AI already displacing jobs

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✨ Today in the Metaproof Daily

🤖 AI already prompting tech layoffs

💵 Shanghai’s high $7B hopes for the metaverse

🛠 Siemens touts the industrial metaverse

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AI already prompting tech layoffs [Link]

Massive job displacement due to AI is no longer a problem for the future: A small yet growing number of Silicon Valley and tech companies cite AI as a reason for worker layoffs and an ambivalent stance in hiring.

Some key indicators:

• Edtech company Chegg, in a regulatory filing last month, has cut 4% of its workforce or about 80 workers in a bid to “better position the Company to execute against its AI strategy” and form “long-term, sustainable value for its students and investors.”

• IBM CEO Arvind Krishna expresses plans to pause hiring for roles that AI could replace in the years to come.

• File-storage service Dropbox is cutting about 16% of its workforce or some 500 people as it cites AI as the reason and its next-stage growth that “requires a different mix of skill sets, particularly in AI and early-stage product development.”

Experts anticipate AI to “cause organizations to restructure” but don’t see machines replacing humans just yet.

In 2023 alone, about 212,294 workers in the tech space have been laid off, breaching the 164,709 recorded in 2022. The mass layoffs have been hounded by fears of excess AI fervor and the rapid development in the tech heavily affecting talent and the workforce.

Shanghai’s high $7B hopes for the metaverse [Link]

Shanghai, as China’s central economic hub and industrial powerhouse, publishes a blueprint highlighting its mega investment in culture and tourism via blockchain tech.

The details of the billion-dollar metaverse ambition:

• Establish 30 metaverse projects in tourism by the end of 2025, comprising a replication of real-world landmarks in virtual worlds for a digitally immersive experience of the megacity.

• Harness AR to mount virtual tour guides, virtual musical performances, and art within the auspices of “smart tourism.”

• Anchor the plan on its 2022 5-year digital economy development plan, an all-out government-supported approach to exploring blockchain, the metaverse, and NFTs.

The lofty ambitions are expected to rake in annual revenues of $6.9B for Shanghai while creating a metaverse industrial fund worth $1.4B.

Siemens touts the industrial metaverse [Link]

German manufacturing giant Siemens explores web3 tech to serve clients better, mounting an accelerator program that partners with various companies.

Its collaboration with Maeve Aerospace, for instance, will yield an all-electric, zero-emissions aircraft using Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio, while the partnership with NVIDIA accelerates the benefits of digitization processes.

Siemens highlights digital twinning's positive impact in XR, where virtual simulations reduce environmental footprints and improve outcomes.

Seeing the metaverse as the next-gen computing, Siemens pins its hopes on the industrial virtual world to help optimize digitalization, boost productivity, and enhance sustainability in factories.

Bid for seamless mov’t in blockchain gaming worlds launched

The Swiss-based Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3) has launched the IWPS project, aiming to create standardized infrastructure for seamless travel through the metaverse.

OMA3's position paper on IWPS details its significance and implementation process which are accessible on Github. IWPS facilitates inter-metaverse navigation among platforms such as Alien Worlds, My Neighbor Alice, Sandbox, Space, Superworld, and Upland.

The project requires collaboration from the web3 metaverse community, with OMA3 welcoming comments and contributions on Github and inviting interested organizations to join OMA3.

Further in the web3 gaming space, London-based Telescope Labs has launched an analytics tool featuring GPT-4 AI, which grades 2,000+ web3 games and supplies 37 KPIs. GPT-4's advanced reasoning capabilities are believed to exceed traditional data analysis, helping to compare growth patterns and anticipate future trends more precisely.

Telescope Labs' CEO, Semih Gilan notes:

"The plugin’s combination of extensive and diverse data, sophisticated reasoning, user-friendliness, and instant responsiveness revolutionizes web3 gaming and blockchain.”

Quick Hits

🎮 Gaming

• After wide speculation that it might ban games using AI-generated content, Valve issues a statement pointing to the contrary. (Link)

• Account abstraction, a.k.a. “smart accounts,” could onboard 1B users from Asia to web3, says a ConsenSys exec. (Link)

• Call of Duty creator Activision is playing mind games with cheating players. (Link)

• From pay-to-play arcade video games to sales of home consoles, here’s how web3 is disrupting gaming business models and player economics. (Link)

• The Cardano network supports gaming and esport conference LEVEL UP in Salzburg, Austria, where LEVEL UP Citizen Pass NFTs also launched. (Link)

🕶 Fashion

• Mango invests in Union Avatars, a digital avatar creation platform that will take part in the Spanish retail group’s startup accelerator program. (Link)

• Dior’s NFT-connected sneaker has got some fashion insiders crying out: Overpriced Puma dupe! (Link)

• Blockdown Festival in Portugal focuses on the “intersection of web3 (a new internet concept) and culture,” such as fashion, music, sports and gaming. (Link)

• Sustainability, digitalization, and secondhand emerge as top trends in Deloitte's Global Fashion & Luxury Private Equity and Investors Survey 2023. (Link)

• The Metaverse and NFT offer innumerable opportunities, and Pet Liger creator Constantinos Panayiotou has fashion enthusiasts in a chokehold with his accessories that take inspiration from 90s manga images. (Link)

🏀 Sports

• Credit Suisse and the Swiss Football Association will release a women's football NFT collection to support the sport in Switzerland. (Link)

• EA Sports boasts an innovative level of immersion in its upcoming EA Sports FC and features that will “blur the line” between virtual and real football. (Link)

• Roobet, a fast-growing crypto casino, makes a splash in the MMA content creator space by launching new podcasts. (Link)

• Attention, golf lovers: The VR Open at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake, launches in the metaverse on July 15. (Link)

• After a recently concluded metaverse collision in the boxing ring, a Jones vs. Coleman might just become a bizarre reality under MMA rules. (Link)

🎥 Media & Entertainment

• Justin Bieber’s $1.3M Bored Ape NFT is now worth just $54K. (Link)

• Music containing AI-generated elements can win a Grammy as long as a human contributes in "a meaningful way.” (Link)

• MBC, a major South Korean TV network, will showcase a variety show created by an AI producer. (Link)

• Bruce Lee enters the metaverse: BYTE CITY honors the martial arts legend. (Link)

• Twitter’s problems create opportunities for the new black-owned social media platform Spill, with new signups crashing its server. (Link)

• Political NFTs sneak into American homes: Has Trump’s 2024 campaign already begun? (Link)

🖼 Art

• Image editor Picsart launches an AI-powered animated GIF generator. (Link)

• Text AI art generators hinder artists more than help them. (Link)

• 63% young artists are “embracing” creative AI, says Youth Music. (Link)

• The Paddy A.I.rishman campaign targets AI and the outdated and often offensive stereotypes generated from the tech. (Link)

• Beeple’s NFT artwork finds a new home in Italy’s Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, shaking up the collection with its first NFT artwork. (Link)

• Celebrity chef Guy Fieri and Grammy-winning artist Sammy Hagar launch an NFT loyalty program. (Link)

🤖 AI

• ChatGPT users abuse the web-browsing feature Browse with Bing, so OpenAI turns it off. (Link)

• How to scale AI and IoT to optimize the railways. (Link)

• An AI-developed energy drink utilizes e-noses and e-mouths to “taste” and test the beverage. (Link)

• UK universities set out plans to use AI in teaching. (Link)

• Chinese VC investor Kai-Fu Lee launches an AI startup amid ChatGPT craze. (Link)

• 8 public high schools in South Australia are pioneering the trial of a ChatGPT-style AI app. (Link)

💸 Funding & Partnerships

• UK’s early-stage media tech VC firm GMG Ventures rebrands to Mercuri and closes $81.35M (£50M) for its second fund. (Link)

• Playtech announces Poker partnership with La Française Des Jeux. (Link)

• Mobile generative AI content platform Scriptic raises $5.7M in a seed funding round. (Link)

• London-based startup Kinnu raises $6M (£5M) to bring generative AI to learning. (Link)

• Meshcapade raises $6M to develop AI solutions for modeling and analysis of 3D digital humans in motion. (Link)

• Kenya-based fashion and lifestyle e-commerce company ShopZetu secures $1M pre-seed funding. (Link)

• Meesho signs an MoU with the Vision & AI Lab (VAL) of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) as an industry-academia collaboration. (Link)

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All content on this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not aim to serve as or replace expert investment advice.

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