This Week in XR Podcast

Another episode packed with AI news, in particular an investigative NY Times piece revealing the big tech companies were aware of the copyright issues around vacuuming up the Internet. We also talked about two AI-based startups, Udio, which raised $10M for AI created music, and Spines, which raised $6M for e-book publishing. Our guest is Connell Gauld, CTO of Zappar, which makes the Zap.Works webXR development platform, the $100 Zapbox MR headset, which turns your iPhone into a Vision Pro. Connell was a great guest, nonetheless ICYMI, Zappar is our sponsor. Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @ThisWeekInXR!https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr

This Week the hosts are talking about OpenAI's Voice Engine, which can be trained on fifteen second recording, creating profound questions about privacy and security. The guest this week is Maureen Fan, co-founder and CEO of Baobab Studios, which for eight years has been creating original content for VR, the Metaverse, and traditional media. The company's co-founder and Chief Creative Officer is Eric Darnell, director of Dreamworks' Madagascar movies.Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @ThisWeekInXR!https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr

The hosts are joined by Liz Hyman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the XR Association (XRA), the trade association promoting the dynamic growth of the XR industry. First up in the news, Amazon doubles down on Anthropic AI as it adds $2.75B to its previous $1.25B investment. OpenAI's text-to-video generator Sora goes to Hollywood, but what will - or can - it really create? Databricks creates a competitive LLM for just $10M. Liz Hyman joins us to talk about the immersive industry associations' legislative accomplishments and the challenges facing the industry, including copyright, trademark, and patent regulations - and enforcement. Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @ThisWeekInXR!https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr

This Week in XR "Dear Tim" episode, an SXSW (South by Southwest) feature session was recorded live in Austin 3/12/24, featuring guest Joanna Popper, former CAA, NBC and HP executive. With the launch of the Meta Quest 3 in November, and the Apple Vision Pro in early February, we now have two competing approaches on spatial computing. The comparison to the iOS - Android mobile duopoly should be lost on no one. Many questions about the future of spatial computing are now up for discussion. What are the killer apps? What will storytellers do with the spatial medium? How quickly can Apple get to an accessible price? What wildcards are out there and, perhaps most importantly, what impact AI will have on spatial computing? https://schedule.sxsw.com/2024/events/PPThank you to our sponsor, Zappar!Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @ThisWeekInXR!https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr

Ted and Charlie welcome guest Weili Dai, co-founder Marvell Technologies, Silicon Box, and MeetKai. In the news, Saudi Arabia to invest $40B in AI, Nvidia revealed its new Blackwell AI computer at its GTC Conference, which it calls "AI Woodstock." They also showed off AI for robots. The State of Unreal was the main event at the Game Developers Conference a few dozen miles up the bay in San Francisco. Fortnite paid $320 for user generated content. Apple eyes Google Gemini AI for iPhones. Our guest Weili Dai is probably the most powerful person we've had on the show. Her new company, Silicon Box, is opening factories in Singapore and Italy to make a new kind of semiconductor they call a Chiplet. She is also attacking this new AI architecture through the software startup MeetKai.com. Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @ThisWeekInXR!https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr

Charlie and Ted, having recovered from SXSW, are back in their respective man caves, while Rony is on cell, driving through Alabama. Our SXSW panel talk will be posted in three weeks but can be found right now on the SXSW site. After a brief overview of three AI funding stories, we turned our attention back to SXSW, but other topics intruded: the potential of a TikTok ban, social media algorithms, and the ongoing OpenAI copyright mess. Our guests this week are SXSW XR experience Jury Prize Winner, Matthew Niederhauser, co-director of The Golden Key. Also joining us is Laura Mingail, a former Entertainment One executive and consultant who has been advising SXSW on XR since its beginning. Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @ThisWeekInXR!https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr