Tomorrowland around the world (EDM virtual festival)
See the full story here: https://magazine.weraveyou.com/wdw2929100w021/issues/aug2020/
Ten Days of Virtual Reality Come to Portland
NW Film Center and Portland Art Museum partner for the VR Venice Biennale: Venice VR Expanded 2020. Here are five experiences to watch for.
Terrain
/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-wordpress-client-uploads/wweek/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/27112914/agnesepietrobon-terrain-venezia77.jpg)
Terrain, the installation created by artist Lily Baldwin, animator Saschka Unseld and filmmaker Kumar Atre, is difficult to describe, which is maybe the point. The audio-visual production is entirely nonverbal, allowing participants to reevaluate the space between the self and the other through our physical––or virtual––bodies. As an alternative to the traditional documentary format, Terrain brings viewers to characters across the globe, using the freedoms of virtual reality to emphasize our interconnectedness in times of isolation.
See the full story here: https://www.wweek.com/promotions/2020/08/28/ten-days-of-virtual-reality-comes-to-portland/
Burning Man Goes Virtual This Year As Sacramento Artists Prepare For ‘The Multiverse’
Burning Man has gone virtual, but not by choice. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the in-person experience. But rather than going dark, organizers decided to lean into “The Multiverse” theme, which was named months before the pandemic was declared.
“Burning Man will happen this year wherever Burners are living the Burning Man spirit — both in physical space and virtual space,” Burning Man Project CEO Marion Goodell told participants in June.
Each of these worlds varies in technology. Some don't require expensive virtual reality headgear. All of the content — virtual and real-world — is available through a Burning Man website.
See the full story here: https://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/08/28/burning-man-goes-virtual-this-year-as-sacramento-artists-prepare-for-the-multiverse/
IBM hopes to power US Open’s digital experiences with Watson’s natural language processing
The US Open can't have fans this year so IBM is hoping it can use AI to fuel debates, experiences and even the noise in the stadium.
Big Blue and the USTA are using natural language processing and Watson to pull from datasets in multiple clouds to create new digital experiences on USOpen.org and the US Open app. IBM iX, a digital design agency, created the experiences.
The USTA is also launching VIP Experiences with Zoom Video Communications for hospitality events, tutorials and interviews.
See the full story here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-hopes-to-power-us-opens-digital-experiences-with-watsons-natural-language-processing/
Oh what a feeling: New Toyotas will upload data to AWS to help create custom insurance premiums based on driver behaviour
That data comes from a device called the “Data Communication Module” (DCM) that Toyota fits into many models in Japan, the USA and China.
Toyota reckons the data could turn into “new contextual services such as car share, rideshare, full-service lease, and new corporate and consumer services such as proactive vehicle maintenance notifications and driving behavior-based insurance.”
See the full story here: https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/aws_toyota_alliance/
White House Announces $1 Billion Plan to Create AI, Quantum Institutes
China is adopting AI at a faster rate than the U.S. and the European Union, according to a 2019 report released by the Center for Data Innovation, a nonpartisan research institute.
“It is absolutely imperative the United States continues to lead the world in AI and quantum,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios. “The future of American economic prosperity and national security will be shaped by how we invest, research, develop and deploy these cutting edge technologies today.”
The AI institutes will research how technologies can be used in areas such as precision agriculture, weather forecasting and more. The institutes will be hosted by universities across the country: the University of Oklahoma, the University of Texas at Austin, University of Colorado, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of California, Davis, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.