Surprisingly

They work surprisingly well… until the Internet fails

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A few weeks ago I traveled to China to attend the Beijing Auto Show. If the three or four trips I have made to China have taught me anything, it is that there nobody, practically nobody, speaks English. Communicating is therefore a combination of hand signs, signals and three or four loose words. That, or use a translator like Google Translate, which has several problems: The live interpretation function requires an Internet connection, something that in China, for whatever reason, is not always available. You can download the languages ​​and write to translate, but only they understand you. Your interlocutor is still unable to communicate. You have to be with your phone in your hand all the time, something that is not always possible, comfortable or viable. Then it dawned on me. The last time I went (not here, but the previous one) I noticed that in all the stores I had entered they had a little gadget from a local brand called iFlyTek that translated in real time. And I thought, what if I try one of their devices in China? And that’s what I did. I took with me the iFlyTek AI Translation AirBudsheadphones with real-time interpretation, to try them out. And very well, until the connection stopped working. Now I understand everything iFlyTek AI Translation AirBuds | Image: Xataka The headphones are of the type clip in semi-open formatthat is, they hook to our ear from behind to leave the ear more or less free and bring the microphones closer to our mouth. Because no, they are not headphones for listening to music (which we can do, mind you, but it is not the best experience by any means), but for making calls and talking to people. And there they deliver beautifully. It’s curious. Almost all the headphones I have tried tend to bend their knees when making calls. The music is very enjoyable, but the calls are a bit meh. These are the complete opposite. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone to listen to music, but I have never tried headphones that pick up my voice better. and the voice of our interlocutor (we will return to this later). The key to these headphones is that they translate and interpret in real time. Already I tried some from another brand years ago and the experience was mixed, but with these I was frankly surprised. They connect to an app called Bavvo which, as we will see later, I had to test in beta version, but in this case it worked correctly. I hope you have wide pockets | Image: Xataka The headphones pick up voice very, very well, even in distant and busy environments. In the middle of the BYD hall they were doing a demo with a frozen car and the presenter not only spoke Chinese, but she did it at a somewhat low volume. Added to the hustle and bustle of the hall, it sounded average. Well even there, The headphones were capable of picking up your voice, translating it and interpreting it to Spanish directly in my ear. The translation takes a while to start, but when it starts it doesn’t stop. The problem is that, by default, the voice is a little slow. I ended up setting it to x1.2, because at x1 I felt like I was falling behind in the conversation. The voice is a bit-quite robotic and makes it not overly pleasant to listen to for a long period of time, but that’s better than… not understanding anything. Then the connection stopped working and I was left without Internet. For much eSIM with VPN or a lot paid VPN Whatever you wear, the reality is that connectivity in China is a real pain and can fail. When I lost the Internet I was left without simultaneous interpretation. Luckily, it was shortly before I left the event, so it served me well enough. iFlyTek AI Translation AirBuds | Image: Xataka When I got home, and with a proper connection, I tried them again and, indeed, it is another movie. If in China they knew how to measure up whenever there was a connection, the question was whether they would be able to help me in one of the most tedious tasks you can do in this, our work as tech journalists: attending a conference in Chinese without subtitles or translation. Like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, for example. Well yes, the answer is that they fulfill their mission with great solvency. By having a nearby audio source in a quiet place, the headphones pick up voice beautifully and translate well. I didn’t watch the entire conference, but the time I watched it I was able to follow it without the slightest problem. It has its things, because Chinese can be very poetic sometimes and the translation is sometimes too literal, but otherwise I must admit that I have no complaints. When the connection is good, the translation performance is very good If we talk about a conference in English, French or German, three quarters of the same. The interpretation is good and more than enough to follow the thread of a presentation or a talk. I did the exercise of following this TED talk in German without watching the video or activating subtitles, as if it were a podcast and, although the robotic voice that speaks in my ear in Spanish becomes heavy, I have been able to follow it without problem. iFlyTek AI Translation AirBuds | Image: Xataka It’s also possible to give a headset to another person and translate in real time between headsets, which is fine if the other person is trustworthy, but for me personally, It makes me a little sick. It is true that the headphones do not go into the ear and well, okay, but sharing headphones is, for me, like sharing a toothbrush: just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to do it, and even less so with someone you probably don’t … Read more

Openai and Microsoft’s convenience marriage touches its end. The divorce, surprisingly, is being friendly

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Openai and Microsoft have reached a preliminary agreement in which the new terms of their business relationship are established. In it Official announcement It is made clear that the terms of the agreement still have to define themselves, but there is a clear thing: the idyll is finally ended. Why is it important. What began as a idyllic relationship It has ended up becoming almost a toxic relationship that was preventing both companies from looking for other paths. Between 2019 and 2023 Microsoft invested more than 13,000 million in OpenAiwhat according to The New York Times gave Microsoft about 49% of OpenAi’s future benefits. OpenAi getting rid of their chains. The firm led by Sam Altman has been trying to change its structure and get become a profit company (“For-Profit”). The agreement with Microsoft, who did not want to give up his privileges, was one of the obstacles, but this agreement seems to pave the way for that business transformation. The discord clause. The original agreement included a clause that He rescinded access from Microsoft to OpenAi’s most advanced models when it is I would decide that had reached the famous General Artificial Intelligence or AGI. This clause is still part of the new agreement but has been modified according to sources close to the process Possible outposive. The agreement could “unlock” Openai both in its passage to “for-profit” and for a potential outlet. Right now OpenAi cannot get money from the general public and the traditional investment market, But it would remain managed by the NGO. The startup also indicated that it would offer at least 100,000 million dollars to the non -profit organization that will continue to control Openai’s future once it is transition to its new format. Bret Taylor, company manager, affirmed that in this way the NGO would be “one of the philanthropic organizations with more resources in the world.” Sources close to the agreement indicate that this NGO would have an OpenAI participation that would exceed 20%. What both were looking for. The long commercial relationship has been beneficial for both parties, but market growth has caused one and another to seek ways to continue growing in the AI ​​market and this agreement blocked them largely. According to sources close to the aforementioned negotiations In axios: Microsoft wanted to continue having access to OpenAi’s technology and products, something logical considering that he reverts them Like your Copilot services. Openai wanted freedom to move forward with his restructuring plans and to reach agreements with other infrastructure providers, as has happened with Oracle this week. A friendly divorce. In recent times it has been seen how both OpenAi and Microsoft have been making movements that were clearly aimed at search for a plan B In the AI ​​race. That was causing a delicate situation that now seems to soften satisfactorily for both companies. In Xataka | The marriage between Openai and Microsoft is broken at times. The problem is that both are still needing

Taiwan urgently needs talent for its chips industry. Surprisingly he is looking for it in summer camps

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TSMC, The biggest chips manufacturer on the planethe goes hunting again year after year to be able to meet his needs. During 2023 recruited 6,000 engineers For its Taiwan facilities, and presumably this trend also remained for 2024. And between 2025 and 2028 it will start Several semiconductor manufacturing plants In the US, Germany, Taiwan and Japan. TSMC is one of the most successful companies in this sector, but with all probability other chips designers and manufacturers will also need to strengthen their templates. Anyway, for Taiwan, its semiconductor industry is strategic for three fundamental reasons: it represents between 13% and 15% of the gross domestic product from the country; It is the engine of its exports with a close value to 40% of the total; And finally, the production of avant -garde chips gives the country a huge relevance from a geostrategic point of view. For this reason for this Asian country it is crucial that TSMC, UMC, Foxconn, MediaTek and its other large technology companies have the workforce they need. One of the strategies that are using some Taiwanese companies or with important businesses in Taiwan to recruit young talent is summer camps and university courses. Its purpose is to capture young people who have the right skills, although, curiously, some of these camps are held abroad for a reason for weight: The birth rate in Taiwan It goes down while, as we have seen, Taiwanese companies that are dedicated to semiconductors need to constantly increase their templates. In Europe, 100,000 more engineers are needed The Taiwanese government supports this strategy. It is fully aware that its main semiconductor companies, especially TSMC and UMC, need a constant supply of well -trained engineers to support their growth. Its current demand cannot be filled only with Taiwanese students, which has led to the NTU (Taiwan National University) to implement A global degree program in semiconductors that precisely seeks to attract foreign students. In Germany a third of the technicians who have developed their work career in the chips industry will retire throughout the next decade In any case, the Taiwan integrated circuit industry is not at all the only one that needs to recruit new talent. During the next five years the global semiconductor industry will need to incorporate nothing less than One million qualified workers. This prognosis is no elucubration; It comes from SEMIan international organization that watches over the interests of the electronics industries and integrated circuits. According to their forecasts Europe will face a deficit of 100,000 engineers, and Asia will need 200,000 qualified technicians. These a priori figures may seem exaggerated, but they are not at all if we consider that for 2024 the chips industry grew by 19.1% compared to 2023 thanks to the demand for GPUs for artificial intelligence (AI) and consumer electronic products, as well as to the expansion of 5G communications throughout the planet and the development of the car market. In 2024 the global semiconductor industry invoiced 627.6 billion dollars. The problem facing semiconductor companies, According to semiis that as many people with technical profile are not being formed in universities as they will need in the short and medium term. In addition, many of the most experienced engineers are retiring or will do so before 2030. As a button shows: in the US a third of employees of integrated circuit companies You have 55 years or more. And in Germany a third of the technicians who have developed their work career in the chips industry will retire throughout the next decade. However, there is another challenge that also compromises the future of these companies: the next batch of engineers will have to have advanced skills in AI and Automatic learning. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be. The machine that will manufacture them is close

Some scientists wanted to count each and every one of the trees in China. Surprisingly, they have achieved it

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China is an immense country, the fourth country with greater extension in the world after Russia, Canada and the United States. The country has a wide variety of ecosystems, some of which house a countless amount of trees. Or almost countless. 142.6 million trees. A new study has estimated the total number of trees in China. The result of the count is 142.6 billion. This implies that the Asian giant has about 100 trees per inhabitant. More than a count. The study not only offers a mere count of the number of trees but also offers us valuable information about its location, density and characteristics of the different types of ecosystems that can be found in China. For example, the team found that the coniferous forests of the temperate areas were the densest in the country, reaching some 720 trees per hectare. The 87.9 billion trees that can be found in this type of environments represent about 60% of the country’s total. A country of contrasts. The forested areas of China are especially concentrated in the south and northeast of the country. The study also analyzed the tree density of the different Chinese hydrographic basins, as well as the different administrative divisions of the Asian country. In view of drone. For the study, the team He turned to Lidar technologyan analogue of the radar that replaces radio waves with light waves. These sensors were mounted in drones to cover 1,400 square kilometers of wooded territory. The result: 400TB of processed data. The methodology used is not exempt from limitations. In dense forest areas, the tree canopy, the upper part of these trees, can overshadow the lidar view, causing smaller trees to be hidden from counting. That is why those responsible for the study believe that this is a conservative estimate of the number of trees in the country’s forests. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Science Bulletin. Protection plans The project will serve to evaluate Chinese environmental conservation plans. Something easy taking into account the magnitude of plans such as “Great green wall” wave “Billion Tree campaign” In Xataka | Leonardo Da Vinci established “The Tree rule” 500 years ago. Now we have discovered that he was wrong Image | Tom Fisk

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