Wolk: Why We Should Retire the Term ‘FAANG’ for 2022
My friend Evan Shapiro, whose maps of the media landscape have become industry standards, proposed an alternate acronym that makes much more sense: MAGMA: Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple.
See the full story here: https://www.nexttv.com/news/wolk-why-we-should-retire-the-term-faang-for-2022?fbclid=IwAR1psmOvFY5alJ6Xp0Ml3cDLQP_Q5Z2Ua4_AYfYfNKJl5tH39QKGJ20TS8A
Introducing the World’s First A.I. Woman of Color
...
Create Lab Ventures has made history with the creation of the first artificial intelligence Afro-Latina, bilingual A.I. which is now available in various school systems across the country, Afrotech reported.
C.L.Ai.R.A., the first artificial intelligence woman of color, recently debuted as the “sharpest brain in the A.I world.” Create Lab Ventures, which seeks to provide underserved communities with the necessary skills, resources, and networks needed to excel in media and tech, teamed up with Trill or Not Trill for C.L.Ai.R.A’s debut.
Powered by the Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3), C.L.Ai.R.A utilizes an autoregressive language design that produces human-like text through the use of deep learning. ...
Lenny Williams, co-founder of Trill or Not Trill, hopes that C.L.Ai.R.A will help bridge the technology opportunity gap by allowing students, particularly underrepresented students, to see themselves in the future of technology.” ...
See the full story here: https://www.ebony.com/lifestyle/introducing-the-worlds-first-a-i-woman-of-color/
Sensorium Sets Fire to the Metaverse by Burning 1 Bln SENSO Tokens
... Founded in 2018, Sensorium Galaxy has been named as one of the leading contenders in the metaverse race, alongside tech giants like Facebook and Epic Games’ Fortnite.
Once launched, Sensorium Galaxy users will be able to explore different virtual worlds, each dedicated to a particular form of entertainment. Top attractions will include exclusive concerts by world-renowned DJs like David Guetta and Armin van Buuren, as well as mindfulness and meditation activities led by reputed practitioners.
See the full story here: https://bitcoinist.com/sensorium-sets-fire-to-the-metaverse-by-burning-1-bln-senso-tokens/
Vuzix announces agreement with Verizon to deliver Augmented Reality experience for sports and gaming
According to Vuzix, the agreement between the two companies will focus on the technology advancement and commercialization aspects of delivering immersive augmented reality training experiences powered by Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service and edge compute platform and Vuzix Shield smart glasses (pictured above). The agreement will leverage a proof-of-concept program that was completed earlier this year, which demonstrated the power of Verizon’s 5G and edge computing platform to run applications at the edge of the network using Vuzix smart glasses to deliver improved response time, longer battery life and increased computing capacity.
“By leveraging Verizon’s 5G Edge and ultra-light weight AR smart glasses from Vuzix, we are delivering immersive technology in the field of sports training and fan experience,” said Brian Mecum, Vice President of Device Technology at Verizon.
See the full story here: https://www.auganix.org/vuzix-announces-agreement-with-verizon-to-deliver-augmented-reality-experience-for-sports-and-gaming/
Foreign investors, mature startups redraw New Zealand’s VC funding landscape
... This boost in access to capital can be attributed to a few things. Even as a small country, New Zealand has a reputation for producing global companies, with notable exits like Vend, Seequent, Rocket Lab, Pushpay, Aroa Biosurgery, LanzaTech and Xero garnering the attention of foreign investors — like Founders Fund, Sequoia, Horizons and Aspect Venture Partners — who are either investing into local VC funds or directly into startup rounds. Those exits are providing returns, which investors are putting into other early-stage New Zealand startups to keep the ecosystem healthy and churning. ...
One of the biggest catalysts of the increase in VC investments, however, has been the Elevate NZ Venture Fund, a $300 million fund of funds program that will invest capital into VC firms over the next five years. ...
New Zealand’s government established the New Zealand Capital Growth Partners (NZGCP) in 2002 as an initiative to stimulate the early-stage startup ecosystem. After about 18 years of smaller-scale projects, the entity came up with the Elevate fund, and that might just be what gets today’s New Zealand early-stage startups into the next phase. ...
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/26/new-zealands-maturing-vc-funding-landscape-piques-interest-of-foreign-investors/?utm_medium=TCnewsletter&tpcc=TCdailynewsletter
Remembering the startups we lost in 2021
A look back at startups large and small that didn't make it
... 2021 also largely lacked the kind of blockbuster crashes we saw last year, courtesy of names like Quibi and Essential. But even in a non-pandemic year, keeping a startup afloat is still an enormously difficult task, ...
Loon (2015-2021) ...
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/27/remembering-the-startups-we-lost-in-2021/?utm_medium=TCnewsletter&tpcc=TCdailynewsletter
2021’s Top Stories About AI
Spoiler: A lot of them talked about what's wrong with machine learning today
2. 15 Graphs You Need to See to Understand AI in 2021:
6. OpenAI's GPT-3 Speaks! (Kindly Disregard Toxic Language):
See the full story here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/artificial-intelligence-2021
VR/AR Association Holds Virtual Summit Dedicated to the Metaverse
During the opening Keynote, “Interoperability Across the Metaverse,” Seek CEO Jon Cheney announced the Seek NFT platform.
“I think, in the future, all of this content is going to be in 3D. When we jump into these different places, they’re going to be in 3D,” said Cheney. “We’re excited today to announce Seek NFT. Mint directly to the NFT platform of your choice directly from Seek.”
Creator Economies in AR and Web3
A number of panel speakers linked the idea of augmented reality and “Web3” as the real way to link digital assets and real-world opportunities.
Value From Virtual Worlds
“The time and effort and resources spent in virtual worlds gives users no real control… virtual worlds lose their relevance when a new virtual world comes out,” SuperWorld co-founder and CEO Hrish Lotlikar said in his panel “A Virtual World That Enhances People’s Real Lives.” “Web3 really solves that… NFTs are really the building blocks of all of this.” ...
“VR is going to be big – even bigger than it is now – but at the end of the day, we are physical beings and we live in a physical world,” said Di Tommaso. “We’re not going to want to spend all of our time with these big glasses on.” ...
Charisma CEO Guy Gadney presented “Characters in the Metaverse” with writing lead Rianna Dearden. Charisma is a platform for “powering conversational characters” built with AI. AI is then digitally embodied through Unreal Engine, Unity, Metahuman, or Ready Player Me. ...
See the full story here: https://arpost.co/2021/12/23/vr-ar-association-virtual-summit-metaverse/
