"This week in the ➡️ #Metaverse" #33
March 6, 2023
"This week in the ➡️ #Metaverse" #33
Your weekly roundup of what’s happening in the digital land(scape). Metaverse ethics, governance and interesting trends from crypto, gaming and regulation.
👁️🗨️What's going on:
This is Meta’s AR / VR hardware roadmap for the next four years, and also, a keen observation that Meta does not know it’s a game company:
reality is that the top software on the Quest 2 are all games. VR early adopters in the consumer space buy headsets to play games. Devices like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and the PSVR (which sold around 5 million headsets by 2020) were adopted by consumers to play video games, not dick around in a barely built metaverse.
While others think that Mark Zuckerberg had quietly buried the Metaverse, pivoting to the AI craze.
All SXSW 2023 VR Experiences and VR Films at a Glance
Xiaomi debuts prototype augmented reality glasses joining Microsoft and Google
US lawmaker behind crypto mining legislation urges Zuck not to offer metaverse to teenagers.
🤖I Am Not A Robot: AI news
Figure emerges from stealth with the first images of its humanoid robot
Scammers are using artificial intelligence to sound more like family members in distress. People are falling for the AI voice scam and losing thousands of dollars.
Microsoft unveils AI model that understands image content, solves visual puzzles
They believe a multimodal approach paves the way for human-level AI.
Stability AI, Hugging Face and Canva back new AI research nonprofit
Blender can now use AI to create images and effects from text descriptions
TikToks new AI filter is so realistic, its raising concerns of body dysmorphia.
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🤦The WTF award of the week goes to…
Ford files patent to allow self-driving cars to drive away from owners who don't keep up with payments
and also in this week example of “Losing my
ReligionOwnership”, Volkswagen refused to help mother and police to track car with kidnapped child until until they received $150 payment to reactivate Car-Net. As Cory Doctorow said, “All the harms of surveillance, none of the benefits.“
🎮Gaming news
Story Machine demonstrates how AI is helping game development
💸CryptoLand:
BNB Chain hackathon winner accuses Binance of stealing AI-powered NFTs idea. Crypto exchange Binance has been accused of “blatantly” copying the winner of the BNB Chain hackathon after launching Bicasso — an AI-based nonfungible token (NFT) creation tool.
😬Meme corner:
✍️Ending nugget:
"My theory is that when we experience art — whether it's a video game or a Da Vinci painting or a movie — we're taking in a huge number of micro decisions that were made by the artists for particular reasons. In that way, we're communing with those artists, and that is really important.
"Something generated by AI might seem comparable to something produced by a human, which is why people are so excited. But you're not having that awareness of communing with the creator. Remove that and it's hollow and uninteresting."
Neal Stephenson talking about generative AI in a FT interview
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading this new edition. If you want to continue the conversation, find me at @https://twitter.com/whoisgallifrey And if you want to support my work, please do so by sharing this newsletter!!