philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Megan Thee Stallion Launches ‘First-Ever’ Virtual Reality Concert Tour

A Megan Thee Stallion concert is coming to Los Angeles, but the Grammy-winning rapper won’t be at the show — at least not physically. 

On Monday, Megan announced the launch of a virtual reality concert “tour” that will allow fans in 10 U.S. cities to gather in movie theaters, strap on VR headsets and watch the rapper perform a pre-recorded set. The tour—dubbed “Enter Thee Hottieverse”—is produced by AmazeVR, a West Hollywood virtual reality startup that recently raised $15 million to bring VR concerts to music fans.

Virtual reality concerts have grown in popularity during the pandemic and are emerging as a metaverse-related business opportunity. But whereas other VR shows let fans watch from home, Megan and AmazeVR are betting that fans will want to gather at the same place to share a virtual experience. The startup claims the shows mark the “first-ever” VR concert tour. ...

... the firm films 3D, live-action videos of artists like Megan and inserts them in computer-generated worlds post-production. ...

Cognizant of the ongoing pandemic, AmazeVR said both its VR headsets and the movie theaters will be sanitized before and after each of Megan’s shows. In Los Angeles, the tour runs April 5-10 at the AMC The Grove 14 movie theater, with subsequent dates in San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Washington D.C. and New York.

See the full story here: https://dot.la/megan-thee-stallion-virtual-reality-2656808373.html

Crypto Network Promises Hack-Proof History of Ukraine Attack

... Williams, 29, dropped out of the computer science doctoral program at the University of Kent in England to start Arve in 2017. After studying a period like Nazi Germany, he wanted to create a platform for permanent historical records that could not be edited.

“One of the most important things dictators try to do is control the space of information,” he said.

The immutability of the distributed, digital laser, known as the blockchain, appealed to Williams. He said Arweave is “blockchain-like”, but uses a structure called blockwave that is better for storing large files such as videos and documents. ...

“Lasers replicate information from hundreds of different locations around the world, not thousands,” he said, without specifying exactly how many computers have Arweave data stored on them.

Network users known as miners receive Arweave crypto tokens that can be exchanged for cash using their computer to store data. ...

See the full story here: https://www.anandmarket.in/crypto-network-promises-hack-proof-history-of-ukraine-attack/

Creative Control – YOU NEED TO WATCH THE MOST FASCINATING SCI-FI MOVIE ABOUT AUGMENTED REALITY ON AMAZON PRIME

Anyone looking to avoid a movie about insufferable people could easily stay away from Creative Control, but the movie is more than that. It’s working on themes that would later be fully realized in the Safdie brothers’ ecstatic Uncut Gems, most notably a conversation about the suffering needed to create the technologies that people take for granted.

But while Creative Control’s characters are hollow shells, the movie itself is earnestly interested in their fates. Technology can spin out universes all of its own, and it’s easier than ever to get wrapped inside them. Creative Control asks if people can pull themselves back once they’ve gotten sucked in.

See the full story here: https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/sci-fi-movies-february-2022-amazon-prime-creative-control

AI in gaming, media and entertainment industries to take centerstage as future technologies emerge

Key takeaways:

1. Content engagement is no longer a commercial paradigm; it is evolving into a social paradigm. Revenue from online and gaming will grow in the years to come; with entertainment moving from a linear channel to OTT platforms, everyone now has the power to create content.  
2. Five years ago, cookies allowed businesses to exchange marketing metrics from Facebook and YouTube advertising. However, with the degradation of cookies in recent years, enterprises are turning back to probability approaches.
3. Acquisition and retention are the two crucial grids of marketing. Retention is less expensive; however, if you cannot retain your existing customers, you will have to spend more on new ones. 
4. Diversity and Equality in gaming: It’s crucial to contribute to the communities that never got the chance to express themselves in the gaming space. 
5. AI in Media & Entertainment: The Future of TV: Content engagement relies on both implicit and explicit signals from the audience. Eliminating clustering in algorithms is critical for personal recommendation.  
6. Data Privacy: Data collection in gaming, media and entertainment businesses are crucial, and privacy is the intersection of data. When we drill down Data Privacy, we comprehend that knowledge accompanies reasonability. 
7. While reactive and proactive ML tools help establish a robust defense against toxic conduct, players have to look out for one another to protect the community.  
8. The Metaverse today is a virtual room primarily developed for interaction and communication. It is a leap, just like gaming and cloud, and we are all early adopters.

See the full story here: https://www.animationxpress.com/games/ai-in-gaming-media-entertainment-industries-to-take-centerstage-as-future-technologies-emerge/

Israel Reveals Military’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy

A senior Israel Defense Forces official, whose name could not be used due to the sensitivity of their position, noted that the IDF is undergoing a digital transformation in dealing with AI in all its branches and the commands. This will be the first time the IDF has a multi-branch and multi-command plan for use of AI.

For the IDF, the strategy is part of a belief that data and AI has a major role for winning future conflicts, processing the vast amount of data being generated by various sensors, transforming it into intelligible information and delivering it where it needs to go.

Reports indicate artificial intelligence played a key role in the Israel conflict with Hamas in Gaza in May 2021, and artificial intelligence is increasingly being incorporated into systems developed by Israeli defense companies, such as rifles, bombs and other systems, meaning the IDF now has an increasing array of platforms that use AI. ...

The IDF opted to release an unclassified version to foster engagement with its partners. ...

See the full story here: https://www.bollyinside.com/news/israel-reveals-militarys-artificial-intelligence-strategy

Meta Dissolves VR and AR Operating System Team Consisting of 300 Employees

According to new reports, the tech giant has disbanded the team behind the long-rumored XROS, instead moving over to other neighboring teams to help out on other related tech, including Meta’s AR glasses, its Quest headsets, and various features such as eye and hand tracking as well as machine perception.

The change in direction probably doesn’t come as a surprise to those following Meta’s progress. Back in January, rumors surfaced suggesting that the company had ceased almost all work on the XROS, shifting its focus to improving the Quest 2’s Android-based VROS instead. ...

See the full story here: https://hypebeast.com/2022/2/meta-virtual-augmented-reality-operating-system-team-dissolved

In the world’s first crypto war, uncertainty about who will benefit

... The first major conflict of the crypto era also means that, for the first time ever, a tool that can move billions of dollars easily across borders is available to be marshaled by both sides.

“Because there is no central controller who can impose their morals on its user, crypto can be used to crowdfund for the Ukrainian army or help Russia evade sanctions,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder at the crypto analytics firm Elliptic. “No one can really prevent it from being used in either way.”

But how much it could truly influence the war remains to be seen. ...

Both sides have deep roots in crypto. Chainalysis ranks Ukraine as the top European adopter of cryptocurrency and the fourth biggest in the world. In September, the country legalized crypto after years of murkiness, and its new Ministry of Digital Transformation has released video ads recruiting tech start-ups that could include crypto. ...

“The problem is the off-ramp. You could theoretically move all the payments you want, but until you can buy a burger down the street, there’s not much you can do with the money,” said Nick Furneaux,·managing director at the U.K.-based investigative firmCSITech and author of the book “Investigating Cryptocurrencies.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/25/cryptocurrency-ukraine-russia-war-impact/?ck_subscriber_id=958930034&utm_source=convertkit&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=In+the+world’s+first+crypto+war%2C+uncertainty+about+who+will+benefit+%7C+Web3+Saturday%20-%207666666

‘I’m just a freak’: Andy Warhol’s secret ‘longings’ exposed in ‘Diaries’

Titled “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” the six-parter vocally brings the pop art icon, who died in 1987, back to life — using cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to narrate the most revealing moments from his legendary life. ...

The most intimate parts of the Superstar maker’s life will be brought to light through the use of the robot-like technology that will “honor two hallmarks of Andy’s life and artistic practice, stemming from his desire ‘to be a machine,’ ” director Andrew Rossi told Entertainment Weekly. ...

“Andy admired the fact that ‘machines have less problems,’ saying that, ‘I do have feelings, but I wish I didn’t.’ He even had himself made into a robot and a hologram during his lifetime, and he said, ‘the reason I’m painting this way is that I want to be a machine,’ ” Rossi said.

“So I thought that cloning Andy’s voice could function like a Warholian portrait, and the [Andy Warhol] Foundation approved.”  ...

Remaking Warhol’s voice to personally confess these influential times — which was done by having actor Bill Irwin record the diaries’ entries before they were morphed in a newly created text-to-speech algorithm — was also the only fitting way to reveal the artist’s deep mysteries to the world, according to Rossi. ...

See the full story here: https://nypost.com/2022/02/23/andy-warhols-freak-romantic-longings-exposed-in-diaries/

Flies in Virtual Reality Arena Prove They’re Smarter Than We Thought

... “This work demonstrates not only that flies are capable of this higher form of trace conditioning, and that the learning is distractible just like in mammals and humans, but the neural activity underlying these attentional and working memory processes in the fly show remarkable similarity to those in mammals,” said Dhruv Grover, a UC San Diego KIBM research faculty member and lead author of the new study. “This work demonstrates that fruit flies could serve as a powerful model for the study of higher cognitive functions. Simply put, the fly continues to amaze in how smart it really is.” ...

See the full story here: https://scitechdaily.com/flies-in-virtual-reality-arena-prove-theyre-smarter-than-we-thought/

Manchester City Partners With Sony to Build the First Football Stadium in the Metaverse

... The football club has signed a partnership with Sony on a three-year initiative, and while the project is still in its early phases, teams of the company's specialists have already visited the Etihad Stadium — Manchester City's home ground — to map it digitally and construct a VR version of it. ...

The seven-time English Premier League champions are also exploring the possibility of fans meeting players in the metaverse and purchasing products unavailable in the physical world. It is likely that purchases will be made using cryptocurrencies. ...

See the full story here: https://gadgets360.com/cryptocurrency/news/manchester-city-sony-etihad-football-stadium-metaverse-epl-english-premier-league-2782873