Zuckerberg lost $100 billions 💸, political parties and factories run by AIs 🤖, and more! ✨
Hi! Welcome to another week of Augmented Rarity 💚. Here’s what happened in the XR and AI industries recently 👇
Extended Reality
🔗 While Zuckerberg is loosing his fortune to the Metaverse 🚰, China aims to revolutionise the industry by 2026 🇨🇳
Like Zuck and Meta, the Metaverse as a concept is either loved or hated. It doesn't matter how hard Zuck tries, he keeps losing billions ($100 billions in 13 months to be exact 💸) and people still don't trust his vision. Which makes sense, he is investing in something that is not yet technically feasible, but at least he is laying the groundwork through trial and error. Times are changing, an even Europe is preparing the change the rules of the internet next week.
I guess let's wait for Apple to get into the game next year 🙏 and revolutionise the mixed reality industry. Or not because if not Apple, it’ll be China 🇨🇳. In an effort to promote the development of VR, over 25 million VR devices will be produced by 2026 as a result of the Chinese government plan.
But it’s not all negatives vibes here, it is an exciting time for designers since XR opens more natural ways to interact with tech and interfaces. For example, look at this gesture Meta integrated to switch from passthrough mode!
Artificial Intelligence
This section will we focused on the following question: Will machines rule us one day soon? Let me develop.
If your company thinks it's innovative, think twice. Asus just opened its first AI-powered factory 🤖 in Taiwan full with robots and humans enhanced with AR glasses. Top that. As part of their mission, they aim to improve the quality of their products and establish an efficient, integrated, and intelligent manufacturing environment. Full industry 4.0.
But it’s not only factories that AIs are running nowadays, but also political parties. Yes, this is happening in Denmark, where a new political party, The Synthetic Party, is led an by an AI chatbot that embodies the values of 20% of the country's population. And don't worry, it's not learning from the bad guys since it represents a unification of the parties that don't get a seat in Denmark. Problem: the elections were yesterday and it didn't get a seat either, but hey, as a social and artistic experiment I love it. Check out their website here.
And that's all for today! I'm sorry I haven't been able to extend more this week but I've caught covid and i'm not 100%. See you next Wednesday 💚
Best,
Martina