Barely 1K users in Meta’s $36B metaverse

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👩🏻‍💻 YouTuber finds 900 users in Meta’s $36B metaverse

🦾 Amid financial woes, OpenAI acquires AI design studio Global Illumination

😨 Snapchat’s My AI goes rogue and posts to Stories

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YouTuber finds 900 users in Meta’s $36B metaverse [Link]

Comical or embarrassing? YouTuber Jarvis Johnson encounters fewer than 1,000 English-speaking users in Horizon Worlds, Meta’s $36B metaverse.

What Johnson found in Mark Zuckerberg’s much-vaunted virtual world:

• The vast majority of users were under age 18 amid enforced age limits and much-criticized gameplay.

• The YouTuber’s week-long probe in Horizons World found close to 900 daily users, compared to Meta’s estimate of fewer than 200K users monthly.

• Other metaverses are even more sparsely populated, with plots of virtual land in NFT-based environments declining 98%. Worse, some alternate metaverses have been found barely existing, mostly drummed up for marketing.

In earning calls and public statements, Zuckerberg reassures Meta’s commitment to developing the metaverse amid the rise of generative AI and the global race to dominate the novel tech.

Amid financial woes, OpenAI acquires AI design studio Global Illumination [Link]

OpenAI's recent acquisition of NY-based startup Global Illumination marks its first public foray into acquiring AI ventures.

The company has secured the entire team of Global Illumination, including its founders, who boast a track record of experience in major tech giants like Instagram, Facebook, Google, and Pixar.

While Global Illumination's MMORPG creation Biomes faces an uncertain future following the acquisition, the move aligns with the ChatGPT creator’s pursuit of expansion.

Amid this development, a contrasting narrative emerges concerning ChatGPT's financial prospects. ChatGPT is at risk of bankruptcy due to its $700K per day operational cost, outstripping its revenue from GPT3.5 & GPT-4. User growth has also dropped at 12% in July, a further blow to its finances.

Snapchat’s My AI goes rogue and posts to Stories [Link]

Snapchat's My AI recently glitched, went posting a random Story on the app, and then stopped responding to users' messages. The AI posted a two-toned image that some users mistook for a photo of their own ceiling.

Snap confirmed the glitch, saying it’s due to a technical outage rather than the AI actually developing self-awareness. The company stated that the issue has been resolved and clarified that the AI did not actually take photos of users' rooms.

Some Snapchat users found this glitch disconcerting and took to social media to express their confusion, with some even joking about the AI becoming sentient.

The incident raised questions about whether Snap might be considering adding new functionalities to My AI, allowing the chatbot to post Stories. Currently, My AI can send text messages and images but doesn't have the Stories feature.

Amid bear NFT market, major Hollywood talent agency bets big on web3 artists [Link]

Despite the current NFT market slump, William Morris Endeavor - boasting of a talent roster that includes Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Adele, and Snoop Dogg - keeps expanding to sign up and sell some 50 digital creatives, in addition to the platform SuperRare and the gallery Bright Moments.

The why behind its web3 push? “The sheer volume of new artists, artworks, and platforms is growing. Think about the impact that YouTube had on a generation of viewers - it completely changed the business.”

Its bullish stance is fueled by the following:

• SuperRare’s continuing dominance in the NFT trade

• Krista Kim remains a leading proponent of the metaverse, and

• The anonymous Silver is fast-rising in the A.I. art arena

WME also aims to onboard its existing web2 clients, hence successful PFP and POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) projects driven by its more “traditional” clients, such as former NBA player Scottie Pippen and producer DJ Griffin.

Quick Hits

🎮 Gaming

• Gods Unchained rolls out its latest game mode, Pauper, accessible to all registered platform players depending on eligibility. (Link)

• Why did OpenAI buy gaming studio Global Illumination? (Link)

• Buildbox wants ordinary creators and aspiring game developers to create the visual narrative games of the future with its new tool StoryGames.AI. (Link)

• The Philippine police sounds the alarm on scams and hacks around play-to-earn crypto games. (Link)

• Meanwhile, Microsoft will pull the plug on Xbox 360's online store and marketplace next year, focusing on its latest consoles and subscription service Game Pass. (Link)

• NetEase Games, a major Chinese video game developer expanding to the West, forms T-Minus Zero Entertainment, a new game studio in Austin, Texas. (Link)

🕶 Fashion

• 100M people have now visited Vans World - here’s how to do a brand experience in Roblox. (Link)

• The metaverse reduces the use of raw materials such as fabric and dye needed for creating a dress; here, one can access digital avatars instead.(Link)

• Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet targets young people in the metaverse, knowing they’re dealing with a world where hoodies can be fair game at the office. (Link)

• Spanish equestrian-themed fashion brand La Garrocha taps into AI-driven apparel sizing solutions. (Link)

• The Sustainable Mei Exhibition: Qing Gan Yi Jiu initiated by sustainable fashion platform canU is on display at the Modern Art Museum Shanghai. (Link)

🏀 Sports

• In the evolving world of women’s soccer campaigns, the metaverse experience from FIFA and Upland is a prime example of how brands are tapping into the vast potential of gamification. (Link)

• Dynamic NFTs pave the way for brand engagement and customer loyalty in web3. (Link)

• Globant and LaLiga Tech partner with Microsoft to pilot gen AI apps in sports tactics and broadcasting. (Link)

• Amazon’s Alexa is accused of a sexist response to the semi-final victory of the England football team Lionesses in the Women’s World Cup. (Link)

• In their early brush together as athletes get awarded with digital collectibles at the XIX World Championships, can swimming use NFTs differently? (Link)

🎥 Media & Entertainment

• Voice actor Henry Schrader claims Hi-Rez Studios is using AI to clone actors' performances - w/o their consent. (Link)

• The striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) calls for increased federal control of streaming media, citing excessive power of Disney, Amazon, and Netflix. (Link)

• Tumblr is rolling out a new web interface and it looks a lot like X/Twitter. (Link)

• Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder and former Block CEO, deletes his Instagram account. (Link)

• See activations for The Gateway: Korea: immersive installations from Christie’s, adidas /// Studio, and Beatport.io, Polkadot, and more. (Link)

• Irish musician Hozier gears up for industry action against AI-related threats in music. (Link)

🖼 Art

• Coinbase reintroduces Kevin as an NFT collectible in summer attire to commemorate the Base network launch. (Link)

• In an NY art show called Beyond the Light, Artechouse turns NASA imagery into a stunning AI-aided psychedelic journey through Cosmos. (Link)

• OpenSea revises its creator royalties structure, ending the Operator Filter on August 31st and making fees optional for new collections from Sept (Link)

• VeVe released three digital collectibles from Nathan Sawaya’s Transfiguration Series 1. (Link)

• Marcela nowak's Flowessence art exhibit transcends boundaries in the metaverse. (Link)

• Philippine Airlines soars into the blockchain world by releasing limited-ed digital art collectibles. (Link)

🤖 AI

• How did Jensen Huang turn Nvidia into a trillion-dollar company? (Link)

• JPMorgan Chase: Hedge funds are slowing their exit from value stocks and small-cap stocks as AI enthusiasm boosts the growth stocks. (Link)

• AI is fast figuring into politically motivated online influence campaigns, yet its impact stays limited. (Link)

• Chinese firms Tencent and Alibaba contend with US tech giants in the AI race, developing their own open-source models. (Link)

• Microsoft pulls an AI-written article telling tourists to visit the Ottawa Food Bank. (Link)

• AI could help you talk to animals. (Link)

• What's next for Insight Partners after investing more than $4B into AI for 5+ years? (Link)

💸 Funding & Partnerships

• Crypto custody provider BitGo raises $100M in its series C funding round, valuing the company at $1.75B. (Link)

• SG-based web3 startup ZTX nets $13M in its crypto-led funding round. (Link)

• Miami-based AI startup SportsVisio raises $3M in seed funding to bring AR and automated statistical analysis to amateur sports. (Link)

• Tech Mahindra and Anyverse collaborate to simplify the use of synthetic data to train, test, and validate AI systems in the automotive industry. (Link)

• Dentsu Group Inc. partners with Microsoft to give employees access to Azure OpenAI tech to create new CXM solutions. (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.

📈 If you are a startup building in the metaverse / web3 ecosystem and are raising capital, please reach out to Sfermion. Sfermion is an investment firm focused on accelerating the emergence of the metaverse 📈

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