenAI itself, they also indicated in The Information, has had to review its expectations with the agent market. Their new estimates have reduced AI agent revenue by $26 billion over the next five years. To compensate for this drop, OpenAI will focus its income on ChatGPT subscriptions. Patience is running outeither. The industry is certainly not throwing in the towel, but it is beginning to lose patience. Brian Spanswick, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Cohesity, summed up the current situation: there is hope, but evidence is lacking. His company is creating its own code that allows it to connect Microsoft agents with its internal data, and they hope that this will demonstrate a real return on investment in a few months. Whether they succeed is another story, but one thing seems increasingly clear: the promises of AI remain unfulfilled. At least, those that Microsoft did with Copilot in companies. Images | Microsoft | OFFICIAL LEWEB PHOTOS (CC BY 2.0) In Xataka | People are so, so fed up with AI in Windows 11 that a developer has created an app to eliminate it

In the midst of rearmament, Europe has realized an unimportant detail: it does not have enough bullets

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The European defense industry is experiencing a decisive moment after decades of demilitarization, outsourcing of key processes and a growing dependence on suppliers that seemed assumed to be structural until the Russian invasion of Ukraine revealed its weaknesses. In that context, that of rearmamenta chemical compound with more than a century of military history has reappeared as a critical link: there is no TNT. The strategic resurgence. Yes, the shortage threatens the continent’s ability to sustain its ammunition production. The panorama is as simple as it is disturbing: Europe, with giants such as Rheinmetall, BAE or KNDS, only has a TNT plant operational (Nitro-Chemin Poland), while Russia manufactures millions of projectiles annually and receives direct support from North Korea. This combination has created a strategic asymmetry that the EU is trying to correct with massive investments and new industrial playersamong them a Swedish start-up that aims to break a historical blockade with a modern and fully European factory. At the center of this story appears Joakim Sjöbloman entrepreneur who abandoned fintech to build the first Swedish TNT plant in 30 years and contribute, as explainedfor her daughter to grow up in a continent capable of defending itself. The geopolitical urgency. Although its origin was almost anecdotal (a yellow dye produced in Germany at the end of the 19th century), the TNT It became a fundamental piece of modern warfare since its explosive properties were discovered. Today it is essential for almost any ammunition that exceeds the size of a bullet: artillery projectiles, grenades, aerial bombs and countless military loads require this compound which, paradoxically, is almost no longer manufactured in the West. The gap between capabilities is evident: while Russia produces between 4.5 and 5 million of projectiles per year, Europe barely reached 600,000 in 2024a figure that rose to 1.2 million adding US production, but still far from what is necessary for a balanced deterrence. Each projectile requires about 10 kg of TNTso matching the Russian pace would require about 50,000 tons of explosive per year. The great dependence. Nitro-Chem It manufactures a significant part of that volume, but exports much of it. outside the EUand the rest of the European market depends on India and China, suppliers that would automatically be left out of the equation in a conflict between blocs. For Sjöblomthis dependence is an intolerable risk: any diplomatic or military crisis could immediately cut off the supply, just as happened with vaccines during the pandemic. The Swedish bet. It counted on Insider that Swebalthe company founded by Sjöblom after selling Minna Technologies to Mastercardaims to produce 4,500 tons of TNT per year in a facility located a few kilometers from Alfred Nobel’s historic dynamite factory. The project (which plans to start in 2028) aims to only use Swedish and Baltic raw materialscreating a completely European supply chain and drastically reducing delivery times that today depend on ships diverted around the Horn of Africa. Although its capacity does not even remotely cover the continental gap, Sjöblom himself maintains that it will be a significant contribution for at least a decade, because even adding all the projects planned in Finland, Greece, the Czech Republic and the United States, Europe would still be far from balancing the industrial pulse with Russia. The rebirth of TNT is not a historical eccentricity, but the reconstruction of a capacity that Sweden had until 1998 and that it dismantled because demilitarization made it unnecessary to maintain a dangerous, expensive chemical industry for which there were no commercial incentives. A dangerous process. The construction of a TNT plant It requires overcoming a regulatory labyrinth that Sweden applies rigorously even in the era of rearmament. To obtain the environmental permit, Swebal has had to carry out 14 studies on protected faunaarchaeological remains, acoustic impact and risk analysis, in addition to guaranteeing a perimeter isolated by forests that would act as a natural barrier in the event of an explosion. The plant’s own architecture reflects the delicate nature of the process: acid tanks connected to a concentration tower, chemical reactors enclosed in an enclosure of six-meter earth walls, video control, electrified fencing and permanent security equipment. Automation. The goal is that 90% of the process be automatedso that workers only enter in a final laboratory testing and in a shielded control room. Mixing toluene with sulfuric and nitric acid involves managing extreme temperatures and toxic gases, and any mistake can lead to lethal fumes or spontaneous detonation. Additionally, producing TNT generates “redwater”a carcinogenic waste that Swebal will send to an external plant for incineration, avoiding repeating polluting practices of the past. All this requires between 80 and 90 million of euros of investment, well above the initial financing of 3.5 million that the company has already closed. The European dilemma. Behind this industrial commitment there is an economic argument that transcends TNT. Europe spends 200,000 million euros annually on defense, but more than 60% of that money is allocated to US suppliers. For Sjöblom, relocating supply chains would generate millions of jobs and reinforce strategic autonomy, two objectives aligned with the plan ReArm Europe 2030which could mobilize up to 800 billion in investments and loans for the defense industry. However, the sector continues to face a structural obstacle: Orders do not arrive as quickly as companies need to take risks. This inertia (coupled with the lack of interoperability between European weapons, which forces the maintenance of multiple calibers and standards) is, according to Sjöblomone of the greatest dangers to the defense of the continent. If Europe does not unify criteria and build a robust industrial base, it will end up depending on others to support its own security doctrine, a reminder that is summarized in a phrase which he considers essential: “either you have an army, or you have someone else’s army in your country.” Local tensions. There is no doubt, the factory, located near a group of summer huts next to a lake, has awakened reluctance among the residents of Nora, who fear truck … Read more

Finland has realized that its welfare state is not enough to avoid the birth crisis. Now look for how to stop it

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The world has been looking at the Nordic countries for decades with a mixture of admiration and envy for their model of social welfare. A clear example is Finland, a benchmark in education, aids to motherhood and spent in social benefits. None of this, however, has prevented him from seeing how his birth rate it contracts little by little. In fact, the fall has been so forceful since 2010 and its rate is at such low levels that the Government has decided to hands to work. Now you have a diagnosis… and a formula with 20 ingredients. What does the data say? That Finland has a birth problem. A particularly complex one. The statistical basis The World Bank shows that its birth rate has plummeted over the last six decades, going from 2.7 during the baby boom to 1.3 in 2023. The decline was particularly sharp between the 1960s and 1970s, followed an oscillating curve until the last decade and accelerated again towards 2010. latest data of Macrotrends show a slight recovery, but the rate still remains far from past values. Why is it important? Because it shows that Finland has a problem, one recognized without half measures by the Government itself. “Finland’s birth rate has been declining rapidly over the past 15 years. In 2024 the country’s total fertility rate became as low as 1.25,” recognized last March the Ministry of Social Affairs, which admits that although Finland is not the only country dealing with this challenge, the collapse there has been “exceptionally rapid” in the last decade and a half and threatens to become an economic and social challenge. “Finland’s rate has fallen to a historic low and the decline has been more pronounced than in the other Nordic countries. There is a considerable gap between the ideal number and the actual average number of children. It is essential to find solutions to reduce the gap,” advocated in spring the Minister of Social Security, Sanni Grahm-Laasonen. In 2023 the indicators of the neighbors Norway and Sweden there were around 1.4 children on average per woman, also far from the replacement rate that allows countries to stay away from immigration. Why is the birth rate falling? That’s the million dollar question. And the one that the Finnish authorities did a while ago. To answer it in 2024 the Government commissioned a report which had to clarify the factors that hinder the country’s demographic engine and (just as important) explore possible solutions. The task was relevant because, as the Executive assures, in Finland there is “a big difference” between the number of children that couples want to have and those they have. “Studies show that Finnish family policy has favored both well-being and birth rates and continues to play an important role. However, the current decline is mainly due to the fall in the number of first births and the increase in the proportion of childless people,” reflect Professor Anna Rotkirch, from Väestöliitto (the Finnish Family Federation), one of the experts who participated in the preparation of the birth report. Did you identify the causes? Yes. And no. The Government quote somebut he also recognizes that there is no “clear reason” that alone explains the decline in birth rates. “Therefore there are no easy solutions to stop it,” the Ministry of Health resigns itself before listing some factors that come into play, such as cultural changes, unstable relationships, health, the situation of the labor market and income or the problems of reconciling professional life and parenting. The NPR organization was recently one step further and interviewed experts and young Finns to find out how they approached parenthood. Poa Pohjola and Wilhelm Bomberg, aged 38 and 35, are the first ones he cites in his analysis: the couple has been together for about three years and last July they had their first baby, although Pohjola admits that not so long ago he believed he would never have children. “It seemed impossible to me,” the woman confesses. His case is paradigmatic because it agrees with a phenomenon that Finnish researchers have observed and can be extended to many other countries, including Spain: delayed maternity and the increase in people who directly choose not to have children. In the case of Finland this has led to a fertility rate slightly lower to that of the EU average and nations such as Iceland, Denmark, Sweden or Norway. Does it matter beyond Finland? Yes. And it matters because Finland offers a particularly interesting case study. As remember Liisa Siika-ahofrom the working group of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, “in Finland benefits and services for families are relatively good.” In fact the Nordic countries they usually stand out precisely because of the facilities they provide for having offspring. Specifically Finland does it in aspects such as incentives, education and paid leave. “We can no longer claim that our good family policies explain the good fertility of the Nordic countries,” points out to NPR Annelie Miettinen, from the state agency Kela. “What baffles researchers is how this can be true, because all of these countries are relatively good at offering family support,” Miettinen said, “but there are really no good explanations for today’s very low fertility rates.” Just as it happens in Spain if the country is managing to weather the demographic storm is basically thanks to the immigration flow. How to solve it? A few months ago the Government made public a report on the topic that includes twenty proposals focused on the family and birth rate, all based on the premise that the commitment to early childhood education, family leave and economic support will boost birth rates. Until it is confirmed, the Health Department itself remains cautious. “In Finland the benefits and services for families are relatively good. This means that there are no areas where simple changes can be made,” takes on Sikka-aho. “However, all systems require maintenance and that is what many of our proposals address. It is unlikely that … Read more

Social networks began to die in 2022 and nobody realized. The new nightmare is that they resurge

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Social networks were wonderful until they stopped being. Very soon they became not only a problem almost addictionbut also of health. Anxiety levels shot And they were made frequent the Sexting cases either Bullying Through these platforms. The funny thing is that while all that happened and we thought that its use was increasingly worrying, something happened. People began to stop using them (both). Social networks had their peak in 2022. An ambitious study conducted By Financial Times He recently revealed the current state of social networks. More than 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries talked about their online habits, and in that data it is clear that the apogee of social networks occurred in 2022. Since then there has been a turning point. Especially for a specific sector of the population. Young people get tired of Facebook. Among the different demographic sectors, there is an especially striking one: young people between 16 and 24 are the ones who are most clearly reducing the time they spend on these platforms. At the end of 2024 they passed average two hours and 20 minutes a day in them, 10% less than what happened in 2022. It is the population segment that is more quickly falling, although the change is clear in the rest of the ages. Other parallel studies, such as Made in Sweden Between 2022 and 2024, he pointed to Clear falls too especially among the youngest. The time we spent on social networks did not stop increasing until 2022. Then the trend changed. Source: Financial Times. The era “zero posts” arrives. Social networks were a day to tell our lives, but From a while to this part the trend is another: “zero posts”. Users publish much less than before, instead of that user community that shared their reflections, the normal thing is now to find an endless commercial showcase. According to recent studies, a third of Spanish Internet users have abandoned some social network in the last year. Robotic consumption. The study data published in FT confirms that phenomenon. According to their conclusions, less and fewer people use social networks to maintain contact with their friends, and that kind of use experience has been decreasing since 2014. instead of what has been seen is that the users of these platforms go to them with the explicit intention of filling holes of time that are empty. Or what is the same: when they get bored consume content, but they don’t share it. Use ceases to be reflective and interactive to be passive, more “robotic”, ironically. The shitting of social networks. The writer Cory Doctorow The term coined long ago “Enshittification“ (“shit”) to talk about how platforms become worse for users. At present, social networks have little social and are dedicated to trying to maximize the time that users are trapped in them. Algorithms have taken control And they immerse us in an echo chamber from which it is difficult to leave. The “Ai Slop” arrives. Before the decline – at least, in time of use – of social networks, the option seems clear: take advantage of the content generated by AI. All to a greater or lesser extent have begun to integrate it progressively, but two new wedges are now added to traditional social networks: Meta Vibes y Openai Sora They are absolutely focused on content generated by AI. It is another era in which interaction and social participation fade and Doomscrolling He seizes more than ever from the user experience. The “AI Slop”the “junk content” generated by AI, begins to flood that experience. And it seems that tactic works. The study, however, gives a worrying fact: the time that Americans spend social networks are growing. It is the only region where it does, because in Europe and Asia-Pacific that consumption is falling slightly from the 2022 peaks. It remains to be seen if those new social networks They end up compensating that fall of the time that users spend on “traditional” social networks. Image | Pexels In Xataka | The exhausted society: how “existential tiredness” has become the great industry of the West

The creator of Chatgpt has realized that the Internet is full of AI. His sudden concern hides something else

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Sam Altman is worried online. A few days ago said in x that the Dead Internet Theorybut now it seems to him that many Twitter accounts are controlled by Bots. The thing was not there. He also criticized that some posts in Reddit seem written by an AI. His messages have unleashed a wave of answers that remind him of something obvious: he has played an important role in all this. In addition, what presents us as a genuine concern would have other hidden reasons. Dead Internet. The first message arrived last week, as they say in Futurism. In him, Altman said he was starting to be taken seriously This theory which states that the current Internet is dominated by bots, AI and content generated by algorithms, instead of humans. Their answers were filled with mockery, such as This user who answered by imitating the chatgpt style or those that sent him This meme With the text “we are trying to find the uncle who did this.” The publication has 3,000 responses and many of them point to him as one of the culprits that the Internet is full of bots and content generated by AI. A real problem. Although the concept of the dead internet is a conspiracy theory, the problem of the bots is very real, and if not tell Elon Musk when he bought Twitter. According to Data from the Cybersecurity Company imperviousin 2023 49% of the Internet traffic were Bots. With the arrival of AI the thing has worsened and In your 2024 report They confirm that the figure had increased to 51%. In other words: there is more bots traffic than humans. In addition, 37% of these bots are used for malicious purposes such as the creation of news and false content. And not to mention Ai Slop that is flooding the network. “It feels Fake“ Returning to Altman, yesterday He shared his sensations After reading the Claude Code Subnetditin which several users praised Codex’s capabilities, the OpenAI code assistant, almost as if it were the best that has happened to them in life. Although it is something that benefits its product, Altman said they seem posts written by an AI and that, both Twitter and Reddit, they feel very false lately. Among the possible reasons, Altman believes that people are starting to speak as if they were IAS, although obvious that the AI ​​models have trained to sound like us and, more specifically, Reddit itself has been used in training of many of them. Altman also mentions a possible case of “Astroturfing“, a tactic that is used to generate artificial opinions that are passed as real to give a false impression of support or rejection of a product. Altman ensures that they have previously suffered it and that is why it is” very sensitive “with the subject. Hidden reasons. As they point out in TechcrunchAltman’s sudden obsession with the bots, the dead Internet and especially the Astroturfing It would have a goal: to sow doubt about the opinions issued about their products. With this, the idea that the wave of criticism of users after the launch of GPT-5 They were not real. Some Users in Reddit They also point to another possible reason: that the rumors of OpenAI’s social network Be true and what Altman is looking for is to subtract credibility to his competitors. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | 20 years later, if you want to find something on the Internet you are looking for it in Reddit

When a man removed the protective plastic to his monitor he realized that it was not the protective plastic

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Remaking the protective plastics of new devices is all A category within the ASMR. Stretching the film to reveal the completely new and bright surfaces gives a taste, except when what we remove is not a protective plastic and we end up loading the device. It is just what happened to this Reddit user with his new monitor. What happened. User tells Messaywaffle123. He had just bought a new 4K monitor and everything was going well until he realized that he was still wearing what he thought was the protective plastic. “It worked perfectly for five minutes before curiosity seized me,” he says in a post that has more than 700 comments. At least the monitor was second -hand and it only cost him $ 100. What is that layer. As you can imagine, that layer should not be removed since it is actually the polarizing filter and is part of the panel. The LCD screens They have several polarizing filters that are responsible for filtering the light to show the images. In this case he only removed a corner of the outer layer and, from what is seen in the images, he hit it again. The marks of stretching the plastic are noticed, but the screen is still seen. If I had completely eliminated it, the screen would look white as can be seen in This video where we see an LCD screen without the polarizing filter. It can be replaced. If the same thing happened to this user and you have removed the polarizing layer unintentionally, You can buy one and try to replace it manually. This is what many users recommend in Reddit’s thread responses, although most admits that it is not a simple task since it is very easy for bubbles or dust to remain. Other cases. It is not the first what happens And not only in monitors, similar things have also happened On TVsoften because when the real protective plastic removal, it was carried behind the lower layer. There have been more cases. We recently saw how Nintendo warned buyers of the new Switch 2 that were removing the protective layer. It was not really a polarizing filter, but a layer to prevent the screen from breaking into pieces if it suffered an impact. Samsung also happened with the first fold: Some users removed the plastic from the interior screen, leaving it unusable. Image | Reddit In Xataka | In 2011 someone published in Reddit “A858”. Fourteen years and thousands of messages later, the mystery is still disound

The US has realized how risky it is to continue pressing China. His reverse looks for a “face to face”

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The US is softening its export restrictions to China. In early July, the administration led by Donald Trump allowed Nvidia to sell Your H20 GPU To its Chinese clients. At the time This movement surprised us because it clearly indicated that an obvious change was consolidating in the US strategy in front of the nation governed by Xi Jinping. According to the newspaper Financial Times This relaxation of export restrictions to China seeks to “avoid damaging trade negotiations with Beijing.” And it is presumably this week US and China will resume their negotiation to establish the rules that will resolve their future commercial interests. As expected, this rudder of the US administration favors the interests of Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and other companies, but not all members of the Trump administration support this initiative. According to Financial Timessome White House advisors are pressing the government to maintain their blockade to China. Nvidia needs TSMC to manufacture 300,000 H20 chips for China Donald Trump wants to meet “face to face” with Xi Jinping before he ends this year, again according to the information he has Financial Times. The intention of the US president is to file roughness with his Chinese counterpart with the purpose of promoting negotiation in commercial matters that both countries have maintained for many months. Just a few hours ago they have gathered in Stockholm (Sweden) Scott Besent, the US Treasury Secretary, and He Lifeng, the Vice Prime Minister of China, so it is evident that the negotiation follows its course. After many months of uncertainty the current scenario clearly benefits Nvidia. The company directed by Jensen Huang saw its survival in China threatened by The sanctions approved by the Department of Commerce from the US, but This volantazo changes everything. And its protagonist is the chip for artificial intelligence (AI) H20. The reception that Chinese clients of Nvidia initially gave to this GPU was very good despite the fact that the capabilities of this chip are clearly inferior to those of the other proposals for this company. After many months of uncertainty the current scenario clearly benefits Nvidia In fact, initially the Department of Commerce allowed its sale in China because this integrated circuit met the restrictions it had imposed. And despite its limitations its sales in China grew by 50% quarter to quarter since it reached this market in mid -2024. Everything was complicated for Nvidia in the middle of last April. And is that the US Department of Commerce imposed new restrictions To the export to China of the H20 GPU, which in practice caused this chip to stop reaching the Chinese clients of this company. This news sank Nvidia’s actions by 6% because it could no longer address the commitments linked to the H20 GPU it had acquired. Among the Chinese customers who had bought it Large amounts of this GPUand presumably planned to continue doing it, were Tencent, Alibaba or Bytedance. Finally Nvidia has achieved That the Department of Commerce review its regulation and allow you to sell the H20 GPU in China again. Surprisingly this scenario has put Nvidia in trouble. And, once again, the reception of the H20 GPU in China is being so good that this American company has run out of units. According to ReutersNvidia has commissioned TSMC for the manufacture of no less than 300,000 units of this chip to be able to respond to the current demand from China. Blessed problem. However, the company’s engineers have been working on A new GPU with Blackwell microarchitecture The latest generation that is intended to occupy in China the place of the H20 chip. In fact, presumably TSMC began in June the production of The B30 GPUwhich is how it seems to be called. What we know at the moment is that this chip for AI will be less capable than the H20 GPU, as is logical, and also that its price will move Between 6,500 and $ 8,000. For domestic users it is a lot of money, but in the field of professional GPUs for AI it is a moderate price. In fact, the H20 GPU costs between $ 10,000 and $ 12,000. Image | Gage Skidmore | Wikipedia More information | Financial Times | Reuters In Xataka | The US gives Huawei a great opportunity: to get its new chip for AI with the Nvidia market in China

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