thought

I thought Chinese cars were going to be the new Android. They are actually the new iPhone

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For a few years, the nightmare of European manufacturers has had a specific name: the Android scenario. That Google, or Apple, or Amazon, would turn the car into interchangeable hardware. that the value will migrate to third-party software and they will be reduced to outdated manufacturerslike PC manufacturers in the nineties. That fear has kept them on guard, looking towards Silicon Valley, investing a lot of money in their own connectivity and infotainment systems, trying not to be left out. They’ve been guarding the wrong door. The movement that is happening is not the equivalent of Android. It’s exactly the opposite, at least where it hurts the most: BYD makes its own batteries, your own operating systemand operates its own charging network. Xiaomi does practically the same with HyperOS. The logic is not to create a platform where others monetize but to control every centimeter of the experiencewithout intermediaries. That has a name that we all recognize, and it is not Google. It’s Apple’s. The paradox is that the Android scenario that Europeans feared so much is happening, but it is not being carried out by the big American technology companies, they are building it themselves: European generalists have become what they feared most, without anyone from outside having to impose it on them. What makes the Chinese movement so different is what is noticeable inside the car. Denza, YangWang, Luxeed, Exeed either Xpeng They are brands that three years ago almost no one in Europe even knew about, but that Today they are manufacturing cars with interiors with an attention to detail that is very reminiscent of what happened with the iPhone in 2007.. It wasn’t that the iPhone did more things than the competition (at the time, in fact, it did considerably less than a Nokia). It was that every interaction was thought out, every transition animated, every small gesture had coherence. Rivals had cool features, but Apple had experience that no one matched. Today, sitting in a mid-range or high-end Chinese car and sitting in a German car of the same price is not so much about comparing specifications as it is about comparing philosophies. And the Germans, who are seeing it, are reacting: the new iX3he CLAeither the newly announced i3 They are serious efforts to recover that coherence of experience. But reacting is not the same as taking the initiative. The problem facing the European industry is not that it does not know how to make cars, there is more to it. The thing is that for many years the margin has been captured by those who mastered mechanical engineering, and they learned to optimize exactly that. What they did not learn is that in the 21st century the margin is captured by whoever controls the entire experience: the software, the data, the services, the ecosystem. When they wanted to learn it, they looked at Silicon Valley because there was the model they knew. Until four days ago, no one looked towards Shenzhen, where someone had spent years building something more like Apple than Google: vertical, closed, cohesive, with a speed of iteration that Westerners simply do not have and they already admit it. Nokia also had very good engineers. In Xataka | At 110 km/h and driving every other day: Europe already has its recommendations for the latest oil crisis Featured image | BYD

We thought the marathon was heartbreaking. The largest medical follow-up to date has just settled the debate

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When an amateur runner crosses the finish line after 42 kilometers, his body is on the limit, and so is his heart. This is something that can be seen in a simple analysis where it is seen how the levels of troponin T, one of the warning markers of a heart attack, and evident fatigue in the right ventricle. But in this case the question is obvious: Can doing a marathon kill us? The answer It’s no. This has been demonstrated by an exhaustive study published at the end of 2025 in JAMA Cardiology, which has pointed out that, despite the extreme stress on the heart in the short term, amateur marathon running does not cause long-term cardiac damage. To understand the magnitude of this discovery, we must return to the origin of fear and here recent works, such as those published in Frontiers in Physiology or studies on ultramarathon runners, have documented repeatedly what happens immediately after the race. What has been done. Logically, the effort of doing a marathon at a high level of effort induces morphological and biochemical ventricular changes. The heart here is subjected to a great overload of volume and pressure, releasing proteins that in a patient at rest in the emergency room would set off all the alarms for a possible heart attack. But to draw conclusions, the research has followed the same runners for ten years. The Be-MaGIC project. With this premise, the investigation was not born yesterday, but rather the team took advantage of the historical cohort of this project that originated in the 2009 Munich marathon. In this way, the researchers decided to follow 152 amateur male runners with an initial average age of 43 years. In this way, participants were evaluated before the marathon, after crossing the finish line, one day after, three days after and finally ten years later. To do this, state-of-the-art 3D echocardiography was used and also the analysis of cardiac biomarkers to determine how the ventricles function, which are ultimately the main pumps of the heart. The results. After all these years, studies indicated that, after completing the race, all cardiac function began to be greatly altered with increases in cardiac biomarkers. But this is something that was resolved in the following days until he reached the age of 10 with a completely perfect heart. No scarring of heart tissue, no premature heart failure. Everything is normal, despite the fact that after the race the stress to which he has been subjected is very high and can cause concern. What does this mean? The scientific study confirms that the human heart is an extraordinarily elastic machine. Here, right ventricular dysfunction and troponin release after running 42 kilometers should be interpreted as a transient physiological response to extreme exercise and not as permanent pathological damage. Of course, this doesn’t mean that marathon running is without acute risks, especially for people with underlying or undiagnosed heart conditions. However, for the average amateur runner who trains properly, the science is clear: crossing that finish line will exhaust your body, but it won’t mortgage the future of your heart. Images | Miguel Amutio Kenny Eliason In Xataka | Walking very fast seems the most effective way to lose fat: science knows that the key is to do it with an incline

I thought my kitchen couldn’t fit one more whim. Until they invented the invisible induction hob

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The Spanish we cook less and lessand Roig himself predicts that in a few years there will be no kitchens in the houses. For everyone who thinks otherwise, good news: the induction cooktop industry is progressing at a dizzying pace. The invisible induction. There is a phenomenon going viral on networks such as YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram: the induction invisible. They are in the most literal sense of the word, since they are invisible to the eye and can be placed practically anywhere on the countertop. Although they may seem like a magical solution, these new induction systems have technology that we already know and some important cons to know. How to achieve it. Countertops with invisible induction allow you to cook directly on the countertop surface, without the need for a visible plate. The technology is the same as in a conventional induction hob: a system of electromagnetic coils generates a field that induces electric currents in ferromagnetic materials. The surface of the countertop acquires only the residual heat, the intensity of which will largely depend on the material used in it. Thus, like any other induction system, it is much more complicated to burn yourself compared to a ceramic hob. Novy undercounter induction. The pros. In addition to the design, which allows us to completely forget that we have a plate embedded in the countertop, cleanliness is a very strong point. It is enough to clean our countertop regularly without fear of damaging the plates, since they are under the surface. There is also a gain in surface area, since the plate They are also usually quite easy to control, some of them using wireless controllers, others using a traditional remote control or, as in the case of some Cecotec models, we can choose where to install the visible button panel. The buts. Invisible inductions cannot be installed on any countertop. Brands like Cecotec They sell theirs at a pretty cheap price.recommending porcelain or granite materials that withstand temperatures greater than 400 degrees and with a minimum thickness depending on the model. Invisible Cooking Surface plate. Viewed unassembled it is not so futuristic. Although the companies that market them overlook it, invisible induction has a small counterpart: the heat has to pass through the countertop. This creates a barrier that slightly increases consumption, although as an induction system they are still much more efficient than traditional glass-ceramics. If you are worried about leaving marks over time, for now (these plates have been on the market for a few years, although they are still unknown), no big complaints. The manufacturers assure that the countertop is treated so as not to become marked with use, although it will depend on the care with which we place the pots and pans on it. Go deeper. Repairing this type of hob is also more expensive than traditional induction hobs. Despite this, modular installations are usually used so that they can be replaced without it being necessary to completely change the countertop. If Roig is right and in a few years there will be no kitchens, at least those who resist eat only precooked You can have the most beautiful one. In Xataka | Goodbye to the hood in the kitchen. Hiding it is not enough for Samsung: it has integrated it into its new induction hob

We thought that the heart of the Milky Way was an immense black hole. Mathematics has changed this idea for us

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Science advances, and this also means rewriting what we believed to be ‘absolute truth’ within different fields of knowledge. For example, for decades the scientific consensus has been unwavering in pointing out that in the heart of the Milky Way, about 27,000 light years from Earth, there is a huge supermassive black hole. But now this is not so clear thanks to a new study who has “seen” something even more interesting in this location. Breaking rules. It has been a study published this year the one who has proposed that the “monster” that governs our galaxy is not a black hole, but an ultradense core of dark matter. A compact object of almost four million solar masses that a priori would be composed entirely of fermionic dark matter. How do they know it? To support this bold claim, researchers have used the RAR model. This is very important, since, unlike the classical theory, which separates the central black hole from the halo of dark matter that surrounds the galaxy, this new approach unifies both concepts into one. In this way, it is proposed that dark matter particles are highly concentrated in the galactic center, forming a compact and massive nucleus, while on the outskirts they are diluted, forming the well-known and extensive dark halo. The big question. If it’s not a black hole, why does it “look” like one? And it is something normal that passes through our minds, especially after the year 2022 when the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) gave us the first “photograph” of Sgr A* where a bright ring could be seen surrounding a deep central darkness. And although this could be definitive proof that there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy, this is not the case. This is where previous key work published in 2024 comes into play, which pointed out that a dense core of fermions illuminated by an accretion disk generates a “shadow” visually indistinguishable from that cast by a classical black hole. That is, this dark matter is disguised to be able to deceive our telescopes when taking different measurements. Mathematical tests. In addition to this interesting theory, the scientific team has subjected it to a rigorous statistical examination using complex simulations and Bayesian analyzes to verify its robustness. Here they have shown that this dark matter core perfectly explains, for example, the orbits of the S stars that orbit the galactic center. But this unified model also fits precisely with the most recent data on the galaxy’s outer rotation curve provided by the Gaia DR3 mission. You have to look better. Although the mathematics add up and the model passes the statistical tests with flying colors, dethroning a supermassive black hole from the scientific imagination is not an easy task. And it is somewhat relevant, since the dark matter core lacks an event horizon, which is the absolute gravitational boundary of no return from which any element would be absorbed by the black hole. To know once and for all whether we are dealing with a black hole or a giant ball of dark matter, astronomers are aiming for the next generation of observations. We need to track what happens a little closer to the absolute center and future data of the GRAVITY interferometer (installed on the Very Large Telescope) will be key to detecting the subtle orbital deviations in the closest stars that would end the debate. Images | Dns Dgn BoliviaIntelligent In Xataka | We have a serious problem in our plans to colonize Mars: the astronauts’ blood is mutating

With the arrival of good weather in Ukraine, Russia thought it was a good idea to bring out its hidden tanks. It wasn’t at all

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In 2022, many analysts assumed that tanks would remain the undisputed symbol of land power, but four years later the battlefield has evolved to the point where multi-ton vehicles can be neutralized for systems that fit in a backpack and cost thousands of times less. A return at the worst time. Winter is giving way to spring in Ukraine, and Russia has decided it was time to bring out its armored vehicles again after almost one year of limited useconvinced that she could regain initiative on the front. However, this movement has collided head-on with the current reality of the battlefield: an environment saturated with drones, remote mines and sensors where any concentration of vehicles becomes an almost immediate target. What on paper should have been an offensive reactivation has translated, in its first stages, in massive losses of material, with mechanized attacks that have ended in authentic “massacres” in a matter of minutes. From hiding to exposing yourself. For much of the last year, Russia had chosen to reduce the use of vehicles and advance with small groups of infantry to minimize their exposure. That tactic, although costly in lives, was more difficult to neutralize in a battlefield dominated by drones. But the enormous human wear and tear (with hundreds of thousands of casualties) has forced Moscow to rethink its approach. The return to mechanized attacks is not so much a choice as a necessity: replacing men with machines, even if that means assuming a new type of vulnerability. The Soviet heritage. It we have counted on other occasions. To sustain this change, Russia has begun to turn to its deeper reservesreactivating T-72 tanks from the 1970s and 1980s that remained in storage for years. This movement reveals an important turn in the contest, because it is no longer about deploying the best available, but rather to maintain volume at any price. The Russian military industry is still capable of regenerating units, but increasingly with older materialmore heterogeneous and less adapted to an environment where threats come from above and not from the front. A battlefield that does not forgive armor. The problem from the Moscow sidewalk is that the context has radically changed. Drones, capable of detecting, tracking and attacking vehicles with great precision, have turned mechanized advances into operations andxtremely risky. Added to this are remotely deployed mines and coordinated attacks that turn any movement in a trap. What was once the spearhead of offensives now behaves like a slow, visible and predictable target, especially when deployed in a group. Hit logistics to wear out. In addition, a parallel strategy is added to this direct pressure on the vehicles: the continuous attack to the rear. The Ukrainian coups against fuel tankslogistics nodes and supply centers seek to make any accumulation of armored vehicles on the front meaningless. And without fuel and maintenance, even a large number of vehicles lose operational value. Thus, the Russian problem is not only how many tanks you can deploy, but how long you can keep them functioning in real combat conditions. Accelerate burnout. In short, Russia appears to be trading a depleting resource (the labor) for another that is also beginning to become scarce: his armored legacy of the Cold War. In the short term it may be able to sustain the pressure on the front, but if current losses continue, the material cost can quickly grow to become unsustainable. In that scenario, the return of the tanks It does not seem to represent a return to conventional warfare, but rather a risky bet on a battlefield that has already evolved. faster than them. Image | Telegram In Xataka | Iran is winning the war with “Ukrainian mathematics”: there is no need to shoot down US fighters, it is enough to force them to take off In Xataka | Europe’s fear of an unprecedented situation in the Mediterranean: a Ukrainian drone has left a ticking bomb floating

You thought you went to the library for the silence, but science says that the “co-action effect” is responsible for your concentration.

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When teleworking or studying, you can live a very peculiar situation: Sit at your desk at home, open your laptop and suddenly feel the urgent need to tidy up the table, go to the refrigerator or check Instagram. In the end, do everything possible except do the tasks we have to do and be zero productive. But this is something that can change completely if we go to a library or the officewhere you can achieve three hours of absolute concentration. It has its explanation. It is not magic, nor is it coincidence, since the fact of being very more productive in libraries or in spaces of coworking responds to a fascinating combination of human psychology, interior design and social pressure. The psychology. The most powerful psychological factor operating in a library is what experts call social facilitation. This theory postulates that the mere presence of other people performing a task similar to ours improves our performance in routine or mechanized tasks, since we are forced to have to replicate them. Within this phenomenon, the “co-action effect” stands out, which is basically based on the fact that, when we see dozens of people around us immersed in their books or screens, our brain receives a very clear signal: It’s time to work. This behavioral contagion makes it much easier for us to stay focused and not get distracted. It’s a social comparison. Something that I myself have experienced in this sense is that the thought that one has in these situations is that “If everyone is focused, I should be too.” A simple social comparison that heightens our sense of responsibility and eliminates the temptation to procrastinate to spend some time watching TikTok. Decades of study. The neural bases of social facilitation have been the subject of different studies, highlighting a 2007 meta-analysis in different individuals that confirmed that the social context of “working” directly modulates our performance. Of course, science also suggests that this effect is wonderful for assimilating notes or advancing on known tasks, but it can be harmful if we face extremely complex mathematical or logical problems where the pressure of the environment can block us. The design of the space. Beyond psychology, modern libraries not only store books, but have been designed to have good cognitive comfort for those people who visit to work or study. This is something that evidenced in a 2024 study published in Social Sciences Communications which analyzed the environment of university libraries and how it directly influences student engagement. The conclusions drawn here were that environmental variables such as natural lighting, a controlled noise level, ventilation and the ergonomics of furniture favor positive emotional states that prolong our ability to concentrate. In addition, zoned design, such as absolute silence areas versus group work spaces or modern learning commons, allows the user to “customize” their level of isolation, significantly improving study habits, as supported by science itself. The silent pressure. If it crosses our mind to open a package of crispy chips in the reading or study room of a library, it seems like an easy task, but the pressure of the gazes of the rest of the people present makes us give up in three seconds. Libraries operate under a strict code of rules that act as firewalls against stimuli that can distract us. Being a public and academic space, study-oriented behavior is socially rewarded. On the contrary, activities that we would do at home without thinking, such as having the television on in the background, having the cell phone on, watching a video on YouTube or snacking, are perceived here as unacceptable. That is why these ecosystems force us to limit ourselves. The union in society. Finally, it should be noted that there is an identity component, since by feeling part of a temporary community of people who make efforts in the same physical space, our own academic or professional identity is reinforced. Interestingly, this phenomenon has been extrapolated to coworking spaces, and science has shown that working “alone but together” not only increases time structuring and perceived productivity, but also improves mental and physical health. Even moderate social interaction, such as a glance or a brief greeting at the coffee machine, gives us the necessary social support without becoming the constant source of interruptions that a traditional office or our own home is often. In Xataka | The great little gem of productivity is a very simple method: the “two minute” rule

We thought that 3D printing a gun was already disturbing. Now someone has gone one step further with a homemade guided “missile”

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Talking about 3D printing is no longer just talking about prototypes or industrial environments. In recent years, this technology has been established as a tool available to enthusiasts and creators who can design and manufacture complex objects from home with relative ease. That accessibility has expanded the possibilities of use, but has also opened debates about its limits, especially when it intersects with weapons development. The precedents of 3D printed guns They have been on the table for some time, and now a new project once again pushes that debate into even more delicate terrain. The disturbing jump. What has now put the focus on this issue is a video of just five minutes in which the amateur Alisher Khojayev shows a prototype that is reminiscent, at least in its approach, of portable anti-aircraft missile systems. The project includes a launcher, a projectile and several electronic systems designed to assist in guidance. What does it teach. In practical terms, what Khojayev shows is a set divided into three parts that the creator presents as a coordinated system. The launcher acts as the base of the system, the projectile concentrates a good part of the 3D printed components, and an additional node with a camera can be incorporated to reinforce tracking. How the system is laid out. The architecture proposed by the project is based on linking several devices through a wireless network that coordinates the flow of data. The first step is to connect the launcher with a control computer via WiFi, which analyzes the information received and calculates the trajectory. In a second phase, the projectile becomes part of that network and receives instructions to adjust its orientation using moving surfaces. The system combines ESP32 microcontrollers with sensors such as GPS, barometer, compass and an inertial measurement unit to estimate variables such as speed and position. The cost data. The project is not only presented as a technical demonstration, but also as a low-cost exercise. According to the creator, the entire system can be assembled for about $96 from commercial components and 3D printed parts. That, of course, doesn’t mean that anyone can make something similar at home, not least because such a development would probably be illegal in many parts of the world. But it does leave a broader reading: 3D printing is reducing barriers and costs in a growing variety of projects. Images | Alisher Khojayev In Xataka | We thought that the war in Iran was about missiles. Until Germany has started counting them: it’s about what will happen in May without them

We thought we had an AI bubble. There are powerful arguments that indicate that we were wrong

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You either love AI or hate it. Either you are a (deluded?) optimist, or you are on the bandwagon of skeptics and bet due to an imminent puncture of that AI bubble that everyone talks about. The well-known analyst Ben Thompson has been in the second group for some time and stated that in fact we were in a “good” bubble and beneficial even if it bursts. The annual NVIDIA conference a few days ago has made him change his position, and for him there is no bubble. It doesn’t have just one argument, but three. Or rather, three jumps. The first jump: ChatGPT. The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 was an eye-opener and demonstrated what generative AI could do. That first model, yes, had two serious problems. The first, that he was frequently wrong. The second, that when I didn’t know something, he invented it and hallucinated with astonishing security. That made ChatGPT something awesome but unreliable, like a cool toy that needs constant user supervision to be truly useful. The second leap: reasoning. Almost two years later, another unique revolution occurred in the field of generative AI. In September 2024 OpenAI launched its o1 model and with it there was a spectacular novelty. For the first time, the model did not simply blurt out the first thing that came to mind: he reasoned about his answer before giving it, evaluated whether it was correct, and considered alternatives. The result was an AI significantly more reliable and, therefore, more useful. The price? More computing. AI models with the ability to “reason” consume many more tokens than those that respond directly, and that triggered demand for infrastructure. Or what is the same: data centers. The third jump: the agents. These two revolutions have been joined by the third, that of AI agents. Claude Code and Codex at the end of 2025 showed that AI agents were no longer a promise and became something that really worked. From then on it is possible to give them instructions so that they can then start executing nested tasks that can keep them working for hours. These agents verify their own results and correct errors without the human having to intervene. The difference with what we had before is notable, but it also dismantles the bubble theory. Bubble? In a bubble, Thompson explained, investment exceeds real demand. However, in his opinion, the opposite is true here, because each hyperscaler—Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta—has made it clear that the computing demand is surpassing them, and to solve it they are all announcing astronomical investments in AI data centers. These investments exceed market expectations, but not those of these companies, which like Thompson are clear that in reality the demand is going to end up being so enormous that the current infrastructure will fall very short. Millions of users are not needed. Even more striking in this analysis is another nuance that this analyst points to. Chatbots were supposed to need mass adoption to generate economic impact, but on the other side we have agents, who don’t have that requirement. A single person can control thousands (millions?) of agents simultaneously, creating complex tasks. That means it doesn’t take everyone to use AI for computing demand to skyrocket: enough people just need to use it as they are likely to use it: to create those “one-person businesses” where one human being has thousands of AI employees. Companies will pay. The reality is that the vast majority of consumers are not going to want to pay for AI. Companies do, because they pay for productivity and AI seems start fulfilling that promise. But the argument goes beyond cost savings: agents not only make the work that humans do more efficient, but they allow a small group of people with a clear strategic vision to execute it on a scale that previously required hundreds of employees who also had to be coordinated. Large companies have been adding layers of management necessary to scale for decades, but all that hierarchy disappears with agents. But. This analyst is also clear that the wave of layoffs is going to be increasingly evident and it is evident that AI is going to have a clear impact. However, he explains that many of these current layoffs correspond more to the overemployment experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic. What will happen now is that companies will no longer wonder if they hired too much for the “pre-AI” world, but rather if they hired too much for the “post-AI” world. In fact, those that don’t ask will probably end up competing with smaller rivals, built from the ground up with AI and with radically lower cost structures. For him two things are clear. The first is that the demand for computing will not stop growing. The second, that the bubble, if it exists —and according to him, the answer is that he doesn’t—, it’s not going to explode. In Xataka | His dog had cancer, his vets had no solutions and he found an mRNA vaccine elsewhere: ChatGPT

We thought matcha tea was just an internet fad. Science has seen that it “hacks” our brain against allergies

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He matcha tea is beginning to be a standardized drink among many people who need get up with one in your handslike those of us who need coffee to wake up. Something that has also been accompanied by the opening of a large number of establishments specialized in its production. And although for many people it may seem like a joke or an expensive fad promoted by internet gurus and people closest to Eastern countries, the truth is that it has a large number of benefits that do not stop growing. Its component. Matcha tea hides a biochemical profile that far exceeds that of conventional green teaand the key lies in how it is grown and consumed. Precisely by ingesting the whole powdered leaf, we get a very high concentration of EGCG (epigallocatechin gelato), L-theanine and caffeine. Its benefits. One of the most important is that we are facing a great antioxidantand in this way studies suggest that matcha drastically reduces oxidative stress and key inflammatory markers such as IL-6. In fact, in some trials, its ability to restore cellular homeostasis exceeds that of vitamin C. Additionally, the synergy between caffeine and L-theanine is the real productivity “trick.” Daily consumption has been shown to moderate fatigue and improve spatial learning and, in addition, upregulates the brain-derived neurotrophic factorwhich enhances memory without altering the sleep cycle. Metabolic impact. In high-fat diet models, matcha suppresses weight gain and fat accumulation in the liver. In humans, trials show better glycemic control and an improvement in the lipid profile, lowering ‘bad’ cholesterol (bad in many quotes) and raising good cholesterol. Its role in allergies. As if all this were not enough, a recent study published at the beginning of this month of March has put an unexpected finding on the table: matcha can be an ally against allergic rhinitis. Something that is welcomed with open arms right this spring where a very tough allergic season is expected. In this case, the team led by Osamu Kaminuma, from Hiroshima University, administered oral doses of matcha of 250 mg/kg to sensitized mice. The result was a significant suppression of allergen- and histamine-induced sneezing. Its mechanism. Here matcha did not alter the traditional immune system, which is the one that detects an allergen as an ‘enemy’ and wants to eliminate it at all costs. What it did was suppress neuronal activity in the brain stem, directly blocking the sneeze reflex on a neurological level. Although confirmatory trials in humans are still lacking, and it opens the door to fascinating non-pharmacological clinical use. There are several types. Not all matchas are the same, and you should always opt for the ceremonial quality grade, since it is first harvest, stone ground, bright green in color and with a large amount of antioxidants. In addition, authentic Japanese origin guarantees quality, and you should also avoid those that have been industrially processed. Images | Jason Leung In Xataka | The tea that was born to stop time now runs against it: the matcha crisis in Japan

OpenAI thought putting an erotic mode on ChatGPT was a good idea. His wellness advisors call him “a sexy suicide coach”

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Treat adults like adults. This is how Sam Altman announced OpenAI’s decision to allow a “adult mode” on ChatGPT to have erotic conversations. It makes economic sense since it will be a paid function, but the doubts from an ethical point of view are also there. In fact, it has been the company’s own wellness team that has been against this product, causing its launch to be delayed. Internal opposition. In an exclusive Wall Street Journalsay that earlier this year, OpenAI consulted with its board of wellness experts about ChatGPT’s adult mode and the response was unanimous: it’s a terrible idea. At a meeting, experts warned that these types of interactions with AI can foster emotional dependency, especially among younger users. One of the committee members brought up the topic of teenagers who committed suicide, allegedly encouraged by ChatGPTand said it would be like launching a “sexy suicide coach.” Demolishing. Risks. People are already forming emotional bonds with AI chatbotsif we add sexual content to the one that has the most users in the world, it is, to say the least, delicate. According to internal documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the wellness council’s experts identified several problems, such as the risk of compulsive use, a tendency toward extreme content, and the displacement of real romantic relationships in favor of virtual ones. Age verification. Is the crucial step that ensures that such a tool does not end up in the hands of minor users. The problem OpenAI has is that its verification system fails more than a fairground shotgun. According to internal sources, the system failed to identify 12% of the time. It may seem like a relatively low figure, but in practice we are talking about millions of teenagers accessing this function. What OpenAI says. The company wants us to be able to ‘sext’ with ChatGPT, but with certain limits. An OpenAI spokesperson says they will block harmful content – such as sexual and child-related abuse -, will integrate safeguards such as reminding users to have relationships in the real world, and will also avoid encouraging exclusive relationships. Another measure involves monitoring the long-term effect that this adult mode has on users. Adult mode will be exclusively text and will not allow the creation of images or videos. Regarding age verification, the spokesperson states that the performance is similar to that of other industry proposals and that “they will never be totally infallible.” It was planned for the first quarter, but now that it has been postponed there is no date for its launch. Background. OpenAI already has a history of accusations related to harmful effects on mental health. One of the most famous cases It was Adam Raine’sa teenager who shared his suicidal ideations with ChatGPT. When his parents discovered the conversations, They sued OpenAI. And he hasn’t been the only one. There is several legal proceedings underway for similar cases and there have also been cases where ChatGPT has been accused of encourage delusional thoughts and cause psychotic breaks. Saying that AI is solely responsible is simplify a much more complex realitybut it is no less true that OpenAI has taken steps to make its chatbot more secure for minors and has been shown committed to taking care of the mental health of its users. That is, they recognize that the problem exists. The question now is how launching a version of the same chatbot that has sex with users fits into this discourse. In Xataka | “I can’t stop”: the addiction to talking to AI is already here and there are even support groups to quit it Image | Cottonbro studio, Pexels

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