Neal Stephenson—legendary sci-fi author who coined "metaverse" in his 1992 novel Snow Crash—and Rebecca Barkin, co-founder of Lamina1, return to the AI XR Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about building a decentralized creator economy, launching their dystopian AI world-building project Artifact, and why blockchain might finally free creators from Big Tech's chokehold.

Joined by Charlie, Ted, and Rony, the discussion spans Neal's lost Magic Leap project, the resurrection of the open metaverse dream, and how decentralized platforms could flip Hollywood's power structure on its head.

Rebecca details Lamina1's journey from blockchain currency for the open metaverse to Spaces, a multimedia creator platform built on Ethereum that allows IP owners to retain control, set royalties, and build direct relationships with fans.

Think YouTube meets Discord, but on decentralized rails. The goal isn't socialism—it's a creative meritocracy where artists get equity in platforms they help build, instead of just one-time payouts while Netflix captures all the value.

Neal unpacks Artifact, Lamina1's first creative test case: a post-Singularity world where 12 competing mega-AIs fight over energy, copper, water, and GPUs while humans live in the interstices. Co-created with Weta Workshop using AI tools like World Labs' marble splats, the project invites fans to co-create lore, not just consume it. It's a living experiment in collaborative IP development—and proof that small teams with AI amplifiers can build Grand Theft Auto-scale worlds.

• Neal Stephenson coined "metaverse" in Snow Crash; former Magic Leap creative lead with lost IP still trapped at the company.
• Rebecca Barkin pivoted Lamina1 from metaverse currency to Spaces: a decentralized platform for multimedia creators retaining IP rights and earning equity.
• Artifact launches as Lamina1's test case—collaborative world-building in a dystopian post-AI Singularity where fans shape the narrative.
• Built on Ethereum with Consensus Network backing; uses blockchain to solve micro-transaction volatility and give creators sustainable economics.
• Signed Bob's Burgers team (Ghosted Media) and other Hollywood refugees seeking autonomy from studio gatekeepers.

• Valve launches PC cube + wireless Index headset—sub-$1000 system to compete with Xbox/PlayStation and revive PCVR market, but will enthusiasts bite?
• Meta adds real-time computer vision to AI glasses—Ray-Ban smart glasses gain live AI interpretation, pushing toward inflection point for wearables.
• Google Maps integrates Gemini AI—natural language directions and real-world context awareness transform navigation into conversational copilot.
• 11 Labs launches voice marketplace—Michael Caine licenses voice cloning; Matthew McConaughey invests but won't sell his own likeness.
• Disney announces AI user-generated content strategy—Bob Iger teases platforms for fans to create with Disney IP, following Lego's remix culture playbook.

Big thanks to our sponsor Zappar.

Subscribe for weekly insider perspectives from veterans who aren't afraid to challenge Big Tech. New episodes every Tuesday. Watch full episodes on YouTube.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Tom Furness—esteemed as the “Grandfather of VR”—brings seven decades of breakthrough invention, untold stories, and rare wisdom to the AI XR Podcast. In this episode, Tom traces the thread from making rocket fuel as a kid in North Carolina to pioneering the “Super Cockpit” for the Air Force, founding the HIT Lab, and launching 27+ spatial computing startups. His journey reminds us that big shifts in XR and AI are really about one thing: boosting the bandwidth between the brain and information.

Listen as Charlie and Ted tease out practical lessons from Tom’s career—how head-mounted displays and real-time simulation grew from a Pentagon skunkworks project to tools for pilots, surgeons, first responders, and kids who learn differently. Tom reveals how the “cockpit problem” was never about adding more gadgets, but about human-centered design—and why the next revolution in XR depends on soft skills, not just hardware. He shares how XR can teach memory, empathy, and “open the aperture” of the mind.

• Invented the Super Cockpit: the first immersive, wearable pilot interface, inspiring modern VR/AR.
• Founded the University of Washington HIT Lab; mentored a generation of XR founders and researchers.
• Championed headsets, tracking, spatial sound, and haptics in military, medical, education, humanitarian, and entertainment fields.
• Built VR tools for everything from the F-35 to “light schools” that boost learning and emotional intelligence.
• Advocates for XR’s potential to unlock new forms of human growth and creativity—beyond the screen.

• Stability AI and Anthropic win landmark copyright cases—courts rule AI model training as legal “fair use,” with distinctions for retaining source material.
• AI data centers drive up public power bills—the debate over who pays for tech’s massive energy appetite heats up.
• Magic Leap alumni debut no-code AR platform—pushing toward mainstream AR creation, but will intent and timing finally align?
• Google adds Gemini to Maps—AI-powered natural language search changes real-world navigation and travel.

Subscribe for weekly insider perspectives from veterans who aren’t afraid to challenge Big Tech. New episodes every Tuesday. Watch full episodes on YouTube.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kirin Sinha, MIT math prodigy and founder/CEO of Illumix, embodies the vital intersection of AI, XR, and real-world relevance. On this episode, she unpacks the hard realities of spatial computing’s journey—from grinding through MIT at sixteen and “building the Iron Man desk as a senior project” to launching Five Nights at Freddy’s AR (garnering 60M+ downloads) and powering Disney/Six Flags location-based XR.

Sinha challenges the XR hype machine: “Location-based constraints are the best sandbox. Real-world variability, lighting, edge compute, and privacy aren’t just demos—they’re survivability.”

She candidly discusses why the first era of mobile AR rarely survived outside of theme parks and why the true metaverse won’t arrive through geofenced phone gimmicks, but rather from ambient cameras, context-aware AI, and wearables that deliver daily relevance.

The conversation dives into XR’s scaling riddle: most startups go too big, too soon—Illumix ran lean and learned real lessons from thousands of live deployments before expanding. Sinha’s take on platform dominance? “Whoever pairs visual context with an always-on, lightweight wearable—without being creepy—wins.” She weighs the mergers-and-acquisitions question with nuance (“you keep every door open, but we’ve built for independence and profitability”), and explains exactly why Niantic’s follow-up AR games failed to recapture Pokemon Go’s lightning-in-a-bottle.

• Enrolled at MIT at 16; bridge between math, AI, and real-world camera vision.
• Founded Illumix, powering everything from “Five Nights at Freddy’s” AR (60M+ organic downloads) to Disney and Six Flags’ location-driven XR.
• Deep infrastructure: dynamic, privacy-first, real-time spatial intelligence at the edge, not reliant on the cloud.
• Insights on product-market fit and startup timing: “Most of the world’s ‘available’ XR space is dead space without a ‘why’ for users.”
• Honest, nuanced take on M&A, survival, and why lean teams win when timing finally shifts.

• Nvidia’s $4.5T valuation—is big tech over-hyped, or will foundational arms dealers keep winning while everyone else corrects?
• Major tech layoffs attributed to AI “efficiency”—stock prices keep rising as automation accelerates, but most Americans are left behind.
• Brendan Iribe’s $300M AI/AR glasses startup—a kinder, context-aware approach to ambient interfaces, but does anyone actually break out from the pack?
• Google/Magic Leap factory reboot, patent arsenal, and Surface team members cycling across Meta and Apple—XR’s “three Spider-Mans” all fight for the same future.
• OpenAI’s privatization and AGI date bets—the team debates when, how, and if superintelligence IPOs.
• XR economy is in a phase shift—who survives, who gets acquired, and who makes it to scale?

Special thanks to our sponsor Zappar.

Subscribe for weekly insider takes from industry veterans who aren’t afraid to challenge Big Tech.

New episodes every Tuesday. Watch the full videos on YouTube.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Raphaël , co-founder of Felix & Paul Studios, joins the AI XR Podcast for a candid, high-energy discussion on the state and future of immersive experiences. Broadcasting live from Las Vegas during the launch of "Interstellar Arc" at AREA15, Raphael details the three-year journey behind this ambitious location-based VR attraction—capable of hosting 170 simultaneous users in a fully interactive, physically-anchored world.

Paul explains how Felix & Paul’s background in cinematic VR, including their Emmy-winning "Space Explorers" ISS series, led organically to massive real-world installations like The Infinite and Interstellar Arc. The team’s relentless commitment to high presence, practical haptics, and social immersion has kept Felix & Paul at the top of XR content for over a decade. Raphael shares the lessons learned from surviving through hardware hype cycles, pivoting when needed, and betting big on experiential location-based entertainment. He compares the Interstellar Arc’s staged onboarding and world-building to the best of Disney Imagineering, blending nostalgia with cutting-edge tech.

The group unpacks the mixed reviews for Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset, discusses OpenAI and Microsoft’s latest browser moves, and debates the implications of California’s new chatbot disclosure law. Paul and the hosts dig deep on business realities—headset costs, throughput limitations, and why word-of-mouth and “the ultimate holodeck” matter more than the marketing hype. Raphael offers advice for young creators: stay obsessed, be nimble, and design for what’s actually possible today—not just hype for the future.

• Launching “Interstellar Arc” at AREA15: 170-player free-roam VR set in a massive, tactile spaceport—blending real-world physicality, seamless pre-show and post-show narrative, and next-gen social VR.
• Lessons from “The Infinite” and Space Explorers: Pivoting toward large-scale, high-throughput live VR events as a sustainable creative and business model.
• Staying power in XR: Why creative obsession, no-plan-B persistence, and ground-level adaptability have kept Felix & Paul thriving.
• Haptics, real objects, and social immersion: Making “free-roam” a convincing, embodied experience—even with today’s hardware.
• XR’s future: Why the studio’s best projects might be ahead—and how true mixed reality will need to drive down headset weight, friction, and heat.

• Amazon’s leaked internal AI & robotics roadmap
• Meta reorgs AI staff
• Samsung launches Galaxy XR headset
• OpenAI and Microsoft debut AI browsers
• California passes first US chatbot law
• Wikipedia sees 8% drop in traffic

Thanks to our sponsors:

Zappar Mattercraft

Viture: Luma Series XR Glasses

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amit Jain, CEO and founder of Luma AI, joins Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, and Rony Abovitz to unpack the future of AI-native video and the transformation of Hollywood’s creative economy. Once an Apple engineer, Jain launched Luma during the early NeRF boom and built what is now the industry’s best-performing AI video generation system—Luma Ray 3, the world’s first HDR model capable of 16-bit cinematic compositing. In this episode, Jain argues that AI video isn’t just a tool—it is quickly becoming the new substrate of the internet, a reality where professional-grade video replaces web pages as the primary interface for information, learning, and entertainment.

Before Luma, Jain led core Apple Vision teams, where he learned how AI perception systems interpret the world. That experience now powers Luma’s radical thesis: every phone user will soon generate an hour of personalized video per day, making video “the new language of the internet.”

The hosts challenge Jain on whether startups like Luma can compete with OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Veo, and Jain answers with confidence: “Big companies marketing harder doesn’t matter—the best models always win because creators demand control, quality, and speed.” Luma, he explains, is already embedded in four of the six major Hollywood studios and hundreds of professional production houses, providing real-time previsualization, set extension, and multi-character scene generation on consumer hardware.

• Hollywood adopters: Four of six major studios already using Luma Ray 3 for previsualization, compositing, and AI-assisted performance capture.
• Death of performance capture: Luma’s video-to-video model translates acting from an iPhone recording directly into 3D characters—replacing mo-cap workflows with laptop AI pipelines.
• AI for directors, not automation: Jain insists AI empowers storytellers. Directors can now reshoot, re-time lighting, or replace actors at negligible cost—transforming iteration speed, not intent.
• The “professional-first” strategy: While OpenAI and Google chase consumers, Jain is targeting the $1.2 trillion professional video production market, where 90% of spending occurs.
• Hollywood’s broken math: “Studios die because of $400-million movies,” he says. “Make 10 films for $40 million each and you’ll have a creative renaissance.”

• Snap’s Lens Fest reveals next-gen Spectacles with binocular see-through XR display
• Anduril’s new IVAS “Eagle Eye” headset
• Apple announces Vision Pro Gen 2 .
• Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset
• Flint AI raises new round from a16z and Sheryl Sandberg

Zappar's Mattercraft – AI-integrated 3D web design suite for building immersive XR content.

Viture Luma XR Glasses – 52° FOV and 152-inch virtual screen experience for gaming and streaming.

Subscribe for weekly insider perspectives from industry veterans who aren’t afraid to challenge Big Tech. New episodes every Tuesday. Watch the full videos on YouTube.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Antony “Skarred Ghost” Vitillo—legendary XR blogger, developer, and authentic voice of the immersive tech world—joins Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, and Rony Abovitz for a sharp, candid take on why spatial computing keeps breaking hearts (and bank accounts). 

Vitillo, calling in from Torino (and Nutella country), takes listeners inside his evolution from reluctant Twitter handle-user to one of the industry’s essential critical thinkers. With 30,000+ social followers and nearly a decade at the helm of the Skarred Ghost blog, Tony has borne witness to every device cycle, product hype wave, and reality check XR can muster.

The hosts open with news that captures the collective whiplash of the sector: Samsung finally names its long-awaited “Moohan” headset the Galaxy XR; Apple is reportedly pivoting away from Vision Pro follow-ups in favor of pursuing AI smart glasses, chasing the hardware trend Meta has tried to lead—with several Magic Leap alumni shaping both companies’ next moves. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s Sora 2 outpaces Google’s Veo 3 in text-to-video generation, and “AI feeds” continue to spark debates about separating synthetic from real in our content streams.

Vitillo unveils XR truths learned the hard way:

• From accidental blogger to “Master Yoda”: Tony’s accidental rise began with an anonymous Twitter handle, a failed AR/VR startup, and a mentor’s advice to “own” XR expertise—eventually outlasting the startup itself.
• The real cost of authenticity: European sensibilities (practical, cost-effective, resistant to Silicon Valley bombast) shaped Tony’s on-the-ground verdicts: the Google Glass era was “too early,” even good implementations often wither outside logistics and niche use-cases.
• Product vs. Prototype and the patience gap: Tony, Rony, and Ted all agree: too many XR launches are rushed by investor pressure from prototype to product, skipping the long, hard path of patience. Meta’s Quest Pro is called out as a textbook “rush job” that failed to meet real readiness.
• Why XR is “harder than Mars:” Decades and $150B+ spent, yet still no universal hit. Tony argues the impossible form factor challenge (stuffing room-scale computation into eyewear) is compounded by deeper neuroscience—humans simply recoil from something too “in your face.” Physics is tough, but brains and social norms are the real brick wall.
• Why Roblox, not VRChat, “won” the metaverse: Most of the sector’s big dreams faded back to mobile during and after Covid. With Rec Room, VRChat, and others all scaling back, Roblox’s mass adoption proves device accessibility outweighs idealism. Tony expects cycles of platform hype, but says only rare combinations of luck, timing, and use-case ever sustain an audience.

• Samsung’s “Moohan” headset renamed Galaxy XR—signaling mainstream branding push into the AR/VR hardware race.
• Apple shifts Vision Pro focus toward AI smart glasses—pivot after slow sales and sector criticism, echoing Meta’s latest headset push.
• OpenAI Sora 2 outpaces Google’s Veo 3—AI video generation heats up, new feeds spark debates over AI vs. real content in social media.
• XR product launches called out for impatience—Meta’s Quest Pro and others critiqued as rushed from prototype to product.

Zappar's Mattercraft - 3D web development with AI assistant for real-time design and debugging

Viture XR Glasses Luma Series - 52-degree field of view, 152-inch virtual screen for mobile gaming

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Travers, founder and CEO of Vuzix Corporation, returns to join hosts Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, and Rony Abovitz for a masterclass in enterprise XR resilience and the long game of hardware innovation. As the architect behind the world's first consumer VR headset (the VFX1 in 1992), Travers has survived every boom and bust cycle in wearable technology for over three decades. Now publicly traded with 80,000 shareholders, Vuzix represents what Rony calls "the GameStop of XR"—a dramatically undervalued company ($200M market cap) that could become the consolidation hub for smaller XR startups while taking on tech giants with superior enterprise focus and manufacturing capabilities.

The episode opens with the hosts' unfiltered critique of Meta's recent Connect announcements, where Rony argues that despite $100+ billion invested in Reality Labs, Meta's Ray-Ban display glasses represent minimal advancement over the original Google Glass—a "disappointing" return that small startups with minimal funding are already surpassing. This sets the stage for deeper discussions about Neon, the controversial app paying users $800/month to record conversations for AI training (which Rony compares to Neal Stephenson's "gargoyles" from Snow Crash), and Meta AI's new "Vibes" feed that separates AI-generated content from real-world posts to address deepfake concerns.

Travers pulls back the curtain on three decades of XR survival:

• The "Lindy Effect" advantage—how Vuzix's longevity through multiple extinction events creates predictive value for continued success, like "alligators surviving when everything else didn't make it"
• Enterprise-first strategy—why focusing on warehouse workers, Amazon distribution centers, and pharmaceutical operations (1,000+ systems deployed at Nadro) creates sustainable revenue streams versus consumer fashion battles
• Manufacturing at scale—Vuzix's Rochester facility produces 1.5 million waveguides annually at 90%+ yield rates, enabling 10,000-unit weekly deliveries and potential silicon carbide waveguide production (the same exotic technology Meta claims costs $10,000 per pair in their Orion prototypes)
• AI-agnostic platform approach—unlike Meta's closed ecosystem, Vuzix allows BMW, Amazon, and other enterprise clients to run their own AI models locally through NVIDIA Blueprint technology for IP protection
• The "GameStop potential"—with smart money recognizing XR's AI-enabled inflection point, Travers envisions Vuzix becoming the acquisition vehicle for consolidating smaller XR companies, potentially reaching the $20+ billion valuation that experience and manufacturing capability warrant

• Meta Connect critique reveals $100+ billion Reality Labs investment yielded minimal advancement over original Google Glass—disappointing monocular displays that startups with minimal funding already surpass
• Neon app controversy pays users $800/month to record conversations for AI training, creating "voice gargoyles" that transform people into data input mechanism
• Meta AI launches "Vibes" newsfeed separating AI-generated content from real-world posts to address deepfake and authenticity concerns across social platforms
• ChatGPT privacy settings reminder that users can disable data sharing through hidden personalization and security menus to avoid training their AI replacements

Thank you to our sponsors, Zappar and Viture!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tricia Biggio, CEO of Invisible Universe, joins hosts Charlie Fink and Ted Schilowitz for an illuminating deep-dive into how AI is revolutionizing content creation for social media. A veteran television producer who transitioned from traditional media to Snap, then launched her own company, Biggio reveals how her team built the world's first AI-powered content creation platform that reduces production costs by 95% per minute. From creating viral characters like Serena Williams' daughter's doll "Qai Qai" to launching Invisible Studio—a comprehensive AI toolset now used by eighth-graders to compete with major studios—Biggio demonstrates how authentic storytelling paired with rapid iteration is reshaping entertainment. Her company's brands have achieved billions of views across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Roblox, proving that social platforms can serve as testing grounds for intellectual property development rather than just marketing channels.

• How "minimum viable content" philosophy allows rapid testing and iteration with audiences rather than traditional seven-year development cycles
• Why authenticity beats polish—her grittiest Snap show (Bhad Bhabie) generated hundreds of millions of views while polished influencer content flopped
• The "Trojan horse" strategy of using social media as IP incubation rather than just distribution, turning audience feedback into real-time creative direction
• Building Invisible Studio—an all-in-one AI platform for script writing, voice generation, image creation, and video production that enterprise partners and individual creators can access
• How community-driven iteration replaces traditional media's "perfect then release" model, allowing brands to evolve in public and capture viral moments

Tricia emphasizes that successful AI content creation requires storytellers building tools for storytellers, not just technologists creating features. Her platform approach addresses both content creation and distribution challenges, recognizing that in a world of infinite content, strong narrative voice becomes more critical than ever. The conversation explores whether rapid AI-enabled production maintains creative integrity or if audiences actually prefer speed and authenticity over traditional craftsmanship.

• Meta's display-enabled AI glasses launch with mixed reviews—monocular display creates adjustment issues, neural wristband shows gesture control promise despite device failing twice in live demos
• TikTok sale finalized to consortium including Larry Ellison, algorithm changes suspected to appease conservative concerns, potential government stake like Intel deal
• Snap CEO "betting the house" on Spectacles AR glasses strategy—risky move requiring major behavior change may keep devices in "exotic Ferrari" market vs mainstream "Toyota" adoption
• Nothing raises $200M for UK-based minimalist Android phone expansion
• Nintendo releases Virtual Boy accessory in cardboard and premium plastic versions

Subscribe for weekly insider perspectives from industry veterans who aren't afraid to challenge Big Tech. New episodes every Tuesday. Watch the full videos on YouTube.

Thank you to our sponsors, Zappar and Viture!

Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! @TheAIXRPodcast

https://linktr.ee/thisweekinx

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlie is back from the Venice Film Festival Immersive, where he also judged the Reply AI Film Festival. His standout was Blur, which he shared with Ted and Rony, though the Grand Prize went to The Clouds Are 2000 Meters Up. He also praised Doug Liman’s Asteroid on Samsung’s Moohan headset and noted growing work on Apple Vision Pro.

In the news: Anthropic raised $13B at a $183B valuation, Replit secured $250M, Viture raised $100M, Mojo Vision closed $75M, and Higgsfield raised $50M. Rony highlighted Rivet’s Army award and Brainlab’s ML2 FDA clearance. Apple AirPods added live translation.

Don Carson joined to discuss Walkabout Mini Golf and the upcoming Alice in Wonderland course, set for December. Carson, a former Disney Imagineer and now senior art director at Mighty Coconut, explained how each hole is designed as a vignette to guide players through the story. Amazon is preparing new smart glasses, and TwinMind is testing lifelogging concepts.

Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!

Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @TheAIXRPodcast

https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s AIXR podcast, Ted Schilowitz and Rony Abovitz sit down with Jason Zada and Monica Monique of Secret Level, an AI-native production studio behind projects for Coca-Cola, Mercedes, and Will.i.am. The conversation explores the rapid changes in technology and storytelling, from Jason’s TED Talk experiment about a beaver and a magic sock, to the future of production where small creative teams can achieve what once took hundreds. Along the way, they cover Google’s antitrust case, Apple’s next iPhone event, Meta’s new headset prototypes, and how story and human taste remain central even as AI reshapes content creation.

Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!

Don't forget to like, share, and follow for more! Follow us on all socials @TheAIXRPodcast

https://linktr.ee/thisweekinxr

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.