The AI XR Podcast.

Our guest this week is Joe Hunting, director of the award-winning HBO documentary, "We Met in VR." The hosts think big about events in tech, from OpenAI to Twitter, to Quantum Computing, IBM and AWS before a recap of the week's news, which includes a $55M financing round for text-to-video Gen AI app Pika Labs, and funding for three companies focused on XR. Joe Hunting's debut feature documentary has drawn attention to VR Chat as a unique platform for filmmaking and performance, and he's formed Painted Cloud Productions to focus on it. Joe is also curating a new festival for films set in VR Chat, Raindance Immersive, whose second edition will be in June, 2024. 

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The team is at full strength this week as we welcome Linda Jacobson, head of marketing for HaptX, the leader in VR gloves for enterprises. Rony kicks off the morning's tech news with an interesting rant about Tik-Tok, which he says is a threat to national security. Character AI is about to raise a billion dollars, mostly to train its characters, CIVIT.AI the free model repository for Stable Diffusion raised $5 M from Andressen, presumably to figure out a business plan, the tech that made Grimes' AI, Trinity, is now available on the web. The AI Pin is here. Now what? If you're interested in a deep dive into the importance of haptics to XR, don't miss this episode. 

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This week our guest is Michael Beneville, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of AREA15, an immersive entertainment venue in Las Vegas, anchored by Meow Wolf's Omera Mart. First, Ted and Charlie recap busy news week, starting with Open AI's first Developer Day, and Musk's xAI announces Grok, which will incorporate a real-time newsfeed from Twitter. We have details on the AI Pin launching next week. A new free translation app, Lipdub, does voice cloning and AI-driven lip-syncing of short videos. Beneville shares some secrets of AREA15's incredible success: his passion for immersive entertainment. 

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This week we're wondering how exactly the new US AI regulations are going to work, and hoping the EU will be a little more specific. In an international, open-source world, is this even possible? On the heels of a $4B investment from Amazon, Anthropic AI is now taking $2B from Amazon's competitor, Google. Xpanceo is bringing AR contact lenses back. Our guest is Amy LaMeyer, Managing Partner of the Women's XR Fund (WXR Fund). We're talking about their portfolio, the slow pace of XR adoption, and how to get more women into tech. 

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This week the hosts tear into weekly earnings, more changes at Magic Leap, big tech earnings, and Peter Theil's investment in a European drone maker. Our guest is legendary music producer Albhy Galuten. As a music producer he was responsible for over a dozen number one hits. As an executive and technologist, he shepherded Universal Musical into the digital era.

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This Week in XR Special episode with Jake Zim...

Jake Zim – SVP, Virtual Reality, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPVR)

Oversees global virtual reality production and strategy for the motion picture group. Jake has produced a wide variety of interactive projects across a spectrum of distribution channels including location-based, mobile and in-home. Zim has led the development of virtual reality experiences such as the Emmy® nominated Spider-Man: Homecoming VR; Ghostbusters: Dimension; The Emoji Movie VR Experience; Can You Walk The Walk; Hotel Transylvania Popstic VR; Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son; Jumanji: Reverse The Curse; and the Spider-Man: Far From Home VR Experience, the world’s first multiplayer VR game powered by 5G. Most recently, he led the production of Zombieland: Headshot Fever and is leading the team producing the highly-anticipated Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, launching on October 26, 2023.

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Charlie and Rony do the news while Ted is at Sony with SVP Jake Zim, playing their new “Ghostbusters” VR game. In the news this week, Charlie’s hot take on Quest 3, Mojo Vision gets its mojo back, raising another $21.4 M. Universal music sues Anthropic AI. 

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This week's tech news starts with an unhappy topic, as we explore the impact of the Hamas War, particularly on the Israeli tech sector. Unity CEO John Riccitello exits under a cloud; big layoffs at Qualcomm in San Diego. The bright side includes rave reviews of the Meta Quest 3 and new competitor to Meta's Ray-Ban Stories, Carrera, which uses Amazon's Alexa for smart glasses. Our guest this week is Meron Gribetz, founder and CEO of Inner Cosmos, which uses a brain-computer interface to treat patients with chronic depression and other disorders. His Digital Pill is a penny-sized device slipped under the skin.

Learn more about their work on their website and connect with them on LinkedIn at:

Inner Cosmos Company page

Meron's page

Darin's page

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This week it's all Ted and Rony, as Charlie and the guest were nixed by travel trouble. Top topic is wearable AI, like Humane's AI pin, which has a micro projector for visual data, projected on a table or your hand. Mr. Beast and Tom Hanks were Deep Faked. The importance of authentication, says Rony, is growing exponentially. Ted shares his impressions of Quest 3. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!

They are hosting XR Pioneers on October 11th,

Sign up: https://www.zappar.com/xr-pioneers/2023/

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This week was packed with XR and AI news, starting with the formal introduction of the $500 Meta Quest 3, upgraded audio Ray Ban smart glasses, and AI integrations with Instagram. Also in the news, Amazon's multi-billion dollar investment in Anthropic, the AI startup whose Claude AI is a ChatGPT competitor. Our guests, Banks Boutee and Max Burman, are the co-founders of KitBash3D which makes premium assets for movies and video games like "Terminator" and "The Last of Us." 

Thank you to our sponsor, Zappar!

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

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