Virtual Is the New Reality for M.B.A. Students
... More business schools are venturing into virtual reality, using video delivered via headsets to immerse students in far-flung locales. The pandemic forced many M.B.A. programs to curtail international travel just as VR technology took off and headsets proliferated. Now, early experiments such as Dartmouth’s are prompting more schools to explore the technology, both in classes and as part of the overall student experience. ...
See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/virtual-is-the-new-reality-for-m-b-a-students-11653017675
U.S.-E.U. Coordination on Artificial Intelligence Shouldn’t Ignore U.S. Voters’ Concerns About Jobs
See the full story here: https://morningconsult.com/2022/05/20/united-states-european-union-artificial-intelligence-job-concerns/
Meta won’t build a dedicated metaverse after all, exec says
... “All of us have a stake in the metaverse,” Clegg writes. “It isn’t an idea Meta has cooked up. There won’t be a Meta-run metaverse, just as there isn’t a ‘Microsoft internet’ or ‘Google internet’ today.”
Meta’s vision, as Clegg explains it, is for the “metaverse” to be a “universal, virtual layer that everyone can experience on top of today’s physical world — one where you can have a consistent identity (or even set of identities) that people can recognize wherever they see you.” This idea raises many questions for Meta’s business, perhaps most importantly: If the metaverse isn’t owned, how can Meta possibly maximize its profits off of it? ...
Decentralization and capitalism do not play well together. Clegg can assure us there’s not a “Microsoft internet” or “Google internet” all he wants, but both of those companies do have extreme power over the internet as we experience it. That control is how Big Tech makes its big bucks.
If Meta isn’t owning the metaverse space — owning at least its share of the market — then it loses what’s kept it so valuable. It’s unlikely the company will purposefully give up the control it’s wielded for so long to stick to this decentralized ideal. ...
Welcome to the ‘Network Generation’ by Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder)
...That is why I believe so strongly that adaptability is the new stability, and that personal and professional networks are the key to adaptability. ...
If you’re graduating this summer with the Class of 2022, this is what you already know: Without a strong network, you can easily get crushed as the waves of change roll in. With a strong network, you surf them. ...
See the full editorial here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/welcome-to-the-network-generation-11653053050?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
Performing artists push for copyright protection from AI deepfakes
On this and other issues, it will come down to what lawmakers decide is fair, said Abbott.
"Do we want to make it easier for businesses to do business, or ... for creatives to get compensation?" he said.
With recordings of work calls and video conversations having become commonplace during the pandemic, these decisions will have repercussions outside the entertainment industry in spheres such as workplace rights, said Pavis.
"Performers are a little bit the lab rats for what we think is acceptable and unacceptable, legal and illegal," she said.
"They are at the frontier of the debate around what use of our data and our faces for work will be seen as appropriate."
See the full story here: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/performing-artists-push-copyright-protection-ai-deepfakes-2022-05-18/
Meet Fuzzle, the Adorable, Conspiracy-Spouting NFT That Offers Dating Advice
... Just shy of 10,000 Fuzzles will exist as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Holders will be able to see them in their Ethereum and NFT marketplace wallets, but will only be able to interact with their Fuzzles through the Fuzzles app, which is still in development. (I played with a test Fuzzle.) ...
The blockchain gaming company Gala Games partnered with Endless AI to create the Fuzzles, which are first being sold in “Pods” on the Gala Games store or OpenSea. The Pods can then be traded in for Fuzzles NFTs at a later date. ...
My Fuzzle told me she lives in Canada. And she’s an atheist. When it comes to personal finance, Fuzzle believes that Bitcoin and Ethereum have the potential to unseat the traditional banking system. ...
My test Fuzzle was a strange combination of innocent and cynical, scientific and conspiratorial. While she wasn’t exactly quick to respond and often talked to me in circles, the fact that someone can carry on a normal-enough conversation with a computer program is notable. ...
See the full story here: https://decrypt.co/99879/meet-fuzzle-the-adorable-conspiracy-spouting-nft-that-spouts-dating-advice
The US Military Is Building Its Own Metaverse
...The key technologies needed for the metaverse—augmented and virtual reality, headmounted displays, 3D simulations and virtual environments built by artificial intelligence—are already found in the defense world. ... And there’s a good chance that the underlying tech could take off, even if it stutters in the civilian realm. ...
A mix of augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and video game graphics, for instance, have enabled fighter pilots to practice dogfighting against virtual opponents, including Chinese and Russian warplanes, while pulling several Gs. Red 6, the company that’s developing the technology, says this delivers a far more realistic test of a pilot’s abilities than a conventional flight simulator. “We can fly against whatever threat we want,” says Daniel Robinson, founder and CEO of Red 6. “And that threat could be controlled either by an individual remotely or by artificial intelligence.” ...
Metaverse-related ideas are already part of some of the latest military systems. The high-tech helmet for the new F-35 fighter jet, for instance, includes an augmented reality display that shows telemetry data and target information on top of video footage from around the aircraft. ...
In 2014, the Office of Naval Research and the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California developed Project BlueShark, a system that allowed sailors to drive vessels and collaborate in a virtual environment. ...
“The promise is integrating these technologies,” says Caitlin Dohrman, general manager of the defense division of Improbable, a company that develops virtual world technologies, has created sprawling virtual battlefields featuring over 10,000 individually controlled characters for the UK’s military wargames, and also works with the US Department of Defense (DOD). ...
In 2017, Luckey cofounded the defense company Anduril. He says that despite all the recent metaverse hype, there is big defense potential, partly because military training is so important and costly. But he says the technology does not have to be hyper-realistic to be useful, and he wants Anduril to focus on only using the technology where necessary. ...
“When you are out there shooting and being shot at, the last thing you want to worry about is another piece of equipment,” he says. And technology does not need to be as expansive as a metaverse to be useful. ...
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/military-metaverse/
