Micron's union in Taiwan rejects a bonus proposal
Hundreds of workers at a Micron Technology plant in Taiwan rejected the new profit-sharing system proposed by the U.S. chipmaker, according to its union, which said "the fight is far from over."
Technology
Tesla says it is already building Optimus in Fremont, but admits the robots do not have finished hands
In its quarterly report published on October 21, Tesla says production of its Optimus humanoid robot began on its high-volume lines in Fremont, California, and that these are the first production-quality robots it has manufactured. The document includes no unit figures and classifies that capacity as "Early Ramp". Musk spoke of "early production" and of an adoption curve with a shallow slope, and acknowledged they are building robots without perfected hands.
Ukrainian drones hit five data centers of Yandex, Sber and VKontakte in Russia
During October, Ukrainian drones struck five data centers belonging to major Russian technology companies: three Yandex facilities (Sasovo on October 7, Kaluga on October 9 and Vladimir on October 11), one Sber site in Balakovo on October 14 and one VKontakte facility in the Leningrad region on October 18. According to the report, failures affected cloud services, payment systems and navigation apps. None of the companies disclosed the extent of the damage, and recovery could take months or even years.
Pangram detector flags 99% AI-generated text in the novel that won the Almadía Ventosa-Arrufat prize
The novel 'Donde el agua trabaja', by Peruvian author David Silva Rojas, won the first Almadía Ventosa-Arrufat International Short Novel Prize in July, worth 20,000 euros, with more than 2,200 entries from 22 countries. Its rules required entrants to declare the work had not been written with AI. According to El País, running the full book through the Pangram detector showed 99% of the text as AI-generated. The article reviews how Pangram works and its limits: a percentage does not prove authorship.
eBay to cut about 1,000 jobs, roughly 9% of its workforce
The US online marketplace eBay will eliminate around 1,000 jobs, approximately 9% of its total workforce, a company spokesperson told AFP. The move follows a first round of layoffs in February.
Walmart welcomes AI agents that shop on behalf of customers
Walmart unveiled tools that let artificial intelligence agents shop on behalf of its customers. The retailer will launch "Agent Profiles" next month, allowing each customer to register every AI assistant as a separate profile within their account, so purchases made by the agent appear separately. Customers can require authorization for each purchase or set a spending limit, such as 50, 100 or 200 dollars, and delete the profile at any time. Amazon, by contrast, blocks third-party shopping agents.
Sonora and Chihuahua look to Taiwan for semiconductor and AI investment and talent
The governments of Sonora and Chihuahua took part in the Taitronics & AIoT Taiwan 2026 fair in Taipei to strengthen investment ties and student mobility programs with Taiwan. Mexican students travel to the island to complete their university training and learn Chinese. Taiwan's ITRI is advising the Sonora government on developing a Science Park, given the state's proximity to Arizona, where TSMC operates. The institute stresses long-term public investment as the key to Taiwan's tech success.
A first-time voter tested AI chatbots for election information and found incomplete answers and uneven Spanish-language results
A journalist voting for the first time in Texas used ChatGPT to learn about the midterm elections. She found that Spanish-language answers were less precise than English ones and that the chatbot cited unofficial sources, such as a student newspaper, to explain a candidate's proposals. Experts from the Brennan Center for Justice and We Are Mas warn that models make mistakes and recommend always verifying sources. An ISD study cited in the text measured 89.3% accurate answers in English and 82% in Spanish for ChatGPT.
Pascal Chabot: "Narcissism and laziness are satisfied by artificial intelligence"
Belgian philosopher Pascal Chabot, invited by Puerto de Ideas Valparaíso, argues that artificial intelligence reinforces human narcissism and laziness, and warns that in a world dominated by AI autonomy tends to disappear. Chabot, author of the concept "digitosis", says the connection between consciousness and a digital "supraconscious" could be modified by the companies that control these technologies, and that the loss of a sense of the common poses a risk to democracy.
Beijing urges companies to be cautious amid fears of mass unemployment from AI
China's State Council published guidelines with 18 measures urging companies to be cautious when replacing workers with artificial intelligence. The document proposes introducing the technology gradually in labor-intensive sectors, notifying affected employees in advance and supporting their retraining, as well as assessing employment effects through alert mechanisms for possible large-scale job losses. The recommendations set no general obligations or specific deadlines for companies.
NASA keeps SpaceX and Blue Origin options open for carrying astronauts to the Moon
NASA will test the lunar landing systems of SpaceX and Blue Origin before choosing which one it will use on the Artemis IV mission, with which it aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028. The first uncrewed tests are planned for late 2027 in SpaceX's case and for 2028 in Blue Origin's. The announcement was made by Artemis program officials at Kennedy Space Center.
The hidden cost of an artificial intelligence we do not understand
An opinion piece by VigÍA warns that companies calculate the cost of implementing artificial intelligence but not the cost of a wrong report, a leak of confidential information or a decision no one can explain. It cites a September 2026 OpenAI study of 1,000 SME managers in Spain: 39% lack a formal AI use policy and 26% cite lack of training. In an experiment with 758 Boston Consulting Group consultants, access to GPT-4 sped up certain tasks by 25%, but in a strategy test the group without AI answered correctly 84.5% of the time versus 70.6% with AI.
Economist Gonzalo Bernardos warns AI will hit white-collar jobs: accountants and administrative staff most exposed
Economist Gonzalo Bernardos warned on the podcast Inteligencia Artificial, hosted by Jon Hernández, that AI will affect office jobs, not only industrial workers as in previous technological revolutions. He said those doing repetitive administrative tasks or working as accountants should be looking for another job, and also placed translators among the most exposed. Still, he does not see AI as a threat in itself: it can raise productivity, reduce errors and free workers from monotonous tasks.
Spain: data center industry warns government decree will deter investment
The Spanish government's draft royal decree to regulate the deployment of new data centers is drawing pushback from industry operators, according to La Razón. The government says it seeks orderly development, minimizing impact on natural resources and strengthening renewables, and proposes requiring some projects to back part of their electricity consumption with new renewable capacity. Several operators warn that such requirements would raise costs, delay projects or shift investment to other European countries with lighter regulatory frameworks.
Palantir says its Maven system has no "kill switch" as Europe questions its military tech dependence
An incident involving SpaceX's Starshield network in Ukraine revived in Europe the question of how much of its defense capability depends on decisions made in Washington. Louis Mosley, Palantir's executive vice president for the UK and Europe, told Reuters that neither the company nor the U.S. government can shut down the Maven Smart System, the AI platform NATO bought in 2025 and that several European armies use. Several countries are seeking alternatives, though finding a viable European option is proving difficult.
Waymo, Uber and Bolt begin first on-street autonomous vehicle tests in Madrid
Spain's DGT has authorized autonomous vehicle tests in Alcobendas, Getafe and Madrid city. Waymo (Google) will put its electric Jaguar I-PACE cars on the streets in the coming days, including at night, and expects to welcome its first users in 2027. Uber has held a license since September to test 20 WeRide vans with a safety operator on board, and Bolt will start in the capital in 2027 backed by Nvidia and Lucid. The trials are at level 4 automation.
Gartner: only 11% of consumers would let AI decide their purchase
A Gartner study published in May 2026, surveying 322 U.S. consumers in January of that year, found that only 11% would be willing to let AI make the purchase decision for them. 31% would accept AI narrowing options for household items and 28% for personal electronic devices. The report concludes that consumers use AI to research and compare, but keep the final decision.
roc-deflate, written in the functional language Roc, trails the C library libdeflate by 2.6%
An analysis compared roc-deflate, a compression package written in the functional language Roc by Niclas Ahden, with libdeflate, the DEFLATE library written in C and hand-tuned with SIMD instructions. Using the Silesia corpus and 144 benchmarks at levels L1 to L12, the median was 2.6% slower on a MacBook Pro M1 and 8.9% on a Ryzen 9 3900X. In the worst case it was 18% slower and in the best case slightly more than 18% faster. Roc, which is preparing version 0.1.0 after eight years of development, guarantees memory safety and pure functions.
Dutch researcher expects commercial electric flights within about a decade
Maarten Steinbuch, a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, says booking an electric flight in Europe will be possible in about ten years and that batteries are "the key element" of the development. Dutch start-up Elysian Aircraft is building one of the first battery-powered passenger aircraft, with six engines and folding wings. Steinbuch urges the European Commission to pass legislation with deadlines to electrify part of fleets and to speed up certification processes.
Tesla, XPeng, Hyundai and other automakers push ahead with flying cars and air taxis
Several automakers are advancing flying vehicles and air taxis. Tesla revived the idea with the Roadster and its Rocket variant, which uses cold gas thrusters and is not a conventional flying car. XPeng is developing the Land Aircraft Carrier through Aridge and in November 2025 announced progress in its production. GAC Group with the Govy AirCab, Hyundai with Supernal and the S-A2, Toyota with Joby Aviation, Honda, Suzuki with SkyDrive, Geely with Aerofugia and Stellantis with Archer Aviation are also involved. Certification and operating rules will be key for commercial use.
