{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/5f2ae0b91ea7197e1ef08ed6/6a34e64af1612f1c699117c0?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Avatars Are the UI of the Internet: Why Every App, Game, Corp Will Have An AI Persona ft. Akash Nigam","description":"<p>Akash Nigam has been building Genies since 2017 with a conviction that avatars will be the visual layer of the internet. As CEO of <a href=\"https://genies.com/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Genies</a>, he's assembled IP partners including the NBA, MLB, Sanrio, and Kakao, with more major studios and agencies set to announce before the end of May. The pitch: every app, game, website, and celebrity is going to have an AI personality. Genies wants to be the framework that gives all of those personalities a face.</p><p><br></p><p>What separates Genies is portability and scale. A character that took eight weeks in 2021 now takes ten minutes. Staying stylized rather than photorealistic isn't just aesthetic — it's what got Hollywood to the table. Talent doesn't want deepfakes. They want a Genie: trained on private IP data, capable of one-on-one fan relationships that make Instagram feel thin.</p><p><br></p><p>AI XR News: Tim Cook stepped aside as Apple CEO with hardware chief John Ternus taking over. Humanoid robots ran a half marathon in Beijing while a Sony robot defeated professional table tennis players, opening a conversation about Chinese robotics capabilities and AI data infiltration risks the US is still underestimating.</p><p><br></p><p>Key Moments:</p><ul><li>[00:06:45] Tim Cook steps aside: what the Apple leadership transition signals about wearable AI</li><li>[00:12:00] Humanoid robots and table tennis: China's robotics flex</li><li>[00:13:00] The data infiltration argument: open-source risk and a warning for the US</li><li>[00:24:00] The IP land grab: NBA, MLB, Sanrio, Kakao, Naver Webtoon</li><li>[00:28:00] From photo to avatar in 10 minutes: how Genies' generation pipeline scaled</li><li>[00:32:00] Why Instagram feels thin and how Genies enables one-on-one fan relationships</li><li>[00:49:00] 80 people, $150M raised, and why Bob Iger sees Genies as the future of Disney</li></ul><p><br></p><p>If AI personalities are going to be everywhere, what do they look like? Akash has been building the answer for nearly a decade. Q3 is when it goes live.</p><p><br></p><p>Brought to you by Zappar and Mattercraft — the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Mattercraft now includes an AI assistant for design, code, and debugging in real time. Start building at mattercraft.io.</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to the AI XR Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, or watch on YouTube - https://youtu.be/Fs8h2KcJclQ</p>","author_name":"Charlie Fink Productions"}