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He is tired of giving it away to Big Tech AI

July 14, 2026 by usatoday24

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, has been getting creative on Twitter. Through a message almost as long as the one that his colleague Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, took the opportunity to communicate the dismissal of 3,200 people just a week ago, Nadella has shared something that disturbs him: in the age of AI, information is power, and You don’t like others benefiting from your data. Nadella cites the phrase coined by Nobel Prize-winning economist Kenneth Arrow, whose paradox of the information market was that “the buyer does not know the value of that information until he has it, but by then he has acquired it, in effect, at no cost.” In Arrow’s formula, for the seller to convince the buyer of the value of the information, he or she must reveal enough of it to make the buyer interested. The problem is that at a certain point, the buyer will already know so much that they will not need to pay for that information. For Nadella, in the age of AI the problem is the other way around because it is the buyer of AI services who runs the risk of transferring knowledge valuable institutional, simply, to use artificial intelligence tools. For Nadella, companies are paying twice. “One with money, but another with something even more valuable: the personal and confidential knowledge that you must reveal for that intelligence to be useful.” According to the CEO, “the better you want the model to perform, the more knowledge of that type you will have to feed it.” That, precisely, is the problem. And this is what Nadella has dubbed the ‘Inverse Information Paradox’. The Inverse Paradox of Information Following Nadella’s reasoning, as a company gives more and more information to the owner of the artificial intelligence model, the asymmetry between both parties becomes increasingly skewed. You can imagine why: the seller learns more and more about your company as you use what you bought, while you learn very little about what the seller is learning in return. Did Nadella just describe what all companies do with search engines and services that traffic in our information? Maybe, but what the CEO is clear about is that, just as intellectual property patents solve one of the aspects of the Arrow paradox, since the inventor can reveal the idea without giving it away, the Inverse Information Paradox would need its own legal framework that protects companies that buy AI services. As? Well, that’s what we should see, since Nadella points out that models learn from the prompts that people write, the agents’ tools and, above all, the corrections that users make when a model makes a mistake. But Nadella goes further, stating that “When you consume intelligence, you are creating intelligenceand what you create should belong to you. This is your particular intelligence, the knowledge of time, place and circumstance, something that no one else can possess.” The message is tremendously ironic, but the reflection is useful and makes perfect sense: “if learning flows in only one direction, the economic value converges towards the owners of the learning infrastructure instead of towards the creators of knowledge.” Therefore, according to Nadella, “it is imperative that we distribute the learning infrastructure to be able to control that learning loop.” Advice for the age of AI (for companies, of course) In short, Nadella continues developing an idea in which what he explains is that the true competitive advantage of AI in the business environment does not lie in choosing the best model, but in owning its learning cycle. What if Microsoft ‘rents’ Claude either ChatGPTbut then it is Microsoft users who train that external model, that knowledge stays in Microsoft and don’t flow to Anthropic and OpenAI. At least free. Of course, and this would end up… Azurethe Microsoft cloud. Because the models belong to others, but if users access them through the Microsoft cloud, then Microsoft should keep all that valuable information, such as the corrections they make to the different models that have been used, remember, thanks to the Microsoft cloud. “If learning flows in only one direction, economic value converges towards the owners of the learning infrastructure rather than towards the creators of the knowledge” On the sidelines, in his very long message, the CEO of Microsoft proposes five points to ensure the company’s profits. Because, if in the era of the cloud companies accumulated data, in the era of AI they accumulate learning, and that learning should not escape if the following advice is followed: Control: create private evaluations, retain ownership of the company’s memory, comments and institutional context. Ability– Build proprietary learning environments within the confines of your own server to train or tune models without exposing company knowledge. Choice: decouple that from any individual model and be able to adapt to any AI model. Cost: thanks to that decision, you can bring together the context, models and efficient and profitable tasks without sacrificing quality. Capitalization: bringing together the four elements above to create a continuous learning loop that allows AI investors to multiply the value of the company. In the end, another thing that Nadella seeks is that there is no competition in the choice of models. Claude, GPT and Gemini are already good enough, so what companies that do not have equivalent models must do is compete to obtain all that knowledge of the learning loops, that does not escape from those companies and that, specifically, are built in Azure. Others have the models, Microsoft, Amazon and Google the servers. Now, not everyone agreesand both OpenAI and Anthropic they assure that their workflows and updates do not depend so much on those loops, but on other issues to keep frontier models evolving for customers who are not big whales like Microsoft. Because learning loops can work if you have Azure ready to provide the service, since the client does not care which model you use because there will always be a working model, but not all companies … Read more

In Barcelona, hoteliers have grown tired of the competition from Mercadona’s ‘mercaurantes’. So they are denouncing them

June 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Until now they might have liked the outlook more or less, but it was certainly clear. Traditional hoteliers basically competed with other members of the trade, restaurant chains, fast food and (maybe) some other food truck. Now that list adds a new rival that has made the bars on their guard: the ‘merchants’a hybrid that allows the customer to choose freshly cooked dishes in their supermarket, pay for them at the cashier and then eat them without even leaving the store. The model is so similar to what they themselves do in their premises that the hoteliers of Barcelona have decided take action. As? Denouncing dozens of ‘merchants’ in the city for intrusion and breaking the regulations. What has happened? What could be expected: that hoteliers have gone from threats to action. After several months questioning the legal reserve of the ‘mercaurantes’ (or at least sowing doubts), restaurateurs have decided to take action on the matter. Their objective: to stop the growing competition from what they consider “low cost restaurants”. Yesterday the Restoration Guild (the association that represents the restaurants, bars and cafes of Barcelona) advertisement the presentation of an administrative complaint against 30 Mercadona stores that, in your opinioncommit two irregularities: a “regulatory breach” and an “intrusion” that harms traditional bars. Gremi has also warned that this will only be his first step. In the coming weeks it will extend the complaint to other supermarket chains alleging exactly the same reason. Is it a novelty? Yes. And no. In December the state association of hoteliers (Hostelería de España) I already recognized that the competition of the ‘mercaurants’ was beginning to be “a controversial issue” and just a month ago its president, José Luis Álvarez Almeida, went further by accusing them of “unfair competition.” The novelty is that the Gremi de Restauració has taken the next step: presenting a formal complaint in which 30 establishments in Barcelona are identified and details the points of the ordinance that, in the association’s opinion, violate Juan Roig’s chain. What exactly are they denouncing? The technicians of the Gremi de Restauraciò remember that Barcelona regulations expressly prohibit “the area between the cash registers and the exit doors” of supermarkets “from being used for any commercial or service activity”, a guideline that they believe is not complied with in the 30 stores reported. “They are catering spaces, conceived and conditioned as such. And proof of this is that they have the necessary assortment: napkins, glasses, cutlery, buckets to separate waste and even microwaves. Some have up to 30 seats,” underlines the association, which recalls that licenses “are subject to rules and limits. The rules must be met and the limits respected.” Has Mercadona spoken? Yes. In statements to The Worldthe Valencian chain has defended that its activity does not go against Catalan regulations: “From the checkout line we are not charging for any service. The commercial activity is located before reaching the payment area.” From his point of view, what he has basically done is adapt “to the rhythm set” by his customers and add extra space in part of his stores: “It is not a restaurant area, but rather a rest area, with different uses: from those who heat a plate and eat it to those who sit down to read the newspaper.” In them, arguesThere is not the same furniture as in restaurants or waiters. Why that crash? Because the ‘mercaurantes’ are becoming a rival increasingly important for hoteliers, who until now were basically forced to compete with other union colleagues, restaurant chains or (perhaps) some other local self service either food trucks. Business lines such as Mercadona’s ‘Ready to Eat’ add a new competitor to that equation. One that also completely hits the model of the daily menu, immersed for years in a deep crisis of profitability. In a Mercadona with this service (and there are more and more of them) a worker can choose their own freshly cooked food, pay less for it than in a bar and eat it later at home, a park or the store itself. Are the dishes at the supermarket of worse quality than those at the corner bar? What the figures suggest is that customers prioritize other issuessuch as the money and time they will save or the flexibility when choosing what, where and when they eat. Is it just theory? No. Although the business model is relatively young (Mercadona’s ‘Ready to Eat’ was launched in 2018) we already have some data that reveals the competition exercised by the ‘mercaurants’ over the hospitality industry. Recent reports from Worldpanel by Numerator show that the sale of prepared meals in supermarkets has skyrocketed 55% from 2022 and that the number of customers who choose to eat in stores does not stop growing: in the last year they opted for that option 1.3 millionalmost double that of the previous year. We also know that there are chains of retail obtaining huge profits through this new activity. In 2025 Mercadona billed 700 million of euros through its ‘Ready to Eat’ section, a figure that rises to 3,000 million if we also include the offer of pre-cooked products (refrigerated, trays…) and the joint business volume in Spain and Portugal. Is this something new for the hospitality industry? No. The Gremi de Restauraciò has already shown on other occasions that it is willing to fight. Since 2019 the entity has in the spotlight to tasting bakeries, businesses that in their opinion violate municipal regulations, exceeding the maximum surface area that they can dedicate to tasting or marketing other products, including alcohol. The group has decided to file a new complaint against 50 bakeries in which you believe this situation occurs. Images | Mercadona, Wikipedia and Simon Karemann (Unsplash) In Xataka | We knew that freezing bread was convenient, cheap and fashionable. What we are not clear about is that it is “so good” for health

The world was tired of depending on TSMC to manufacture all its chips. This is what is causing Intel’s great resurrection

June 11, 2026 by usatoday24

Who has seen you and who sees you, Intel. The legendary semiconductor firm seems to be leaving behind its painful journey through the desert, and the latest news points to a true resurrection. The signature has achieved a spectacular contract to manufacture three million Google TPUs, and Nvidia is also studying the possibility of use Intel 18A node for future multi-die GPU designs. This is spectacular news for the company. Promising future, at last. The agreement with Google’s cloud division is a huge boost for the chip manufacturing business (foundry) from Intel. This deal will see Intel produce millions of AI chips at its advanced 3-nanometer node. With it, the firm achieves a decisive step to compete with TSMC, which until now was the absolute reference for those who wanted to access advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes. There is another crucial geopolitical factor here: part of these chips will be produced in the US, which helps in the objective of not depending so much on Asian countries for this process. Flirting with Nvidia. But Nvidia also seems to be interested in Intel’s 18A photolithographic process. The company led by Jensen Huang is considering the use of this node for its future multi-die architectures for its GPUs. Nvidia has managed to become TSMC’s main customer, but this manufacturer cannot satisfy Nvidia’s demand, so this company is looking for plans B, and Intel is serving it one on a plate. The signature by the way, already bought 4% of Intel in September 2025, so it is the first interested in Intel doing well. The PowerVia revolution. There are two big technical arguments that are apparently convincing Google and Nvidia. The first, the transistors RibbonFET. The second, even more important, PowerVia technology. This system is a qualitative leap because it physically separates the power and signal lines from the transistors, which avoids bottlenecks and improves both performance and efficiency of the CPUs that use this technology. Chip sovereignty. This decision by Google and Nvidia’s plan respond in part to the pressures that the US government is doing—and boosting with its CHIPS Act— to recover technological sovereignty and avoid dependence on foreign countries. Both companies know that 90% of the planet’s advanced chips depend on that island called Taiwan, and taking advantage of Intel’s renewed capacity is a great opportunity for kill two birds with one stone. They reduce their dependence on TSMC, and comply with the demands of the US government. War makes strange allies. The current situation is unique, because it is causing companies that competed fiercely in the field of hardware (Intel and Nvidia) to now be forced to collaborate out of pure necessity. Intel needs clients of this type to demonstrate to investors that its division foundry can operate independently of its consumer processor or server division. And Google and Nvidia in turn need Intel to break manufacturing monopoly of semiconductors that TSMC had. Intel finally resurrects. The big winner of these agreements is Intel, which has gone through a really compromising stage but has for a year has not stopped growing. We can see it in its valuation on the stock market. A year ago its shares were trading at $20.68, and now they are trading at $107.04 and with these agreements that value may continue to improve. Good for Intel. Image | Intel In Xataka | Bill Gates has X-rayed Intel. And his diagnosis is overwhelmingly accurate.

If you wake up tired on a regular basis, your rest is fragmented. The good news is that science knows how to fix it

May 24, 2026 by usatoday24

When the alarm clock rings in the morning, many of us ask to stay five more minutes between the sheets. But sometimes these five minutes are not for convenience, but for necessity, since there are people who wake up as if you haven’t slept at all. And this is a problem, since waking up tired on a regular basis is not normal. The myth of hours. Sleeping eight hours seems the standard that we must follow to be able to rest well, as occurs with the mantra of take 10,000 steps a day to have good cardiovascular health. The problem is that there are many people who can sleep eight or more hours and feel in the morning as if they had not slept at all, and here science suggests that real rest is given to us sleep phases and how time is distributed in each of them, not in the global calculation. The distribution. Sleep is not a linear state, although it may seem that way to us. The reality is that while we are with our eyes closed, we are going through a complex cycle of fragile architecture that passes through light phasesdeep stages and the well-known REM phase where dreams occur. But here what interests us most is deep sleep, which is responsible for physical restoration and the immune system, so when this cycle is broken repeatedly during the night, which is what It is known as fragmented sleep.the direct impact the next day is a decrease in cognition and an increase in fatigue, regardless of the hours we have spent lying down. Sleep or fatigue. For some they may be similar terms, but the truth is that they are quite different, since, while drowsiness is the biological and overwhelming need to sleep, fatigue, on the other hand, is a lack of physical energy or mental motivation. If what you feel when you wake up is fatigue, the origin may transcend the pillow and there may be a medical cause such as anemia, hypothyroidism, depression, chronic stress or the side effects of certain drugs that may be behind this lack of vital energy. Two culprits. Among the medical conditions, there are two that stand out above the others. The first of them is the sleep apneawhich is undoubtedly the great invisible saboteur, since it causes breathing to stop and restart repeatedly throughout the night. These drops in oxygen cause micro-awakenings that the brain uses to survive and breathe again, which we are not aware of. The problem is that these shocks prevent deep sleep from being achieved and result in extreme fatigue. The other culprit is sustained insomnia, since, beyond the difficulty in falling asleep, insomnia also manifests itself with early awakenings or constant interruptions, greatly reducing the restorative nature of rest. It can be corrected. Once medical causes are ruled out, there are several tips that can be followed to have a better quality of sleep. The first of them is to stay away from screens before going to sleep, since if we are already close to falling asleep and our body is preparing for it, exposure to blue light and stimulating content can cause it to take longer to fall asleep. Another very important tip is for dinner, which should ideally be as light as possible so as not to feel very heavy all night and also keep it as far away from bedtime as possible. This is where British time has a clear advantage over ours, as it means you don’t go to sleep with dinner food still in your stomach. The environment matters. In addition to removing any television from the room where you are going to sleep, the comfort you have is also important. This involves having a suitable mattress and ensuring that the temperature of the room is not uncomfortable, since this will cause awakenings that will cause you to not finish resting. This is also added to the need to have as little noise as possible. What is done during the day It matters a lot to sleep, and here exercising several hours before bed can make you sleep much better. But in the diet you also have to be very methodical, since you have to limit caffeine in the afternoon or at night, and limit alcohol consumption which, although it seems to put us into a very deep sleep, the reality is that it makes it not at all restorative. Images | jcomp in Magnific In Xataka | There are people who sleep four hours a day and are still functional. It’s the closest thing we have to genetic “superheroes”

Europe has grown tired of being NASA’s “supporting actor.” And that is why it is starting to work with China

April 11, 2026 by usatoday24

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have teamed up to launch an ambitious mission, aimed at studying the mechanisms used by the Earth to protect itself from solar inclement weather. The SMILE mission was scheduled to launch this April 9, but a small technical problem has forced it to be postponed until a date that is still unclear. In any case, it is just a small stone on the road for a mission that reinforces Europe’s intention to join forces with the Today it is considered the direct competition of NASA on many space issues. Given the ups and downs that the United States faces in scientific matters, it could be an interesting idea. The terrestrial sunscreen under a magnifying glass. The SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission has four instruments aimed at analyzing the interaction of solar winds with the magnetosphere that acts as the Earth’s shield. It is a necessary mission for many reasons. On the one hand, because many of the mechanisms used by the Earth to protect itself from solar radiation remain partly a mystery. And, on the other hand, because data analysis could help predict solar storms more accurately. Currently it is possible to know with high probability whether they will occur, but the situation is far from being exact. Since these types of events affect terrestrial communications systems, forecasting would be a key point. Four instruments. The instruments that SMILE has They are the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), the Light Ion Analyzer (LIA), the Detector Plane Assembly (DPA) and the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI). The SXI is responsible for taking X-ray images to study the boundaries of the magnetosphere, while the DPA provides mechanical and thermal support. That is, it helps keep the imaging systems at a stable temperature, something essential given the proximity to the Sun. As for LIA, its function is to analyze ionized particles. Solar winds consist of a flow of ionized particles that form in the Sun’s corona and are released into space. They are directly related to the harmful effects of solar storms, so it is important to analyze them. For its part, UVI is responsible for taking images in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum. Above all, they will take images of auroras, closely linked to peaks in solar activity. European and Chinese contribution. The European Union has provided the SXI and DPA instruments, in addition to the Vega rocket that will propel the satellite and all its instruments into space. For its part, China has developed the UVI and LIA instruments, as well as the SMILE suite satellite platform. Spain is not missing either. One of SMILE’s instruments, the DPA, It has been developed at the Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). Little recognition. NASA has given Canada a seat on the Orion capsule to travel to the Moon. Canadian Jeremy Hansen is one of the crew members of Artemis II, despite having never traveled to space. Canada has not participated in the technological development of the mission. Europe, on the other hand, has provided the engine system that has propelled the four astronauts towards our satellite. Even so, little mention has been made of ESA’s important contribution during the development of Artemis II. Why China. A long time ago, China stopped being an emerging space power and became one of the most consolidated on the current scene. With its Tiangong Space Station Located in low orbit, it is the only facility of its kind besides the International Space Station. Its lunar mission has great relevance thanks to the exploration of the Chang’e unmanned missions. Besides, hopes to take its own taikonauts (as Chinese astronauts are known) to the satellite in 2030. Its exploration on Mars is also important thanks to rovers like Zhurong. Tiangong Low hours for NASA? Donald Trump’s government wants to make drastic cuts to science with public investment in the United States and possibly NASA will not escape. Therefore, it may be a good time to seek other support in the space race, as ESA is already doing with SMILE. That does not mean that it will stop collaborating with NASA, but it is true that it is open to exploring new partners. If there is one thing that history has taught us, it is that the best way to advance in the space race is to put egos aside and move forward as a team. Closing yourself off only to a traveling companion can end up being counterproductive. Images | ESA | Shujianyang In Xataka | Astronauts’ food is not appetizing at first, especially in China

Samsung is tired of being second in the chip race. Now they are preparing to dethrone the titan of Taiwan

April 7, 2026 by usatoday24

When we talk about artificial intelligence, there are several proper names that star in the conversation. NVIDIA has become the foundation and cement of AI thanks both to their products as, above all, your money. But it’s impossible to leave Samsung out of the equation. Your HBM4 memories They are the ones that will allow NVIDIA and AMD manufacture their platforms new generation, but South Koreans do not want to stop there. They seek to be the largest advanced factory in the world and have launched a plan to wipe TSMC where it hurts the most. In the expansion throughout the United States. An x8 thanks to AI. 2025 was a transition year for Samsung. While its great rival in the memoir segment –SK Hynix– dominated the HBM chip marketSamsung is preparing to make the leap with HBM4 chips. This is the new generation of high-bandwidth memory designed to power the new AI platforms from both NVIDIA and Samsung. The effort paid off by overtaking SK and becoming the supplier of the two giants, and it is something that is already materializing. At least in estimates profit, of course. Now the company forecast profits of about 38 billion dollars for the first quarter of the year, something that destroys the profits of the same period last year, being eight times more. Texas. The company does not stop manufacturing the new HBM4 memory, but even so it cannot satisfy the enormous demand of its customers and there are already those who expect that the prices of these chips will increase by more than 50%. To meet demand, Samsung is moving, and The United States is key in its ambitious expansion. The South Korean company seeks to invest 37,000 million dollars in US soil, and 17,000 million of them they will stop to the Taylor, Texas plant. According to Korea Heraldthe company is finalizing hiring for this semiconductor plant where they hope to produce cutting-edge 2-nanometer chips. It is estimated that 1,500 people will be directly employed and the idea is to produce transistors with gate-all-around architecture. TSMC in the spotlight. Recent reports indicate that Samsung has already begun producing test units of chips in that lithography with the aim of beginning mass production by 2027. But this expansion is not only occurring in the United States. At the Pyeongtaek Campus, Samsung’s operations center, building a new factory for which Samsung has just ordered 20 EUV lithography machines valued at almost $8 billion. As it could not be otherwise, they are from ASML and it is estimated that the plant will have 70 units in total to support the production of HBM4 memory chips. And these two movements have one goal in mind: to dethrone the queen of semiconductors. Currently, TSMC takes the lead with NVIDIA and Apple as its best clientsbut Samsung is another industry giant that may not take the global throne, but is aiming for something more concrete: to be the one who leads the way in the United States. Both Samsung and TSMC are in full expansion throughout the United States, but if Samsung manages to start mass manufacturing of 2nm chips by 2027, it would overtake TSMC -focused on 2/3nm chips– in that development of advanced chips in the United States. It is still a vital race, since Tesla, Apple, NVIDIA or AMD are trying to get chips manufactured in the US and thus meet the demands of Donald Trump’s government. Trojan horse. In the end, it’s a move that Samsung can only win from. On the one hand, expand its HBM4 chip capacity to power AI platforms that do not seem to stop increasing in the short term. On the other hand, continuing to settle on American soil where it maintains a battle with the Taiwanese giant. But, also, Samsung is one of the founding members of the EPIC program of Applied Materials together with SK Hynix. They are positioning themselves to be the big player in semiconductors both as a factory and when it comes to designing machines and processes that allow for shorter development times for cutting-edge chips. and all this foreign companies are doing it on US soil when what the current government wanted was for were American companies those who will take the lead. In fact, Samsung’s plans are so ambitious that they are already looking for master 1nm chip production by 2030. In Xataka | ASML has discovered a way to further improve its SVU machines. This is terrible news for China and the US.

One of the biggest mistakes we are making as a society is assuming that living tired is normal.

March 20, 2026 by usatoday24

Spain is one of the European countries where the most workers They link their psychological discomfort to work and, in fact, sick leave due to mental disorders have more than doubled since 2016. That’s the bad news, the good news is that we’re starting to know why. Although that, if we are honest, if we think about it, it is not such good news either. we have become accustomed We have normalized being exhausted… According to the OSH Pulse 2025 survey of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work40% of Spanish workers link their stress, anxiety or depression directly to work. The European average, to contextualize the problem, is 29%. Only four countries (Greece, Finland, Cyprus and Poland) surpass us. …and we know exactly why it happens. In 1993, Bruce McEwen and Elios Stellar developed the idea of ’allostatic load’. That is, the physical and psychological ‘wear and tear’ that the body pays for adapting again and again to chronic or repeated stress. It is not a small price: the cardiovascular, metabolic, immune and neuroendocrine wear and tear is enormous and has consequences. A 2021 systematic review makes clear that a high allostatic load is related to increased all-cause mortality, cognitive impairment, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and psychiatric disorders. It is logical: when stress mediators (cortisol, adrenaline, etc…) remain chronically activated, the brain gets used to it, the body begins to work above its capacity and the systems suffer. Furthermore (and this is very curious) it seems that chronic stress deteriorates the same brain areas that allow us to realize that we are wrong. The (not so great) Spanish paradox: Our country not only has some of the worst work stress data in Europe, but the preventive resources They are among the lowest on the continent. That is, we have a problem, but we are not spending too much money to solve it. And it’s just a question of money. According to the same survey, 54% of Spanish employees fear that revealing a mental health problem will harm their career. And how do we solve it? Normally, experts understand that there is an individual approach, a union approach and a health approach. In Spain (and here the media is very much to blame) we tend to focus on the individual who, furthermore, is the one who less evidence of systemic efficacy has behind. So maybe the only thing we can do is start taking it seriously. Image | Luis Villamil In Xataka | Only one in four Spaniards has rested on vacation. The culprits: work anxiety and the inability to disconnect

Tired of being told that philosophy was just opinions, one guy set about collecting all the “philosophical facts” he could find. He got 200

March 8, 2026 by usatoday24

Philosophy has a reputation for discussing everything and the truth is that it is a reputation that has been hard-earned. However, it is not a matter of saying the first thing that comes to mind. It’s not even a matter of opinions, no matter how informed they may be. At least, that is the opinion of philosopher Bryan Frances. In fact, Frances is convinced that, in reality, philosophers only discuss details and minutiae: in substance, they agree on almost everything. But of course, it is not enough to say it: it must be defended. So he began to do something strange for a philosopher: instead of arguing it, he began to compile this enormous core of shared truths. That is, to make a list. But let’s start at the beginning. Frances’s thesis is that, as I say, there is great agreement among philosophers about the truth of many substantive claims. What’s more, he is convinced that, in philosophy, there is progress equivalent to that of any other science. That is, “based on facts.” The thing is that discipline — for better or worse — tends to revolve around the controversial. The curious thing is that he realized that not even the philosophers themselves were aware of this. And what a list… So, neither short nor lazy, he published ‘Philosophy as Fact-Based Discipline: 200 Philosophical Facts, published in Philosophical Studies‘: the list. A list of elementary truths pedagogically comparable to introductory science material. “It’s not the deepest,” but it’s (definitely) something cumulative and useful to understand. But, beyond that, it is also a way of reclaiming the discipline in a climate that repeatedly questions the role of the humanities in the body of knowledge. And what truths are those? Once we have made it clear that it is not about talking about deep truths (Does free will exist? Why being and not nothingness? etc…), the question becomes evident: what are they then? They are simpler things like, for example, what beliefs are (which come in many formats, they can be about almost anything or they can exist even if we are not aware of them), what evidence is (which are not just tests), what biases, emotions or faith are. It’s very interesting review the 200 facts because there are very interesting things about things that one had not asked: does believing in something make it true? Does the evidence have direction? Is suspending the trial a rational thing to do? Thought in action. But beyond the facts themselves, Frances’ idea is intelligent because it points to something singular: there is cognitive progress, an ultimate structure of reality to describe, a philosophical ‘holy grail’ to find. It’s not much, I admit. But the idea that the universe is not the horrible chaos it seems is (in its own way) comforting. Image | Alan Dela Cruz In Xataka | “A place of joy with pain”: the phrase that summarizes the Aztec philosophy to be happier in this life

We have a problem with AI. Those who were most enthusiastic at the beginning are starting to get tired of it.

February 12, 2026 by usatoday24

The most promising promise surrounding AI at work today It’s not that it’s going to replace us.but it could free ourselves from part of the burden we carry every day. In recent years, much of the technological discourse has insisted on this idea, also driven by the arrival of assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini or the different co-pilots integrated into everyday software: fewer routine tasks, more time to think, create or decide calmly. However, as these tools begin to be truly used in real environments, a question arises that can no longer be ignored: what happens when that promise of relief is confronted with the daily practice of work. Depletion system. The narrative of relief begins to crack when academic research looks at what happens inside companies. A study published by Harvard Business Review describes that, in the observed case, the AI did not decrease work, but rather tended to intensify it, even without explicit orders to produce more. These findings can be interpreted as a sign of an emerging problem, where increased capacity can push certain organizations towards dynamics close to structural exhaustion, more linked to constant acceleration than to the promised efficiency. Where does the data come from?. The aforementioned work was developed for eight months within an American technology company with about 200 employees, combining in-person observation two days a week, monitoring of internal communication channels and more than 40 in-depth interviews with engineering, product, design, research and operations profiles. The company did not mandate the use of AI or set new performance goals, although it did offer enterprise subscriptions to business tools, which allowed it to analyze what happened when adoption arose on the initiative of workers. The pattern behind the promise. Far from a sudden change, the intensification described by the researchers takes the form of a recognizable process. The magazine summarizes its findings in three mechanisms that, combined, transform the daily work experience: progressive expansion of responsibilities, increasingly blurred boundaries between activity and rest, and simultaneous management of multiple tasks supported by AI. The increased activity began, in many cases, with something that at first glance seemed positive: the feeling of being able to do more on one’s own. It was no secret that AI makes it possible to tackle tasks that previously required external support or specific knowledge, gradually expanding the perimeter of its role. However, this growth did not replace previous responsibilities, but rather added to them and triggered new demands for supervision and adjustment within the teams. When the pause is no longer a pause. The study also shows that this dynamic not only arises from doing more things, but from doing them at different times. By reducing the initial effort required to begin a task, AI made it easier for work to slide into spaces traditionally reserved for rest, such as meals, short intervals, or the end of the day. Over time, this barely perceptible continuity transformed the work experience into something more constant and less delimited, decreasing resilience even without formally increasing hours. Fragmentation of care. Harvard Business Review points out that the possibility of executing several actions at the same time, relying on systems that work in the background, pushed many professionals to maintain an increasing number of tasks open simultaneously. This multiplication of fronts generated a feeling of momentum and support, but also required frequently reviewing the results produced by the AI and continuously changing context. As this behavior became habitual, expectations of speed tended to rise within the organization. A possible way out. The study suggests that the problem does not lie in the technology itself, but in the absence of frameworks that regulate its daily use. Therefore, it proposes developing an “AI practice” based on intentional pauses that allow decisions to be reconsidered, work sequencing that reduces fragmentation, and moments of human connection that counteract isolation. In this scenario, the challenge for companies stops being to adopt more AI and becomes integrating its capacity without eroding the balance of daily work. Images | Vitaly Gariev In Xataka | Google is going to borrow money to pay back in 100 years. You have to believe that in 100 years Google will still be there

Ryanair and the rest of the low-cost airlines have been charging for your carry-on suitcase for years. The European Union is tired of it

February 2, 2026 by usatoday24

It is no surprise that the main business of “cheap airlines” is precisely charge you for cabin luggage. A cheap Ryanair or EasyJet ticket can easily be double the price if you include a small suitcase to carry in the cabin. And from Europe I want this to end nowboth by users and legislators. not so fast. In this regard, the European Parliament has voted in favor to allow all passengers to carry one cabin bag of up to 7 kg free of charge, in addition to their personal bag or backpack. The measure has sparked criticism from low-cost airlines, since they rate it ‘existential threat’ to its business model, and that could raise ticket prices by up to 25%, according to EasyJet. The trigger. The European legislative proposal establishes that any passenger may carry at no additional cost one personal item plus one piece of hand luggage of up to 7 kg and with combined dimensions of 100 cm. This would affect all flights to or from EU airports operated by EU airlines. Of course, it should be noted that this bill must still go through the European Council before becoming law. Baggage and margins. Bag fees have become a great source of income for low-cost airlines. Jay Sorensen, airfare expert at consulting firm IdeaWorks, counted to the Financial Times that European airlines raised $16 billion in 2025 just for baggage, of which 60% went to low-cost airlines. Although these fees are not usually broken down individually, Sorensen estimates that they represent almost a fifth of the total revenue of low-cost airlines. Reaction of the industry. Kenton Jarvis, CEO of EasyJet, has qualified the “lunatic idea” proposal and warns that the additional costs “would have to be passed on” to all passengers through higher prices, even for those traveling without luggage. On the other hand, József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air, account to FT that consumers are “much smarter” and “are able to navigate the current system of optional tariffs.” For its part, Airlines 4 Europe, the industry lobby, has presented a survey according to which half of passengers would prefer to pay lower fares and keep suitcases as an optional extra. Margins. The low cost model is based on eliminating minutes on the ground and fuel costs. Augusto Ponte, European director of the consulting firm Alton Aviation, account FT that if each passenger carried between 2 and 4 additional kg, a plane with 150 people would have 500 kg extra weight, which translates into between 15 and 20 additional euros of fuel per hour of flight. According to Ponte, for an airline like EasyJet, which flies approximately one million hours annually, that would mean more than €28 million extra per year in operating costs, approximately a tenth of its total profit. In addition, the executive says that 150 additional suitcases in the cabin per flight would cause delays of about 10 minutes in each boarding, not counting the time necessary to relocate the excess in the hold. Ponte assures that, in short-haul aircraft that make six flights a day, this would be equivalent to one hour less operation per plane each day. Consumer protection. Beuc, the European consumer association, strongly supports the proposals of Parliament and even proposes raising the permitted weight to 10 kg. Agustín Reyna, its general director, argues that passengers “expect their hand luggage to be included in the price of the ticket” and that forcing them to pay turns luggage into “a luxury item.” For his part, Andrey Novakov, the Bulgarian MEP who is leading the parliamentary negotiation on these rules, has declared that the goal is “to strive for clearer and more predictable rules for airlines and a stronger aviation sector, but never at the expense of passengers.” Cover image | Gabor Koszegi In Xataka | When Ryanair CEO went to a restaurant he was charged for two extras: “priority seating” and “legroom”

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