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A YouTube video that lasts 140 years has gone viral. Nobody is clear why

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A YouTube video which, on paper, would not end for more than a century is the type of oddity that the internet knows how to turn into a phenomenon. It is enough to see an impossible figure in duration and verify that that same clip exceeds 2.3 million views to understand why half the world has stopped to watch it. Not because someone intends to reproduce it in its entirety, but because something like this challenges what we think we know about how the platform works. Even more so when it comes from a strange channel, with only three published videos and 137,000 subscribers. The longest video on YouTube? What has triggered the confusion is not only that exorbitant figure, but the way in which YouTube shows it depending on where you look. A counter appears in the channel view and in the video thumbnail that, translated into real time, is equivalent to about 140 years of continuous playback, as we can see in the screenshots. However, when you press play and load the player, the duration changes and is around 12 hours, with variations of minutes and seconds. The length of the video when embedded in a web page The limits of the platform. On your own help pagesGoogle explains that the maximum upload is 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever comes first, and remembers that these limits have varied over the years, leaving longer videos from previous times on the platform. This framework is essential to not get carried away by the impact of the number that appears on the screen. If the player shows something close to 12 hours, it’s within what YouTube considers normal, while a duration of decades simply doesn’t fit with the service’s known rules. The only direct source of this entire case is the file of the channel that hosts the video. On YouTube he appears as @shinywrand in your profile YouTube indicates as location “North Korea”. It also shows minimal but striking activity: three videos published, 137,000 subscribers and 2,551,606 accumulated views, with the channel’s registration date on July 31, 2023. There is no additional information or descriptions that clarify what it is or where it comes from, beyond what the platform itself shows. A metadata failure. The hypothesis that best fits what we see is that we are not dealing with a real duration, but rather a number that is poorly recorded or poorly read within the YouTube infrastructure. Each video has several time measurements associated with it, the one declared by the original file, the one calculated by the system when processing it and the one used by the different interface modules. If one of them fails, inconsistencies could appear as striking as a preview that points to decades of playback and a player that moves in a normal range. The threshold of direct. Google explains that Live shows of less than 12 hours are automatically archived, but if they exceed that time they may be lost, a detail that helps to understand why that number appears again and again as a border. Although there is no confirmation that this video comes from a glitch in a live broadcast, that technical framework adds context to the duration displayed by the player. The result is a phenomenon that lives on the border between what the platform teaches and what really happens in its internal functioning. There is a video with an impossible length, a player that tells another story and a channel that provides no clues other than its own figures. And while the reasons remain unclear, the video continues to gain views and more than 30,000 comments. Images | BoliviaIntelligent | Screenshot In Xataka | Before, advertising was to monetize. Now it is to punish you and YouTube has taken it to the extreme

After invading the development of video games, AI enters an untouchable area with a Sony patent: the player himself

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Sony has registered a patent that proposes a future where video games can complete themselves. The document, presented in September 2024 and released this weekdescribes a system of “artificial intelligence ghosts” capable of actively intervening in PlayStation games. These virtual agents would go beyond traditional guides: they would not only show how to overcome obstacles, but they could directly take control and solve entire levels while the player watches. How it works. The patent details an assistance system with several levels of intervention. For example, “Guide Mode” would allow the ghost to show the solution to a specific problem, such as solving a puzzle or executing a precise sequence of commands, but it would have to be completed by the player. “Complete Mode”, on the other hand, would hand over total control to the artificial agent, which would overcome the obstacle autonomously. More modes. The registration document describes four modes Selectable additional features: Story Mode, Combat Mode, Exploration Mode and Full Game Mode, suggesting specialization in certain tasks, depending on the type of challenge presented to the player. The system would function as a layer superimposed on the user’s character, visible on the screen as a visual reference. In some cases, this digital ghost could even hold conversations with the player’s avatar to offer contextualized instructions. What does it feed on? The technology would be fueled by recordings of previous games, including content shared on YouTube and social networks. The original patent document justifies the need to access these videos by stating that “players can research the game or search for previous gameplay on Internet sites, but that process is time-consuming.” Help systems. Player aids have come a long way. In the ’90s, players who got stuck called support lines (Nintendo’s being especially popular) or consulted guides in magazines, full of maps and secrets. The web democratized access through databases such as GameFAQs and, later, through audiovisual content on YouTube that allowed step-by-step solutions to be seen. In fact, Playstation 5 already incorporates Game Helpa system that displays clips of other users overcoming specific sections of the game. Its application, however, leaves something to be desired. Microsoft, of course, is betting on Copilot in the form of a conversational assistant that answers questions about the game. The proposal for artificial ghosts goes one step further, going from pre-recorded content to direct intervention in the game. AI in industry. The artificial intelligence integration video game development is accelerating. In 2024Unity revealed that 62% of studios that were using its tools implemented AI in some phase of production, highlighting animation as the main application. A survey from the Game Developers Conference of the same year indicates that approximately a third of professionals in the sector were already using these technologies. Data from the Tokyo Games Show raised the figure to more than half of Japanese companies. The automation of gameplay It’s not new either. Kotaku mentions in its article successful titles such as ‘Vampire Survivors’, with semi-automatic mechanics; ‘Megabonk’, nominated for the Game Awards for its automated design; or, in general, all idle subgenrewhich has such popular examples as ‘Ball X Pit’. The debate. This technology poses a dilemma: on the one hand, it would allow more players to enjoy complex content and prevent abandonment due to frustration. It would be integrated into the accessibility options (difficulty settings, control remapping, color blind modes), without forcing anyone to use it. On the other hand… do we run the risk of losing the “challenge” of games by delegating our participation to AI agents? What’s the point of playing then? And of course, it raises multiple questions in multiplayer environments, where there will be a temptation to take credit for victories achieved by the ghost. In Xataka | The new “test” to discover whether or not an AI model is truly intelligent: play Pokémon

dominate in the age of AI and video games

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Officially, CES 2026 in Las Vegas starts tomorrow, January 6, but as usual, some companies have wanted to stand out to capture the spotlight. One of those is an AMD that is pushing its processor division hard and that has stood at the event with three new Ryzen. Not three different processors: three categories. As it could not be otherwise, there are many “artificial intelligence” in the equation. It is something that the company’s latest processors for Consolidated PCslike the Asus ROG Xbox Allythey have made it clear, and that in these new families it continues to be promoted. That said, we are going with all the new AMD processors, including some more industrial ones that are not interesting for us as users, but that says a lot about the state of the technology industry in general and The United States and AMD itself in particular. New AMD Ryzen AI 400 APUs Image | amd First things first: the Ryzen AI 400. It is an APU, a package that integrates CPU, GPU and NPU to process artificial intelligence tasks. This type of units is found in established consoles, laptops and PCs, and this AI is responsible for “inventing” frames per second with tools such as ‘frame generation’ or reconstructing the image with AMD’s FSR and the Nvidia DLSS. In this new family, we see improvements in memory speed, cores and frequency, but what stands out is the performance of the NPU. It has 1.2 times more TOPs than previous Ryzens. Manufacturers are expected to start launching compact laptops and desktops at the end of January this year, and the features of all Ryzen AI 400 processors are as follows: Cores/threads Maximum frequency cache memory speed NPU TOPs GPU CUs Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 12 / 24 5.2GHz 36MB 8,533 MT/s 60 16 Ryzen AI HX 470 12 / 24 5.2GHz 36MB 8,533 MT/s 55 16 Ryzen AI 9 465 10/20 5GHz 34MB 8,533 MT/s 50 12 Ryzen AI 7 450 8 / 16 5.1GHz 24MB 8,533 MT/s 50 8 Ryzen AI 7 445 6 / 12 4.6GHz 14MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI 5 435 6 / 12 4.5GHz 14MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI 5 430 4/8 4.5GHz 12MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI Max+ Image | amd On the other hand, there are the Ryzen AI Max+. They are also APUs that integrate graphics, processor and NPU, but the TDP is higher because they are designed for more demanding tasks such as 3D modeling, video editing and video games with comparable image quality, according to AMD, to what we would have if we used a conventional CPU plus a graphics card. Now we will see the frequencies, cores and bandwidth, but AMD has focused on commenting that the characteristics of this processor allow AI models to run in local mode without depending on the limitations of the cloud. In fact, the model Liquid AI It is the one they mention as local execution and it can be downloaded for free by everyone who has a Ryzen AI processor. And, of course, comparisons are odious, but they have put an Asus ROG Flow Z13 face to face with an AI Max and at MacBook Pro M5 to tell us that the Asus performs 1.4 more in AI tasks, 1.8 more in content creation, has 1.8 faster multitasking and better performance -1.6x- in ‘Cyberpunk 2077‘. Here is the entire family: Cores/threads Maximum frequency NPU TOPs GPU CUs GPU TFLOPS Ryzen AI Max+ 395 16 / 32 5.1GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 392 12 / 24 5GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 390 12 / 24 5GHz 50 32 48 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 388 8 / 16 5GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 385 8 / 16 5GHz 50 32 48 New Ryzen 9000, because not everything is AI Image | amd If the two previous families rely on AI to be able to handle models locally and to improve visual parameters in video games, now we move on to the new Ryzen 9000. These are processors designed for the desktop, and within the new family of Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9we have real beasts with a TDP of up to 170 W and maximum frequencies of up to 5.7 GHz in the most powerful of them: the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. It is a processor with 16 cores and 32 threads with a combined cache of 144 MB and AMD itself is not the one it has used for its comparisons because it is a processor more designed for creating content than for video games. Looking for a greater balance, there is the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. It has 8 cores, 16 threads, a TPD of 120 W and a maximum frequency of 5.6 GHz. This is 400 MHz more than the fabulous 9800X3D and maintains compatibility with the AM5 socket. If you already had a previous processor compatible with that socket, the change is very simple. These are all the new Ryzen 9000: Cores/threads Maximum frequency cache TDP Ryzen 9 9950X 3D 16 / 32 5.7GHz 144MB 170W Ryzen 9 9950X 16 / 32 5.7GHz 80MB 170W Ryzen 9 9900X 3d 12 / 24 5.5GHz 140MB 120W Ryzen 9 9900X 12 / 24 5.6GHz 76MB 120W Ryzen 7 9850X 3D 8 / 16 5.6GHz 104MB 120W Ryzen 7 9800X 3D 8 / 16 5.2GHz 104MB 120W Ryzen 7 9700X 8 / 16 5.5GHz 40MB 65W Ryzen 5 9600X 6 / 12 5.4GHz 38MB 65W Ryzen 5 9600 6 / 12 5.2GHz 38MB 65W And, although it is not new, AMD has recalled that they launched Redstone recently. This is the name they have given to FSR, its image reconstruction technology and pixel generation. Most new games are already compatible with Redstone and it is something that we can see in this video and that only interests you if you have a Radeon RX9000: Embedded APU, the … Read more

War is a video game and the US has the best command

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He US assault to Venezuela has not only been a demonstration of force (above the law), but the confirmation of an intuition that had been floating in the air for years and that the invasion of Ukraine has multiplied: Modern warfare, at least for those who master the technology, increasingly resembles a video game screen. And, in that scenario, whoever has the best command, has the game. War as an interactive spectacle. The capture of Nicolás Maduro was the result of months of surveillance obsessive precision, millimetric rehearsal, and such precise coordination that it allowed Washington to execute one of the most complex operations in its recent history with an almost surgical level of control. From the observation of their routines daily to the exact recreation of their shelter in a full-scale model, everything was designed to reduce uncertainty to a minimum. When Trump gave the final order, he did so knowing that he was not launching his forces into the unknown, but rather activating a script rehearsed to the last second, with cameras, sensors and data links turning the battlefield into an interface controllable from thousands of miles away. The invisible board. The later satellite images The attack on complexes such as Fuerte Tiuna or the La Carlota air base reveal the essence of this new way of fighting. There are no carpets of bombs or indiscriminate devastation, but concrete buildings reduced to rubblespecific warehouses neutralized and air defense systems dismantled without large visible craters. The combination of prior intelligence, precision munitions and mastery of airspace allowed the United States to eliminate critical nodes of the Venezuelan military apparatus as if it were turning off icons. on a digital map. From stealth fighters to strategic bombers and swarms of drones, each platform served a defined function within a plan that was developed in multiple simultaneous layerswithout significant interference and with almost total knowledge of the terrain and the enemy. Images before the US attack Images of the destruction of buildings after the US attack Synchronization to the millimeter. As airstrikes blinded defenses and plunged parts of Caracas into darkness, the videos and analyzes that have been made public have revealed that the US special forces were advancing as perfectly coordinated pieces. Helicopters of elite units entered the city at low altitudesupported by electronic warfare, in-flight refueling and constant surveillance from the air. The assault on Maduro’s refuge, described as an authentic urban fortress, was the climax of a choreography in which every second counted. Even the possibility of having to open armored doors with blowtorches was integrated into the plan, in Trump’s own words. Before the attack After the attack No casualties. The result was a fulminant irruptionresistance neutralized in minutes and the extraction of the objective before the Venezuelan defensive system could react coherently. For Washington, the balance was revealing: no dead soldiers, complete control of the situation and an orderly withdrawal, as if a perfect mission in a digital campaign had been completed. Venezuela, for its part, has reported that the operation left at least 80 dead. The best controls in the game. The episode explains better than any speech why the United States and a few powers play in a league of their own. The key is not only to have more planes or ships, but to absolute integration intelligence, command and control, secure communications, space sensors and rapid intervention forces. Washington is able to gather in real time information from satellitesagents on the ground, drones and reconnaissance aircraft, process it in distributed command centers and translate it into immediate orders for units operating thousands of kilometers away. That ability to “see it all” and act instantly reduces the margin of error to levels that few can match today. Russia or China can deploy brute force or deny entire areas, but executing a capture operation of that caliber, in a foreign capital, with such precision and without assuming significant losses, remains a privilege. almost exclusive of the United States. The final message. If you want, the attack on Venezuela has left an uncomfortable lesson for the rest of the world. The war of the 21st century is not always decided in large battles or long fronts, but in control roomsdata flows and decisions made in front of screens that condense chaos into understandable symbols. For those who master this technology, combat becomes a succession of calculated actionswhere one’s own human risk is minimized and the adversary barely has room to respond. In other words: the attack on Caracas has shown that, when it comes to this type of war, the great powers not only play another game, but also have the best controls, the complete map and the saved game before even starting. Image | Vantor In Xataka | For 150 aircraft to bomb Venezuela, the US used one of the most lethal tactics of the war: gunboat diplomacy In Xataka | Someone bet $30,000 that Maduro would fall the night before he fell. He has won $400,000

13 premiere movies and series to watch in January 2026 on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and streaming

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New year, new recommendations. We come with an impressive avalanche of recommendations for you to start the year audiovisually. All platforms, all genres and all tastes. Don’t let 2026 catch you at a different pace, here are our proposals of all kinds for the month of January. him and her Promising six-episode psychological thriller starring Tessa Thompson (who also serves as executive producer) and Jon Bernthal, which follows a former news anchor who returns to her hometown to cover a crime. A detective suspects her involvement, pursuing her until he places her at the center of his own investigation. The twist: they were married, and they both knew the victim. A story full of twists and surprises that has a most attractive cast. On Netflix from January 8 Agatha Christie: The Seven Spheres He whodunit is, without a doubt, in fashion: the success of ‘Daggers in the Back’ or ‘Only Murders in the Building’ corroborate this, so Netflix has decided to resort to the sourdough of all this: three episodes based on one of Agatha Christie’s least adapted works. In a luxurious rural mansion, a high society party turns into tragedy when a practical joke against a known sleepyhead who is given eight alarm clocks set for 6:30 in the morning triggers a murder. In the cast, Mia McKenna Bruce, Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman. Behind the scenes, Chris Chibnall, creator of ‘Broadchurch’, produces and writes. It includes scenarios filmed in Ronda, with the Real Maestranza bullring, the Puente Nuevo and the Palace of the Moro King. On Netflix from January 15 The loot Police thriller directed and written by Joe Carnahan (‘White Hell’, ‘The A-Team’), which reunites Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as protagonists and represents the first collaboration between Netflix and Artists Equity, the production company founded by the two actors. Inspired by true events, it follows a group of Miami agents who during a raid discover $20 million hidden in an abandoned safe house. The discovery unleashes a spiral of mistrust, ambition and moral dilemmas. Carnahan talks about the film as an homage to classic seventies crime thrillers like ‘Serpico’. Firm candidate to be one of Netflix’s first hits by early 2026. On Netflix from January 16 The Bridgertons – S4 New season of the hit series romantic, this time based on the third novel by Julia Quinn, which focuses on Benedict Bridgerton, the second and bohemian son of the family, and who has resisted marital conventions while his brothers have found marital happiness. It will premiere divided into two parts: Part 1 arrives on January 29 with four episodes and Part 2 on February 26 with the remaining four. The season promises a visual tone inspired by fairy tales, with an emphasis on the masked ball as a dream setting, and combining romance, secret identities, class tensions and the classic visual elegance of ‘The Bridgertons’. On Netflix from January 29 Beauty Science fiction and body horror at the hands of Ryan Murphy, with two FBI agents sent to Paris to investigate the mysterious and grotesque deaths of international supermodels in the world of haute couture. His research reveals the existence of a sexually transmitted virus that gives physical perfection to ordinary people, but with lethal consequences. The trail leads directly to a tech billionaire who has secretly designed a miracle drug. A reflection on the cult of the physical, in a film where performers like Isabella Rossellini stand out in a role that dialogues with her witch from ‘Death suits you so well’. On Disney+ from January 21 wonder man A bit of cover (and with a format binge watchingas already proven with ‘Echo’) the new Marvel series arrives at the end of January. With a meta point and some humor, it tells the story of Hollywood actor Simon Williams, who is trying to get his career off the ground. After a chance meeting with another actor, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley, the fake Mandarin from ‘Iron Man 3’), Simon discovers that a remake of ‘Wonder Man’, a classic superhero film, is being prepared. The two actors, at opposite ends of their careers, will try to get a role. Developed by Destin Daniel Cretton, director of ‘Shang-Chi’, it is the first live-action project of Phase 6 in 2026. On Disney+ from January 27 The Death of Bunny Munro Six-episode British miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Nick Cave published in 2009. Matt Smith plays a sex-addicted beauty product salesman who, after the suicide of his wife, embarks on a chaotic road trip through the south of England with his nine-year-old son while a serial killer disguised as a demon stalks the area. A dark comedy about toxic masculinity and grief where Smith’s performance and his commitment to a repulsive character stand out. On Showtime starting January 30 The Demolition Brothers Action comedy directed by Ángel Manuel Soto (‘Blue Beetle’) that brings together two Hollywood action heavyweights: Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. The film features two estranged half-brothers, an impulsive police officer and a disciplined Marine, forced to reunite after the mysterious death of their father in Hawaii. What begins as a family reunion quickly turns into a dangerous investigation. Explosive action, characteristic humor of its heroes and setting in the exotic streets of Hawaii. On Prime Video from January 28 crazy old woman Psychological horror that marks the directorial debut of Argentine screenwriter Martín Mauregui. Produced by JA Bayona, it stars Carmen Maura in one of the darkest and most disturbing roles of her career, and in it we will meet a boy who receives a message from an ex-girlfriend asking him to temporarily take care of her mother, who has senile dementia. What seems like a simple act of compassion quickly transforms into a claustrophobic nightmare that addresses, according to Bayona, how violence is transmitted from one generation to another. On Prime Video from January 14 The Pitt – T2 Nine months after the end of its acclaimed first season, … Read more

We analyze on video what is really happening

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From time to time, the technology sector enters a phase of turbulence that breaks the apparent normality of the market and forces us to take a closer look at how the supply chain, industrial priorities and the balances between supply and demand. The most recent example that many remember is that of cryptocurrency mining, that for years stressed the graphics card market to the point of turning them into a scarce commodity and prohibitively expensive for many players. Now the focus has shifted to another key component: RAM. The increase in the cost of the modules begins to be clearly noticed and, as usually happens in these cases, the inevitable questions arise. What exactly is happening, where does this problem come from and if there are signs that allow us to think about relief in the short or medium term. To try to answer all this, we have published a new video in the Xataka YouTube channel in which our colleague Francisco Franconi explains this scenario calmly and in context, trying to explain what is behind a crisis that cannot be understood just by looking at the final prices. The piece is integrated into the set of content that we regularly publish on the channel, with formats such as 24/7the series Domotize or die trying, Science and Apart and reports that explore technology from very diverse angles. We are in a RAM memory crisis, now what? The starting point of the video is a broader photograph of the moment that the technology industry is experiencing. Francisco introduces the topic with a piece of information that helps to understand the background of the problem: “It is evident that 2025 was the year of AI. Projects like Stargatewhich has the purpose of investing 500 billion dollars for the development of artificial intelligence in the United States, are a sample of the economic interest that exists around this technology.” From there, the question arises almost naturally: what relationship does this rise in artificial intelligence have with RAM? The video explains how data centers, the backbone of this new technological wave, depend on three essential components, and RAM is one of them. Analyzing the role played by the rest of the pieces not only helps to understand the current crisis, but also opens the door to thinking about whether we could be facing similar tensions in other components in the not-so-distant future. Francisco goes one step further and dismantles an idea that is often taken for granted. “High demand for components alone does not trigger prices“, he points out, before delving into the specific factors that are turning the current artificial intelligence boom into a real headache for the RAM memory market. This analysis also includes some of the large companies that are decisively influencing this movement, helping to understand why the problem is neither specific nor easy to solve. The video also reserves space for a more technical explanation, addressing the different types of RAM and the differences that are key to understanding this crisis. This technical context allows us to connect two worlds that often seem separate: that of large language models and that of users who want to assemble a PC in pieces and find that this technological ambition ends up having a direct impact on their pocket. In the final section, Francisco puts on the table the question that many are asking: how long can this situation last. “Some estimate that price increases will be constant for the next 6 months, others talk about increases until 2027,” he explains, before closing with a series of reflections that help set expectations and understand what to expect from the market in the coming years. We invite you to see the full video on our YouTube channel and share your opinion both there and in this article. Images | Xataka In Xataka | In the midst of the RAM memory crisis, Samsung takes a leap with its HBM4 memory. It does not imply good news for the pocket

Scientists have investigated what happens to your brain when you play video games. And they have surprising news

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There is something strangely comforting about dissonance. Sometimes, while I’m fighting with a crochet hook trying to make a scarf not end up looking like a dish towel, I like to put the TV channel in the background. TacticalGramma. Michelle is 59 years old, she is a proud grandmother and, while I clumsily count wool stitches, she is annihilating entire squads in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 with a precision that any teenager would want for themselves. The scene has that visual irony: technology has not come to isolate us in a basement, but to rescue our neurons from rust. For decades, the social narrative sold us that video games “rot” the brain; Today, science is beginning to suggest that, if you want to reach 60 with good mental agility, perhaps you should take control. The brain clock. A study published by Nature has managed to compare the health of neural connections with the person’s actual age—what is known as brain clocks. The team led by Carlos Coronel-Oliveros has discovered that players who are experts in strategy titles like StarCraft II They have a mental structure that is much more resistant to the passage of time. On average, the brains of these players function with the agility of someone four years younger, according to a statistical estimate based on neuroimaging models. An efficiency phenomenon that neuroscience calls Brain Age Gap (BAG). When Sudoku is no longer enough. While classic brain games are isolated and repetitive tasks, an action video game forces the brain to manage an avalanche of information in real time. This level of constant demand—planning movements, reacting to attacks, and filtering out distractions simultaneously—forces neurons to reorganize. To reach this conclusion, the research team used research techniques whole-brain modelingcombining fMRI with machine learning algorithms capable of detecting subtle patterns in connectivity. The results showed more efficient integration in the so-called “frontoparietal hubs”, key regions for attention and executive function that are usually among the first to deteriorate with age. Changes in brain hardware. This apparent rejuvenation has a physical reflection in the structure of the brain. Science has found that, just as a muscle develops with exercise, certain key areas of players become denser and more robust. Studies in Scientific Reports and Translational Psychiatry reveal that those who regularly play action titles have more “gray matter” in regions responsible for coordination, attention and making quick decisions. It is as if the brain had expanded its information highways to react sooner and better to each stimulus. But the most useful change is the refinement of our visual “filter.” Research in PLOS ONE show that the players They develop a superior ability to ignore unnecessary noise. It’s not that they see more, it’s that their brain has learned to process only the information that really matters to win the game, optimizing the energy expenditure of the visual cortex. The ‘learning to learn’ factor. What is truly significant is not being more precise within the game, but the impact on the ability to continue learning. A study in Communications Biology showed that video game training Action speeds up the speed at which people learn new tasks, even when they are unrelated to the game. As they explain psychologists Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green, these games train the brain’s attentional control. The result is improved cognitive adaptation, valuable in an ever-changing technological world. But experts still debate the degree of “far transfer”—that is, the extent to which being a keyboard whiz makes you better at managing a real crisis or a complex spreadsheet. When the benefit runs out. Even so, it is advisable to lower your enthusiasm. Most of these studies they are correlational: they do not allow us to state with certainty whether playing transforms the brain or whether certain already “agile” brain profiles are more inclined to enjoy video games. Furthermore, the effects vary depending on age and life context. Side B is not minor either. Researchers warn that excessive exposure can cause cognitive fatigue and sleep disturbances. The World Health Organization recognizes the video game disorder as a real problem when gambling becomes a compulsive behavior. The neural benefit depends on the balance that if the challenge stops being stimulating and becomes automatic or addictive, the protective effect disappears. Not just any game will do. Another key point is that not all video games produce the same effects. The strongest benefits are seen in action and real-time strategy games, which require quick decisions and multitasking. As experts point outonce a game stops being difficult and becomes mechanical, brain plasticity stagnates. Speed ​​and time pressure seem to be essential ingredients for keeping machinery in shape. There is something hopeful about seeing someone like TacticalGramma master a digital environment. The science doesn’t say that video games are a panacea, but it does suggest that brain aging doesn’t have to be a one-way path to decline. Perhaps the secret to a healthier brain is not in a pill, but in our ability to continue to face what is difficult and accept the frustration of constant learning. For now, I’m going to leave crocheting for a while. Image | freepik Xataka | The art of self-deception: why our brain defends our mistakes even if it knows we are wrong

The first video game made entirely with AI comes to Steam. The players’ rejection has been almost unanimous.

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The video game industry receives a controversial experiment that some already describe as dystopian, although in reality it has much of a privileged look at a reality that is, potentially, around the corner. ‘Codex Mortis‘ is a title that is openly presented as the first video game developed entirely using artificial intelligence, which has released its demo version on Steam and has immediately unleashed a divided (but mostly hostile) response among the gamer community. What did you sew? The project, signed by a developer who signs with the pseudonym Grolaf, has generated controversy for its shameless proposal (a clone of the acclaimed indie hit ‘Vampire Survivors’, one of the great surprises of recent years, but replacing the delicious retropixelated aesthetic with the blurry and rough aesthetic typical of generative systems). But also, as it could not be otherwise, it has reopened the debate about the ethical and creative limits of AI in video game development. It comes at a time when major studios are facing similar accusations and sectors such as voice actors are organizing strikes against these technologies. I don’t like it. In the Steam community reviewsthe demo registers only 60% positive ratings among around thirty reviews, with comments that range between technical curiosity and, above all, outright rejection. The press has not been much more generous, and some means gives it the dubious honor of being “a foundational milestone of poorer AI.” Various websites They have collected opinions from players as strong as “games are ART. They need soul, life, virtue. Something that AI will never be able to capture”, which define the game as “machine-generated garbage.” How it was born. ‘Codex Mortis’ was developed over three months in which Grolaf exclusively used artificial intelligence tools to build all elements of the game. The developer used ChatGPT to generate the images and Claude Code to write the code. As a programming language it used TypeScript, instead of traditional engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine. The technical architecture is supported by libraries such as PIXI.js for graphics and Electron for desktop execution, a decision that apparently makes it difficult to correct errors, since the developer does not fully understand, by his own admission, how the systems generated by the AI ​​interact. The lightning that does not stop. The negative reaction to ‘Codex Mortis’ is not isolated, but the latest episode in a battle that has been shaking the industry for months. In November, for example, ‘Arc Raiders‘, Embark Studios’ extraction shooter, received a score of 2 out of 5 from Eurogamer exclusively due to its use of AI-generated voices. This rating sank the title’s Metacritic from an impressive 94 to 86, sparking a debate on whether the use of AI should be considered in critical assessments. Controversy escalated when the game received a single nomination at the Game Awards, leading many gamers to accuse the awards of deliberately punishing the title for its technology. Another case: ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’ included clearly AI-generated assets (with characters with the typical six fingers, among other visual irregularities characteristic of AI). The scandal forced Activision to issue supporting statements given the disclosure policy on the use of artificial intelligence that Valve requires to include in games sold on Steam. Rejection among professionals. The State of the Game Industry 2025 survey from the Game Developers Conference reveals a drastic change in the perception of AI by professionals: just 13% of developers consider that generative AI will have a positive impact on the industry, falling from 21% the previous year. The percentage of those who see it negatively shot up from 18% to 30%. The most revealing part of the study is who adopts these tools: 50% of the professionals are from Business and Finance, followed by 40% in Production and Marketing. However, among programmers and artists, the true creators, adoption is significantly lower. 87% of developers surveyed expressed concern on the impact of AI on the industry. In Xataka | Someone put ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other AIs to play a kind of Risk. The results could not be more different.

In 2021, BBC released a video about China causing an earthquake. Now it’s a meme that glorifies Chinese cities

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Trends on social networks are, in many cases, inexplicable. Overnight something goes viral and it’s easy for us to not even know where it came from. In the summer of 2025, chinese networks began what from the West we could see as a simple memeeven nonsense: many videos that show panoramic views of Chinese cities to the rhythm of the mythical BBC intro. This meme spread and is useful for observing some of the most impressive cities in the world from a drone view. There are even users commenting on how some cities, like Chongqing, had undergone a radical transformation in just 20 years. The videos, without a doubt, are impressive and there is a example after other…and after other. But behind the meme there is something much more interesting: an outbreak of international conflict because of… the BBC. BBC News countdown intro style meme continues in China. Below in order is for Guiyang, Nanjing, Jinhua and Jieyang. https://t.co/EKZopt48Pc pic.twitter.com/LhjHVATMKW — JR Urbane Network (@JRUrbaneNetwork) September 1, 2025 The BBC video that angered 1 billion people In February 2021, the world was still reeling from the aftermath of COVID-19. Wuhan, the Chinese city identified as the focus of the global pandemic, was a monitoring point for world news due to the government’s policies to fight the virus. And the BBC published its controversial ‘How everyday life has changed in Wuhan’. It’s this video: Up to this point, we might think that it is just another report, but they published it in duplicate. The one above is the international version, in English. The one I leave you below is the version for China: Have you noticed any difference? Let’s go with some screenshots: International version Chinese version International version Chinese version International version Chinese version International version Chinese version Already we saw it in Xataka back in the day: The international version has a gray filter, while the Chinese version shows more vivid colors. That, without us realizing it, creates a narrative. And those who did notice were some Chinese Internet users and the state media Global Times. Chinese social networks named the filter used in the international version as “underworld filter” or “gloom filter”but the one who gave it the most importance was the aforementioned state tabloid. He accused the BBC of adding greyish filters to its reporting on China to make the country appear dystopian and polluted. It did not stop there: the matter spread like wildfire on networks and the tension escalated to the point that the international broadcast of BBC World News was banned in China that same month. In fact, international spokespersons have on occasion used the hashtag #GloomFilter to criticize Western coverage of China. The BBC defended its editorial independence, rejecting accusations of bias, but both the BBC and Chinese media have since starred cross attacks. A lot has rained since 2021 and, as I pointed out at the beginning of the article, it is now meme stuff. The BBC intro accompanies luminous images of Chinese cities without the “underworld filter.” And it is an example of how something that, at first glance, may be a story without much history, hides much more. And, well, the story of Global Times throwing darts at the BBC did not end in 2021, but has lasted until recently, mentioning that “BBC has become one of the most destructive negative examples in the global media landscape.” But beyond all this, the truth is that the videos are impressive, showing dystopian cities in some cases. Images | BBC In Xataka | China loves Europe so much that it has built its own: these are the replica cities that populate the country

13 premiere movies and series to watch in December 2025 on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and streaming

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Good! Christmas right there and unless you work as Santa’s elf, everything indicates that you will be able to dig out the blanket from the attic where you have it and organize some good sessions with the stove, slippers and streaming. As these parties usually come loaded on the platforms, here are some ideas so that you don’t miss out on any news. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Among the many franchises that Disney found with the purchase of Fox was Percy Jackson, which had already given rise to two films at the beginning of the last decade that sought, like so many of the time, to find a new Harry Potter. Although they did reasonably well at the box office, their departure from Rick Riordan’s original novels earned them quite a bit of antipathy, which seemed to be moderated with a more faithful Disney+ series. Now comes the second season, where a teenager with a destiny bigger than he imagines travels across the United States fighting monsters and gods to return his lightning bolt to Zeus. On Disney+ from December 10 Mad Men – Complete Series There are series that never go out of style, and ‘Mad Men’ is, indisputably, one of them. After a time away from our screens (unless you subscribed to Lionsgate+), now you have the opportunity to binge the almost one hundred episodes of this satirical epic that perfectly portrays New York in the sixties. Donald Draper, executive of a major advertising firm, is the protagonist of this series that helps us understand each and every one of the vices of the society we live in now, sixty-odd years later. On Disney+ from December 14 The last outburst Is one of the best films in the history of Spanish cinema. Many say that it is the best: a mix of experimental cinema, vampire film and desperate and addictive love letter to cinema. Converted into a cult film, ‘Arrebato’ is the core of this unclassifiable (like its object of study) mix of documentary and fiction that investigates the strange black hole that the film represents for all those who see it and worked on it. ‘The Last Rapture’ follows the clues that would explain the disappearance of Iván Zulueta and his film, accompanied by Jaime Chávarri and the original actors of the classic, Eusebio Poncela, Cecilia Roth and Marta Fernández-Muro. On Movistar Plus+ from December 3 relay Among Movistar’s more or less unreleased releases, this thriller that seems to seek inspiration from the conspiracy thrillers of the seventies especially draws our attention. But updated, of course: now the target is anonymity in the internet age. Directed by the always reliable David Mackenzie, whom we remember from ‘Comanchería’, it stars Lily James, Riz Ahmed and Sam Worthington, and we will follow a scientist who has been fired after warning about the side effects of the project she was working on. But she has evidence that the company is hiding information and believes she is being persecuted. On Movistar Plus+ from December 26 good boy A simple and direct horror gem, practically silent, that in just 72 minutes tells a story told from the perspective of Indy, a dog who, together with his owner, faces supernatural phenomena in an isolated house. Continuously at the height of the dog, giving us a unique immersion in the story, the film avoids the typical anthropomorphic vision of the animal in a minimal budget experiment that plays with atmosphere and sound to create a feeling of constant threat. It took years to film, since the dog is the director’s real pet and is not trained to act. On Filmin since December 19 Zodiac Killer Project Only a killer like Zodiac could spark a documentary true crime like this one, where the important thing is, obviously, not the investigation and the identity of the criminal, but rather a deep reflection on the codes and topics of the genre. We will walk through the typical true crime scenarios, but stripped of all spectacularity, accompanied by a deep reflection on a completely saturated style and taking as a starting point, precisely, an abandoned documentary about the Zodiac Killer. On Filmin since December 26 F1: The Movie The movie that has turned around finances from Apple’s audiovisual division after a series of failures is this fast-paced sports film focused on Formula 1. We will learn the story of the most promising driver of the 90s until an accident is about to put an end to him. Thirty years later, he has become a kind of driver for hire who receives a proposal from a former teammate, owner of a Formula 1 team on the brink of closure. An authentic visual spectacle thanks to the realistic immersion in the races through first-person shots and effects without CGI tricks. On Apple TV from December 12 Fallout T2 One of the most popular science fiction series returns funny and praised in recent timesand also a production that has lifted the curse of video game adaptations, demonstrating that no project is sufficiently ambitious when it is done with knowledge of the facts. We also leave the first season at a very interesting point: Lucy searching for her father after being betrayed and the Ghoul searching for his family, who may have survived the Holocaust. And their steps take them to a mythical location. None other than New Vegas, legendary setting for the franchise. On Prime Video from December 17 Palm Springs Although it has been roaming around on all types of platforms for some time now, this cult comedy is always a delight that can be reviewed again and again thanks to how it reinvents the concept of a time loop with a contemporary tone and melancholic atmosphere. Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti have perfect chemistry and together they go a step further than what we have already seen in classics like ‘Trapped in Time’. Here, Samberg is locked in a loop that repeats the same day over and … Read more

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