traditional

The traditional couple model is in crisis. And it has translated into more people eating alone in restaurants

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Eating is a necessity, a pleasure … and also (in your own way) A social act. Around the tables we celebrate, remember and honor. We remain for dinner in our first events, to celebrate birthdays and promotions, the arrival of the New Year or say goodbye to that friend who moves to another city. Eating has always been synonymous with sharing, especially if we do it in a bar, where it also becomes a public act, exposed to unknown looks. Or at least so it was until now. Table for one, please. It is very simple. He arrives with any restaurant at rush hour and observing the room: There are more and more people eating alone. And not by obligation or because he does not have anyone to share dinner. On the contrary. We do it by choice, to enjoy loneliness and backs to the stigma that until not so long persecuted those who sat alone at tables that were designed precisely to gather large groups. Impressions … and data. As with most trends, there are studies and percentages that help us better understand their scope. Although finding a site to eat alone It is not always simplein the OpenTable US calculates that the reserves for a single diner 64% have shot Since 2019. Moreover, between 2022 and 2023, Resyanother New York reservation platform, calculates that requests of this type increased by 21%. They are forceful percentages and it is not unreasonable to think that they are short. After all, both opening and resy register only those who reserve in advance, not those who appear in the premises without calling before. Is there more data? Yes. And although there may be variations from one study to another, most point in the same direction. In 2024, opening calculated that the alone dinners in the United Kingdom had experienced a year -on -year increase of 14%percentage that in the case of Manchester stretched until reaching 23%. Other studies They also talk that the ‘Only Dining’ He has gained weight in Germany and Japan or that the number of Americans who recognize having recently has grown by 53% In just two decades, between 2003 and 2023. And Spain? There are some indicators that suggest that Spain does not remain oblivious to that trend. In 2022 Mapfre published A FOOD REPORT in which he revealed that, although most of the Spaniards continue to enjoy the family meals, between 2017 and 2022 the number of people who sit at the table without company, especially during working days, increased 5%. In 2020, in full pandemic, Thefork also perceived that the reserves for a single person had grew by 4% In our country. Of course, they were still a minority. In an attempt to go further in 2024 Reasonwhy did A poll Among several restaurant chains with presence in Spain that showed that, at least in part of them, it is increasingly common to see customers without company. Well because they are more or because those who already ate alone before do it now more often. Alsea, behind Vips, Ginos or Foster´s Hollywood, requires that 7% of Foster´sy customers 18% of those of VIPs eat without anyone next. And what is the reason? The right thing would be to talk about reasons, in plural. When analyzing the trend, so much The sector As analysts usually coincide in certain factors that have clearly influenced customers. Above all there are two: pandemic, with its restrictions and fear of infection; and a cultural change that leads us to look with other eyes to those who sit in a restaurant without a company. “That a person was lonely has always been might, but now that taboo to exhibit loneliness has broken,” Notice in The country José A. González, anthropologist. “It was growing before pandemic, but now it has been strengthened because we have become accustomed to being alone,” agrees Chef Lola Marín. “In addition, it was unthinkable that a woman was alone to eat or take a wine to a bar. Luckily it is now more common.” Even in networks They can be found Videos of people who presume that: to enjoy their dinner alone. Generational issue? There are those who believe that there is another factor that has influenced so much or more than the COVID: the change of mentality that accompanies the Z generation and the Millennials. Whether or not the truth is that the trend is accompanied by a transformation of Spanish society itself, in which It is increasingly common meet people living alone. If the INE forecasts do not fail in 2039 there will be some 7.7 million of unipersonal homes, 33.5% of the total. Question of loneliness (s). That we normalize loneliness does not mean that all loneliness is the same or all its positive effects. In fact it also carries certain challenges, as I collected recently An article of The New York Times in which a curious relationship is pointed out: in the US the increase of the people who eat alone has coincided with a worsening of the country’s general happiness index. The reason: not all loneliness is deliberate. The professor of the University of Oxford Jan-Emmanuel de Neve even It goes further and reflect on the implications that excessive isolation can have. “That we are increasingly socially isolated also assumes that we do not test our ideas about the world with other people,” he says. The result, in his opinion, is an amplification of echo chambers and polarization. Image | Ismail Hamzah (Unspash) In Xataka | More and more Spanish bars refuse to pay at the table. Its objective is very simple: greater rotation

Banco Santander will close more than 200 physical offices. It is the most visible symptom of traditional banking metamorphosis

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Santander plans the closure of the largest number of offices in Spain from the pandemic. According to Digital economymore than 200 branches will lower the blind this year. The arrival of Ignacio Juliá – a manager with DNA DNA forged in ING – to the direction of Santander Spain is no accident. It is a symptom. Similar to what happens to other Ibex companies – as Telefónica debating between transforming between technology company or assuming the decline as a traditional teleco-, Classic banking has an existential dilemma ahead. On the one hand, Maintain physical offices has become a financial ballast to the Neobancoswhich operate with infinitely lighter and more efficient structures. On the other hand, those same offices They are a competitive advantage for certain demographicparticularly among over 60 years, who concentrate a large part of the financial assets in Spain. Neobancos have gained ground in basic operation and current accounts, but still have important limitations in more complex products, such as mortgages or heritage management. Santander himself has recognized your annual report “The value of the human connection” provided by branches, especially for vulnerable clients, while simultaneously advances towards what defines as “a digital bank with branches”. The Ying and the Yang. Investment management is that space that still has traditional banking to uncheck from the Neobancos, where even the face to face with the manager (the one who gives a branch) can be an incentive for the client. There they face independent platforms, such as Trade Republic or the Spanish Indexa, with increasing traction, better fame … and lower commissions. Of course, they do not usually have exclusive products for large heritage, more complicated land for Fintech. Santander has no urgency for these changes. In 2024 he got a record benefit of more than 12,500 million euros. Your current business model is still profitable. The issue is whether the digitalization strategy combined with selective physical presence will be sufficient to maintain its relevance when the digital generation becomes the main segment with heritage. Traditional bank is not disappearing, but it is in full metamorphosis. It is looking for a balance between digital efficiency and the added value that human interaction provides. In Xataka | The digital counterrevolution reaches the classrooms: seven CCAA backs down with the screens and mark a change of trend Outstanding image | Santander Bank

GPT-4.5 It is not better than its rivals in almost anything. It is the proof that traditional AI models almost do not advance

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Sam Altman I had already warned that they planned to launch GPT-4.5 very soon. We had been waiting for the GPT-4 successor for months, but over time expectations have been going down: there was talk of the Founder of AI And how climbing – more data and more GPUS to train models— It didn’t work so much. Precisely GPT-4.5 was going to be proof that perhaps that was not true. Do you know what? That was probably, because GPT-4.5 is a model with many starting problems. GPT-4.5 is already with us. Yesterday Openai finally presented GPT-4.5the theoretical successor of GPT-4. Sam Altman explained that this was “the first model that makes me feel that I am talking to an attentive person.” Gigantic and expensive. But Altman also recognized something else. “Bad news: it is a giant and expensive model.” The head of OpenAI claimed to have run out of sufficient GPUS to make a mass launch, and the availability of GPT-4.5 is very limited: only Chatgpt Pro users can use it for the moment. Caro no, very expensive. Using the GPT-4.5 model through the OpenAi API is extraordinarily expensive: it costs $ 75 per million input tokens, and $ 150 per million output tokens. GPT-4O costs 2.5 and 10 dollars respectively (30 and 15 times less), and O1, so far the most expensive, costs 15 and 60 dollars respectively. And it is also not a “border” model. He Technical Report OpenAi indicates that this It is not a model “Frontier“ As was GPT-4, for example. That is important, because despite being its largest LLM, the border models are more capable, of large scale and raise risks to generate misinformation or be forced to get out of the standards. In GPT-4.5 they seem to have focused a lot on avoiding errors (it is one of its advantages, it seems to put less the leg according to some test banks). It does not seem better in almost anything. The evidence and benchmarks to which it has been subjected seems to make it clear that the leap into benefits is especially disappointing, especially if we compare it with the new models of its rivals. Is worse in accuracy of the facts that perplexity deep researc, is worse than Claude 3.7 Sonnet in programming According to TechCrunch and Several expertsand it is also worse in reasoning (although it is certainly not oriented to it) than Deepseek R1, O3-mini or Claude 3.7 Sonnet (which is a “hybrid” model). Bittersweet feeling. Experts like Simon Willison either Andrej Karpathy They have shared their first impressions and in both cases the sensation is that GPT-4.5 It is slowis updated only Until October 2023 And it does not represent a really remarkable advance. Willinson came to analyze the debate that dozens of users maintained on GPT-4.5, and in a Summary generated by AI The conclusions were also clear: the numbering itself was inappropriate, the model is too expensive, the price/benefits ratio was very debatable and the performance was not what was expected after so much time. Karpathy’s conclusion is that “it is a little better and that is great, but not exactly in trivial sections of highlighting.” More human? Altman’s appreciation about his conversation how he had been surprised by the conversation capacity of GPT-4.5 Maybe he points to the direction in which this model stands out. Karpathy also pointed to that aspect in saying that the improvement could be shown in “creativity, realization of analogies, general understanding and humor”, which perhaps makes effects effectively with GPT-4.5 give the feeling of being even closer to those we would have with a human being. The climb does not work, the deceleration is here. GPT-4.5 It is a clear example of how we have reached the limits of the scaling. Having a gigantic LLM no longer seems to provide advantages over its predecessors, and dedicate more data and more GPUS to train these models does not seem to make much sense. Altman himself made it clear that GPT-4.5 would be the latest non-reasoning model of the company. That is another sign that demonstrates that the deceleration of the generative AI, at least in regard to traditional models, is a reality. Why have you launched it then? In it OpenAi blog It indicates how “we are sharing GPT-4.5 as a research advance to better understand its strengths and limitations. We are still exploring what they are capable of and we are eager to see how people use it in ways that we would not have expected.” That seems to show doubts that their own creators have with the model, and the question why they have thrown it. They need to continue generating “Hype “. Especially considering that the rivals are very strong lately. Claude 3.7, Grok 3 and of course Deepseek R1 have managed to turn the tortilla and raise a challenge for Openai, which until not long ago seemed to be a step ahead of their rivals. Now that is not clear, and in many sections its competitors already exceed the benefits of their models. OpenAi needs to breastfeed and say “here I am”, but perhaps with GPT-4.5 that movement goes wrong, because at least a priori the benefits are disappointing. And investors squeeze. Some point to another probable theory for this launch. OpenAi could have been forced to launch GPT-4.5 make investorsthat have invested billions of dollars in the company and that need to be calm with their investment. Once again OpenAi has a problem, because it does not seem that GPT-4.5 can leave them calm. It will be difficult for new investors to be convenient with this launch. In Xataka | Openai has a golden opportunity to sweep all its rivals: launch an unlimited chatgpt and full of advertising

Perplexity is going to launch its own browser. It is one more proof that traditional browsers fall short in the AI ​​era

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Perplexity He has announced Cometa browser specifically designed for the AI ​​era. It is part of something else: of the trend in which several technology seek to reimagine how we interact with the web. Why is it important. The next wave of A -centered browsers reveals an uncomfortable truth: traditional browsers are not optimized for a world in which AI agents will act as intermediaries between information and us. Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox can improve whatever they want in these capabilities, but IA deserves a creation from scratch. The Browser Company understood and paralyzed the development of ARC to create something new: day. The context. Perpleplexity has opened its waiting list for Comet, its next browser that promises to “reinvent” our way of accessing the web. This movement comes just weeks after OpenAi will present its operator agentand in the middle of Rumors about a possible OpenAi’s own browser. Current browsers were designed for humans who use keyboards and mice, not for ia agents who need to interact with the website of radically different shapes. Yes, but. The first generation of AI agents as Openai Operator uses chrome modified versions to complete tasks, offering an almost theatrical show: we see a bot by moving a cursor and writing how a human would do. It is effective, but also inefficient. Chrome use as a base poses another problem: what will happen when Google completely integrates Gemini In your browser? Rivals such as Openai and Perplexity will be vulnerable to Alphabet. New era. The race to create the final browser for the AI ​​era remembers the Navigators War of the 90s, when Netscape and Microsoft struggled to dominate Internet access. That conflict initially won Microsoft with Internet Explorer, but Google Chrome, which did not even exist then, ended up dominating the market years later. The lesson is clear: the winner of this new battle can be a company that still does not have a browser. Or that it has not even been founded yet. Several actors are already on stage: Perplexity with Comet, the aforementioned The Browser Company with Dia, and rumors on similar OpenAi projects. The integration of AI models such as Claude, Gemini and GPT directly in the navigation experience will be key. Between the lines. True innovation does not consist of adding functions from AI to existing browsers, but completely reimagining the navigator concept. A browser designed for the AI ​​era should allow both traditional human use and the efficient functioning of autonomous agents, perhaps with different ways according to who is “behind the wheel.” The browsers Ai-first They will probably dispense with interface elements designed for humans when they operate in automatic mode, using more efficient APIS and communication channels to interact with the web. A good simile is that of the autonomous car: if it is able to drive on its own, it makes no sense that it makes a steering wheel, pedals and five seats looking forward: you can and must reimagine the cabin completely. Deepen. For companies such as Perplexity, launching its own browser not only involves diversifying its product offer, but also ensuring their independence from the platforms controlled by their competitors. Same incentives that OpenAI has to launch its own proposal. The browser has historically been the entrance door to the Internet, and whoever controls this door will have a disproportionate influence on our digital experience. Google knows it well: Chrome has provided you a huge strategic advantage. We are witnessing the birth of a new category of software that could transform our relationship with the Internet as much as the original browsers did. The question is not whether browsers Ai-first They will replace the traditional ones, but when they will do it and who will lead this transformation. Openai looks like the great threat to him status quo from Google. And there will be more. Outstanding image | Perplexity, Xataka with mockuuups studio In Xataka | Mozilla’s long crisis: an eternal users and a Google dependency that is still majority

We have a new type of plastic, with the durability of traditional plastics and what is more important: recyclable

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During most of human existence, finding or producing food with which to sustain our population. Agrarian development millennia have allowed us to reach the point where humanity does not have to face the problem of lack of livelihood, but we have reached a point where the problem is at the other end of the chain: the problem of the waste. A new plastic. To solve it, or at least to relieve it, a team of researchers has created a new type of plastic. According to its developers, the new material is of great durability but can also be easily recycled. Recyclable alternative. This new plastic is presented as an alternative to conventional thermosye plastics. These materials stand out for their durability and are widespread in the industry: we can see them in many objects, from wheels to balls to play bowling. The characteristic that makes these plastics so resistant is their structure in which the reticulated polymers. In his secret is his disadvantage and this structure makes them impossible to recycle them, Explain the team responsible for the new plastic material. Double polymerization. The process of creating the new plastic part of the dihydrofurano (DHF), a circular monomer with double bond that can be created from biological materials, The team points out. From this monomer two polymerization processes begin, the second process being the result in a reticulated polymer. In the first process the circular structures of the DHF are cut and then link them to each other, creating a flexible and soft polymer in addition to recyclable and degradable in acid, explains the equipment. This process is part of the intact monomer In the second polymerization, these circular monomers do not open and then intertwine, but thanks to their double bond they join between them and next to the polymer resulting from the first process, everything without changing their circular structure to a linear. This second stage is what hardens the final material. A more sustainable process. The resulting polymer is recyclable using heat and can be degraded naturally in the environment. In addition, the resulting material can be altered through variables in the process such as time using the reaction or number of catalysts used, which leaves a wide range of possible materials result of the same reaction. Altering the light in the process, for example we can choose between a more difficult or more flexible resulting plastic. “The whole process, since the creation of reuse, is more ecological than with current materials,” explained in a press release Reagan Dreiling, a member of the team that developed the new material. The researcher and the rest of the team presented the details of the development of the new material In an article In the magazine Nature. In Xataka | The European waste industry has been lying for years: in 2018 everything jumped through the air and we have not yet recovered Image | Sigmund

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