threatens

a JF-17 that threatens the US F-35

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After 20 years of research, development and volatilizing banknotes, the United States declared in 2019 that the F-35 fighter was “ready for combat and ready to win“It is the most expensive fighter in history ($100 million per unit, $400,000 just for the pilot’s helmet), but also a very advanced machine. One that is costing the US the combat drone raceone that not liked in Europe and that, as we say, it’s terribly expensive. And, in troubled waters, China has seen an opportunity. That of converting the JF-17 fighters into their “new” electric cars. In short. Following Israel’s attacks on Doha last year, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defense agreement. Within the agreement, there are billions on the table both to arm itself and to meet certain commitments. And, within that strategy, from Reuters They point to a historic agreement between both countries. The JF-17 is a Chinese-Pakistani development. The program was launched in 1999 and each country contributed 50% to its achievement. It has been demonstrating its versatility in combat for some time and in recent years, different countries have acquired a fleet of fighters. Myanmar was one of the first foreign buyers, followed by Nigeria and Azerbaijan. In recent weeks, it has been Bangladesh that has shown interested in renewing its aging fleet, but its customer base continues to grow. They don’t even play the same sport. In the Reuters report, and as they also point out in South China Morning PostSaudi Arabia would be the next country to acquire the latest version of the JF-17. The sources mention an agreement that would be between 2,000 and 4,000 million dollars, and is point that there would be other nations interested, such as Iraq, Libya or Sri Lanka. The key is the price: a quarter of what the American F-35 costs. In addition, the burden is also shared between China, which manufactures a number of components, and Pakistan, which takes care of the others. That price is the lever for the countries of the Middle East and Africa to modernize their fighter fleet, but it must be taken into account that the JF-17 do not compete in the same league as the F-35. In fact, they don’t even play the same sport. While the Chinese-Pakistani fighter is fourth generation, the American one is fifth, with better features and a minor signature in the airallowing it to be more efficient in stealth operations. It responds to a philosophy of winning combats before the enemy finds out that it has started. The gift of opportunity. However, despite the technological inferiority, the Chinese fighter has the advantage of weapons (more weight to carry more weapons, compromising its signature on radars) and, above all, the price and the costs. The United States is fighting with time when it comes to delivering its F-35s and, furthermore, maintaining them is expensive. The JF-17 is easier to manufacture and maintain, which is a huge advantage for countries. The estimate is that, for the price of two F-35s, you buy a dozen JF-17s. and this is a huge opportunity for African and Eastern countries that want to renew their fleet with current equipment. It is that gift of opportunity from China that we are seeing in other segments, such as the electric car. Frying pan by the handle. This battle to be the supplier of weapons is not only played in the finished and delivered products. It starts much earlier, and China has a say in those F-35 trade delays. The complexity of the fighter implies that its manufacturing is complex, but movements resulting from another war must be added: the commercial. The key components of a fighter depend on materials derived from rare earthand China is the one who has the upper hand in that field. They dominate exploitation and production of metals and elements from rare earths, and in the same way that The US tightened the screws prohibiting China from purchasing Nvidia GPUs and ASML machines to make advanced chips, China activated the lever to regulate the export of magnets and rare earth metals to companies linked to the United States military complex. A J-20 with PL-15 missiles inside the weapons bay Tensions. It is these factors that are turning a less advanced aircraft than the F-35 into an attractive option, but above all practical for the tense times in which we find ourselves. Pakistan and India are in a spiral of geopolitical tensions. India has Russian MIG and French Rafale aircraft, and now the JF-17 has PL-15 missiles Chinese manufacturing. They are China’s most advanced fighter missiles, with an effective range of about 150 km and systems capable of pursuing targets with ease. And, although they were developed for the fighter Fifth generation J-20 (one of the china air banners), can be mounted on the JUF-17. In fact, the current JF-17 is the Block III, considered 4.5 generation. It is the philosophy of the very veteran F-16. If the conflict escalates, there is someone point that a war between India and Pakistan would be a test of Chinese weapons against Western ones. And Europe… what? This is what you may be wondering: what is Europe doing while the others rearm. The old continent has embarked on the path of sovereignty in several fields, being the spaceman and the weapons two important pots of money for the coming years. As for fighters, there are two poles. On the one hand, the FCAS, with French, German and Spanish support. They are three heavyweights in this industry and they have the aim to reach 2040 with a system capable of replacing current fighters. On the other hand, Italy and the United Kingdom (two other powers with companies like Leonardo), as well as Japan, support the GCAP program: a support aircraft that coordinates formations of drones and other fighters. Although before all that, the countries will have to agree, and It’s not something that seems feasible.. Images | Anna Zvereva, emperornie In Xataka | The … Read more

The clash between a polar front and the Atlantic threatens Twelfth Night

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Just a few hours away from closing 2025, all eyes are already on the weather at the beginning of January and especially on Three Kings Day. after seeing that New Year’s Eve will be quiet. And although there is still room for change, current models already suggest a drastic change in weather with a general drop in temperatures and a large amount of snow spread across the peninsula. The model. The last installment that we have the European model of the ECMWF proposes a scenario of great instability for January 4 and 5, 2026, with snowfall that could reach unusual levels and affect a large part of the center and northeast of the peninsula. Something that is already being shared on social networks by accounts specialized in meteorology. A situation of great instability that would respond to the entry of a cold front of polar origin and the arrival of Atlantic storms loaded with humidity. Two factors that when they collide are the perfect ingredient for widespread snowfall. Although there is still room for this to change, since reliability is low for periods longer than five days. The position of the AEMET. The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) maintains a much more conservative position. In its special prediction for this Christmas, the agency confirms that the beginning of 2026 will be colder than normal, especially due to the arrival of the storm Francis. This will leave rain starting on January 1 in the Canary Islands and starting on Friday the 2nd it will affect the west of the peninsula. From here, what is expected is that on January 4 there will be strong northerly winds and a generalized thermal drop. But from day 5 there is a “high uncertainty.” Although the models indicate persistent low temperatures, the agency does not currently confirm snowfall at low levels that could turn Three Kings Night white. Fifth anniversary. It is impossible to ignore the psychological component of this forecast, since this coming January marks five years of Filomena. That is why at this time it is easy to look at the maps with a little more disbelief in case there are signs of something similar, although at the moment nothing similar is confirmed. For now wait. With all this, the most prudent thing is to wait until this Twelfth Night approaches to have clear conclusions, especially in view of the different parades that leave in different parts of Spain that can be threatened by adverse weather, but that can always change up to at least 48-72 hours before. Images | TheWeather In Xataka | La Niña is going to be meteorologically “less intense” than we expected. And that actually hides a problem.

The runaway price of RAM threatens more expensive phones than ever. And that’s not even the biggest problem

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Neither the car nor the house, the new indicator that someone is good pasta is the RAM memory that you have available. The RAM crisis is extremea price increase planned for 2026 that will hit the entire industry. Such is the seriousness of the matterthere are already those who predict that the manufacturers of telephones are considering returning to figures of the past: the 4 GB of unified RAM for smartphones of the next year. Samsung has doubled the price of DDR5 RAM after running out of stock, a movement that completely threatens the entire smartphone industry. And no, RAM is not just an element to ensure the fluidity of the mobile phone and efficient multitasking: RAM is a pillar on which the advancement of technology itself depends. How to know the components of your PC (RAM, Graphics, CPU…) and the state they are in The rise in prices. In just six months, RAM prices have skyrocketed between 100% and 400%. Giants like Samsung and SK Hynix are allocating around 40% of its resources to supply RAM to Stargatethe OpenAI infrastructure. Consequence: the RAM market has entered a valley of scarcity. The 4 GB of RAM. There are clear pillars for not recommending a phone even to my worst enemy: That it does not have good update support. That has a processor that can’t handle basic apps. That has less than 6 GB of RAM There are already those who predict that 4 GB of RAM will return in 2026a significant leap back even for entry-level devices, where 6GB of RAM was starting to become the standard. What they didn’t tell you about RAM. Advances in RAM go far beyond basic performance in multitasking and everyday apps. RAM memory is one of the vital organs of any smartphone, and the advances in it are what have allowed us, today, to have smartphones that are much more capable than those of years ago. Local AI processing– Without sufficient RAM, it is not possible to run local AI models. He iPhone 15 is the best example. Photographic quality: functions such as processing HDRcomputational zoom, and even the processing of the photograph itself (subsequently processed RAW data) depend largely on the mobile phone’s ability to move all that data in RAM. Exactly the same applies to video recording. Multi-window and multitasking: Multitasking is not just about not having a heavy game crash while you browse in Chrome. It’s that Google Maps can run in the background without slowing down your phone, that YouTube can run in mode PiP (window), that your keyboard is capable of managing translations and corrections in real time in any heavy app, etc. Gaming experience: We usually focus on CPU and GPU when thinking about a mobile phone capable of running a heavy game, but RAM is essential to avoid microcuts, speed up loading times despite having open apps, and ensure that the game will not close in the middle of a game. The consequences. We have been complaining for the last few years that there is hardly any real progress in smartphones and that, perhaps, we are close to their peak. But there are nuances in this interpretation. We have never had humble mobile phones with AI implementation, the ability to move triple A games on budget devicesand such a positive experience in practically any product range. The RAM crisis is a major brake on the advancement of upcoming proposals, and may make it more than likely that some 2026 phones will end up performing worse than their predecessors. There is no solution in sight. DDR5 RAM, although it has been on the market since SK Hynix released it in 2020is not common in entry-level proposals. DDR4 RAM is still the standard here and, unfortunately, so is its price. has been increasing by close to 200% in recent months. More expensive RAM, more expensive mobile phones or mobile phones with less RAM. Image | Xataka In Xataka | How to know how much RAM you have and what type it is, in Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux

China is not only eating the West in electric cars or televisions. It also threatens Starbucks

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New York is so damn big that it would be logical that the news of the opening of two coffee shops would pass unnoticed. After all, the city that never sleeps is full of places where one can taste (or pick up) a lattecappuccino, macchiato or any other coffee variation that comes to mind. The opening of the first two Luckin Coffee stores a few months ago in the Big Apple was however sneaked into media such as CNN either The New York Times and has inspired analysis of all kinds out of the country. Logical. After all, in just a few years Luckin Coffee has achieved bend your pulse to Starbucks in China. Now, for his landing in New York, he has chosen a place located barely 60 meters from one of their cafes. What is Luckin Coffee? If its name doesn’t sound familiar to you, don’t worry, it’s more than understandable: Luckin is a coffee shop chain founded in 2017 in China by Jenny Qian and Charles Lu and since then its expansion has focused mainly on the Asian giant. In 2023 he achieved a key milestone by surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee brand in China and in recent years it has not stopped growing: from close to 16,200 stores that it had that year in China (more than double that of its American rival) has gone on to manage more than 20,000 in several countries. In July the company spoke of 24,097 points of sale spread across mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. During the first quarter of 2025 alone, it launched 1,757. After taking over the Chinese market, a few months ago the company announced his landing in America with two stores in Manhattan and Washington Square Park, an area popular with students. “This is just the beginning. New York, we are here,” warned Luckin in networks. Is it that important? The landing of Luckin Coffee in the US market has generated expectation inside and outside the country. Normal. Your surprise Starbucks in China in 2023 (both in sales and number of stores) had a symbolic value that goes far beyond the numbers. To begin with, because the Asian giant is one of the big markets of the American multinational. Starbucks has also been established in the country for some time: it opened its first establishment in Beijing in 1999, contributing greatly to establish coffee culture in a nation that has traditionally opted for tea. That’s why Luckin’s jump to the US has generated so much interest. How has it succeeded? With a bet well defined. At least until now, Luckin Coffee’s strategy has been based on three pillars. First, a dizzying expansion focused on gaining market share. Second, the user experience. Customers manage their orders directly through an app and in just a few minutes they can collect their orders at the counter, without any human interaction. The mobile application is not only dynamic; It allows the company to retain its customers by using discounts, bonuses and gamification. The third bet is a wide offer and, above all, affordable prices. During its landing in the US, the Chinese chain has decided to launch aggressive discounts that leave its coffees in less than two dollars, considerably below of what Starbucks charges for its drinks in the Big Apple. In fact there is who points that the American multinational’s strategy to stand up to its Chinese rival will be to move in the opposite direction: if Luckin focuses on app orders and low prices, Starbucks has proposed eliminate the premises of their network that only accept orders via app and for pickup due to their low “warmth”. The idea: return to the origin, to the traditional cafeteria experience. Does it only happen with Luckin? No. In fact Luckin is just one of many Chinese tea chains, hot potsdrinks… that are landing in the US to compensate for the changes in the Chinese market. How he slid TNWT in a recent analysis On the subject, there they find an excess of supply and an economy weighed down by the real estate crisis and weakened consumption, which leads them to look to the other side of the Pacific. One of the threats that its US competitors face is that this leap comes with aggressive tariffs. Gaining a foothold in the US market will not be easy. The Luckin case is a clear example. It has just opened its first stores in New York, but in front of it it has almost 17,000 establishments that Starbucks manages in the US. If the Chinese chain has demonstrated something, however, it is its resistance. In fact, it has managed to overcome the serious crisis it experienced in 2020, when an accounting scandal left it on the edge of the abyss. Since then it has not only managed to recover and grow. Now aspire to quote again in the USA. Images | Xataka In Xataka | China has just beaten the United States in the most unexpected fight: that of branded coffee shops

“Tourismphobia” threatens to thwart Spain’s tourism boom. In Andalusia they have decided to nip it in the bud

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That tourism is a millionaire business It doesn’t have much discussion. Which is a sensitive sector in which it is terribly easy die of successneither. We are seeing it in Japan, where the avalanche of foreigners is encouraging a growing tourismphobia that already permeates the political sphere. In Spain the situation is somewhat different, but the record of travelers is also encouraging demonstrations against overcrowding, some as high-profile as the one that killed residents of Barcelona shooting with water guns to the vacationers on the terraces. In Andalusia they have decided to tackle the problem at its roots. “The Andalusian Treatment”. The Government of Andalusia just launched a tourist campaign, “The Andalusian Treatment”. The person in charge of presenting it was the advisor of the branch, Arturo Bernal, who explained its key points to representatives of the sector and the media. So far exceptional. The curious thing is that in this case the campaign does not seek to attract more visitors or open new markets. Its objective is to give certain guidelines to tourists and “raise awareness” about the sector. In the words of Bernalestablish “a contract of coexistence between the Andalusian and the visitor.” What does that mean? That the Andalusian Government wants to eliminate any hint of tourismphobia and insist on the importance of locals and tourists “coexisting” in the same territory. The statement launched by the Board leaves little doubt in this regard: although it is not excessively long, that word (“coexistence”) is repeated over and over again along with others such as “respect” or “responsibility.” Hence, during his presentation on Tuesday, Bernal asked his countrymen to join the “Andalusian Treaty” to achieve “tourism that reflects the best of our land and projects a future of opportunities for all.” He also spoke of “responsible tourism” and even turning the community into “an example of how a territory can welcome the world without losing its essence.” From theory to practice. The Board’s intention is to deploy the campaign through media and “innovative media” (it does not specify which ones) that allow it to be brought to visitors in the busiest points of the region. Its key piece is a video of two minutes in which tourists are encouraged to bet on local businesses and products, get to know the region beyond its large cities or respect the rest of locals and their right to enjoy spaces such as beaches. In total, the pact is articulated in eight points, including one that asks tourists to use water responsibly. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Tourism: side A and B. It is no coincidence that the Andalusian Government launches a campaign with that focus now, just when Spain registers a record flow of foreign tourists and aspires to become the most visited country of the planet, even ahead of France. The problem is that as the influx of tourists grows, so does the tension it exerts on commerce, transportation or (above all) housing, where the appearance of tourists is encouraged. vacation rentals. One word: tourismphobia. The result of this tension is a feeling of rejection towards mass tourism, a phenomenon that the Board knows well. In 2023 he published a report in which he already recognized that, although the majority of Andalusians agree that tourism is an economic engine, the sector must think about how it wants to grow in the future. “The excessive influx, especially of the most disruptive visitors, causes problems of coexistence, noise, dirt and incidents.” The report It goes further and leaves two warnings. First, the risk that the avalanche of tourists will saturate municipal infrastructure and resources. Second, an excess of visitors can end up degrading the quality of the destination. It’s nothing new. I warned about a similar risk not long ago a study from the Malaga City Council and in fact there are guides that they are already advising against visit certain saturated destinations in Spain, such as Mallorca or Barcelona. Beyond paper. Beyond the reports, the tensions generated by mass tourism can also be seen in the streets. Over the last few months, cities like Malaga, Seville, Palm, San Sebastian either Barcelona They have registered demonstrations by residents who are crying out against the saturation of their cities and the effect that this has (especially) on the residential rental market. Of all of them, perhaps the most media-worthy is the one that was held last year in Barcelona, ​​where a group of neighbors shot tourists in the street with water guns, an image captured by media around the world. There are billions of euros at stake. According to data managed by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, only during the first ten months of the year have international visitors spent their time in Spain more than 118,000 million of euros, 7% more than in 2024. If we talk about Andalusia, during the same period the community received a record of 12.9 million of foreign tourists who accumulated an expenditure of approximately 18,000 million euros. Images | Chris Boland (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a reason why Vigo is announcing its Christmas in Japan. And it has little to do with Japanese tourists

Something has gone wrong in the European automotive industry. The conflict over Nexperia already threatens to paralyze factories

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The European automotive industry is beginning to tighten. Manufacturers have received a clear signal that something is not right: Nexperia, one of the main chip suppliers, can no longer guarantee deliveries. Sector associations warn that the room for maneuver is very limited. This is not a technical problem or a strike, but rather the chain effect of an international dispute that threatens to affect the very foundations of a key industry for the Old Continent. It was on October 16 when the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) officially warned of possible production stoppages if the Nexperia supply interruption was not resolved immediately. According to ACEA, the affected chips are used in electronic control units and current inventories will only last a few weeks. The turning point: a blacklist. At the end of September there was a movement that many in the sector identify as the trigger for the current crisis. The United States Bureau of Industry and Security updated his List of Entities to extend restrictions to subsidiaries controlled by already sanctioned companies. Nexperia, owned by Wingtech, thus fell under the scope of the measures. Since then, tensions have accelerated: The Dutch Government intervened in the company and China responded by blocking the export of certain components. Now, Nexperia’s role in the automotive industry is less showy than that of the large chip manufacturers, but essential. Its chips are integrated into electronic modules and control units (ECUs) of many of the vehicles produced in Europe. The company, based in the Netherlands and with a strong presence in Asia, is characterized by its volume and reliability. Precisely for this reason, the inability to maintain deliveries has ignited both sides of the supply chain. The impact in Europe. Initial warnings have been transformed into contingency plans. ACEA calls for a coordinated response between European authorities and the affected countries, aware that the supply chain is going through a delicate point. In Germany, CNBC points outVolkswagen has formed a special team to evaluate possible risks and keep communications open with its suppliers. One of Nexperia’s facilities in Guangdong The company tries to gain margin with a new supplier. “We have an alternative supplier that could compensate for Nexperia’s lack of semiconductors,” explained to Handelsblatt Christian Vollmer, responsible for Production of the VW brand. According to the media, conversations with that company have been underway for weeks. Although the discovery gives some oxygen, the transition will not be immediate and the risk of interruptions remains on the table. The group assures that, for now, there is no operational impact, but they admit that the scenario could change in the short term. The echo crosses the Atlantic. Concern has also reached the United States. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which brings together manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen, called for a quick resolution of the conflict. Its CEO, John Bozzella, warned Reuters that if chip shipping “does not resume soon,” auto production “will be affected in the United States and other countries.” Some companies in the group recognize that their plants could notice the impact starting next month. Japan takes positions before the coup. Japan is also bracing for impact. The Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) explained that its members have received notifications from Nexperia warning of supply interruptions. According to the organization, the affected chips are part of the control systems of numerous models and their shortage could have consequences for global production. Mitsubishi Electric, which has had agreements with Nexperia since 2023, assured that it is already studying substitutes. A geopolitical board that is already sneaking onto the assembly line. The Nexperia case is no longer understood only as an industrial problem. The intervention of the Dutch Government and the confrontation with its Chinese subsidiary have turned the company into the new point of friction between Europe, Beijing and Washington. The Netherlands justified its decision by the need to protect the strategic supply of semiconductors, while China defended that its subsidiary acts in accordance with local legislation. At the center of the dispute, Nexperia is trying to maintain its activity under two increasingly opposing regulatory frameworks. The factories are on guard. The next few weeks will be decisive in measuring the real scope of the conflict. Manufacturers adjust their inventories and review alternative suppliers, while sector associations maintain diplomatic pressure to unblock the situation. From Sweden, Volvo Cars CEO Håkan Samuelsson explained to the Financial Times thatalthough his company, owned by the Chinese group Geely, does not face immediate problems, “there will be some factories that will have to stop.” He believes that the key is to react quickly and apply the lessons learned from the semiconductor crisis during the pandemic. Images | Nexperia | Caesar Salazar In Xataka | I also carried the bike in the car anyway. Until the DGT reminded me that it could fine me 200 euros

The border between Morocco and Algeria was closed in 1994. 30 years later, the fight threatens to claim its most unexpected piece: the date

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A strong, dry, accurate blow is enough. Only one, in the center of the chest. When this happens, the diaphragm contracts violently and the body exhales all the air it has inside: the person is temporarily unable to inhale. That is exactly what happened to the international date market on October 10, 2025: it was left breathless. And the reason was a misunderstanding. That and a very long diplomatic conflict that always ends up affecting Spain. What has happened? October 10. The advice of GIDattes (the Tunisian interprofessional date group) published a statement in which the start of exports was announced of dates. Business as usual, really. But they added a clarification that set off all the alarms: “to all markets except the Moroccan one.” In a matter of hours, everyone interpreted that Tunisia was vetoing the export of these fruits to the west. October 13 and 14. Given the widespread noise and uncertainty in the sector, the GIDattes He clarified that there was no type of exclusion. Simply put, as it is the main export market, These required a special calendar that would be approved on October 20. October 19, 20 and 21. But it was too late, the Moroccan employers’ associations and producer groups had smelled blood. For the first time in years, there was a 20% chance (19.7% in 2024) of the dates consumed by the country would disappear from the equation: the profits for local producers would be enormous. October 21. After the meeting on the 20th, the Tunisian press reported that there would indeed be exports to Morocco at the end of October: “like every year“. What does Algeria have to do with all this? Moroccan farmers have gone directly to where it hurts most: they have accused Tunisian dates of be Algerian. It is, moreover, a classic accusation of the Moroccan countryside. Something that no one can completely rule out (due to the traditional traceability deficits of the Maghreb), but that no one really takes seriously. Although it is not going through its best moment, Tunisia is a giant in the world of dates. He doesn’t need Algeria at all. But Algeria is a sensitive issue in the western end of North Africa. A little context. The historical enmity between Morocco and Algeria can be traced back to the very independence of these territories: border disputes ended up leading to the War of the Sands of 1963 and, above all, in the Algerian support for the Polisario Front in Western Sahara. In 94, an attack in Marrakech (in which two Spaniards died) caused a diplomatic conflict that closed the enormous land border between both countries. They have not been reopened and, in fact, in 2021, diplomatic and commercial relations they are broken. Suffice it to say that, if the accusations of the Moroccan producers are confirmed, the Tunisian date would disappear from the markets of the Alawite state. Why is all this so important? This has had an impact on the international date market because, although Tunisia is in the doldrums (and Saudi Arabia has overtaken it in recent years) it is still the second country in date exports. A decision such as that of vetoing the largest importer of dates in the world, Morocco, would have caused a violent restructuring of commercial networks around the globe. To all this we must add a key fact: the third country in date exports, Israel. Today (with or without a peace agreement) no one knows exactly what will happen to the tens of thousands of tons that the Hebrew country puts on the market each year. And that, logically, generates even more uncertainty. The important thing is in the details. In dates, for example. In recent days Steve Witkof and Jared Kushner (Trump’s special envoys) revealed that they were working to reach an agreement between Morocco and Algeria that would solve the Sahara issue. It is quite possible: the US president’s obsession with ‘ending all the world’s wars’ may have put a conflict like this in the spotlight. One, furthermore, that involves a traditional ally of Washington. However, dates show us that everything is more complicated than it seems. Is the delicate balance of the Mediterranean about to be blown up? We will see it in the coming months. Image | In Xataka | Morocco holds a new record: being the African country with the highest growth of millionaires in the last decade

The case of mathematics shows that the hype threatens to explode in their faces

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A group of OpenAI researchers claimed to have “found solutions to 10 previously unsolved Erdös problems, and progress has been made on 11 others.” The statement seemed to indicate that GPT-5 had made an important qualitative leap in the field of mathematics, but the reality was very different. In fact, it all turned out to be an exaggeration that may harm OpenAI’s reputation going forward. what has happened. The OpenAI engineers’ claim was promising, but exaggerated. The original message from Mark Selke, one of them, was added to those of other researchers such as Boris Power—who he apologized after realizing that they had screwed up—or Sebastian Bubeck—who also ended up modifying the tweet and acknowledged the error—. The original tweet seemed to make it clear that GPT-5 had managed to solve several of the famous Erdös mathematical problems. I hadn’t really solved them. GPT-5 served to find solutions. The mathematician Thomas Bloom, who is precisely in charge of managing the website where all these open problems are managed, quickly clarified the situation. As explained on X/TwitterOpenAI’s claims were “a dramatically misinterpretation.” When he talks about “open” problems on the website, what he means is that he doesn’t know the solution, not that the problem has not been resolved. The only thing GPT-5 did was find recent research and studies that Bloom had not found. Here we must say that AI has managed to make striking mathematical advances recently: Meta AI, for example, managed to generalize the Lyapunov function. Demis Hassabis and Yann LeCun criticize OpenAI. Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, indicated in X that this event had been “shameful”, while Yann LeCun, one of the top AI managers at Meta, highlighted how OpenAI had believed its own hype sales message with the message “Hoisted by their own GPTards”, which plays on GPT and “tards” (a suffix derived from “retards”), in reference to the gullible expectations that OpenAI usually sells. Expectations are everything. Although OpenAI researchers and engineers admitted their mistake, what we see here is a dangerous pattern: one in which even the company’s own employees—or the enthusiasts who follow it—can end up falling victim to those expectations. It is very likely that internally the pressure to achieve great advances with their models is enormous, but that can lead to oversights and exaggerations like this that can cost the company’s reputation dearly. GPT-5 didn’t do badly at all. Although the role of GPT-5 in this process was exaggerated, what must be recognized is that this model demonstrated its ability to become a very valuable assistant for researchers. Thus, this AI model can search the Internet and scientific study libraries in a very powerful way, and can “find solutions” already published where academics had not yet seen them when trying to solve related problems. Research assistant. For mathematician Terence Tao, this is precisely a very striking element of these AI models: they may not solve the most complex mathematical problems, but can speed up tedious tasks such as those of the search for academic literature that helps solve them. For this expert, AI can help “industrialize” mathematics and act as a catalyst or “lubricant” for mathematicians’ hypotheses and theories. But this is important. OpenAI is a machine for creating expectations, and its CEO, Sam Altman, does not hesitate to make vague and impossible to verify promises to attract more interest in his generative artificial intelligence models. A year ago promised that the AGI would arrive “in a few thousand days”something that sounds like one of those “Musk’s promises”. risky bet. In recent weeks we have seen how OpenAI has reached unique circular financing agreements with NVIDIA, amd either Broadcom to create data centers, but the reality is that all these projects focus on one promise: that AI will be a fundamental part of our lives sooner rather than later. That can happen, of course, but if it doesn’t, the domino effect can be an absolute catastrophe given the tens of billions of dollars invested in such projects. Image | Vitaly Gariev In Xataka | If the question is whether there is an AI bubble, Sam Altman has just given the answer. One with which he wins

China’s biggest problem is not the US. It is a “virus” that advances at an unprecedented speed and threatens to empty its factories

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In September, and in front to a data offered by the United Nations that put the future of the Chinese economy in check, Beijing defended itself with an opportunity for the future: the AI. In between, it remained to be seen who was right. Because the main problem of the economy that pull the strings of the planet are pure mathematics applied to a near and most uncertain future. One that indicates that, sooner rather than later, its population will to plummet. Against oneself. The demographic crisis that shakes China today is, to a large extent, the result of a policy that worked too well: the birth control campaign begun in the seventies and crystallized in the policy of only child 1979. What began as a state intervention to contain population growth that was considered unsustainable ended up shaping behaviors, expectations, and family structures for generations. Sterilizations, fines and forced abortions not only birth numbers reducedbut they inhibited the cultural habit of mass reproduction, and when the State began to relax the rules (allowing two children in 2016 and three in 2021) the social response was no longer the same: the fertility rate fell from 1.77 children per woman in 2016 up to 1.12 in 2021and the timid incentive measures have barely reversed the curve. The real cost of breeding. Behind the numbers there are everyday decisions. The economic calculation of starting a family in China is, as in so many other places, considerable: studies estimate that raising a child from birth to the end of their college education can cost on average about $75,000and in cities like Shanghai that figure shoots up to approximately $140,000. These prices, together with long work daysmarket expensive housing and professional expectations, explain why many young people (especially women) they choose not to have children. Surveys and testimonials collected show that for many people motherhood today is equivalent to a professional and personal resignation that they are not willing to assume: “I don’t want to think about sacrificing my life,” summarizes an executive from Hangzhou in the Washington Postand that plea for time and personal autonomy is one of the reasons why symbolic subsidies from the government (for example, some 500 dollars a year for the first three years) are insufficient to reverse the trend. Without weddings and solutions. we have been counting. Demographic decline is accelerated by fall of marriage: in 2024 just 6.1 million of couples registered their union, compared to 13.5 million in 2013, a data that works as predictor of future births when the rate of births outside of marriage is marginal. The State not only offers economic incentives and university courses about “how to flirt”, but has returned to intrusive behavior: officials pressure newlyweds about your plans of pregnancy and control the conversation public about marriage in the media. It is a gesture of urgency that clashes with the autonomy of generation Z, increasingly individualisticfor which getting married and procreating are no longer social mandates but options (among many). That tension between pronatalist policy and cultural change explains why coercive measures of the past do not seem to translate into higher births today. Accelerated aging. While fewer Chinese are born, the older population continues to grow: Life expectancy rises and the population pyramid inverts, which poses a brutal rebalancing in public accounts. Projections indicate that in the coming decades the proportion of elderly will doublewith colossal pressure on pensions, healthcare and long-term care financed by an increasingly narrow contributor base. Demographers warn that this phenomenon can trigger a vicious circle: more resources allocated to the elderly imply less public support for young families, which further reduces fertility. By 2100, according to calculations by international organizations, there will be more people out of working life than within it, a scenario with economic and political implications of systemic scope. The factory of the world shrinks. The problem is not only quantitative but qualitative: the workforce that made China the factory of the planet (born between 1960 and 1980, with a disposition for industrial jobs) has no substitute culture in later generations that they avoid factory work. At the same time, the proportion of Chinese manufacturing in the world total (today located around 30%) will necessarily be reduced if demographics exhaust the labor supply. The official short-term answer is automationbetting on robots and investment in productivity, but substitution does not work the same in all sectors: services, care and certain labor-intensive branches will continue to demand humans. The consequence is that manufacturing companies already they detect competitive pressure in prices and labor costs, and some observers point out that the industrial replacement could move to India, Southeast Asia, Mexico or Eastern Europe, with a multiplier effect on global supply chains. Politics and resistance to foreigners. They remembered in the post that a lever that in other countries would alleviate the labor force deficit (immigration) crashes in China with taboos of cultural homogeneity and political considerations that make the adoption of broad immigration policies difficult. That forces the government’s options and forces it to rely on internal incentives and in robotization. The strain between the economic need for labor and the preference to maintain cultural cohesion places Beijing in a strategic dilemma: either it embraces broader migrations (with all the integration challenges that this would imply) or it accelerates productive reconversion and the displacement of sectors that depend less on the labor factor. State measures. Faced with the abyss, Beijing has been introducing measures: relaxation of family policysubsidies, public campaigns for promote marriage and birth rate, and tax programs limited. But the experts they underline that late policies rarely reorder behaviors already fixed for decades. Louise Loo and other economists they estimate that reducing the workforce could take away about 0.5 points percentages to annual GDP growth in the next decade, a bite significant for an economy that needs to grow to absorb debts and finance its modernization. The challenge is that demographics act over long periods of time: cohorts born today … Read more

China’s last US hint threatens a TSMC chip factory ahead

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On December 31, it will be a very important day for semiconductor manufacturers that have plants in China. From that date they will not be able Its facilities in this Asian country. And they cannot do it because The US does not want chips manufacturing equipment that resort to American technologies and innovations They arrive in China. Not even integrated circuit factories that do not belong to Chinese companies. In 2022 the US Department of Commerce granted a temporary exemption to several manufacturers of foreign semicondators who have plants in China so that they could equip their facilities with the machines they needed. But this permissive period is about to expire. From now on any chips manufacturer who has plants in China will have to request a license from the US Commerce Department to be able to install in its factories machines with US components or technologies. Intel has sold Your Dalian plant (China), so this measure no longer affects it. However, there are three foreign companies of enormous relevance in the semiconductor industry that will be affected by this measure of the US government: South Korean Samsung and Sk Hynixand the TSMC Taiwanese. The latter has a chips factory in Nankín, in the province of Jiangsu (China), in which as of December 31 it will not be able to install advanced lithography equipment. The US and TSMC strip and loosen The semiconductor production plant that TSMC has in Nankín is important for this company, but it is not a toe. In fact, it manufactures mostly chips in its 16 and 28 nm nodes. This installation currently represents only 3% of TSMC’s total production capacity, but this does not mean that it is not relevant within the manufacturing infrastructure of this Taiwanese company. In fact, in 2021 announced an investment plan of 2,870 million dollars that in 2023 allowed expanding the manufacturing capacity of the plant to about 40,000 wafers per month. These presumably “restrictions” will condemn “in the short and medium term to this factory to the production only of mature chips During the last weeks, the TSMC Directive dome has met with the US Department of Commerce in an attempt to protect the interests of its Nankín plant, But it has not been successful. These presumably “restrictions” will condemn “in the short and medium term to this factory to Production only with ripe chipsalready long term will probably lose its relevance in the Integrated Circuite Production Infrastructure of TSMC. Whatever this is only One more episode in the awkward relationship that support the US and TSMC government for years. For this chips manufacturer the country led by Donald Trump is very important because a good part of his best clients is American. Nvidia, Apple, AMD, Broadcom or Qualcomm, among other companies, get the chips they design in TSMC’s lithographic nodes. However, this currency has a second face. And it is currently the USA cannot do without TSMC. Intel is American, and It has advanced lithography nodesbut the competitiveness of his Taiwanese rival is difficult to match. TSMC has cemented its leadership on the tuning of a range of Very advanced high integration technologiesand, at the same time, On a colossal production capacity which is only possible reaching a very high wafer performance. The US government knows very well the strength of this company. And also how important it is for US companies that I have mentioned in the previous paragraph. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | Intel was about to snatch Apple as a client from TSMC. Having achieved its story would be another

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