Universal

Spain’s secret weapon in the Olympic Games is a skater dressed as a Minion. Universal almost prevented it

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Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté had been preparing for months for the most important moment of his sporting career. The 26-year-old Catalan skater, six-time Spanish champion, was clear about how he wanted to make his debut in the Olympic Games: dressed as a Minion, on the ice of Milan-Cortina 2026performing a medley of songs from the Universal Pictures animated saga. He had used that program throughout the season in international competitions, with the characteristic costume of blue jumpsuit and yellow t-shirt. I thought I had all the permits in order. Drama at Universal. On February 3, just four days before the opening ceremony of the Games, Guarino received devastating news: Universal Pictures was denying him permission to use the Minions’ music and costume in the Olympic event. “I was informed that I no longer have permission, due to copyright issues,” the skater explained in a statement published by the Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation. Their competition was scheduled for Tuesday, February 11. Changing programs at that point seemed impossible. Permits? What permissions? In August 2024, before starting the season, he had processed the necessary permits through ClicknClearthe official system that the International Skating Union (ISU) makes available to athletes to manage music rights. His intervention included four pieces: Universal Pictures’ characteristic fanfare in the Minions version, ‘Freedom’ by Pharrell Williams (which appears in ‘Despicable Me’), and two other compositions related to the franchise. Negotiations begin. The week before the Games, Universal Studios requested additional information about the music and costumes that Guarino had been using for months. A race against time then began: the skater and his team had to negotiate simultaneously with Universal Pictures, Pharrell Williams, Sony Music and Juan Alcaraz, each owner of different rights of the songs. But as the news spread on social media, the massive support for Guarino convinced Universal to reconsider its position. All good. The skater quickly got approval for two of the songs, and got permission for a third by contacting the composer, also Spanish, directly. The fourth and final piece, Pharrell’s, was resolved at the last moment. On Friday, February 7, just two hours before the figure skating competition at the Games began with the team event, final confirmation came. The Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation (RFEDH) announced that Guarino had obtained all the necessary licensesand managed to participate as planned last night. The laws. Guarino’s case is not an isolated incident. For decades, the International Skating Union (ISU) strictly prohibited the use of music with lyrics in competitions. Skaters could only choose instrumental pieces, usually classical music, that were in the public domain and did not raise copyright conflicts. In 2014the ISU decided to allow vocal music to attract a younger audience and modernize the image of the sport. The first time was in PyeongChang 2018. More cases. This artistic opening brought unforeseen consequences: skaters began to use copyrighted music, and artists began to claim compensation for its use. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier used a version of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ performed by the duo Heavy Young Heathens in Beijing 2022, who sued them. This year, Russian Petr Gumennik They denied permission to use the music from the soundtrack of ‘The Perfume’. Belgian Loena Hendrickx changed one Celine Dion song for another at the last minute due to legal complications. Canadian artist CLANN expressed his displeasure upon discovering that the American Amber Glenn had used one of her songs, even though she had won the team gold medal with it. Mea Culpa. ISU President Jae Youl Kim has openly acknowledged the extent of the problem during these Games. The organization continues to seek solutions, but the complexity of the music rights ecosystem (involving songwriters, performers, production companies, record labels and distribution platforms) makes any licensing system vulnerable to errors or misunderstandings. The 2014 decision to modernize the sport by allowing vocal music was intended to revitalize it and bring it closer to new audiences, but has generated an unforeseen side effect. In Xataka | Surya Bonaly, the unattainable skater who ended up being banned from “dancing with death”

Elon Musk and Sam Altman predicted that AI will force the establishment of a universal basic income. The United Kingdom is already considering it

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The main economic organizations in the world they don’t agree in their forecasts about what the real impact of the arrival of AI will be in the economic and labor sphere. A report The World Economic Forum estimated that AI will create 170 million new jobs. The problem is that until that happens, it will destroy about 92 million jobs. The US Senate consider that some 100 million jobs could be destroyed. Elon Musk and Sam Altman have repeated on several occasions that, to minimize this impact on society, it will be necessary to implement a universal basic income. In the United Kingdom, the government is debating measures to protect workers with the same idea. Millionaires ask for a basic income. Some of the top AI millionaires, such as Elon Musk, have predicted that universal basic income will be a reality in a future dominated by AI. While it is true that Musk’s vision is based on a vision more optimistic about the future in which “work will be optional” and it will not be necessary to save for retirement, the millionaire does not deny that universal income will be a necessary instrument to achieve it. Along the same lines, although with a more realistic vision, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has funded studies on the effects of universal basic income in a scenario of job destruction and how this income helps recipients return to work train for new jobs. Companies do not need human labor. In one your blog postDario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, warned that AI will have an “unusually painful” impact on the labor market. “AI is not a substitute for specific human jobs, but rather a general job substitute for humans,” the manager wrote. For this reason, this mechanism is increasingly seen as a transition instrument that allows employees laid off due to the arrival of AI to retrain to re-enter the labor market. A systematic review of the Department of Economics of the University of Huelva on more than 50 empirical casespoint out that universal basic income improves spending on basic needs without participants stopping looking for work, so it will be a way for employees to train for new jobs. jobs created by AI. The UK Government is debating it. In an interview for Financial TimesJason Stockwood, UK Investment Minister, has revealed that within the Government “it is definitely being talked about.” The minister noted that “without a doubt, we are going to have to think very carefully about how to smooth the process of disembarking those industries that disappear, through some type of UBI and some type of lifelong learning mechanism so that people can retrain.” According to published BloombergMorgan Stanley declared a net job loss of 8% in the UK in the last 12 months due to AI, the highest among large economies. Which explains the concern of the British executive to begin evaluating formulas that cushion this impact. A lifeline to keep them afloat. Unlike Musk’s “optimistic” vision, British representatives do not see the arrival of AI as a liberating element that makes work optional, but as a problem that will temporarily leave millions of workers who will need help unemployed. So declared it Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, concerned about the high rate of “white collar” unemployment that can cause the arrival of AI in a city like London. Liz Kendall, Secretary of Technology of the United Kingdom, spoke along the same lines, assuring that, although it is true that more jobs will be created than will be lost, there will be a transition period in which AI will be “a weapon of mass destruction of jobs. We will not leave people and communities to fend for themselves,” collected Guardian. The million-dollar question: who finances that income? It is easy to predict that universal basic income would be a solution for those who do not have a job to return to because AI has automated it. However, something more complicated will be determining who will finance that basic income. Bill Gates already gave some clues almost a decade agoensuring that they should be their own companies that use robots in their processes those that pay for that subsidy “if a robot replaces the work of a human, that robot must pay taxes like a human.” Ioana Marinescu, economist and associate professor of public policy at the University of Pennsylvania consider that taxing technology companies could slow down their implementation at the local level, so that this transformation process it would be more progressive increasing that transition period that would give time to the labor market to adapt. In Xataka | AI and its impact on the labor market: how the perception of its arrival varies by country, explained in a graph Image | Unsplash (Alexander Gray, enrico bet)

Udio closed fronts with Universal. The creators were then left unable to download their own AI songs

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Generative music applications have achieved something that seemed unthinkable a few years ago: allowing anyone, with just two prompts, to can produce complete songs with vocals, arrangements and structures that can sound surprisingly real to most who hear them. This experience, which is presented as magical and accessible, has a much less visible side, linked to how these models have been trained and their legal implications. Many of these platforms have turned to large volumes of content available on the weboften copyrighted, to build their systems. The user enjoys the result, creates and shares, until a legal change, an agreement or a lawsuit transforms the tool and the experience is no longer the same. Until just a few weeks ago, udio It was one of the services that best represented that promise of instant creativity. It had managed to attract both curious people and experienced musicians thanks to its simple system, the tools to extend, mix or remake songs and, above all, the possibility of downloading songs for use outside the platform. There was nothing to suggest that this model was about to change. The first indication came when the company began to talk about a “transition phase” linked to new agreements with record companies. It did not yet detail what was going to happen, but it made it clear that the platform was entering a different stage. The day the download button disappeared. Confirmation came when Udio announced thatas part of its transition, audio, video and stem downloads would be disabled for several months. It was a feature that many considered essential, but now they could only play their creations in Udio and share them using links from udio.com. In exchange, the company reported an increase in credits and more generation capacity, although that did not compensate for the feeling of loss. The message was clear: the songs still existed, but they no longer left the walled garden. Warner and Universal chose a different path than the judicial confrontation: turning Udio and Suno into partners rather than adversaries. Universal signed agreements for the next version of Udio to be based on licensed music and offer artists new avenues of income, while Warner did the same with Suno and also sold the Songkick platform to incorporate it into that new ecosystem. Record companies went from denouncing to collaborating, with a clear condition: at least in the case of Warner and Udio, artists and composers would have the possibility of deciding whether their voice, their image or their style could be part of the creations generated by AI. From defendants to partners. Once the content is within the legal space, what is relevant is not only that agreements have been signed, but how the industry’s priorities have changed. A year ago the goal was to put AI platforms on the bench for using protected music to train their models. Today, a growing part of the sector has understood that it may be more profitable to integrate them than to stop them. The move does not eliminate legal conflicts, but it opens the door to a model in which record labels oversee, license and participate in revenue, rather than reacting only through lawsuits. It is a change of focus that signals where the music business is moving. What nobody sees: scraping as the foundation of musical AI. For years, the actual functioning of many generative music models was far from transparent. Some startups, like Suno, admitted to having trained their systems with “virtually every quality music file available on the web,” trusting that such use would be protected by the fair use. However, when record companies began to examine that process, the conflict ceased to be technical and became legal. Images | Universal Music | udio | Unsplash In Xataka | AI has become the best example that if you don’t pay for the product, you are the product

The reactive the great debate on universal basic income. And the question is whether it is feasible to create it: Crossover 1×23

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One hears about Universal basic rent and inevitably thinks that It’s money that gives you free. The idea goes far beyond that, but one thing is true: with the rise of AI and the potential revolution of robotics, the debate about this option is more rising than ever. And precisely this 1×23 crossover is dedicated to talking about universal basic income, its origins and what it means. And to do so are Jaume Lahoz and Carlos Santa Engracia, presenters of Crossover, and a server, Javier Pastor, to dissect the theme. The truth is that we are increasingly facing a future in which AI and automation can help Create ultraproductive companies. In that scenario it is likely that the impact for employment and society will be enormous, and that is where a Universal basic rent You can raise a solution to that “mass and forced unemployment.” In the episode we talk in addition to the Pilot experiments That there has been in various countries, and also how Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is especially interested in this area through its controversial Worldcoin project. Like everything, in the idea that projects universal basic income there are clear advantages and of course also risks. Will we become a society Like the one painted ‘wall-e’? ¿We will all gorditos And without moving from a chair that levita and takes us everywhere? Phew. On YouTube | Crossover

Physicists believed that the neglect was a useless particle. Now they suspect that it is the key to universal quantum computers

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Experts Quantum computing with those who have had the opportunity to speak, such as Spanish physicists Ignacio Cirac either Juan José García RipollThey argue that quantum computers will be able to make great contributions when they are capable of amend your own mistakes. The main problem they face in this area is noise, understood as the disturbances that can alter the internal state of the cubits and introduce calculation errors. The strategy for which many of the research groups that are involved in the development of quantum computers are opting for monitoring the operations carried out by the cubits to identify real -time errors and correct them. The problem is that from a practical point of view This strategy is very challenging. Logical cubits represent a way to overcome the difficulty involved in the use of hardware or physical cubits, which are extremely noise sensitive, and, therefore, prone to make mistakes. Each logical cubit is constructed abstractly on several physical or hardware cubits, so that a single logical cubit encodes a single cubit of quantum information, but with redundancy. It is precisely this redundancy that allows to detect and correct the errors that are present in the physical cubits. Anyway, the researchers will have one more tool to deal with the errors of quantum computers. It can even be the most powerful resource that they currently have at your fingertips: the Neglectón. Universal quantum computers are one step closer One of the most promising research fields in this area is topological quantum computing. Its purpose is to protect the delicate quantum information that the cubits work coding it in the geometric properties of exotic particles known as ISING anions. An important note before moving forward: in condensed physics an anion is not the same as in chemistry. In fact, Ising’s anions are quasiparticles that, in theory, arise in some two -dimensional materials. Its existence has not yet been demonstrated experimentally, so they are a theoretical result at the moment. It seems a complicated concept, and it is, but in this article we do not need to deepen much more. What we do need is that Ising’s anions They are presumably much more robustand, therefore, resistant to errors that traditional cubits. In practice this implies that moving some anions around others in a specific way should allow researchers to carry out logical operations with them. This is the reason why they are so attractive in quantum computing. And, in addition, they have another great advantage: this configuration is largely immune to external noise. Ising’s anions are quasiparticles that, in theory, arise in some two -dimensional materials Currently, Ising’s anions are thoroughly investigating in the condensed matter laboratories of the entire planet because they are one of the main candidates to participate in the construction of universal quantum computers, and, therefore, immune to errors. Aaron Lauda, ​​professor of mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Southern California (USA), Holds the following: “By themselves, Ising’s anions cannot perform all the necessary operations for a general purpose quantum computer. The calculations they support are based on the ‘braided’ (branding), And they require physically moving anions around each other To carry out quantum logic. For Ising’s anions, this braided only allows a limited set of operations known as Clifford doors, which fall short with respect to all the power required for universal quantum computing. “ Fortunately, the research team led by Lauda has found a way to transform ISING anions into universal structures that are capable of performing any quantum calculation through braided. Its solution for the moment is only theoretical, but its potential is enormous. The surprising thing is that what they propose is to resort to a new type of anion known as Neglectón that was initially discarded when it was “discovered” in the theoretical framework. In fact, Neglelectón has gone from being a mathematical waste to be the new hope of quantum computers. In theory when combining Ising’s anions and neglect, universal quantum computing will be possible through braided. According to Aaron Lauda Only one neglect is needed because it remains in the stationary or static state while the calculations are carried out by braiding Ising anions around them. It is a surprising conclusion. One last note to conclude: The neglect is not a fundamental particlesuch as the electron or the quark; It is a theoretical quasiparticle that arises from the collective behavior of many other particles in a two -dimensional system. Let us trust that it is consolidated as the definitive tool that will allow researchers to carry quantum computing from theory to practice in a robust and efficient way. Image | IBM More information | Science Daily In Xataka | Bitcoin encryption and other cryptocurrencies will fall. And those responsible will be quantum computers

Universal will do the competition to Disneyland with Harry Potter and Mario. Disney will counteratacious “turbo-charging” its parks

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In its annual meeting with shareholders, the Disney CEO of Bob Iger has made ads that cover the entire empire of the producer: of sequelae for its animated franchises to plans for its attraction parks. It is the conducive moment: the competition will be more at odd than ever, especially now that it arrives Epic Universe de Universal To Orlando. Old acquaintances in attractions mode. In the ads that Iger has shared, he has talked about attractions inspired by ‘Cars’,’Avatar‘,’The lion king‘,’ Monsters SA ‘,’ Coco ‘and many other franchises. With this, they set the planned plans of Disney, which in autumn of 2023 announced that it was going to fold the investment in thematic parks: The producer would be spent in this sector that, together with the cruises, is what most benefits the brand, $ 60 billion in the course of a decade. An ambitious plan to spab from the experience section, which Nor is it working as it should. The turbo-carga. This has been defined by Iger himself: “Last year we talked about our plans to boost growth in this segment through strategic investments.” And he continues: “Right now, we have more projects in progress throughout the world than at any other time. Magic Kingdom is experiencing the greatest expansion of its history, with a new area inspired by ‘Cars’ and the expected theme park of the villains. And a thematic area of ​​’Monsters SA’. It will reach Hollywood Studios.” And the lion king, to Paris. To all this are added attractions of ‘charm’ and Indiana Jones in Animal Kingdom. And in California Adventure, new attractions of avengers (the area dedicated to the Marvel heroes will bend their size), ‘Avatar’ and ‘Coco’. Disneyland Paris will arrive the first attraction dedicated to ‘The Lion King’, which will be aquatic and that will accompany Simba on his trip to become king. Some of them already advanced Disney in the past D23, where detailed what would consist Many of these attractions. The competition: Epic Universe. In Disney they are in crisis policy because on May 22, Universal will open in Orlando Epic Universe. It is a theme park divided into five universes, some of them as attractive to the general public as Harry Potter or the outside of Japan version of Super Nintendo World. They will join the Dark Universe, based on the company’s classic monsters, Celestial World and its science fiction and fantasy setting, and another area about ‘How to train your dragon’, which Universal wants to turn into one of its star franchises with the premiere of the real image film. And the rest? Regular, thanks. Being one of the companies dedicated to entertainment more powerful and influential of the moment, and with Well sanitized accounts (especially if we compare them with Warner)we are far from being able to say that Disney is in crisis. But this annual meeting with shareholders has been revealing: before all the news related to the parks, only some sequelae and new animation films have been presented, Like ‘Coco 2’they have not awakened too much enthusiasm. Safe Baza. To this is added that Marvel spends complicated moments: Captain America’s last movie is already one of those who have had Less collection of the MCU Hster. At a time, it is clear that Disney should cover several fronts … and re -bet for a safe trick: the multimillionaire parks business. Header | Disney In Xataka | The catastrophe of the ‘Star Wars’ hotel: 3,000 euros per night in an interactive film of 350 million dollars

135,000 years ago, humans had developed a key component of universal culture: language

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A way of thinking about thousands of languages ​​spoken by humanity is visualizing them as branches of a tree, thus drawing The evolution of these languages over time. If we move forward in time, we will see the diversification of some languages ​​and the death of others. If we invest the time needle we can see the branch or the common trunk that joins some languages ​​with others. For example, if we draw the history of Galician and Romanian, we will see in Latin the common origin of these languages ​​spoken in remote areas of Europe. We can do the same exercise looking for the common trunk between Latin and the Swedish. For this we would have to go to prehistoric times, to a common trunk we call protoindoeuropeo And what would have been spoken Around 5,000 years. However, this does not serve to unite all the languages ​​spoken by humanity in the same tree. We do not know of a link that one languages ​​native to the Americas, the languages ​​of Asia and Oceania or the African languages ​​with the protoindeuropean. We do not even need to leave Europe to find languages ​​without known relationship: we can draw the common origin of the Finn and Hungarian, but we cannot unite these languages ​​to the Indo -European trunk. That leaves us with two possibilities. The first is that perhaps humans began to speak time after beginning the migratory movements that would lead us to adapt to life in various territories, which would imply that several native languages ​​arose independently. That is, there are several independent trees. The second indicates that this common trunk exists, but changes in languages ​​and the absence of written testimony and time have erased all trace of this native language in the known, alive or dead languages. All languages ​​have a common trunk, but perhaps we never find out their characteristics. The question of the original language can be presented as the problem of the egg and the chicken: what happened first, the appearance of speech or geographical disintegration of the human species? The interconnection between language and expansion of humanity is not mere curiosity because answering a question can help us Date more accurately Two of the key events in human evolution. A recent study He analyzed the issue through a review of scientific literature published in the last 18 years. The work examined 15 genetic studies that through different methodologies They tried to answer the question of when the populations of H. sapiensThey began to break down and lose contact with each other. The 15 works included three based on the chromosome information and, the patrilinerally inherited chromosome; Three focused on mitochondrial DNA, inherited matrilinerally; and the rest studied the set of human chromosomes. The team made a meta -analysis, a quantitative study based on the results compiled in the compiled works, to obtain a new estimate of the last era in which in which All humanity shared spaces In the same region. The estimate indicated that this happened about 135,000 years ago. The team concludes from this data that human language had to have an origin prior to this original diaspora. They start from the idea that, if language had not existed in this origin, we should have found any human society without language or, at least, with a radically different communicative form from what we know as speaks. The details of the study were Published in an article In the magazineFrontiers in Psychology. An evolution in several phases But what exactly is speech? According to Explain the team itselfprevious studies had already pointed out that Other hominid speciesprevious to sapiens They had the ability to speak. The nuance is that this does not guarantee the existence of a language, however simple it is. The issue for the team is not when humans, H. sapiens Or other species, they began to emit sounds, but when they began to develop the language “as we know it”, that is, “combining vocabulary and grammar in a system”, a system capable of generating an indefinite amount of expressions based on their own rules. “Human language is quantitatively different because there are two things, words and syntax, which work at the same time to create this Very complex system”, explained in a press release Shigeru Miyagawa, study co -author. “No other animal has a corresponding structure in its communication system. And that gives us the ability to generate very sophisticated thoughts and communicate them with others.” Miyagawa and his team also refer to the archaeological record to support their conclusions. As they explain, the archaeological record that has left us evidence of the existence of the type of complex thought that supports the language, evidence that date back 100,000 years ago in time. The team refers to this to artifacts that denote a “symbolic activity”, such as objects in objects or the decorative use of the ocher, a pigment. We have known for a long time that H. sapiens It has not been the only human species capable of reaching these levels of abstraction. It is perhaps that is why The debate To what extent species like Neanderthals H. Neanderthalensis They could have developed speech or even language Be far from setting up. In your articleThe team indicates that, although the “complex behaviors” such as burials and body decoration They can also be associated with these species, ours would have been the only one to have systematized them throughout the population. In Xataka | We just found the lost link of human evolution: the first bone toolbox Image | Pxhere / Chivi1085

The historical agreement between Spotify and Universal promises a ‘streaming 2.0’. But we have already seen changes of this type

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“The next era of streaming innovation.” According to the words of those involvedthat is where the agreement that Universal Music Group and Spotify have reached. This is an agreement that will cover several of the next few years and that will affect both the recordings and the artists’ royalties. It is the first step towards what both companies want to baptize as “era of streaming 2.0” The agreements come back. The pact is remarkable for many reasons, but above all because it is the first Spotify agreement with a multinational industry in several years. It is also commented to improve the conditions of payments to artists, which Since April last year They went down because of a platform rate in the United States oriented to audiobook lovers. Taking advantage of a 2023 lawthis rate allowed the company to pay less Royalties To the composers, which unleashed a sour response from the musical community. This covenant with Universal seems to want to solve some of the problems of that rate, but not just that. Spotify for Superfans. The idea of ​​’streaming 2.0′ It is not new, of courseand Universal has been caressing her for a while, but this seems to be the first firm step towards her. What could be realized? This “Spotify for Superfans” terminology is as the Verge defines The spotify that we are going to have (or part of it, at least) and that will take shape after the agreement. When Universal talked about this ‘streaming 2.0’ I thought, According to your presentationin “Super-Premium” subscriptions that grant advantages such as anticipated access to music, exclusive luxury editions, high-resolution audio and artists’ questions and answers. Further streaming that never. This ‘streaming 2.0’ consists of taking the technological capacity of the platforms one step further to offer extras to consumers. This translates into the need for these platforms to reach treatment with Majorsbecause they are the ones who will provide better quality audio, associated videos, extras to which no one has access, exclusive content of artists … that, or for discounted, that the large companies themselves melt their services of streamingas we have seen that happened in the audiovisual after the outbreak of Netflix. Are Spotify following its same steps? But … makes sense? We have heard similar ideas with the streaming audiovisual. In fact, that support in the “extras” is one of the differentiating cuddles of Prime Video, which with its “X-rays” provides information, trivia, filmographies and even possibilities of e-commerce of the content of their films and series. However, no one would say that it is one of the tricks that puts prime video above its rivals, but an anecdotal added. These are times when the catalog rules: people subscribe and quickly unless platforms in search of content to consume, and do it all the time. The extras are an appetizing gift, but … is that the base of the streaming of the future? In Xataka | The best free alternatives to Spotify to enjoy your music legally and without having to pay

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