China cloning cows 🐮, ChatGPT plus for $20/month 🤑, safer brain implants being developed 🧠, and much more!
Hello and welcome to another week of Augmented Rarity 👽, the weekly newsletter bringing you signals of the future 📡
In today’s menu 👩🏻🍳 we have AI, Biotech, XR and Space updates, as well as some interesting resources at the end. Let’s get started!
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
After last week’s test of ChatGPT pro being slowly released for $42/month, we now get a more decent price version. Open AI has just released the waitlist for ChatGPT plus, at $20/month 💰. Here’s the link to the waitlist. Would I pay? Not sure, and here’s why:
Even OpenAI is developing tools to detect AI written text 👮♀️
Google is testing how to integrate it into their home page 🔎
Microsoft is about to update Bing with a faster version of ChatGPT soon ⚡️
And since Deepl Write was released for free last week ✍️ - and since I only used ChatGPT to correct my grammar, I’m covered.
On top of that, ChatGPT is the fastest growing site ever, with 100M active users this January 📈
Next up 👀
From the founders of Instagram comes Artifact, an AI-powered news feed 🗞️ that aims to be the equivalent of TikTok for text 💡. You can join the waitlist here.
🧪 Biotechnology
Safer, smarter and reversible brain implants are being developed 🧠 as the technology they've been built into is being updated. The new technology doesn't need to pierce the brain at all, yet can collect hundreds of times more data 👀
These smart contact lenses help treat glaucoma 👁️. They work by having a sensor that monitors and detects when medication needs to be administered. They can't yet deliver medication directly from the lens, but it's a big step forward.
China successfully cloned 3 highly productive ‘super cows’ 🐮. Let’s not start with how i feel about the dairy industry and how the article categorizes cows according to how ‘productive’ they are and “what a shame they cannot detect it earlier so they could breed them and have even more super cows”. I’m getting very frustrated. Let’s focus on how cloning, that has been pretty quiet for two decades (same as going to the moon, still waiting for Lady Gaga to sing in space) is now coming back in the spotlight, which will of course, raise ethical and moral concerns. The podcast needs to happen so we can discuss these issues further 👀
🥽 Extended Reality
We are getting some leaked images of the Quest 3! 👀 As you can see from the drawing, the headset could (should) be lighter and less voluminous than the Quest 2 (released in 2020). The possible release date is October, during the Meta Connect event. This headset should be VR and MR at the same time, a bit like the Meta Quest pro, but with a lower price (around $500).
Despite this new product, Meta’s main focus for 2023 won’t be on Reality Labs anymore 😕, but going back to the roots - they'll focus more on advertising revenue on their social media platforms to cover all the billions they've lost due to their XR projects and the layoffs. That being said, Zuck is in his “year of efficiency” era 🫡
Google is getting back in the XR game in collaboration with Samsung and Qualcomm 🤝. Let's not forget that Google was a pioneer in the XR industry with the launch of Google Cardboard and Google Glass a decade ago, but they seemed to be putting their resources into more profitable industries in the long term (AI). As for this collaboration, all we know is this:
“We are working to create a new era of highly immersive digital experiences that blur the line between our physical and digital worlds”
And just to keep up with one of the other tech giants building for XR, Apple could (finally) release its first headset this year 👀. They have the patents, they have been integrating AR into iPhones and iPads for years, it’s about time ⏳.
🛸 Space
And it’s also about time we started a space section in Augmented Rarity 👽
Perserverance has successfully dropped its first samples of Martian soil! This is exciting because they may contain evidence of ancient life, BUT, not until 2031 we’ll get them back on Earth for proper analysis 😭. For now, all we can do is following the rover on Twitter.
Inflatable habitats for future space missions have been exceed NASA’s tests 🥇! Sierra's LIFE habitats are designed to support four crew members living and working on long-duration missions, such as those to Mars 👽.
🗃 Resources
This week the resources section will be shorter, sorrrrryy 🤓
Read, watch, listen
📺 From the creator of Black Mirror, we have a something new to watch on Netflix, Cunk On Earth, a mockumentary about civilisation, tracing humanitykind's journey from prehistory to the present day.
To try/download
Super random but if you also want your name to be send to the next Nasa mission to Mars, you can add it here.
And that's it for today!
Well, not really. I googled 'rarity' (yes, after almost 1 year of using it as part of my newsletter name) and found this:
Now I like the name even more 😭
Anyway, remember to follow us (me) on Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin ✨, and share this email with like-minded cool people so we can grow this community faster 💚