users

“Users have many choices”

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Piracy is a service problem, not a pricing problem. Gabe Newell, head of Valve, said something like this a few years ago. Newell commented that the fastest way to stop piracy it was not pput up stronger barriersbut to give users a better service than what they would receive from pirates. And it is clear that Steam offers a good service for consumers, but… what about video game companies? That is what, in recent years, has awakened the criticism that Steam is a monopoly. And don’t think that it is a criticism on networks or with a small mouth: it is something that is sparking a deep debate, which has already brought Gabe Newell to court and which translates into two open judicial processes. Newell’s response? Users have many alternatives to buy their games. The reality? Not so many, precisely, because of that good Steam service. But of course, this is a double-edged sword. Steam and the “monopoly” with which users agree, but not all developers David Rosen is an important name in this story. He’s the founder of a studio called Wolfire Games which, if that doesn’t sound familiar to you, is completely normal. What might sound familiar to you if you play on PC is Humble Bundle. At first, Humble Bundle was a website where you paid a certain amount and you took keys that you could redeem on Steam. For 5 euros you got great games and you could decide who the money was going to (non-governmental organizations, the developers, the store or a little for each one). Over time, Humble Bundle evolved and became a store, but also a subscription platform. Things were going well for Rosen and if I tell you this it is because, in 2018, the developer began to pay attention to certain Valve policies that, according to him, harmed smaller creators. These creators would see fewer benefits from having to pay higher percentages per sale on Steam than on other platforms, but they knew they should stay on Steam because it is the platform the user is on. Given the context, in 2021, Rosen himself approached Valve to ask if his studio (the aforementioned Wolfire Games) could publish his game ‘Overgrowth’ on both Humble Bundle and Steam, but at a discounted price on… Humble Bundle. According to Rosen, Valve said something like “you’ll see”, which implied that they would not advertise their game on the cover (something key for visibility). According to Valve, that’s not how it happened, but the result is where we are right now: Rosen and Wolfire Games decided to sue Valve directly for policies that they considered were anti-competitive and anti-consumer. During all this time, and as they point out from BloombergValve has defended itself by stating that its internal policies are actually good for the consumer. And, as I said at the beginning of the article, there really is a lot of reason in this. Although they have questionable things like we didn’t really buy a game, but a license to useSteam is an exemplary platform when it comes to granting refunds if a game is not what we expect or is broken. Steam, in addition, works much better than the store that Ubisoft had, that of Electronic Arts or an Epic Store in which Epic is burning millions of dollars without being able to make a dent in Gabe Newell’s ‘fishbowl’ empire. But Rosen is also right when he points out that This price parity policy is harmful to the user. Because, let’s be clear, if a game is 15 euros on GoG (my favorite platform of PC thanks to the fact that you do have ownership over the games you buy) and 15 euros on Steam, the safest thing for the user who does not care so much about that property is to choose Steam for the achievements, the community, because it is where their friends are, the users who correct bugs or because you have a PC and a Steam Deck and it’s very convenient. But if it is 10 euros on GoG and 15 on Steam, the easiest thing is for them to choose the GoG version. That price parity is one of the battles in these trials and, as usually happens in these cases, many details come to light. Although Valve offers vague explanations about these parity policies, in the Bloomberg report we can see statements from developers who indicate that they received threatening calls from the company. For example, emails to Ubisoft threatening remove ‘Rainbow Six Siege’ edits from Steam because Ubisoft sold them cheaper in its own store or to Warner Bros. because ‘Middle-earth: Shadow of War’ was more expensive on Steam than on other platforms for the same version of the game. A name that has come up is Kassidy Gerberwho worked in business development at Valve and was the one who made those “requests” and, when having to testify, stated that it wasn’t really Valve’s “policy” because “that sounds a little bureaucratic.” The trial, as we say, continues its course, but in the meantime, in the United Kingdom there is a case against Steam which could translate into a fine of up to 900 million dollars for this type of practices. “Customers have a lot of choice. They can decide where they buy their products, whether they buy the game on an Xbox, whether they buy it on Steam, whether they buy it from the Epic Games Store or whether they buy it directly from the software developers” – Gabe Newell And… what does Gabe Newell say about all this? The affable Valve boss who lives on his luxurious yacht was asked about it, responding with the phrase we quote in the headline. That “customers have a lot of choice about where to buy their games” points out that Steam is not a bottleneck like the Google and Apple stores can be (a similar trial occurred between Epic and these stores that ended in both opening the … Read more

The MacBook Neo has made traditional Windows laptops look ridiculous. This is great news for users.

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He MacBook Neo showed the way. Mid-range laptops seemed stuck in the past, with an unattractive price/performance ratio. The feeling was that once you were buying a laptop, it was better to invest 1,000 euros or more to be able to work and play comfortably. That seems to be finally changing, because we are seeing a lot of movement in the world of Windows laptops. Asleep on our laurels. Apple’s new model showed that there could be alternatives and caught manufacturers on the wrong foot. Everyone seemed comfortable with it. status quobut he MacBook Neo woke them up from slumberand soon we will see a deployment of modest but functional equipment. Above all, because three of the semiconductor majors already have their SoCs ready or almost ready to compete with the Apple A18 Pro of the MacBook Neo. Qualcomm Snapdragon C. The first alternative is this chip with ARM architecture that just announced by Qualcomm and according to the firm, it will allow equipment to be offered with starting prices of $300. It is very likely that these proposals are too limited (and have no more than 4 GB of RAM), but also that there are versions with higher configurations. The Snapdragon C promises remarkable efficiency, and Qualcomm is an old acquaintance of Windows for ARM equipment. Intel Wildcat Lake. In April we saw how Intel showed its great commitment to conquer this new era of mid-range laptops. I did it with his family Wildcat Lake in which, for example, the new Intel Core 3 304 are integrated. The fundamental advantage of these chips is that of using the traditional x86-64 architecture, which until now has proven to be the best option for Windows computers due to its completely native support for the OS and its applications. Nvidia waits its turn. A lot has been spoken how the duopoly of Intel and AMD on Windows computers could have an expiration date. Qualcomm has not managed to erode that reality, but who may have an important asset is Nvidia, which is preparing the launch of its Arm chips. There has been talk for months that there will be not one, but two based on the GP10 chip which Nvidia jointly developed with MediaTek. The names that are mentioned in the leaks are N1 and N1X, and although the details are unknown, the expectations are notable and already start to leak also Lenovo models that will integrate the N1X. But Windows on ARM has never caught on. The doubts with Qualcomm and Nvidia’s proposals are not due to them, but rather to Microsoft and its Windows operating system. Its version for ARM chips has been available for years, but the teams that have taken advantage of these chips were limited by some software conflicts. I’d better stay with Intel and AMD. There are hardly any problems in that sense anymore, but the promise of the efficiency of ARM chips was not so striking when the prices of such equipment were high. In the end, it was more worthwhile for most users to bet on “traditional” chips from Intel and AMD, and Qualcomm’s proposals—the only ones that appeared on the market—never quite conquered the general public, not even when Copilot+ PCs appeared. Windows 11, by the way, He didn’t make it easy either. with your list of requirements. Specs don’t matter (that much). We already saw yesterday how the specifications of the Wilcat Lake chips are superior to those of the Apple A18 Pro of the MacBook Neobut that doesn’t mean much. Above all, because the MacBook Neo have proven to be laptops that offer a fantastic user experience, but at the moment computers with Intel chips have not been analyzed and their performance is unknown. These same doubts affect future devices with Qualcomm or Nvidia chips: they will have to demonstrate that the user experience is as good (or better) than that of the MacBook Neo, or else these manufacturers (and Microsoft) will have a serious problem. It’s good news. Whatever happens, Apple’s move has caused manufacturers to finally move and develop solutions to try to compete with the surprising team from Cupertino. If the MacBook Neo had not been launched, we would probably still be stuck in the mid-range Windows laptop segment, but this is going to liven things up and revive competition between manufacturers. We all win. In Xataka | “We arrived too soon, but we were right”: The MacBook Neo is everything Microsoft dreamed of with the disastrous Windows 8

now it goes against its users

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Imagine enjoying all the football and premieres for just 40 euros a year, with the peace of mind that a sophisticated system and payments in cryptocurrencies make you completely invisible. That tranquility has just vanished suddenly for many users of the Cinemagoal network who has been dismantled by the Italian authorities. The biggest risk is no longer that the screen goes black in the middle of the game, but rather receiving a notification in your mailbox with a fine of up to four figures. what has happened. Through the baptized as Operation “Tutto Chiaro”, The Italian Guardia di Finanza has managed to dismantle the technological infrastructure behind Cinemagoal. More than a hundred searches have been carried out in Italy and key servers located in France and Germany have been seized. But what is striking about the case is that they are not only persecuting those responsible for the network, but they are tracking and identifying the subscribers of the service, who are receiving fines ranging from 154 to 5,000 euros. Why is it important. Italy is one of the toughest countries against the broadcast of matches and content without a license; It is not content with dismantling the infrastructure, but is going after the final link that feeds the business: the users. It’s a war they’ve been fighting for years, even leading to prison sentences. Although in Spain it has not reached that point, LaLiga has followed in the footsteps of Italy with the massive blocking of IPsalso affecting legitimate companies and services that have nothing to do with with the distribution of unauthorized content. This is how Cinemagoal worked. The network did not transmit video via IPTV, but used virtual machines that operated 24/7, maintaining open sessions on services such as Netflix, DAZN, Sky, Disney+ or Spotify through legal subscriptions registered in the name of false identities. Instead of copying and broadcasting the audiovisual content, these machines extracted the keys or authorization tokens from the official sessions every three minutes and sent them in real time to the application installed on the clients’ devices. Through this system, users downloaded the video directly from the platforms’ official servers, which completely hidden their IP addresses and made it Piracy Shieldthe Italian platform against the dissemination of unauthorized content, was blind. The service cost between 40 and 130 euros per year and was distributed by more than 70 resellers in Italy, who paid preferably in cryptocurrencies or through foreign accounts to evade tracking. For the users. Cinemagoal customers believed they were protected by anonymity, but the police have managed to identify at least 1,000 users by cross-referencing data. To find them, investigators analyzed customer records seized from more than 70 resellers operating in Italy, tracked payment histories and activity logs (logs) hosted on the application’s own servers. The minimum fine is 154 euros, which will be for users who were simply viewing content. Those who had the “fictitious subscriptions from which the authentication tokens were extracted”, that is, those who redistributed the content, will have to pay up to 5,000 euros. 300 million. The Italian authorities estimate that the damage caused by this platform reaches 300 million euros in subscriptions. It’s what It is known as lost profits, That is, the money that platforms stop earning due to unauthorized content. However, their way of doing the math assumes that the hacking user would have paid 100% if they did not have the illegal option: it is a fallacy and an unrealistic metric of losses. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | LaLiga wanted to fine VPNs that did not block IPs during matches. A court has been set up

Google search engine is killing blue links. So more and more users are finding refuge in DuckDuckGo

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Search things on Google it’s not the same anymore. The technology giant is turning its traditional search engine into something very different in which AI is taking control whether we like it or not. The good news is that if we don’t like it, we have alternativesand precisely in DuckDuckGo They are taking advantage of this opportunity very well. Times change. For nearly three decades, Google has been the gateway to that traditional list of blue links that the search engine presented as results. In recent years, the search engine is becoming an AI engine that tries to anticipate the user’s intentions and autocomplete queries with long answers. AI Overviews. The arrival of AI Overviews (AI Summaries) has made the search engine answer questions directly at the top of the page, but that move is being heavily criticized. The reason is simple: Google is killing those blue links it defended for more than 25 years. The new AI Mode goes in that same direction and points to a future in which we will not ask the Google search engine things, but simply talk to it. DuckDuckGo takes advantage of its opportunity. DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg recently stated that “Google is imposing AI with no way to disable it.” This has not pleased a certain sector of users who are beginning to use alternatives that give them back control. That’s good news for DuckDuckGo, which has seen more and more users start using its services: Downloads of the DuckDuckGo app in the US grew by an average of 18.1% weekly, and peaks of 30.5% were reached on May 25 The adoption rate on Apple devices was even higher, with an average rise of 33% and a peak of 69.9%. Visits to specific page free of AI, noai.duckduckgo.comincreased on average by 22.7% from week to week. Searches like before, and private. The advantages of DuckDuckGo are striking for those looking for alternatives to the Google search engine. To begin with, DuckDuckGo has that aforementioned page that avoids any trace of AI. If you want to use AI canbut in that case you will have access to somewhat more modest models (Claude 4.5 Haiku, GPT-5 mini, Llama 4 Scout, you can pay to access better models) but with which your conversations will remain private. In addition, DuckDuckGo deletes IPs and prohibits the use of those conversations to train models. It is an extension towards AI that iron defense of privacy that since its inception has differentiated this search engine… although there have been some controversy about it. Google doesn’t even flinch. Despite this growth in downloads and visits to its search services, DuckDuckGo remains an alternative with an anecdotal market share in the search segment. Worldwide it has a 0.71% share compared to Google’s 90.02% and Bing’s 5.14%. Anti-AI shelter. Google’s dominance here is absolute and it seems almost impossible for that to change, but even so DuckDuckGo is clearly positioning itself as the refuge for those who see AI as an unnecessary—or unwanted—complication when performing searches. Kamyl Bazbaz, head of company policy, explained it with a simple statement: “people simply want to be able to choose.” Business model at play. The shift towards AI seems to be beneficial for Google, whose search revenue grew by 19% in the first quarter of 2026. It is a striking fact considering that theoretically AI results make it difficult for advertising to enter the search engine, but Google seems to be solving it with native advertising from AI Overviews or Keyword auctions in AI Mode. This is added to the recommendations of affiliate products that also seem to be working and promoting a business model that is being renewed in parallel to what the search engine is doing. In Xataka | Google already knows how to make its AI Overviews more human: use Reddit content ruthlessly

Reddit was one of the last refuge platforms for Internet users. You just took a step in a worrying direction

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The social network Reddit has become the best source of human data on the internet. It is in fact one of the few remaining refuges from that “human network of networks” with which it all began, but this singular and anarchic social network has just taken a disturbing step: wants to force you to install their app when you use it from your mobile. uncomfortable notice. Millions of people use Reddit daily on their mobile, but in recent days they have encountered an uncomfortable message: a notice that forced them to use the Reddit mobile application instead of being able to continue using the browser to enjoy the famous thematic subreddits. There are many those who they have warned of the problem with diverse messages in the forums of the platform. In one of the most popular subredits, r/technology, the message that talks about the topic has nearly 20,000 positive votes and 4,200 comments. What Reddit says. Company spokespersons indicated at Ars Technica that Reddit has launched a test “for a small subset of mobile users that encourages them to download the app after visiting the site. These users are already familiar with Reddit and we have seen that the experience is much better for them on the app.” Personalization = data collection. The platform argues that if users take advantage of the app they can have a tailored news thread and better searches, but criticism has not been slow in coming. The Ars Technica editor who wrote on the subject himself commented how this notice has also reached him—not us, perhaps because we are not in the United States—and this sounds disturbing. And it sounds like that because it is just how apps like TikTok, X or Instagram work, which have managed to polish their content recommendation algorithms so that the user ends up condemned for doomscrolling. And that would point to Reddit’s ambition that we simply do nothing but be on Reddit. The danger of making your users angry. It is ironic that a platform like Reddit, which has always largely depended on the traffic brought to it by Google, decides to break with that way of reaching its forums. Those responsible for the platform seem to be confident that its content is essential enough for its users to convince them to download and use the app. The question is whether this will not cause an exodus of users. A small solution. Apparently is it possible avoid the message if we clean and we empty both the cache and the cookies of the mobile browser that we use to browse Reddit. This temporary patch can help you continue using Reddit directly from the mobile browser you use. Wall Street rules a lot. This apparent degradation or evolution of the service certainly seems to be aimed at maximizing profit. By going public, Reddit has to prove to shareholders that it can generate growing revenue. And if you can lock users into your official app, you can ensure that no one (including AI) can access that valuable content without going through your controls. Image | Brett Jordan In Xataka | Reddit, nude scenes and a forum out of control: this is how a Dane ended up being convicted in a case that sets a precedent

LaLiga’s massive IP blocks are making life impossible for users, companies and developers. So you can claim

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LittleCranky67, which is the alias of our protagonist, didn’t know what was happening with his computer this weekend. This developer was doing something that never gave him any trouble: working with the GitLab platform to download a Docker software package. That process kept giving him strange errors, and LittleCranky67 ended up realizing what had caused it all: LaLiga’s indiscriminate IP blocking. After share your frustration on HackerNewshundreds of comments confirmed other similar cases, and in them we also discovered something interesting: how to officially claim LaLiga. Or at least, how to try. A sad old story. LaLiga he shields himself in the Judgment of December 18, 2024 issued by the Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona. This allows you to demand from operators such as Movistar, Vodafone, Orange or Digi to block at the IP level any address that is identified as a source of illegal IPTV broadcasts during LaLiga football matches. Many of those IPs are Cloudflare shared IPs, so when the IPTV service IP is blocked, all domains associated with that shared IP are blocked, which can be hundreds or even thousands. And in those domains there are web pages of private usersfrom companies that they stop being able to sell and also critical services for developers such as Docker, GitHub or GitLab. The irony is that lockdowns don’t work. While many users complain about these blocks and how are affecting websites and services that usemany others continue to remember on social networks that in reality the blocks to view these IPTV broadcasts can be easily circumvented in many ways. The most popular, use VPN services. In LaLiga they know that this method is widely used, so for months They are also working on blocking those services. It doesn’t seem to be serving a lotand whoever really wants to watch the football game without paying has many relatively simple ways to achieve it. If you are affected, you can claim. In that thread, several users remember that one way to try to change things is for users to protest, complain and complain en masse. There are several ways to do it: Telecommunications User Service Office. It is the official body in Spain for these cases. A formal claim can be filed for arbitrary loss of service or censorship, and even claim financial losses if the blockade prevents you from working. Those who have a digital certificate or Cl@ve can do so directly online. Complain to your internet provider. It is also important to open a support ticket with your operator. It is true that they are obliged to follow court orders, but they must know that the blockade is causing collateral damage to services that have nothing to do with football. Common Electronic Registry (SARA network). This portal It also allows you to send formal complaints to management if other methods fail. Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). Those responsible for RootedCON have been fighting this situation for some time, and offer another recommendation: report LaLiga to the AEPD. This template allows you to complete that complaint in a simple way Demagive to Telecommunications Operators. At RootedCON they also suggest filing a complaint against ISPs, and explain the process in a small thread on Twitter. Again, just download a request and file it individually. Complaint to the European Commission. It is also possible to enter the European Commission complaints website to send a claim to the entity. We explained it in Xataka and the process is another way of trying to stop this situation with the help of European bodies. The BOE serves as a defensive argument. In these complaints it is advisable to cite the BOE-A-2022-10757 as a legal reference. It corresponds to Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (LGTel) and is the fundamental rule that regulates your rights as an internet user in Spain. The message that we can write is the following: “Under the protection of Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (BOE-A-2022-10757), specifically regarding the rights of end users (Chapter IV) and the principles of continuity and quality of service, I present this claim for the blocking of access to legitimate IP addresses (specify which ones, e.g. Cloudflare/Docker) unrelated to any illicit activity. This blockade constitutes a violation of my right to communication and the contracted service, causing harm (professional/personal) by preventing the operation of work/security tools. “I request the immediate cessation of said technical restriction in compliance with the provisions of the aforementioned Law.” The nightmare continues. The debate in HackerNews is nothing more than confirmation of what internet users in Spain have been suffering for more than a year. A private organization has the power to order ISPs in a country to indiscriminately block IPs without judicial review in real time, during regular hours, causing documented harm to third parties that have nothing to do with the original violation. In that thread some users compare the situation with that of the Great Firewall of Chinanot so much in intensity as in its logic. We are faced with an infrastructure of selective censorship that seems to be able to be applied to any content that an actor with sufficient judicial power wants to block. From football to tennis or golf. In fact, things could go further, because what began as an attack against illegal broadcasts of football matches could now be seen in other sports such as tennis or golf. Telefónica —which follows in the footsteps of LaLiga— wants to extend indiscriminate blockades to the Champions League, tennis or golf. This threatens to suffer these side effects for many more days and for many more hours, and can mean that for a good part of the week, users like LittleCranky67 find themselves unable to download Docker packages or access thousands of legitimate websites that end up being knocked down by these blocks. Images | Wirestock | LaLiga In Xataka | LaLiga has been at war with Cloudflare for years over piracy. It has just joined forces with its main competitor

OpenAI had to choose between being the star app of the US army and its users. And the users have chosen for it

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Last Saturday there were 295% more uninstallations of the ChatGPT mobile app in the United States. Many users felt terrible that OpenAI reached a theoretically unethical agreement with the US Department of Defense to replace Anthropic, and they have punished it with a “Cancel ChatGPT” movement on social networks which has also had an impact on those uninstallations. what has happened. The consulting firm Sensor Tower, which monitors the status of mobile application stores, has indicated that the ChatGPT uninstall rate has increased by 295% on Saturday, February 28 compared to the previous day. Normally, the uninstall rate is around 9% from one day to the next, but that day it was clear that many users decided to get rid of the app at the same time. The reason is obvious. The Pentagon vs. Anthropic. The pentagon it had been months working with Claude, Anthropic’s AI, which was already used on classified documents. Anthropic had made it a condition not to use its AI for mass espionage and the development of autonomous weapons, but the Department of Defense (DoD, which many now call the “War Department”) wanted Anthropic remove those limitations. Anthropic refusedand that’s where OpenAI comes in. and opportunistic. Sam Altman first praised Anthropic’s stance. A few hours later he announced that they had reached an agreement with the DoD to replace Claude with ChatGPT. This has been widely criticized for OpenAI’s lack of ethics and opportunistic attitude, and led to a “ChatGPT cancellation” movement which has had an immediate impact on the downloads and uninstallations of this chatbot. Altman wants to clear things up. He OpenAI announcement It was unclear whether OpenAI actually imposed the same limits that Anthropic had imposed, but Altman soon announced that had added amendments to the agreement to avoid any confusion. Apparently they have been added protections against mass surveillancebut nothing is mentioned about the development of lethal autonomous weapons. Punishment for OpenAI. Not only has it been noticeably uninstalled, but in the opinions of the ChatGPT app many users have given a single star out of five in a very high proportion: those bad opinions grew by 775% on Saturday and then by 100% on Sunday according to Sensor Tower. Five-star reviews fell by 50%. Claude has overtaken ChatGPT in downloads as a result of the latest events with the Pentagon. Source: Appfigures. And Claude already surpasses it in downloads. Another consultancy that monitors the download market, appfiguresindicated that on Saturday Claude’s downloads surpassed those of ChatGPT in the US for the first time. In fact, Claude has become the most downloaded app in at least six countries outside the US: Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland. Streisand Effect. We are facing another case of Streisand effect: trying to censor certain information or a certain company ends up being counterproductive. The Pentagon tried to make Anthropic the bad guy, but what has happened is that the company is now seen as the great defender of ethics and “AI alignment.” This has made people perceive it as a more morally respectable option than ChatGPT. But Anthropic has problems. According to Reuters Several US government departments and agencies have made the switch to OpenAI and have begun to stop using Anthropic models for their work. That is already a problem for Anthropicbut even more so is the fact that their recent investment round, in which they raised 60,000 million dollars, could be in danger. If the DoD decides to label Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” its contracts and agreements with dozens of companies would be at risk, and its own future as a company would be at risk. It would be an extraordinary measure and it seems unlikely that the US would go to that point, but nothing is certain today. Image | Village Global In Xataka | The war between Anthropic and the Pentagon points to something terrifying: a new “Oppenheimer Moment”

DeepSeek is gaining users where the US has the most difficulty

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about a year ago DeepSeek appeared on the radar of many people in the loudest way possible, with an impact that was noticed even on Wall Street. If the name sounds familiar to you, it comes from there. The interesting thing is that, twelve months later, its weight in the public conversation no longer seems the same, but that does not mean that it has disappeared from the board. In parallel, and according to the diagnosis that Microsoft now proposes, the Chinese startup continues to gain traction. The success of DeepSeek is worrying in the US. The warning comes from within the American ecosystem itself. Microsoft has warned that US AI groups face growing pressure from Chinese rivals in the battle for users in several markets, precisely because of the combination of “open” models and low prices. The winning strategy. What explains DeepSeek’s expansion has less to do with marketing and more to do with accessibility. The Redmond giant maintains in its report ‘Global AI Adoption in 2025‘that the company has reduced barriers to entry by offering a free chatbot on web and mobile, an especially attractive combination in cost-sensitive markets. DeepSeek also makes money. It is worth clarifying this so as not to be fooled: just because the chatbot is free does not mean that it does not have a business model. The firm founded by Liang Wenfeng distributes its technology with an open approach, with code under the MIT license and a separate licensing scheme for model weights. And, as is the case with most players in this industry, monetization is usually in the professional field: API accessthe interface that allows developers and companies to integrate these models into their own applications and services, is where much of the economic value is concentrated. Microsoft Map with Estimated DeepSeek Market Share The adoption map. The analysis itself places DeepSeek’s growth far from the markets where the technological narrative is traditionally decided, and breaks it down into two types of scenarios: emerging countries and countries where US services are limited or restricted. According to usage data, it is estimated that the Chinese group would have around 18% share in Ethiopia and 17% in Zimbabwe. And where American technological products are limited or restricted, the advance would be even greater, always according to these estimates: 56% in Belarus, 49% in Cuba and 43% in Russia. Target: Africa. Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, stated in an interview with the Financial Times thatif AI is to be deployed in Africa at scale, the problem is not just the software, but the infrastructure that supports it. According to their analysis, many African countries will need investment to build data centers and, in addition, mechanisms to subsidize the cost of electricity, one of the major operational limits. And here he introduces a relevant point: if the race depends solely on private capital, “it will not be enough” to compete with companies backed with a level of subsidy like the one that, he maintains, Chinese companies frequently have. A success that is still being measured. In essence, this case leaves a fairly clear idea: although DeepSeek sounds less popular today than it did a year ago, its approach is having a real impact in markets where it is not so easy for large American technology companies to deploy. It is an expansion that is driven more by accessibility than by narrative, and that is why it is also difficult to follow it from the West, until the data begins to appear. From here, the most interesting thing will be to see what happens in 2026: if DeepSeek manages to sustain that advantage and what other Chinese models, pushed by the same combination of openness, price and internal support, decide to follow in its wake. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro | Screenshot In Xataka | Anthropic has rewritten his 25,000-word “Constitution” for Claude. It is the manual for how AI should behave

ChatGPT urgently needs its users to start paying money. Solution: put ads on them

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It was inevitable. OpenAI has confirmed that is going to start testing ads on ChatGPT. The test will begin in the United States with users of free plans, those who have ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Enterprise are exempt for the moment. It is a movement that marks the beginning of a reality that was seen coming: The user experience of free AIs is about to get worse. All for the AGI. Through your X profileOpenAI has shared what those ads will look like and is striking in the heading of its “advertising principles.” Here they say their mission is “to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of publicity always supports that mission and makes AI more accessible.” how he jokes Pedro Domingos in Xit seems that the AGI was actually “Ad-Generated Income”, that is, “Income generated by advertising.” Where I said I say…. The AGI is becoming the excuse for everything. To find the true reasons behind this decision, it is enough to look at OpenAI numbers. Or also we can go back to 2024when Sam Altman said that ads on ChatGPT are “the last resort for our business model.” Saying that everything is part of a plan for the benefit of humanity is better than admitting that the AI ​​race is very expensive and OpenAI desperately needs to monetize its AI. This sounds familiar to us. The situation is quite reminiscent of the case of Netflix, which In 2020 he flatly refused to advertising, stating that it was a way to “exploit users” to two years later launch your plan with ads. Since then the streaming experience began to deteriorate and everything indicates that we are at the beginning of exactly the same thing happening with AI. Advertising as punishment. Before, ads were a way to generate income. Today they also function as a pressure tool to push users to pay a subscription. This is what we find on YouTube or Spotify, where the bombardment of ads is constant, repetitive and very intrusive. We pay to end the torture. Objective: subscriptions. ChatGPT has 1.8 billion users, but the reality is that only 5% are subscribed to one of their payment plans. How to increase this figure? If we don’t subscribe ourselves, maybe a few ads will convince us. OpenAI has been the first, but there are also rumors that Google will integrate ads into Gemini. The AI ​​party does not pay for itself, it is a matter of time. There is a loophole. If the big chatbots turn their free versions into a minefield of ads, we will always have the option of use local models such as DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama or ChatGPT itself. Here we get rid of token limits, queues and also ads. The bad part is that the performance is usually lower than the cloud and it also has fewer integrations. Time will tell if they end up being a better alternative. Image | OpenAI In Xataka | Generative AI opens its gap between those who focus on it locally and those who focus on the cloud. There is room for both

what it is, what users have to do and how often it has to be passed

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Let’s explain to you What is and how does the “ITV” work for V-16 beacons?a procedure that has been confirmed by the DGT. It is not something that users have to do, but it is still an important procedure to verify that all certified models continue to comply with the DGT requirements. Therefore, although the media has named the review that way, it is not exactly an ITV. We are going to start by explaining what it is about and what is reviewed, then we will mention what remains to be done on our part and how often the reviews are made. What is this ITV for V-16 beacons? This is a review that all beacons on the market must undergo from time to time. Its mission is review all certified devices on an ongoing basis to ensure its proper functioning. Come on, what they do is check that each model continues to meet the requirements necessary to have the ITV certification. Imagine that a manufacturer launches an X beacon and it is certified, but within a few years it eliminates some essential component, because if it no longer meets all the requirements certification is withdrawn. These are the points that will be reviewed to each of the beacon models: That the manufacturer has a Quality System to guarantee that the manufacturing processes are being controlled. That the V16 beacons meet the technical specifications defined by the regulations Ensure that communications are maintained between the device, the operators that provide connectivity, and the DGT’s connected vehicle platform. This verification can be done in person at the applicant’s facilities or at the factories. But there will also be a second route in which the manufacturer will have to send the required evidence, such as samples or similar. Users don’t have to do anything It is important to make clear that Users don’t have to do anything. This MOT is not for the beacons that we have purchased, which when we did so met the requirements. Once you buy your beacon you no longer have to worry. Those who have to be in charge of making these reviews are the manufacturers for the certified models of their beacon that they manufacture in the future. In fact, if a beacon does not pass its “ITV” within three years, for example, that model will no longer be sold with its certification, but that will not affect previous models. How often are reviews done? Manufacturers will have to subject their beacon models to reviews every two years. Remember that as a user you will not have to do anything, these are procedures that manufacturers must do to maintain their certification. Cover image | Pepu Ricca In Xataka Basics | V-16 beacon map: how to use it to see which ones are activated in real time in Spain

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