philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

The AI Foundation raises $17 million to create digital AI-powered personas

The AI Foundation, which ambitiously hopes to develop “ethical” AI agents that can be trained to complete tasks, today closed a $17 million funding round. A spokesperson said the funds will be used to scale the company’s platform, which allows people to create a digital persona that mirrors their own.

Established in 2017, the AI Foundation, which was founded by Rob Meadows and former EA vice president Lars Buttler, is a dual commercial and nonprofit enterprise with the stated mission of bringing “the power and protection of AI to everyone in the world so they can participate fully in the future.” At the center of this mission is the company’s proprietary “human-AI collaboration” platform, which brings together innovations from third-party research partners.

The AI Foundation’s steering committee — the Global AI Council — has a mandate to anticipate the negative effects of AI and figure out how to counteract them. One proposal that reached production is Reality Defender, a free tool that scans images, videos, and other media for known deepfakes and supports the reporting of suspected fakes. Underlining the deepfake threat, Amsterdam-based cybersecurity startup Deeptrace found 14,698 deepfake videos on the internet in June and July, up from 7,964 in December 2019.

It also draws on the AI Foundation’s partnerships with content creators to establish an “honest AI” watermark that clearly identifies AI-generated deepfakes.

To further its research, the AI Foundation recently partnered with a team at the Technical University of Munich’s (TUM) Visual Computing Lab to explore new media forgery detection and flagging techniques,...

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/30/the-ai-foundation-raises-17-million-to-create-digital-ai-powered-personas/

NexTech AR appoints augmented reality expert Ori Inbar to its board of directors

NexTech AR Solutions Corp (CSE:NTAR) (OTCQB: NEXCF) said Monday it has appointed augmented reality expert Ori Inbar to its board of directors.

The company said Inbar, who has been involved in the AR industry for over a decade as both a startup entrepreneur and a venture capital investor through SuperVentures, is uniquely positioned to help guide NexTech on its growth trajectory and identify potential acquisition opportunities.

"I’m excited to lend my 14 years experience in the AR industry at the moment it’s exploding to one of the few pure-AR companies that are public,” said Ibar, adding that the company seems “to be doing the right things - and most importantly - growing!"

See the full story here: https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/925270/nextech-ar-appoints-augmented-reality-expert-ori-inbar-to-its-board-of-directors-925270.html

The new Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge virtual reality experience introduces new locations and characters in Black Spire Outpost on the Star Wars planet of Batuu, the setting for the 14-acre lands at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The new “Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge” virtual reality experience introduces new locations and characters in Black Spire Outpost on the Star Wars planet of Batuu, the setting for the 14-acre lands at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

“We’re going to explore and expand on the story of Black Spire Outpost, which you can see at Galaxy’s Edge,” ILMxLAB director Jose Perez III said in a new video for “Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge.”

Disneyland remains closed until further notice amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida — home to Batuu East — reopened on July 15.

The new “Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge” from Lucasfilm’s ILMxLAB in partnership with Walt Disney Imagineering blurs the line between real-world theme park fantasy and video game hyperreality by bringing Batuu and Black Spire Outpost to the virtual world.

See the full story here: https://www.ocregister.com/2020/07/28/is-another-star-wars-cantina-coming-to-disneylands-galaxys-edge/

GDC State of the Industry: Work from Home survey

State of the Industry: Work from Home Edition Results

The organizers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) released the results of the State of the Industry: Work from Home Edition survey, which provides a snapshot of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the game industry.

The main themes and takeaways from the nearly 2,500 game developers polled are:

• The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affected the business of a majority of game developers, with some seeing upticks even as others suffer significant business downturns.

  • 34% said they saw business decline, 37% said it remained about the same, and 31% said they saw business increase.

  • While less than 10% of developers have been laid off or furloughed due to COVID-19, 26% of respondents said that their household income has fallen.

  • 33% reported that their games were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• COVID-19 has taken a toll on quality of life, productivity, mental and emotional health for game developers.

  • Poor communication, isolation, and lack of access to critical tools are some of the common challenges devs are dealing with right now.

  • Nearly ½ respondents cited productivity dropped; ⅓ said creativity decreased.

  • The amount of hours worked increased for nearly half of developers.

A full detailed analysis of the survey results can be found at:

https://reg.gdconf.com/soti-wfh-2020?kcode=SOTIPR

Artificial General Intelligence will not resemble human intelligence

PhilNote: I like to summary quote.

Summary: Airplanes don't flap their wings like birds, and artificial general intelligence (AGI) will never think like the human brain, which is more complex than we imagine

Augmented Reality and Hearables: Where the Two Technologies Meet

Researchers from Markets and Markets claim that pivotal factors driving this market are:

• the increasing role of smartphones as a source of entertainment;
• the extensive use of wearable and portable devices;
• the growing use of hearing aids and health monitoring solutions.

At the same time, personal voice assistants developed by tech giants — Alexa from Amazon, Siri from Apple, and Google Assistant — are standing at the forefront of the audio augmented reality market.

Top 3 Types of AR-Enabled Hearables

1. In-Ear Devices for Simultaneous Interpretation

2. Headphones With AI-Based Noise Cancellation

3. Smart Hearing Aids

The devices can both enhance the desired sound and cancel background noise in real time. Hearing aid producers can add the capability to track physical activity and provide health data, as well as handle calls, stream music, and control smart home devices. ReSound, Audicus, and Starkey are in the list of top hearing aid brands.

Bottom Line

Juniper Research named two distinct groups of vendors leveraging hearable technology to add value to premium audio products. While Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser are the key players in integrating hearable technology into headphones, Apple, Google, and Samsung are leading producers of earbuds with AI capabilities. It can be challenging for new players to compete with these tech giants, but for those willing to brave the market there could be massive rewards.

See the full story here: https://arpost.co/2020/07/30/augmented-reality-hearables-technologies-meet/

Smell-o-vr? Vt. Company Aims to make VR more realistic through scent.

PhilNote: this is a new form factor for scent delivery in VR.

https://www.necn.com/news/local/smell-o-vr-vt-company-aims-to-make-virtual-reality-more-realistic-through-scent/2304139/

Tired of Zoom? Try having random video chat with strangers on Omegle

• Omegle, a website that pairs random visitors through video and text chat, has spiked in popularity over the last four months.
• Recordings of Omegle videos have helped creators generate content on other platforms and go viral.
• Omegle has been a boon for Gen Z influencers, who have used the site to host impromptu virtual meet-and-greets and events.

Though the site has been around for more than a decade (it was founded in 2009, a few months before Chatroulette, by tech entrepreneur Leif K-Brooks, who was 18 at the time and did not respond to a request for an interview), it has recently seen a resurgence, particularly with teenagers feeling alienated by months of remote learning and limited face-to-face socializing.

It’s been really popular for TikTokers to search their names and see the fans’ reaction when they see them pop up onscreen. It’s a big trend.”

See the full story here: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/features/tired-of-zoom-try-having-random-video-chat-with-strangers-on-omegle/articleshow/77190380.cms

The next chapter in analytics: data storytelling

[PhilNote: this sounds like rebranding of presentation skill basics. Training techies to communicate more clearly and not make so many assumptions about their audience.]

Enter data storytelling, a skill set handcrafted for the era of big data. While interpretations vary, most experts describe data storytelling as the ability to convey data not just in numbers or charts, but as a narrative that humans can comprehend.

Just as with any good story, a data tale has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It needs to be presented without bias and with the proper empathy and context so business users can absorb and leverage the insights for more intelligent decision-making.

“If you want people to make the right decisions with data, you have to get in their head in a way they understand. Throughout human history, the way to do that has been with stories,” saidMiro Kazakoff,an MIT Sloan lecturer who teaches Communications & Data Storytelling as part of the school’s Masters of Business Analytics curriculum.

Would-be data storytellers are coached to anticipate an audience’s likely response to analysis, Kazakoff said. Students learn to structure their planning and presentation to address the needs of a specific audience — whether it’s a colleague, a customer, or a boss — so they’re able to take away the right insights and initiate appropriate actions.

“Being literate with data and able to explain the stories it reveals is as important a form of literacy as being able to read, write, and speak clearly,” Kazakoff maintained. “It’s a core skill, not a job function, and it cuts across all division and roles at a company.”

See the full story here: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/next-chapter-analytics-data-storytelling?utm_source=thedownload&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=analytics

Toronto’s Sidewalk Labs failure – podcast

In 2017, municipal organizations in Toronto tapped Google’s sister company Sidewalk Labs to redevelop a disused waterfront industrial district as a high-tech prototype for the “smarter, greener, more inclusive cities” of tomorrow. But within three years the deal had collapsed.

Journalist Brian Barth says the Sidewalk fiasco symbolizes the contrast between Silicon Valley’s hard-charging, individualist, libertarian ethos and a Canadian business style that emphasizes collaboration, respect, and social responsibility. In this edition of Deep Tech, Barth talks about the tensions that led to Sidewalk Labs’ departure and the strategies Canadian CEOs are following to build a more open and inclusive tech sector.

Listen to the podcast here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/29/1005708/canadas-narwhals-skewer-silicon-valleys-unicorns/?truid=33b587ecf0755237a213721d72ba90e8&utm_source=the_download&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_term=subs&utm_content=07-29-2020