‘AR Is Where the Real Metaverse Is Going to Happen’

Facebook might aim to build an all-immersive digital matrix, but Niantic CEO John Hanke tells us that what he plans to do is take reality—and make it better.

“Our overarching goal … is to help bring the metaverse to life,” Mark Zuckerberg told his workforce in June.

Hanke hates this idea. He’s read all the science fiction books and seen all the films that first imagined the metaverse—all great fun, and all wrong. He believes that his vision, unlike virtual reality, will make the real world better without encouraging people to totally check out of it. This past summer, he felt compelled to explain why in a self-­described manifesto whose title says it all: “The Metaverse Is a Dystopian Nightmare. Let’s Build a Better Reality.” (Facebook’s response: Change its name to Meta so it could focus on constructing Hanke’s nightmare.)

See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/john-hanke-niantic-augmented-reality-real-metaverse/

Niantic opens Lightship augmented reality platform to all developers

Niantic today announced it’s opening its Lightship AR platform to all developers. More specifically, it’s offering the Lightship Augmented Reality Developer Kit (ARDK) to developers who wish to create real-world metaverse concepts.

The Lightship ARDK will feature several of the tools used in Niantic’s games, such as Pokémon GO and Pikmin Bloom. These tools will allow developers to create games using three features made popular by Niantic games: Real-time mapping, understanding (which helps AR objects interact with real world places), and multiplayer sharing features. The company recently acquired Hoss to improve the Lightship developer experience, specifically in preparation for this event.

John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, said in a statement, “Transforming humanity’s relationship with technology by merging the physical and virtual worlds will require the ideas and perspectives of as many people as possible. That’s why we’re so excited to open the vault of technology that powers our own games, so developers, creators, and brands globally can build inclusive experiences that push the boundaries of what’s possible in AR.”

In addition to the global launch, Niantic has also created Niantic Ventures in order to invest in AR projects. 

See the full story here; https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/08/niantic-opens-lightship-augmented-reality-platform-to-all-developers/

Peter Jackson Selling Weta Digital’s VFX Tech Division to Unity for $1.625 Billion

Unity Software, a 3D game-development platform, is expanding its VFX footprint in a big way with the $1.625 billion acquisition of the technology division of Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based Weta Digital.

The deal promises to make the tools used to create Gollum for Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings,” Caesar from “The Planet of the Apes” and characters and settings from a slew of other movies available to creators all over the world.

See the full story here: https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/unity-acquires-weta-digital-1235107544/

H2O.ai raises $100M at a $1.6B pre-money valuation for tools to make AI usable by any kind of enterprise

H2O.ai — a startup that has developed an open-source framework as well as proprietary apps that make it easier for any kind of enterprise to build and operate artificial intelligence-based services — has seen a surge of interest as AI applications have become more ubiquitous, and enterprises beyond tech companies want to get in on the action. Now, it has raised $100 million to fuel its growth, a round of funding that values H2O.ai at $1.7 billion post-money ($1.6 billion pre-money).

The company has offered an open source component to its services, which it calls simply H2O, from its earliest days, and that is now used by over 20,000 enterprises. Part of the reason for that is its flexibility: H2O.ai says that its open source framework works both on top of existing big data infrastructure, on bare metal or on top of existing Hadoop, Spark or Kubernetes clusters and is able to ingest data directly from HDFS, Spark, S3, Azure Data Lake or any other data source into it’s in-memory distributed key-value store.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/07/h2o-ai-raises-100m-at-a-1-7b-valuation-for-tools-to-make-ai-usable-by-any-kind-of-enterprise/

Metaverse is….a fake Rolex

I am the co-founder and founding CTO of the company Red 6 Aerospace (founded 2018)— www.red6ar.com — while Epic/Facebook/Google/Microsoft/Snap might jockey for position in the quest to establish/define the boundaries of the future Metaverse we just went ahead and built it.

We created a unique new form of military training — allowing real soldiers/airmen/sailors to train against and alongside any number of virtual adversaries.

I called the overall system CARBON (Common Augmented Reality Battlespace Operational Network) –the core idea was to allow physical entities (for the sake of argument F22s and F35s) to simultaneously see a number of synthetic entities — in the same place, at the same time, with the same physics.

In other words — it’s a multi-player video game in the sky.

The building blocks are broadly the same as the Internet (clients, servers, APIs, cloud, wireless mesh networks, always on mobile computing units etc). The differentiator is NOT the output format (screen vs. VR vs AR headset)

It’s real-world impact — either Physical Impact or real-time datasets that influence decisions.

Neither VR nor AR are a requirement of this metaverse layer — they’re just an advanced version of it.

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Psychological issues of Ender’s game scenarios notwithstanding — the fusion of an outdoor AR environment with a massive multi-player online gaming environment involving real-time datasets and real-world impact is a vital stepping stone to a useful Metaverse.

See the full story here: https://medium.com/@nickybee/metaverse-is-a-fake-rolex-9cef8e7c01ca

Tencent Unveils First Chips in Push Beyond Online Content

Tencent derives most of its revenue from online content like video games as well as its WeChat super app -- areas that have been targeted by China’s crackdown -- and the new chips will allow the company to better align with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s goals. The government has made tech self-sufficiency a top national priority, setting aside billions in government funding and offering a wide range of policy support to help local firms overcome U.S. sanctions on the semiconductor industry.

Tencent isn’t alone in answering to Beijing’s call to build a homegrown chip industry. Earlier this month, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. unveiled a new server chip based on 5-nanometer technology for its own use. Search leader Baidu Inc. has already produced its AI chips for applications like smart vehicles, while TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd. is putting together a team to build server chips.

See the full story here: https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/tencent-unveils-first-chips-in-push-beyond-online-content

Why are people with nothing to hide so scared of Clearview AI’s facial recognition?

If you or anyone else has ever uploaded a picture with your face in it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or just about any website, there’s a very good chance you’re in Clearview AI‘s database.

What does that mean? Clearview AI employees, millions of law enforcement agents, and anyone with access to the company’s data (which was recently exposed in a massive breach) can identify you as easily as snapping a photo with a smartphone or uploading a pic to an app.

The Australian government determined that Clearview AI posed a threat to its citizens. ...

What Clearview AI is doing may not be illegal in the US, yet, but it’s clearly unethical. ...

As it turns out, everyone either has something to hide or something to lose when their privacy is taken away.

See the full story here: https://thenextweb.com/news/why-are-people-with-nothing-to-hide-so-scared-of-clearview-ais-facial-recognition

NATO ups the ante on disruptive tech, artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence

Meanwhile, the allies also agreed on NATO’s first-ever artificial intelligence strategy, which has been in the works since early 2021. “It will set standards for responsible use of artificial intelligence, in accordance with international law, outline how we will accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence in what we do, set out how we will protect this technology, and address the threats posed by the use of artificial intelligence by adversaries,” Stoltenberg said.

NATO released a summary of the strategy on Oct. 22, and it includes four sections: Principles of responsible use of artificial intelligence in defense; ensuring the safe and responsible use of allied AI; minimizing interference in allied AI; and standards.

It also lays out the six principles of AI use that member-nations should follow. They include: lawfulness; responsibility and accountability; explainability and traceability; reliability; governability; and bias mitigation.

Data exploitation framework

Member-nations also agreed to a new policy that treats data as a “strategic asset,” and sets a framework for both NATO headquarter-generated data and national data to be exploited across the alliance in a responsible fashion, van Weel said. The data and AI review board will serve as a quasi “Chief Data Officer” that ensures the alliance’s data, wherever it originates from, is stored securely and adheres to the principles agreed to by NATO’s members.

See the full story here: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/feindef/2021/11/03/nato-ups-the-ante-on-disruptive-tech-artificial-intelligence/

This NFT Design Space Allows You To Work and Play in Virtual Reality

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Conceived by artists Benny Or and Cyril Lancelin, “The Meeting Place” is meant to function as a work and play space anchored in virtual reality. Part installation, part architectural design, the NFT is integrated with Spatial, a 3D design and augmented reality/virtual reality platform, and can be utilized on other metaverse platforms too.

“This project is the first generation of immersive metaverse spaces that are readymade and interoperable,” Kim said on why she chose to support this project. “More readymade spaces like this will increase in demand because we need out-of-this-world spaces that defy the laws of physics and stretch our imagination. Art and architecture are one in the metaverse.” ...

Or explained that  “The Meeting Place” was developed to bridge the gap between virtual experiences and physical spaces. The building — an inverted triangle floating in the air — is surrounded by concrete textures and blue sky, meant to make the piece feel “familiar” while also maintaining a sense of whimsy. This intentional design invites collaboration and interaction. ...

“The Meeting Place” will be sold on November 18, 2021, in a two-day auction. It is currently hosted on Spatial, but can also be moved to other XR platforms. ...

See the full story here: https://hypebeast.com/2021/11/nft-art-installation-the-meeting-place-virtual-reality-metaverse

Open NFT Metaverse Leader The Sandbox Scoops $93 Million in Series B Funding

True Global Ventures’ Vision of the metaverse and future of open entertainment platforms is:

1. Multi-metaverse environments powered by Blockchain and Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs)allow actual digital ownership of digital assets that support interoperability, open standards, and transparency.
2. These metaverses will have new types of distributed governance, where both large corporations and smaller communities will exist side by side more equitably. Many of these communities will be owned by the communities and creators themselves.
3. The innovations in this space will drive Web 3.0 adoption and bring these technologies to the masses for positive change.
4. We believe that positive virtual worlds, e.g., open, transparent, sustainable, will positively impact the real world.

See the full story here: https://aithority.com/technology/blockchain/nft/open-nft-metaverse-leader-the-sandbox-scoops-93-million-in-series-b-funding/