turning

AI is turning us into editors of ourselves. We approve what we no longer know how to create

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Some time ago Spark, my email clientintegrated an AI response generator that learns from your style. It works surprisingly well. Since then I follow a simple rule: if the email comes from a human, I respond by typing. If it comes from a bot or mass mailing, I let the AI ​​answer for me. The fact is that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish which is which. And that’s where the real problem begins. Because it’s not about efficiency. It is about we have accepted, without realizing it, that communication can be symmetrical in its mediocrity. You write to me with AI, I respond to you with AI. We all save time. Nobody says anything quite real. I know too many people who have crossed the line: using AI not just for generic emails, but for everything: Tweets that sound like a corporate manual. LinkedIn posts with that unctuous and necessarily inspirational prose that smells of prompt wander from three paragraphs away. Proposals to clients. Reports to the boss. Slack messages that you used to write in seconds and now go through ChatGPT. They have become editors of their own communication. Creative directors of words that they no longer search for. And in a way it works, you have to admit. The report arrives on time. The proposal sounds professional. The tweet, for reasons unknown to me, achieves engagement. If the result is what counts, and it saves you time, what’s the problem? The problem is subtle. So subtle that almost no one notices it. Writing was never just about producing readable text. It was the friction of searching for the exact word, and in that search better understanding what you wanted to say. Writing was thought becoming visible, even to oneself. The effort to articulate was the effort to think clearly. I remember some articles in which I noticed that effort until I reached the result I wanted. An example is this 2019long before ChatGPT. That process matters. Now we delegate that friction. We give the AI ​​a vague idea and it articulates it for us. We just need to recognize if it sounds good, not generate it from scratch. We have gone from being authors to being approvers. Something atrophies when you stop looking for your own words. It’s not just personality or style. It is the ability to think accurately, because thinking well and writing well were always the same thing. When you externalize articulation, you externalize thinking. The worst thing is that it is invisible. There is no dramatic moment in which you stop knowing how to think. You just start to need a little more help each time. A little push to find the words. Then a full draft that you just “revise.” Then you don’t even check carefully because “AI makes it cool.” The argument is always the same: “but the result is good.” And yes, it may be. The report is understood. The proposal convinces. The tweet works. But There is a difference between a text that works and a text that you really thought. The first can get you a client. The second can make you understand something you didn’t know you thought. This is how an entire generation can lose the ability to articulate complex ideas without realizing it. Because each individual step seems reasonable. Every shortcut seems harmless. And the results, indeed, are acceptable. But “acceptable” has become the new standard. And in the process we have forgotten that writing was not just a means to communicate ideas that were already clear to us. It was the very mechanism to keep things clear.. AI is not making us worse writers. It is turning us into non-writers. And without writing, without that struggle to find the right words, pWe also lose the ability to have ideas worth writing down.. We have normalized an existence where we monitor our own communication instead of generating it. Where we approve instead of create. Where language is something that we recognize when we see it, but that we will no longer know how to produce from silence. And we call it productivity. In Xataka | I increasingly like technology that doesn’t want anything from me: the one that has a purpose and leaves you alone Featured image | Xataka

The only thing that Europe’s AI Law has achieved is to leave us lame. The question is whether turning back will do any good.

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December 8 was a fateful day for the European Union, but not many realized it. And it was because that day the AI ​​Act was passedthe European regulation on artificial intelligence. Thierry Breton, European commissioner, he was pleased with a tweet that automatically became a meme. I was bragging about how Europe had tripped itself up. The responses to that tweet They made it clear that the reception of the regulations was very different from what the EU would have expected. The criticism was forceful and very clear: with these regulations the only thing the EU was achieving was to slow down innovation and make it even more difficult to compete in a segment that was defining the world. While the US and China joined the party without asking permission and without asking for forgiveness, Europe stayed at home happily crocheting. That regulation, which came into force in August 2024instantly caused the AI ​​segment out at two speeds: that of Europe, almost at a standstill, and that of the rest of the world, which stepped on the accelerator (without looking too closely at the consequences). We have seen the consequences of that in the last two years. Europe has been relegated to the second (or third) plane, and with honorable exceptions like the Spanish Freepik or the French Mistral, we have very little to talk about in this area. Meanwhile, the US dominates the commercial plane and China is a steamroller both at a training level as in your open model development. Europe wants to turn back: the question is whether it is too late Yesterday the European Commission presented a project for simplify various digital regulationsand the most important modifications actually affect the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPRor GRPD for its acronym in English). The changes proposed by the Commission will make it easier for companies to share sets of anonymised and pseudo-anonymised personal data. That will have a direct impact on the capacity of AI companies, which They will be able to legally use personal data to train their data models as long as that process meets the rest of the GDPR requirements. The proposal also softens one of the key elements of the AI ​​Act, which, as we say, came into force in August 2024 but included several elements that would come into force some time later. Thus, now the “grace period” for the regulations that regulate the high risk AI systems —those that pose a “serious risk” to health, safety or fundamental rights—is widespread. It was supposed to be activated in summer 2016, but now that regulation will only apply when it is confirmed that “the necessary standards and supporting tools are available” for AI companies… whatever those standards and tools are, yet to be defined. Other amendments in that new Digital Omnibus include simplified requirements for the documentation required of SMEsin addition to a unified interface so that companies can report cybersecurity incidents. Henna Virkkunen, vice president of technological sovereignty at the European Commission, explained that: “In the EU we have all the ingredients to be successful. However, our businesses, especially startups and small businesses, are often held back by a set of rigid rules. By reducing bureaucracy, simplifying EU legislation, opening access to data and introducing a common European business portfolio, we are creating space for innovation to be produced and commercialized in Europe. This is being done the European way: by ensuring that users’ fundamental rights remain fully protected.” These amendments to current digital regulations will now have to be approved by the European Parliament and the 27 member states of the European Union — which will need a qualified majority— to approve it. That process could last months, and during it the proposals themselves could see notable changes before being applied. As indicated in The Guardianthis “massive setback” of this regulation has caused concern among groups fighting to continue protecting privacy of European citizens. The European Digital Rights (EDRi), a pan-European network of NGOs, Indian that if the changes to the regulation are accepted, it will become easier for technology companies to collect and use personal data to train AI models without asking for consent. The European agenda seemed to change when former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned last fall of how Europe had fallen worryingly behind in the technology race. That speech was a breath of fresh air for Europeand European business groups have welcomed the proposal with optimism, but believe that they still fall short. A representative of the Computer and Communications Industry Association of which Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta are members indicated that “efforts to simplify digital and technology regulations should not stop there.” One click for cookies This simplification of regulation that affects all types of digital scenarios can have a positive effect. Accepting or rejecting cookies has become a daily torture for millions of Europeansbut the user experience may improve significantly in the coming months. And it may get better because the EU has proposed a modernization of policies related to cookies. To try to improve the browsing experience, it will limit the number of times cookie warning banners appear, but also will make it possible for us to accept or reject cookies with a single click. In fact, the future may be even more promising, because what is intended is that said consent (or denial) of cookies is integrated into our browser so that once we configure it, the websites are not constantly asking us if we accept cookies or not: the browser will know what we want and will answer for us at all times. In that “digital package” it is specified that once we accept or reject cookies with that “single-click“, websites must respect that choice of citizens for six months. Image | Christian Lue In Xataka | For the EU, our privacy has always been more important than AI. Until he understood that he was left behind

Seeking to reduce emissions, ships are turning to cutting-edge technology. Punta in the year 3000 BC, specifically

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Ships long ago stopped sailing with ten guns per side. They don’t do it under full sail either, although there are a couple of companies determined to change that. The thing about the sails, not the cannons, since we have examples of great ships sailing with sails of the 21st century (and cannons are now electromagnetic). Are a bet to row against emissions of the maritime industry, and the truth is that the technology sounds good for the biggest ships that star almost all world trade. The banner is the Pyxis Ocean, an 81,000-ton ship that has been circling the oceans of half the world, showing the viability of returning wind-powered ships to the sea. And the industry is taking note: a few weeks ago the first oil tanker with sails began sailing with promising figures. Ships with state-of-the-art sails to decarbonize the oceans The maritime industry has a major challenge ahead: reducing its emissions to achieve decarbonization goals. We look at hydrogen, to methanol already electrification as ways to achieve those objectives, but the Pyxis Ocean is proving that candles can play a role in all of this too. Owned by the Mitsubishi Corporation, it is a ‘bulk carrier’. In Spanish, a bulk ship focused on the transportation of bulk cargoes such as cereals or minerals. Along with the container ship already the Ro-Roare essential ships in the global trade chainand the fact that it has sails does not prevent it from being a ship of considerable dimensions. 229 meters in length and 32 meters in width, typical for this type of boat. What is not so common are its two huge sails in the front and middle part. Each one is 37.5 meters high and 20 meters wide, and they work as you expect: taking advantage of the force of the wind to propel the boat. However, they do not ‘inflate’ like traditional sailboats. Named WindWingsare a rigid structure of steel and fiberglass that have more to do with the wings of an airplane than with conventional sails. They take advantage of wind energy, adapting in real time and automatically to maximize efficiency in different wind conditions. It works autonomously and does not require additional energy or personnel to handle it. When the Pyxis departed, not everyone was convinced the system would work, qualifying it as “a risky bet.” Two years later, we have some conclusions further. Under favorable conditions, the ship’s two WindWings are estimated to have reduced main engine power consumption by 32% per nautical mile. During the six-month testing process, the ship achieved savings of about three tons of fuel per dayand after those six months, the Pyxis Ocean continues sailing. Mitsubishi is not responsible for these sails, a credit that belongs to BAR Technologiesand the success of the pilot test has led to them expanding the sail catalog with more 20 and 24 meter models aimed at both smaller ships and ships for the chemical industry. The estimate is that each sail saves 0.7 tons of fuel per day and can be easily installed on both new and veteran boats, whenever adaptation work is done. Beyond the curiosity and interest of BAR Technologies in promoting this, it seems that the industry is considering it as an option to both electrification and traditional fossil fuel systems. In June of this year, the Brands Hatcha Union Maritime tanker that has three WindWings and departed from Rotterdam last September. It is estimated that more than a third of its propulsion was thanks to the wind, avoiding 13 tons of CO₂ per WindWing per day. The company has ordered sails for a further 34 new vessels and BAR Technologies has received another order for new LR2 tankers due to be launched in 2027. When the technology was introduced, John Cooper, director of BAR Technologies, commented that “by 2025, half of new ships will be powered by wind.” It is evident that their estimates have not been metbut the good results are encouraging the International Windship Association to calculate that there will be more than 100 large ships with the system by the end of this year and, by 2050, up to 40,000 systems installed. In the end, as has happened more than once, we look again to a technology from the past to achieve objectives in the present. We will see if sails are that agent that once again transforms maritime navigation on a global level, since neither BAR Technologies is alone in this nor are WindWings the only ones. next generation sails that are in development. Images | WindWaves In Xataka | It’s not a ship, it’s a floating “Empire State”: the ONE crush surpassing the record of containers on board

This winter turning on the heating will be less scary. The reason is not so comforting

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Six in the afternoon. Closed night. You arrive in the cold and turn on the heating without thinking. The radiator breathes warmly and, next to it, last winter’s gas bill appears, folded between papers. One glance is enough to bring back the question that opens every coat season: how much will the joke cost this winter? The answer, after three harsh winters, seems somewhat kinder. But only in part. The present offers a respite, while beneath it continues to beat an energy contradiction that Europe has not been able to resolve. A kinder winter. Analysts confirm it: this winter will be more benign than previous ones. In an interview with Xataka, Javier RevueltaSenior Principal at AFRY, sums it up bluntly: “We have much cheaper gas than last winter. Before we were at €50–55/MWh; now we are around €30/MWh.” And that matters, because gas determines a good part of the electricity price in the cold months. According to Revuelta, this drop alone means “about €40/MWh less” in many hours of winter. It is worth remembering that this year has been a record for new solar power —more than 9 gigawatts installed— and everything points because this winter There will be more radiation and less cloudiness than the previous one. The result: more renewables pushing prices down. However, the Spanish system continues to show shadows. As we have already explained on other occasionsAfter the blackout on April 28, Red Eléctrica was forced to reinforce the operation of the synchronous plants—that is, the gas combined cycles—to avoid new surges. Between May and October, its production increased by more than 50%, generating an additional 2.5 million tons of CO₂. An uncomfortable reminder: even in the European country with the most renewables per inhabitant, gas remains the system’s safety net. How will it affect the pocket? The electricity consumer will notice a certain relaxation in their bills. More solar hours, less gas pressure and a more stable market mean a more predictable winter. For one thing, homes with gas heating will also see softer bills this winter. But the good news has a deadline. Starting in 2028, the new European ETS2which will force distribution companies to pay for the final consumer’s emissions. In practice: gas will be more expensive structurally. In fact, Revuelta anticipates it: “In the medium term, operating a boiler will be significantly more expensive,” and the comparison with heat pumps will clearly lean towards the electrification of heat. On the other hand, another adjustment is coming. As Cinco Días points outmarketers are carrying an additional 3.3 billion euros this year due to technical restrictions. They are not fully impacting it, but they will. Iberdrola anticipates that 70% of its free market clients will notice these costs when renewing rates in 2025; in 2027, it will be 90%. In other words, this winter it drops, but the rates in 2026 and 2027 might not be so benign. In search of alternatives. While gas experiences ups and downs and electricity continues to be marked by volatility, solid biomass—pellets, chips, olive pits—continues to be the most economical option in the country. According to the Biomass Price Indices collected by Heat and Cold, The average cost is: Sliver: 3.34 c€/kWh Bone: 4.68 c€/kWh Pellet: 6.95 c€/kWh Facing: TUR2 natural gas: 8.59 c€/kWh Diesel C: 7.98 c€/kWh Electricity (heat pump): > 10 c€/kWh useful Furthermore, prices remain stable and production is national, with more than 60 pellet factories and dozens of olive chip and stone centers. A close, robust market with little exposure to international tensions. There is a more modern alternative. Surely you have heard about it: aerothermal energy. To be honest, it is expensive to install—between 10,000 and 20,000 euros—but extremely efficient: for every unit of electricity it consumes, it provides between 3.5 and 4 units of heat. With more renewables pushing the rate downwards in solar hours and an ETS2 that will make gas more expensive, the heat pump becomes the most profitable option in 10–15 years. According to Revuelta, the economic difference will widen year after year and regulation will push in the same direction. But there is a lot of talk about green hydrogen… True, green hydrogen makes news, but it will not yet heat homes. The last thing that is known is that Enegás has received 285 applications to inject hydrogen into the network by blending. However, the current technical limit is 2% of the volume, insufficient for domestic heating. The first real injections will arrive in spring 2026, but they will be experimental. Hydrogen will not play a real role in residential heating until well into the 2030s. The tension in Europe. Spain arrives more comfortably into winter than northern Europe. But it is not isolated. As far as we know The regasification plants in the Netherlands operate at 90–100%, their technical limit. They are the main LNG gateway for Germany and part of the European industry. Its saturation is “the prelude to higher prices.” Spain could help, but it can’t. Interconnections with France barely allow shipping between 7,000 and 8,500 million m³ per year. Added to this is another structural factor. According to The Economistmore than 57% of the LNG that Europe imports already comes from the United States, which some analysts consider a new dependence comparable to that which existed with Russia. And, furthermore, the European Union enters winter with reserves at 83%, below the target of 90%. A calmer winter… But an uncertain future. This winter the radiators will turn on with less fear. Gas is cheaper, electricity is relaxed and biomass offers an economical way. Heat pumps are consolidated as the great alternative for the future, and hydrogen begins its journey—although without immediate impact for homes. But calm is relative. Spain—and Europe—are still trapped between two models: the one they want —decarbonized, electrified, flexible— and the one that really operates —dependent on gas, LNG and saturated infrastructure. This winter will be kinder, yes. But the underlying question for every Spaniard remains open: how much longer … Read more

When turning 100 doesn’t mean retiring

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For much of this year, Japan has been revealing situations that revealed the extreme situation derived from aging of its population. In fact, the need of many elderly people to continue working after retirement had become the “rent” of grandmothers in a new symbol of the times. The same thing happened with many jobs. that they are going to lose due to lack of young hand. But there is also another side: that of reaching 100 years celebrating it with work. Longevity as a vocation. I was telling it on the weekend the new york times. Japan, country with a centenary population largest in the worldlives a demographic paradox: while its birth rate sinks and the proportion of young people is reduced, an extraordinarily long-lived generation of elderly defies retirement. More than 100,000 people exceed one hundred yearsand among them there is a common thread that goes beyond genetics or diet: work as a reason for being. In a country where a sense of duty and discipline permeate daily life, these centenarians do not conceive of old age as a retirement, but as the natural extension of a useful existence. Their longevity, they say, is born from the balance between an active body, a busy mind and a purpose that does not extinguish. The mechanic that doesn’t close. One of the most palpable cases is 103 years old. Seiichi Ishii He continues fixing bicycles in the same Tokyo neighborhood where he started as an apprentice as a child. His hunched figure under a too-long blue jumpsuit sums up an ethic: that of the artisan who is not measured by age, but by the need to continue doing. The man repairs screws with trembling hands, makes his own miso, sings karaoke and rides a tricycle to his favorite bar, but above all he refuses to leave the job that gives meaning to your days. Your workshop is your world and, as he says calmly, “if I die here, I will die happy.” In a technical JapanIshii represents the persistence of the intimate relationship between manual labor and personal dignity. The cook The Times also remembered the story by Fuku Amakawa102 years old, who it’s been six decades in charge of the family restaurant where he mixes noodles, broth and chives with the naturalness of someone who has not lost the rhythm of work life. The heat of the steam has kept his skin smooth and his spirit strong. She continues to work five or six days a week, convinced that her body remains strong thanks to the routine of effort. Her restaurant, opened with her husband and supported today by her children, has become a domestic temple of perseverance. When the muscle pain scared her, she thought it was her heart. The doctor explained that it was just a consequence of lifting heavy pots. For her, continuing in the kitchen is not resistance: it is gratitude for being able to do it. Cultivating memory. Masafumi Matsuo101 years old, grows rice, eggplants and cucumbers in the mountains of Oita. He works in the sun with measured breaks, sitting on a plastic stool, and brings offerings of rice to the small chapel where he honors his deceased wife. Cancer and covid survivor, clings to the earth like a form of continuity: To till the field is to maintain the link with his past, with his family and with the natural cycle that taught him to resist. He plays with his great-grandson, watches the grasshoppers jump from his heating table and finds in everyday life the serenity of someone who has learned that working is, literally, continuing to breathe. Selling beauty. At 102 years old, Tomoko Horino continue selling cosmeticsas she has been doing since she was 39, when she decided to challenge social conventions that prohibited married women from working. With three children and a reluctant husband, Horino turned her aesthetic intuition into sustenance and pride. Today, widowed and alone, she makes her sales by telephone, sews, feeds the neighborhood cat and continues to feel the same emotion when listening to a client regain her self-esteem. In his story The change of the Japanese woman and the validity of work as a personal affirmation are intertwined: each conversation, each shade of lipstick sold is an act of vital continuity. The narrator. Tomeyo Ono101 years old, sits on a cushion and recites traditional stories (minwa) with an energy that belies his age. She began telling stories in her seventies, in a society where girls of her time did not dream of having a public voice. Since the 2011 tsunami devastated his house in Fukushima, he has mixed old legends with memories of the disasterconvinced that narrating is preserving the memory of those who left. He eats natto between bread, writes his diary, laughs, cries and says he only dreams of the dead. His mission, he says, is to keep talking until he can meet with them. Work is life. If you will, the example of these five portraits condenses a vision of Japan that survives beyond its demographic crisis: that of a society where work is not only a means of subsistence, but moral affirmation and emotional continuity. In all of them, activity maintains health, protects from loneliness and gives purpose. No one idealizes fatigue, but everyone assumes it as a companion. Contrary to the stereotype of the golden retirement, these centenarians embody a form different from fullness: that of the repeated gesture that sustains identity. In a country where the elderly already surpass in spades To young people, his example is not a curiosity, but rather a response: to continue working, in Japan, is to continue being. Image | RawPixel In Xataka | Jeans from Japan have become a luxury good. The problem is that he is running out of hands to knit them. In Xataka | That Japan has 100,000 people over 100 years old explains a problem: they are literally running out of drivers.

A Chinese artist is turning the least artistic thing into art

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It hasn’t rained this much since that video of Will Smith eating spaghetti appeared online. However, within a few years technology has evolved tremendously. Taking other people’s content as inspiration, you can now create videos with absurd fidelity. The funniest thing is that, If AI “steals”there is an artist “stealing” which makes the AI-generated videos appear to be AI-generated videos. And it’s delirious. Tianran Mu is a Chinese actor and content creator who, at the age of 29, asked himself how he could create content inspired by what AI does. take a look to the video which we leave below in which you can see Tianran Mu -the one with the noodles- and another person. Exactly, there are clumsy movements, misplaced facial expressions and inconsistencies galore that we associate with failures and hallucinations of artificial intelligence generative, and it is where the 29-year-old creator has seen an opportunity to create a series of videos taking advantage of these gaps in technology. 40 years of forgiveness Recently, Wired He was able to chat with Tianran Mu. At 29 years old, he spent some time looking for work in the film industry, specifically at the huge Hengdian World Studios, but there was no luck. In 2019, he started creating ‘sketches’ on Chinese social networks and things went well for him. After experimenting with content creation using AI, began to detect those patterns in which technology fails. For example, unnatural body gestures, erratic glances, plots that turn somersaults or elements that overlap and, in 2024, it began to release short videos imitating this which means that, luckily, we can still know if a video is AI or not. And it’s… fun. In some videos, he uses different actors to play the same role, emulating the continuity problems that AI often has. The characters are also not looking anywhere and feel like robots. The impact is there. In Chinese networksit seems that the young man has hit hard, but it was a few weeks ago when part of his content began to be shared on Western networks such as X or Instagram, accumulating more than 10 million views and thousands of reactions on platforms where he is not present. The phenomenon has viralized in a very organic way at a time when there is an intense debate around these AI creations. That debate has intensified with the Sora 2 releasethe OpenAI model that has evolved tremendously compared to the tools we had until now and that makes really difficult to guess if certain videos are AI or not. It is something that has already had its share of controversy, of course. content theft to train the modelbut Mu saw an opportunity in Sora 2. He identified that the human characters generated by Sora laugh in unpleasant ways and have hair with strange “physics.” So, he imitated it in a video he released a few days ago: It’s curious because being 100% artisanal and human, Mu’s video is more uncanny valley than some videos made with AI. I think this speaks very well of his work, but also of the dark side of Sora 2. In fact, the actor himself confessed to Wired that It has been much more difficult for him to parody Sora 2 because the quality has gone up several notches. In fact, he comments that it is almost impossible to create parodies and states that in a few months “there will be nothing left to imitate. If I try to act as the AI ​​will, I would only be acting like a human.” And this is really sad. Yes, it is having enormous virality, but that does not pay the mortgage and Mu says that, in two years, many directors and actors will use AI to replace not only the special effects departments, but the actors themselves. And, as an actor, he confesses that if it is already difficult to compete against other actors, it will be more difficult to do so against those who do not even exist, but who can potentially act like a human, bending to whatever the studios want. You don’t have to go in two years. It is true that thanks to this virality, in China he has had some contracts with companies that want him to use AI for campaigns, but he affirms that, in his own content, everything he does is human because his goal is… well, to be hired for his acting skills. Images | Tianran Mu In Xataka | YouTube is becoming much more important to Google than its video platform: in its search engine

Stop importing gas and turning your subsoil into the new energy strength

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While Europe monitored its gas deposits at the beginning of September –at 76%, a breath to the winter that is coming-, at the other end of the Chinese world he wrote another story. Far from the preventive mentality, the Asian giant is extracting gas at an unprecedented rate. It is not just about filling warehouses, but about rewriting the rules of your energy safety. The awakening of a gas giant. China was already a power in energy matters: storing oil and An undisputed leader in renewables. But now a new identity is carved: being a gas axis. In just twenty years, Beijing has achieved what few believed possible: turning from an almost absolute dependence on imports towards unstoppable rising domestic production. According to analyst John Kempinternal gas production has not stopped growing at a rate close to 10% per year since the beginning of the century. The provinces of the Northwest –xinjiang, Shaanxi, Interior Mongolia– They have registered Even more vigorous increases, 13%, while the Sichuan basin, more mature, maintains a remarkable 9%. Three main levers. The first bet has been the riskiest: getting where few arrive. The big state companies –Sinopec, Cnooc and Petrochina– They have reoriented their efforts towards wells up to 10,000 meters deep and the development of the complex shale gas in Sichuan. . It is not just a technical issue; It is a political strategy with a clear objective: to reduce the dependence of foreign gas, although that means drilling in hostile geological formations and a high cost. The second lever has been geographical. Secondary regions on the Chinese energy map, such as Xinjiang or Interior Mongolia, They have become the new gas engine in the country. With the determined support of Beijing, these areas now concentrate conventional and unconventional gas projects, backed by a logistics network that connects them with the east consumption centers. The third play has been geopolitical. China and Russia They signed a memorandum For the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, an infrastructure that could inject up to 50,000 million cubic meters per year from Yamal to northern China. Although the price and calendar details are still on the table, the message is clear: Beijing ensures long -term supply, at probably lowered prices, and shields against the volatility of the global LNG market. The numbers do not lie. Official data collected by the Xinhua agency They reflect this turn. Between January and June 2025, China produced 130.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 5.8% more than in the same period of the previous year. In June alone, production reached 21.2 billion cubic meters, with a growth of 4.6% year -on -year. The International Energy Agency (AIE) Recognize that gas Win weight in the Chinese energy mix for its flexibility and lower emissions against coal, although it warns that the country must redouble efforts to meet its climatic goals. Meanwhile, liquefied natural gas imports (LNG) sink. According to the data of the KPLer consultant collected by BloombergLNG Chinese purchases will fall in September 22% year -on -year, up to 5.4 million tons. It is the eleventh consecutive month of descents. Reuters anticipates That total imports of 2025 could be reduced between 6% and 11%, weighed by a faster internal demand, the increase in local production and the largest flows by gas pipeline from Russia and Central Asia. Infrastructure for Independence. China is not only extracting more gas; also has woven a colossal network submarinto consolidate its autonomy. The Asian giant already exceeds 10,000 kilometers of underwater pipes, a web that connects gas platforms, wind farms and refineries with the terrestrial network. Emblematic projects such as the Bay of Hohai or the Deep field No. 1 symbolize this new energy border. These pipes transport gas and raw, and in the future they are called to carry hydrogen. The goal is not just technical; It is strategic: to ensure national supply and reduce exposure to international fluctuations. Forecasts The IEA provides that Chinese gas consumption reach its peak by 2035, before stabilizing with electrification and renewables. In the short term, the demand will remain moderate: the lazy industrial growth and the impulse of domestic production could maintain the imports of minimums also in 2026. Meanwhile, investments in deep perforations, the offshore network and the Russian gas pipelines consolidate China as self -sufficient actor and strong negotiator against traditional producers such as the US, Qatar or Australia. The new board. Europe keeps gas to survive winter. China, on the other hand, cava deeper to not need it. In just two decades, the country has gone from depending on metaneous cargoes to negotiate from abundance. If the plans are fulfilled – more national production, pipes until 2030 and Power of Siberia 2 operation in the next decade -, the global map of natural gas could definitely turn to Asia. And the old continent, which today breathes relieved with its full reserves, could soon discover that the next energy crisis will not be decided in Moscow or in Doha, but among Beijing’s offices. Image | Freepik Xataka | The new maritime record of China is shaped like a floating gas plant: 376 meters long and Africa destination

The brands are turning in the electricity. Porsche and Audi will return to combustion because nobody wants to buy them

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We do not know the future and that encourages us to be anchored in the past. The electric car brings more power and greater control over it, a wilder acceleration or cars that will end up being more effective in curve. With the weight of the current sports, it is not surprising that we begin to see very similar figures in weight … and much better if we talk about the weight/power relationship with respect to the combustion models. Byd, in fact, has just demonstrated that The future of the hyperdeportivo is electricsweeping Bugatti and becoming the Yangwang U9 in the fastest car in the world. A long time ago, the McMurtry Spéirling I left ridiculous The acceleration of any car with combustion engine. And, despite everything, the sports electric car is still not pending. We do not know if it is a matter of time, if cars like the future RENAULT 5 TURBO 3E They will break schemes and become an immediate classic. But until then, the combustion car offers sensations that the electric car cannot match. For some those Sensations They are different. For others, they are clearly better. Anyway, there is evidence: the sports electric car does not finish convincing. And that is causing the plans to electrify these models are delayed. The best example is the future Porsche 718. A car that had to make the leap to the electric whole and that, however, will have a version of combustion. And that, with rebound, will lead us to a future Audi Deportivo that will also mount combustion engine. Porsche collects cable (and passing, Audi benefits) “We want to meet the new market realities and change customer demands. We have seen a clear drop in the demand for exclusive battery electric cars, and we are taking it into account.” The words are from Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche, in a call to investors collected by The Autopian. They arrive to confirm a change of strategy. Future Porsche 718, classic central motor sports and the entrance range to the company will continue to offer, at least in their most expensive options, combustion engines. The news is the confirmation of what began to be an open secret: the future Porsche 718 will not be only electric as He had defended until now by the company. The movement arrives just when it is also confirmed that the Porsche Cayenne will not jump into the electrical exclusive. It is a strong change in strategy since The good initial results of the Porsche Taycan They had served the Germans to boost their electrical strategy. However, China has turned its back on the company And it has broken much of this strategy. Along the way he has confirmed that wealthy customers who have access to their combustion cars … They are not making the jump to the electric. So much so that the Porsche Macanwhich was sold as an exclusively electric model, could have a combustion brother in 2028 according to Jalopnik. Of course, we will have to see on what basis because The PPE on which the macan sits Current only admits completely electric models. When we analyzed the new Porsche Macan Electric we already counted that it was a really interesting car. It was an effective car, a brute force and a surprising curve step for its height and size. But he had a but: That car had a V6 gasoline engine before. And convince who enters the world Porsche that now that engine is electric … is very complicated. The basic problem for Electric Deportivo is that cars are much more than numbers. In social networks it is repeated as a mantra that “Who knows how to handle an Excel buys an electric car”. And yes, it’s true If you are looking for a “affordable” car for day to daywith a lower expense in “fuel”, a savings in maintenance over the years, tax benefits in taxes … But none of that is taken into account when one buys a central motor biplaza. That is why a Mazda MX-5 continues to transmit sensations that no other car transmits with just over 100 hp. That driver profile values ​​the sound of the car, the thrust when it goes up or the touch of a manual gearbox. Yes, a quartz clock is usually more precise than automatic but the buyer values ​​the “artisanal” work under the sphere. Yes, a digital camera is more versatile and easy to use than an analog but the Feeling To load the reel and “feel” the mechanics in the hands goes far beyond the megapixels. These cars are mere whim toys And, as such, they do not attend to rational factors. You can talk about numbers but that is only the continent, not the content. Given this diatribe, the brands that are indissoluble of this driving experience have it hard complicated. Especially those more “earthly.” Ferrari either Lamborghini It has a higher bandwidth to transfer to its customers the possible fines that reach it in the future, Porsche does not have so much room to transfer this cost to the customers. Especially in the most “affordable” models. That is why a two -speed future has been raised. It is no accident that Combustion models of the Porsche 718 are identified with the top range versions. That will help sell the most expensive versions because they will deliver a inaccessible driving experience for the vast majority of drivers. But, it will even be relatively inaccessible even for those who can buy a Porsche. This future Porsche 718 gives the company air. As they explain in The cars.net podcast Joan Dalmau and Juan Carlos Grande, companies have made efforts to advance a solid range against a horizon in 2035 without combustion engines. But they need to continue earning money and in Europe the client has not embraced the electric car at the expected rhythm. In this business niche, problems are even more serious because, as we said, rationality is … Read more

There are people so obsessed with getting brunette in summer who are turning to something

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Every summer, the desire to wear a golden skin is imposed again. In that race to reach the perfect tone, many people are looking for shortcuts. From whom They forget (deliberately) of the sun cream To “take more color”, to those who follow absurd remedies how to eat excess carrots. But now, in social networks It has viralized again A trend that promotes the use of MelanoTan II, popularly nicknamed as “the Barbie Malibu drug.” The Barbie drug? Better known as MelanoTan II is a synthetic peptide developed for medical purposes. Specifically, to protect the skin of people with rare diseases such as Erythropoietic protoporphyria. In essence, it helps the body produce more melanin, the pigment that gives color to the skin, without the need for sun exposure. The compound I mimic natural hormone: Alfa-Mshresponsible for activating tan or melanocortine receptors in the body. However, it also causes other physiological responses: loss of appetite, increased libido and, in some cases, priapism. However, it is not necessary to confuse it with its safer version: the melanote I, which remains under clinical study with the commercial name Scenesse. That is being investigated under medical supervision. But is it legal? No, it is not authorized by any security control agency, or by the European Medication Agency of Europe (EMA), Ni United States Food and Medicines Administration (FDA) and nor the administration of therapeutic products of Australia (TGA). It is neither marketed in pharmacies nor has approved clinical indications. In spite of this, its distribution is done irregularly through the Internet and social networks, where it is offered in presentations such as subcutaneous injections and nasal aerosols. Not being subject to health controls, there is a total lack of guarantees about its composition, concentration and possible pollution. Again in networks. On platforms such as Tiktok or Instagram, MelanoTan II has returned to circulate under hashtags like #tanning or #summerlow, despite the restrictions imposed on labels such as #melanoTan. Influencers and users promote it as a shortcut to the perfect tan, feeding an aesthetic that associates perpetual brunette with health, attractive or success. This type of content usually omit the possible side effects and legal risks. As He has warned the pharmacist “Fernández Pharmacist” on his Instagram account: “You inject something that is not approved, you do not know well what it takes … but everything is for being Moreno in March.” The price of tanning without sun. Far from being an innocent supplement, Melanotan II has serious side effects. According to various medical studies and health warningscan cause: Nausea, vomiting, tachycardia. Hormonal alterations and humor changes. Priapism (prolonged and painful erections). Changes in moles and appearance of new (some suspects). Increased risk of melanoma, more aggressive skin cancer. Hypertension, renal and muscular damage. Some studies They also mention Changes in the appearance of Nevus, something especially delicate in dermatology. There are no conclusive studies on long -term effects. Beyond being Moreno. Why does a person decide to inject an illegal substance to be more brunette? The answer can be more than an aesthetic desire. In an article for minutes They have explained That many consumers present dysmorphophobia, a psychological disorder that leads to excessive concern for imaginary defects of the body. In addition, as explained by Dr. José María Ricart, dermatologist at the Ricart Medical Institute (IMR), In statements to Xataka: “The tan is nothing more than a defensive response of the body. It is its way of saying: ‘I am damaging.” In addition, the specialist adds that many people continue to believe in the “healthy tan”, when in reality each without protection exposure is a cumulative aggression to the skin. The skin does not forget. The obsession with the tan has led many to make hasty decisions, without knowing the risks. The use of MelanoTan II shows how certain aesthetic practices can extend beyond regulated medical channels. Its illegal use, deregulated and promoted by social networks is a real threat. “The tan lasts a summer. The skin, all life”, The pharmacist Fernández concludes. Image | Unspash and Tiktok Xataka | Korea is exporting faces: how the South Korean aesthetic industry turned its beauty model into a global product

Deepseek marked a turning point in the AI race. Now another Chinese company wants to imitate its success: Kimi K2 is born

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The Chinese startup Monshot AI has presented Kimi K2, an open -source artificial intelligence model that arrives with outstanding programming capabilities and autonomous tasks that, according to The published benchmarksThey spray competition in several of their models. Its launch occurs at a key moment for the sector, when Chinese companies seek to replicate the disruptive success of Deepseek with potential height models and much cheaper than market alternatives. Kimi does not come from nothing. MoNshot ai was one of the most promising startups in the Chinese ecosystem of AI and that giants like Alibaba have invested greatly. His Kimi chatbot reached third place in monthly active users in August 2024, but fell to the seventh in June After the emergence of Deepseek R1 in January. Now try to recover ground with a strategy that combines open source and aggressive prices, following the formula that catapulted Deepseek. Image: MoNshot AI What Kimi K2 offers. The model has 1 billion total parameters and 32,000 million activated parameters, using The well-known Mixture-Of-Experts architecture to optimize computational costs. It is presented in two versions: a base for researchers and developers, and another optimized for conversation and autonomous tasks. Kimi K2 thus becomes Moonshot AI’s proposal with the ability to act as an intelligent agent to use tools, write code, complete workflows or talk, among other tasks. Kimi K2 explained in numbers. In performance testsKimi K2 has achieved 65.8% precision at Swe-Bench Verified, one of the most demanding benchmarks for software engineering. In LivecodeBench it reached 53.7%, exceeding 46.9% of Deepseek-V3 and 44.7% of GPT-4.1. In mathematics, its 97.4% score in Math-500 exceeds 92.4% of GPT-4.1, suggesting significant advances in mathematical reasoning. The price factor. MoNshot is charging $ 0.15 per million input tokens and $ 2.50 per million tokens out of the developers who use their API. Compared, Claude Opus 4 It charges 100 times more for the entrance (15 dollars) and 30 times more for the output ($ 75), while GPT-4.1 charges 2 dollars per entrance and 8 per exit. In addition, the model is available for free in Web applications and Kimi mobile, without monthly subscriptions that require chatgpt or Claude for their most advanced models. Technical innovation. MoNshot has developed the MuCanclip optimizer, which allows train models of one billion parameters “With zero training instability.” This technology could drastically reduce the training costs of large models, a problem that has limited the development of AI to companies with greater resources. Double channel strategy. The company offers so much Free access to the source code as payment API at a very competitive price. This strategy allows companies to start with the API for immediate implementation and then migrate to self -healing versions either by regulatory cost or compliance. And it is that each developer who downloads Kimi K2 becomes a potential business client. Moment of inflection. Kimi K2 represents a convergence point where open source models and proprietary alternatives shake hands. MoNshot AI intends to turn Kimi into a tool for everything, while offering its open source model and is reserved to charge for the use of its API for all types of implementations. And now what. The launch reaches a critical point in which both Openai, such as Google or Anthropic, must respond to this wave of cheap and high quality language models. The issue is no longer whether open source models can match the owners, but if large technological ones can adapt their business models fast enough to compete in this new scenario. The looks are put in GPT-5 And in the next movements of the industry at a rate, as always, accelerated. Cover image | Xataka with Mockuuuups Studio and Kimi AI In Xataka | Grok 4 destroys the tests and aims to be the most advanced AI model. The problem is that Elon Musk continues to sabotage his answers

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