reason

China has more solid-state battery patents than anyone else and still fears being left behind for one reason: Japan

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What China is leading the energy and mobility transition What we are witnessing does not take anyone by surprise at this point. However, not all fish are sold, and in energy storage we are going to witness a significant evolution with the arrival of solid state batteriesa type of battery that we have been talking about for years. Just like they count From CarNewsChina, the country dominates the volume of research and records on solid-state batteries, but be careful because that leadership on paper does not guarantee winning the commercial race. And it is that a new analysis of the Xinhua agency recognizes that the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea are moving forward with more industrial coordination and better international deployment of patents, just when the technology enters a decisive phase for its commercialization. Why it matters. Solid-state batteries are considered the next big leap from current lithium-ion batteries. These promise more energy density, faster charges, greater security and longer lifespan. They not only affect the electric car, but also humanoid robotseVTOL (vertical take-off aircraft), consumer electronics and stationary storage. Basically, whoever controls the technology and, above all, its manufacturing at scale, will set the pace of mobility and energy in the next decade. Patent war. China accounts for around 35% of the world market for solid-state patents and 39% of those related to electrolytes, the largest global share, according to share from CarNewsChina. Scientific publications have gone from 21 articles in 2015 to 562 in 2023, with institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences or Tsinghua University leading advances in the engineering of the solid-solid interface, which for years has been one of the great bottlenecks. On the other hand, Japan continues to be the leading technological source with about 37% of global requests, compared to 30% from China. Japan is ahead. The problem in China is not quantity, but the concentration and quality of your strategy. Among the 30 most relevant institutions in the world in solid state and electrolyte patents, 17 are Japanese7 Chinese, 5 South Korean and only 1 European. The top ten positions are entirely Japanese or Korean. Toyota, alone, accumulates around 40% of all intellectual property in the sector. Added to this is a structural weakness, since Chinese companies register many fewer international patents than their Japanese and South Korean rivals, who shield their technology in the United States, Europe, India and Southeast Asia. The companies that move the board. CATL, BYD and SVOLT are leading the latest phase of this technology. And only in 2023 will Chinese companies filed more than 500 patent applications. Gotion High-tech The design of a 2 GWh line for totally solid batteries has already been finalized and another 0.2 GWh pilot line is operating with tests on vehicles. Ganfeng Lithium, backed by Changan, claims to have reached 1,100 cycles in a 400 Wh/kg cell and aims for 500 Wh/kg in production. On the other hand, Chinese researchers have also shown a prototype of 451.5 Wh/kg capable of charging in three minutes. CATL, for its part, is patenting lithium compounds with fluorine and sulfur electrolytes to improve fast charging and thermal stability. Deadlines. own report Xinhua places the start of production in small series around 2027 and broader commercialization around 2030. The industry continues to work in parallel on three electrolyte routes (sulfide, oxide and polymer) without any having won yet. Furthermore, according to the media, there are still challenges to overcome, including the formation of lithium dendrites, ionic transport mechanisms, solid-solid interface engineering or cell failure modes. And now what. China is preparing to industrialize what it currently masters in the laboratory. And its first national standard on solid state batteries (“Terms and Classification”) is under public consultation and proposes to differentiate between liquid, solid-liquid hybrid and totally solid cells. For now, the country dominates in terms of volume of papers and research, but it is clear that real dominance will come from manufacturers who first resolve large-scale production, cost, durability and safety. And let’s be honest, China has an advantage, especially with CATL and BYD controlling much of the world’s battery sharebut in the field of solid-state batteries there is still play. Cover image | Michael Fousert In Xataka | The EU no longer knows what to do to stop its car manufacturers from buying parts from China. So he’s going to force them

“Going to the gym for an hour” is not worth spending eight hours sitting. And there is a deep evolutionary reason for that.

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They have slipped it on us and it is time to recognize it. For years, the gym boom has been received with enthusiasm: having ubiquitous and accessible sports facilities to get us out of our sedentary routine can only be understood as something positive. And yet, the way sport has entered our lives is deeply problematic: we have managed to create a “compartmentalized model” of physical activity that is leaking everywhere. So “going to the gym” doesn’t work? No, it’s not that. It’s not what the evidence says. Intense exercise is helpful. Very useful. And it is always better than doing nothing: but the idea of ​​going to the gym for an hour and that’s it forgets that the relevant unit is not the hour at the gym, but the energy pattern of the 24 hours a day. Let’s put it another way: Why do the Hadza They do not burn more calories than office workers despite walking 12 km a daywhy weight loss gym programs consistently disappoint or why the WHO has begun to separate “exercise” from “sit less”? The answer to these three questions is the same: the evolutionary biology of the human being. Two lines of research that converge at the same point. Between 2012 and 2018, a team from Duke University coordinated by Pontzer discovered that the body It is not dedicated to linearly adding exercise expenditure to basal expenditure. What it does is compensate for it (reducing expenditure on other vital functions such as inflammatory, reproductive processes or metabolic control). That is, doing an hour (or more) of intense exercise does not have to increase total energy expenditure. The second line of research arises from comparing people with the same weight and height. In ’99, the Mayo Clinic discovered that the daily difference in energy expenditure can be attributed to things like walking, standing, housework, and other types of small unconscious movements. To this we must add that a sedentary lifestyle is, in itself, a risk factor. In 2016, Ekelund and his team discovered that between 60 and 75 minutes a day of moderate physical activity are needed to eliminate the excess mortality risk associated with sitting for 8 hours or more a day. That is, one hour of exercise does not solve the problem. And the problem is that the public conversation doesn’t realize it. It is unbalanced: the dominant imagination since the 80s sees doing “a handful of hours of exercise” as a way to “buy” health. The very long debate about how many steps to take each day is exactly the same. The issue, as I say, is that the evidence is clear that we are not buying anything. And then? Should we close the gyms? Nothing of the sort. The important thing at this point in 2026 is to begin to understand that the correct unit to think about our physical activity is the full day. As the WHO says“more activity is better than little; any activity is better than none; (however) reducing a sedentary lifestyle provides independent benefits” and is worth addressing regardless of the exercise we do. The idea of ​​”training for an hour and then spending the rest of the day calmly” does not hold water. Going to the gym is positive, but it is not a papal bull: intense exercise works as something that adds to leaving a sedentary lifestyle. It does not replace it. Image | Anupam Mahapatra In Xataka | Cereals yes, but wrapped in black cardboard: the packaging business aimed exclusively at men

Airplanes have circular windows for a reason. It took two plane crashes to find out.

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When you get on a plane, have you ever wondered why the windows of this means of transport They have an oval shape. If you look closely, it’s not just the windows: also the armrests, trays, screens and any interior furniture. has a circular shape. Although it may seem something purely aestheticthere is actually scientific reasoning behind this choice. But before getting into the technical details, we need to talk a little about the history of aviation and how two fatal accidents changed everything. In their early days, airplanes had rectangular windows like those found in any house. As taking to the skies became more popular in the 1950s, airlines started flying at higher altitudes. This guaranteed them considerable economic savings, since the thin air generates less resistance and, therefore, less fuel is consumed, as well as allowing more comfortable driving with less turbulence. But in order for planes to fly at those heights, manufacturers were also forced to make design changes. The cabin had to be pressurized so that the pilots could breathe without problems. And a pressurized cabin requires a cylindrical shape to function, which creates a pressure difference between indoor air and outdoor air which increases as the plane rises. The flat body expands very slightly and therefore stress is applied to the material. And this is where the shape of the windows come into play. In 1954 there were two fatal accidents which caused the death of 56 passengers and crew. The reason the fuselage disintegrated had to do with a design flaw, which was that they had kept the windows square. Due to its right angles, Cabin pressure was concentrated in its corners and it was multiplied by three, more than in the rest of the fuselage. That caused the windows to end up exploding. It must be taken into account that airplanes usually fly at an altitude of 10,000 meters or more and that level atmospheric pressure It is about a third of normal. As Real Engineering explains in this video“When a material changes shape like this, stress is created in the material. Eventually, the stress can increase so much that the material breaks.” This is exactly what happened in the aforementioned accidents. The problems However, in a circular plane, tension flows smoothly through the material, a flow that is interrupted by the introduction of a window. But if the window is oval, stress levels are more evenly balanced. The same principle applies to the cargo and cabin doors. And that’s why we also see it in the windows of ships and spaceships. Unfortunately, it took two plane crashes and several decades of research to realize the evils that square windows were causing. Furthermore, as commented Anthony Harcup, director of the Teague design company, which has worked with Boeing for more than 75 years in this article from Travel + Leisure: “Sharp edges hurt elbows, knees, hips… or any part of the body they come into contact with. Rounding of all parts of the plane is also done for the “deletalization”a design principle that ensures that when subjected to Murphy’s Law, a passenger cannot be injured anywhere in the airplane seat.” It’s not just the shape of airplane windows that has changed over the years, but also their material. The windows you see on airplanes actually They are not glass, but acrylicwhich is more durable than the first. Also, as you may have noticed, there are three layers in each window. In fact, the interior window that faces passengers is not even part of the structure of the plane (it is just a safety measure so that the exterior window does not get touched or scratched). And the second layer exists as reinforcement to maintain the pressure on the end in case the exterior window is damaged. If you looked at the window, you will also have seen a small hole in this layer. Its role is essential since it serves as a valve to equalize pressure between this inner window and the outer window. Between the interior and exterior window there is a small air chamber and this hole regulates the pressure between the two sheets automatically. In addition, it balances the humidity level, preventing the window from fogging up or freezing. Everything on an airplane is pure science. Images | Unsplash In Xataka | The design can save the middle seat on airplanes from being the most hated: wider and “without invasions”

There is an underlying reason that explains it, according to Bloomberg

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The agreement between OpenAI and Apple, announced at WWDC24brought together all the ingredients to become one of the most refined movements in the sector. The artificial intelligence company of the moment landed with its star product in the ecosystem of the technological giant where practically everyone wants to be. ChatGPT began to occupy a privileged position within the devices compatible with Apple Intelligence– The user could take advantage of its capabilities from Siri and Writing Tools, and even link their account to access a more complete experience. And yes, unlike other Apple Intelligence features, like the new Siri, that ended up being delayedthe integration with ChatGPT did end up being deployed on the apple company’s different platforms. What did not materialize, according to Mark Gurmanwere the results that OpenAI expected. The startup led by Sam Altmanexplains the Bloomberg analyst, was confident in an avalanche of new paying subscribers that would translate into billions of dollars in annual revenue, at a time when every dollar counted. Two years after that agreement, even the possibility of legal action begins to appear on the horizon. The agreement, furthermore, was not exactly frozen in that first photo from WWDC24. Bloomberg points out that the integration ended up expanding with new entry doors: users could subscribe to ChatGPT directly from the iOS settings, Apple incorporated it as an option to create images in Image Playground and also used it to analyze on-screen content. On paper, it was no small feat. The problem, always according to the sources consulted by Gurman, is that these expansions were simply not enough. An alliance without money involved, but with many expectations The economic key to the agreement helps to understand why the disenchantment weighs so much. The American media already explained in June 2024 that Apple was not paying OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its systems. Nor was it considered, at least at that time, as an operation in which OpenAI would buy its place within the iPhone. The payoff lay elsewhere: Apple offered distribution, visibility, and potential access to a gigantic user base. For a company that needed to turn popularity into recurring revenue, that promise was apparently worth as much as a check. Now, the reality was much less brilliant. Bloomberg says user studies conducted by OpenA suggest that Apple customers turned much more frequently to the standalone ChatGPT application than to the integration within Siri and other system services. That information changes the reading of the agreement. If the user already has the habit of opening the app, the presence in Apple Intelligence stops working as an entrance door and it becomes something more secondary: it is there, but it does not necessarily drive the business. The shape chosen by Apple would not have helped much either. The use of ChatGPT within their systems remained limited. The reproach attributed to OpenAI has a quite concrete logic. Bloomberg notes that the company hoped Apple would put ChatGPT in a more prominent place, not just as an option available if the user knew where to look for it. It also relied on broader integration with in-house apps and more intense promotion within its platforms. But the matter goes further. Gurman assures that OpenAI lawyers are working with an external firm on different legal options that could be executed soon. One of them would be to send Apple a notification by alleged breach of contractwithout this necessarily implying filing a lawsuit from the first moment because it aims to resolve the conflict outside of court. It should be noted that there is no official information, and that Apple and OpenAI did not comment following the request of the American economic media. Apple, for its part, doesn’t seem very comfortable either. The company reportedly maintained reservations about OpenAI, including whether the startup did enough to protect user privacy. Added to this is a more recent tension: OpenAI no longer wants to limit itself to software and works on devices with several former Apple peopleincluding Jony Ive. For Cupertino, according to Bloomberg, the signing of engineers from its hardware teams would also have been especially annoying. That scenario is going to change even more. Already at WWDC24 Apple announced that it would open the door to integrate other AI systems in its ecosystem. So everything seems to indicate that it is a matter of time until OpenAI rivals such as Google with Gemini either Anthropic with Claude land within the apple company’s ecosystem. It would not be an expulsion from ChatGPT, but it would be an obvious loss of prominence. We have to wait to see how this agreement and the relationship between both companies will evolve. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | The ‘Chinese Netflix’ has designed a plan for AI to generate the majority of its content within five years. It sounds risky

The reason why a hantavirus “pandemic” is very far away has a name and surname: long-tailed mouse

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The media coverage that is being carried out around the hantavirus is generating fear of the virusbut also mice. Even the president of the Government of the Canary Islands used Artificial Intelligence to check if mice swim, fearing that they could cause an outbreak in the Canary Islands with arrival at the port of Granadilla of the MV Hondius cruise ship. This particular piece of information makes for a lot of conversation. However, we are going to ignore it to focus on what is truly important. Should we be worried about mice during this health emergency situation? The reality is that not much. To begin with, we must remember that There are many different hantaviruses. The cause of the outbreak on the cruise ship is the Andes variant, the only one known to be able to be transmitted from person to person. Even so, it is still a zoonosis. That is, the initial contagion always comes from an animal, in this case a mouse. But not just any mouse. In the Andes variant, Its main reservoir is the long-tailed mouse (Oligoryzomys longicaudatus), characteristic of the forests of Chile and Argentina. Seropositivity has been detected in some other species of South American rodents. However, these are much more anecdotal cases. The vast majority of infections initially come from the long-tailed mouse. Now, this must be put into context and, above all, clarify some important terms. What is the reservoir of a virus? The reservoir of a virus is the organism, place or environment where the virus better replicated and maintained over time. Generally this concept is used to talk about animal reservoirs. These are the animals in which a virus reproduces best. Normally they do not experience symptoms, but their immune system does not attack them in the same way as ours would, since They usually develop tolerance. That is, the immune system detects them, but The inflammatory response that causes the symptoms of the disease is suppressed. Said in a very colloquial and simple way, it is the house in which a virus lives and grows most comfortably. Many times, humans are accidental hosts of viruses. They have mechanisms to invade our cells, so animals can pass them to us. Sometimes we can even infect each other. However, we are like a house in which they live in transit and discomfort, with the immune system attacking them in a much more excessive way. It would be that rental apartment that is falling apart, where you live until you find something better, if the house doesn’t fall on you first. In the case of the Andes hantavirus, Its main reservoir is the long-tailed mouse. This rodent does not get sick when the virus enters its cells. Therefore, the hantavirus can multiply in them, reaching very high viral loads for a long time. The long-tailed mouse lives mostly in forests in Argentina and Chile. How is it spread? A good part of these viral particles are found in mouse feces and other secretions. When these are dry, they can become dust, easily inhaled by humans. In fact, it is often spread when people in rural environments sweep in places where these animals have deposited their feces. Sweeping raises virus-laden dust. This is why, in areas where it is suspected that this mouse may be, it is recommended Use bleach and do not dry sweep. If this is done, gloves and a mask should be worn to avoid inhaling the dust from the feces. In the case of the cruise, it is not known exactly how patient zero could have been infected. It’s not even 100% clear who he is. But it is suspected that he could have been the first deceased, since he was fond of birds and went on birdwatching excursions in rural areas of Argentina, going into caves where there could be mice. When stepping on feces such a closed environmentthe dust could have concentrated in the air and caused the initial contagion. What does it mean that other rodents have shown seropositivity in Andes hantavirus? Seropositivity against a virus is the presence of antibodies generated by the immune system to fight it. That a mouse is seropositive for the Andes virus means that it has passed the virus. Plain and simple. It could be a reservoir or it could not be. It is known that he has survived, but it is not known if he has shown symptoms or if the virus has replicated efficiently in his body. The only mouse with which this is well demonstrated is the long-tailed mouse. That is why it is considered the main reservoir of the Andes hantavirus. Beyond that, we can only speculate. Of course, what is clear is that it is a virus that is only abundant in Chile and Argentina, where this rodent is mostly distributed. Can you swim? Yes, the long-tailed mouse can swim. It normally lives in forests where there may be bodies of water, which it sometimes has to cross to get from one point to another. Now, does this have any implications for the health crisis of the Hondius? The answer is emphatically no. First of all, It would be extremely rare if one of these mice had traveled on the ship without being seen. It is true that in the past there were diseases, such as the plague, in the spread of which the rats that traveled on ships played a significant role. However, at present this is highly unlikely. Plus, we’re talking about a luxury cruise. It is not normal for a mouse to travel undetected inside a ship. The most accepted hypothesis currently is that patient zero must have been infected outside the ship. On the other hand, even if the virus had reached the Canary Islands, it is one thing to swim through the ponds of a forest and quite another to cross the sea from the anchored boat to the port. We should not fear any rodent Could Spanish mice … Read more

Madrid is going to sacrifice one of its busiest tunnels for months. The reason: a new exchanger

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Madrid has several gigantic projects underway. In this house we have talked about the work of the Mayritt tunnel boring machineof the burial of the A-5the improvements and transformation of Metro Madrid, the Sales Parkand countless urban works that they barely give the capital a break. On this occasion, its residents will have another area blocked for a time, as the busiest underpass in the southern area of ​​Madrid will close for ten months to allow progress in another of those great transformations: the new interchange. Why is this happening now? Madrid City Council announced A few hours ago, the Conde de Casal road tunnel would close to traffic in both directions starting at 6:00 a.m. this Friday, and will not reopen until February 2027. The delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, confirmed it on Thursday at a press conference after the Government Meeting, explaining that the closure is necessary to continue with the works on the new transport interchange and to execute the connection between the lines 6 and 11 Metro. This is a particularly delicate blockade, since according to data consulted by El Diario, 39,000 vehicles pass through this tunnel every day, with greater intensity in the center-outskirts direction and in the afternoon time slot, especially between 3:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. What changes on the road. During the ten months of closure, traffic will be redistributed for the surface. Two entry lanes will be enabled from the A-3 towards the Plaza de Conde de Casal and one exit lane from the Plaza de Conde de Casal towards the A-3 Valencia and the M-30 North. Just before the M-30 bridge, the section entering Madrid from the A-3 will go from two lanes to one. On the other hand, the outbound link branch from the M-30 towards Conde de Casal will remain open. In addition, two turns will be prohibited in the square itself: the turn to the left towards O’Donnell towards Doctor Esquerdo, and the turn to the left from Doctor Esquerdo towards Avenida del Mediterráneo and Glorieta Mariano de Cavia. Starting in September, the council plans to progressively expand the number of surface lanes. Where to go if you want to avoid the area. The Town Hall has published Alternative routes both to enter and leave Madrid. to enter: A-3 – Plaza Conde de Casal – Glorieta Mariano de Cavia; A-3 – Plaza Conde de Casal – Doctor Esquerdo – O’Donnell; or the M-40 for long-distance routes. to leave: Glorieta Mariano de Cavia – Cavanilles – Doctor Esquerdo – surface branch A-3 towards Valencia; Doctor Esquerdo – Plaza Conde de Casal – surface branch A-3 towards Valencia; or O’Donnell – M-30 southbound – A-3. What changes in public transport. The Madrid Regional Transport Consortium (CRTM) has activated several adjustments to the EMT urban bus network. Line E recovers stops 2125 and 2126 near the square, although it stops stopping at 2127 and 2128. Line 32 deviates through Cavanilles towards Conde de Casal. Lines 63, 143 and N9 recover stops near the square. The headers of lines 20, 30 and 140 are still located in the Pavones intermodal area. The Town Hall recommended in its publication the use of public transport to reduce pressure on an area that has already been accumulating traffic restrictions since works began in August 2023. The project behind the chaos. As we have said on several occasions, the objective is to extend Metro line 11 from Plaza Elíptica to Conde de Casal, a 6.9 kilometer route that will include two new stations, in Parque de Comillas and Madrid Río, and three interconnection nodes: Palos de la Frontera with line 3, Atocha with line 1, Cercanías and AVE, and Conde de Casal with line 6. Precisely this last connection will allow, according to Carabantedecongest line 6, which moves a million passengers a day and is the most saturated on the network. In parallel, the transport interchange is being built, which will integrate the buses that currently operate on the surface underground. When it comes into operation, scheduled for the first half of 2027, it will benefit more than 65,000 daily travelers, according to data of the consistory. And meanwhile. The special mobility device activated by the City Council includes the deployment of Municipal Police officers and mobility in the surroundings during the entire works phase. Working hours are limited to between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., a limit that the delegate recalled in response to neighborhood complaints about noise and dust. Carabant recognized that the council is “aware” of the inconvenience, but insisted that the works “are necessary to continue.” Cover image | Madrid City Council In Xataka | The Madrid Cercanías have become a nest of problems and delays: their solution is new “megatrains”

We are increasingly looking for human answers on Reddit. That is the reason why the Google search engine is now a Reddit in disguise

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Google has updated its search platform for the umpteenth time, but it has done so with an especially significant change. The user experience in its AI search engines (both AI Overviews and AI Mode) attempts to become more “human”. And to do this, in these searches Google will add more context to the links, such as extracts from internet forums and blogs. And if there is a beneficiary (or harmed) of that movement, it is Reddit. Google was already a gateway to Reddit. There is a behavior that Google has been seeing in its data for years and that for a long time it preferred not to publicly acknowledge: when someone wants a real answer to a real question, add “Reddit” to the end of the search. Not because Reddit is necessarily a reliable source, but because Reddit brings together real people who have experienced this issue, tried to solve it, and written about it without anyone paying them to do so. Google, with all its infrastructure and all its algorithms, had not managed to replicate that. So instead of trying it’s going to incorporate those answers directly. What exactly has changed. The search engine update will make in AI Overviews Fragments from forums, social networks and other “first-person sources” appear. When someone searches for something for which there is no single objective answer, Google’s AI will include perspectives and opinions found in all kinds of (supposedly) human sources online. Doing so will add the name of the creator of that content (or their avatar) and the origin from which said perspective comes. Google also promises to add more context about the origin of its AI-generated answers, similar to how ChatGPT or Claude include links supporting their answers. Tired of so much SEO. The reason is obvious: Google’s organic results for practical and subjective questions—”what vacuum cleaner should I buy”, “how do I cure my dog’s ear”, “what is the best neighborhood to live in in Valencia”— They are dominated by SEO and those techniques optimized to appear on Google. It is important to position, not answer the question well. That is precisely where Reddit, like other forums or personal blogs, has something that this content usually does not have: the real experience of someone who was in the same situation. Google sums it up in its own statement bluntly: “For many searches, people are increasingly looking to other people for advice.” The contradiction that Google has not resolved. There is a potential problem in this new way of conceiving these searches with AI. AI Overviews were designed to answer questions directly and thus save the user the work of clicking, reading and researching. Now they will include diverse and even contradictory perspectives from forums and social networks. So, will AI Overviews answer the question, or will it make us go back to the sources to find the answer? If it is the latter, it will not be very different from what I already did the traditional Google search engine. There is an interesting imbalance here between “we give you the answer” and “we give you context so you can find the answer.” In a sense, Google’s decision complicates searches. AI models are becoming less prone to failure. The famous cases of add glue to pizza are much less common now, and new models often boast a significant reduction in “hallucination” rates that they have. GPT-5.5 Instant, released this week, “produced 52.5% fewer hallucinations than GPT-5.3 Instant,” OpenAI indicated in its official announcement. The problem is that these hallucinations are increasingly difficult to detect because these chatbots hide these mistakes very well. That the system now includes unverified or validated content from networks like Reddit can be problematic: community votes do not always measure how truthful or useful a certain thread is. Using Reddit has its drawbacks. This platform has value precisely because it is not optimized for Google algorithms: It is chaotic and contradictory.. Sometimes there are brilliant responses from people, but other times there are completely wrong comments. When a user adds “Reddit” to their search and reads the results, they are automatically weighing which comments are useful and which are not. But that step disappears if Google extracts fragments of those discussions to include in an AI Overview. Eliminate that human filtering step and presents those answers with an authority that perhaps they should not have. Google will have much more difficulty than a human in distinguishing the comment of someone who has been working in plumbing for twenty years from that of someone who tinkers as a hobby. The shadow contract. This is not just an editorial or technological decision. In 2024 Google signed a deal worth $60 million a year with Reddit to access their data and train their models. You are not incorporating content from this social network as a public service: what you are doing is monetizing a commercial contract. Your message that you are highlighting those “original voices” is really saying that you have paid for that privileged access to Reddit content and now you are going to take advantage of that access and make it profitable. That revenue is interesting for Reddit, no doubt, but there is a problem: clicks. The Stack Overflow Precedent. There is no need to speculate much about what may happen because it has already happened. Stack Overflow is the largest technical Q&A community on the internet, but has lost most of its traffic in two years because AI companies They started collecting all those answers. to train your models and then serve them to your users directly. That caused users to stop visiting Stack Overflow and experts to stop answering questions. The quality of the new content on this network was clearly affected, and it became clear that if the AI ​​already gave you the answer without having to enter Stack Overflow, why enter? The danger for Reddit is exactly the same. Google didn’t have many alternatives. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity They have been capturing … Read more

Jeff Bezos’ superyacht is one of the largest and most expensive in the world. Now it is for sale for a curious reason: parking

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At more than 127 meters in length, Jeff Bezos’ superyacht is one of the largest in the world. In fact, it is so big that even caused some problems to its Dutch builder when he was trying to take it out to sea from the shipyards. The ship was so large that it did not pass under a bridge, over which it was even considered disassembling it. It was just the first of the problems that Jeff Bezos was going to have with the size of his ship. According to advanced Page Sixnow the millionaire would be considering putting the Koru up for sale. The reason has nothing to do with the price or its maintenance. The problem is that the boat is so big that it doesn’t fit almost anywhere, and wherever it manages to get in, everyone instantly recognizes it. A huge boat with a price to match. The Koru is a three-masted schooner more than 70 meters high. built by the Dutch shipyard Oceanco and delivered to Bezos in April 2023. At 127 meters in length, it was for a time the second largest sailboat in the world and is currently among the largest in its category. In fact, it is so big that when it approaches Miami, Jeff Bezos’ usual place of residence since his move in 2025, the luxury sailboat must moor. along with large cargo ships and oil tankers because it doesn’t fit in the nearby marinas. Its construction cost around 500 million dollars and is accompanied by a support ship called Abeona, valued at another 75 million dollars. According to calculations of Robb Reportkeeping both vessels in operation costs about $30 million a year. Practically pocket change for someone who could spend a million dollars a day and still it would take more than 548 years in ruining. The problem: parking. According to a source close to the millionaire consulted by Page SixBezos considers that the yacht has become “too big to manage.” But it’s not just about the size: the Koru has become so popular thanks to its owner, that it is impossible to maintain privacy where it anchors. Hide a sailboat the size of a ten-story building off the coast it is not a simple task. One of the drawbacks of the Koru’s size is that, for example, the millionaire could not even get close to it. the marina of Monte Carlo during the last Monaco Grand Prix, a sporting event in which millionaires watch the cars pass by without even getting off their yacht. The Koru, on the other hand, had to settle for remaining anchored far from the moorings and use a small boat to get to land due to its enormous proportions. Something similar happened during the celebrations prior to the Jeff Bezos’s wedding and Lauren Sánchez in Venice, where the Koru had to remain anchored in the middle of the Venetian lagoon because it didn’t fit at the moorings near Venice. A sale without an official price and many unknowns. At the moment the sale has not been confirmed by any intermediary or by the founder of Amazon himself, and it is also not clear if the Abeona support ship will be part of the sale agreement. What does seem certain is that Jeff Bezos could be tired of all the inconveniences involved in operating a boat of that size, and would be considering buying a somewhat more discreet and manageable superyachtwhich does not cause so many “parking” problems. In Xataka | We already knew that superyachts were floating mansions: Roman Abramovich’s is a fortress with an anti-missile shield Image | Oceanco, Smithsonian

Barbacid’s promising cancer study has been withdrawn. The reason is not science, it is a “hidden” spin-off

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Last December, the team led by the prestigious researcher Mariano Barbacid filled the headlines of the main media with great news: had found a triple therapy to eliminate pancreatic tumors in animal models. Very relevant news because of how deadly pancreatic cancer is and how it affects our society, but now this euphoria has hit a wall after the decision of the US National Academy of Sciences to remove the item from PNAS magazine. The context. The original article, published on December 2 of last year, was not just another publication, but described the results of administering three drugs in 45 mice who had pancreatic cancer. And although it was a preclinical study that had not been tested in humans and was the expected next step, it generated great expectation. The promise of a cure, even if it was in the animal phase, propelled intense fundraising campaigns to be able to start a clinical trial with humans as soon as possible. In this way, foundations such as CRIS against cancer achieved raise 3.7 million euros in the heat of these advances and thanks to the media showcase that was given to them. And now they withdraw it. The first thing to keep in mind when faced with so many alarmist headlines is that it is not removed from the PNAS magazine because the results have been invented or exaggerated, but rather the reason lies in the omission of important information regarding to conflict of interest. In this case Mariano Barbacid, taking advantage of his status as a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, used a “fast track” of publication that is reserved for academics of this institution. The problem is that this privilege requires scrupulous and impeccable transparency. Data omission. As detailed by El Paísthe alarms went off in February 2026, when the academy received notices about possible conflicts of interest that have now led to the sudden retraction of the article. The problem is that Mariano Barbacid, along with researchers Carmen Guerra and Vasiliki Liaki, are co-owners of Vega Oncotargetsa spin-off which was born in the ecosystem of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) with the aim of developing and marketing therapies against pancreatic cancer like this one. This is why informing the journal that the authors had a direct economic and business interest in the success of the study is a violation of the most basic transparency regulations in scientific publication. It always happens. When a researcher wants to publish the results of his or her research, a lot of data must always be provided, both about the method that has been followed and everything behind it, such as the source of financing or the conflicts behind. For example, if a researcher owns shares of a large pharmaceutical company and studies one of its drugs, logically good results will benefit him because the value of the company will increase. And this is something that should always be reported so that anyone reading the research knows if the researcher may have been influenced by an economic component. And in this particular case, the fact that there is already a company that will commercialize the future therapy that is being investigated is logically something that must always be specified, because if the study goes well, it logically benefits the company enormously. There are already answers. As we say, PNAS sanctions bad practice when it comes to being transparent, but in no case does it indicate that the research is poorly done. Along these lines, Carmen Guerra has already admitted the error, as El País points out, and has confirmed that the team has resubmitted the article with this correction, detailing that they do have participation in Vega Oncatargerts. The problem is that now they are going to have to go through the entire standard review process and the republishing will not be fast. Images | UPV brgfx on Freepik In Xataka | Mice today, hope tomorrow: researchers have managed to attack pancreatic cancer before it forms

TSMC is not going to use its High-NA machines at the moment and has a compelling reason not to do so

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On April 23, TSMC made official a strategic decision very important: has postponed the adoption of ASML’s extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and high aperture lithography machines until 2029. These are the equipment of manufacturing of more advanced integrated circuits that this company from the Netherlands currently has in its portfolio, and TSMC’s announcement caused ipso facto a drop of 3.3% of the value of its shares. It is not in vain that this Taiwanese chip producer is ASML’s largest client. In 2025 23.9% of total sales of this Dutch company came from TSMC. The main reason why this last company has decided not to use UVE High-NA machines of ASML in the short term is strictly economic. Each of them has a price of around 350 million euros, and, in addition, a single cutting-edge semiconductor plant requires the installation of several dozen of this equipment. TSMC considers that they are currently too expensive to make the manufacturing of advanced chips profitable. And, interestingly, Intel, Samsung and SK Hynix they are already adopting High-NA technology. This decision by TSMC brings great technical challenges The step taken by TSMC has not been improvised, as might be expected. In fact, over the past two years several managers at this company have publicly expressed doubts about the short-term adoption of ASML’s High-NA equipment. In January 2024 CC Wei, the current president and CEO of TSMC, surprised us with this statement: “We are studying it carefully, evaluating the maturity of the tool and examining its costs. We always make the right decision at the right time in order to offer the best service to our clients,” Wei assured. during a meeting. A few weeks earlier Szeho Ng, an analyst at China Renaissance, predicted that TSMC would not use ASML’s high-aperture UVE equipment until it introduced its 1nm integration technology. “We always make the right decision at the right time with the purpose of offering the best service to our clients” Last week it was Kevin Zhang, TSMC’s deputy chief operating officer, who clarified something very important: “I am amazed by our R&D team. They continue to find ways to drive technological development without using ASML’s High-NA UVE equipment. Someday we may have to use them, but right now we can continue to reap the benefits of current EUV technology without moving to High-NA which, as we all know, is extremely expensive.” In 2029, TSMC intends to have the A12 and A13 integration technologies ready for large-scale production, which are nothing more than derivatives of its A14 photolithography. From a commercial point of view these will be the first 1.2 and 1.3 nm technologies of this company. They will use GAA transistors (Gate-All-Around) and NanoFlex Pro technology. This latest innovation will allow IC designers to use fast cells for the critical parts of the GPU that need speed, and dense or efficient cells for the rest, thus optimizing the chip area down to the last millimeter. What we still do not know is what technical solutions TSMC engineers are going to implement to make it possible to manufacture 1.2 and 1.3 nm integrated circuits using ASML’s UVE equipment. It’s just a guess, but it seems unlikely that they will resort to the multiple patterning because this procedure compromises the performance per wafer and the cost of the semiconductors. TSMC would lose competitiveness. One last note: the multiple patterning Broadly speaking, it consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. Image | ASML More information | Innovation Origins In Xataka | Bill Gates has X-rayed Intel. And his diagnosis is overwhelmingly accurate.

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