Futureverse’s $50M fund for metaverse startups

Today we are covering…

💰 Futureverse mounts $50M fund for metaverse startups

🌐 AI.com now redirects to Elon Musk’s AI website

🕺🏻 The metaverse this week: Elvis Presley NFTs, Second Life’s 20th anniversary

Did you read this newsletter from anywhere that’s not your inbox?

Hello everyone! We are launching a brand new newsletter covering the ins and outs of how emerging technologies like AI, web3, and VR are transforming the gaming industry.

Subscribe to metaverse gaming!

Futureverse mounts $50M fund for metaverse startups [Link]

Futureverse, a metaverse startup co-founded by Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald, has launched a $50M venture fund and studio called Born Ready, with a focus on early-stage investments in web3 and metaverse tech.

The Born Ready fund plans to invest between $250K and $1M per project. The fund has already allocated capital to various companies, including:

• FCTRY Lab, a high-tech sneaker startup

• Power’d Digital, a web3 startup, and

• Polemos and Walker Labs, both blockchain gaming firms

Future plans for the fund include the announcement of an accelerator program that will offer further funding opportunities for innovative ventures.

AI.com now redirects to Elon Musk’s AI website [Link]

In the continuing saga of tech moguls taking over the world via AI, it appears that Elon Musk has just taken over the much-coveted URL AI.com.

AI.com now directs to X.ai despite being “owned” by OpenAI until around July 29, during which it was not operational but carried the company’s logo and redirected users to the ChatGPT homepage.

Diving further into the facts:

• OpenAI appears to have purchased AI.com in February - a valuable two-character URL that likely fetched millions of dollars - yet hasn’t confirmed actually buying the domain.

• In comparison, IT.com was sold for $3.8M the previous year. AI.com likely sold for a far higher price given the hype around AI today, noted TechCrunch.

• X.ai, in the meantime, hasn’t made “any visible progress” since going up in July.

The metaverse this week: Elvis Presley NFTs, Second Life’s 20th anniversary

Rock ‘n roll icon Elvis Presley dances into the metaverse via the Ethereum metaverse game The Sandbox releasing some 3,000 NFT avatars - featuring iconic outfits and hairstyles from across Presley’s colorful career, along with unique emotes based on his signature moves - to celebrate the late musician’s legacy.

The Elvis Presley Digital Estate, saying they “believe in a world where Elvis fans participate and shape the direction and future” of the estate, will equip avatar holders with governance and voting rights for the Elvis Legacy Council DAO to help shape future moves around Presley’s digital expansion. Plans are also in the works for Decentraland.

Second Life turns 20 years old, making a case for the vast potential of the metaverse as companies like Meta pushes forward and also whose failures have been demonstrated by major tech movers like Sony and Google launching and killing rival products PlayStation Home and Lively.

Roblox, currently seen as a leader in building the virtual universe, is also a contender seen to have “presented the offer of a Second Life for kids.” It remains to be seen how Second Life can survive the kids’ platform’s rise the way it outlasted its competition for two decades.

US Air Force’s AI jet drone completes maiden flight [Link]

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) completes the 1st flight of an AI/ML-piloted XQ-58A Valkyrie jet drone in Florida, a 3-hour undertaking supporting the air force’s experiments around next-gen unmanned aircraft to operate in contested environments.

How this sets the tone for US defense in the future: Seeking to develop AI/ML agents executing “modern air-to-air and air-to-surface skills that are immediately transferrable to other autonomy programs,” the sortie is rooted in millions of simulated flight hours and ground test operations, as the US defense department continues exploring AI applications to enhance military capabilities.

AI is dubbed as a “critical element to future warfighting” amid the heated global race for supremacy in the use of the modern tech, particularly among players including China.

Suggested prompts, multiple file uploads, and more: OpenAI packs ChatGPT with updates [Link]

OpenAI's ChatGPT is receiving a massive set of updates over the next week, aimed at enhancing user experience and productivity.

• Example Prompts: Users now have the option to utilize example prompts when interacting with ChatGPT. While some have praised this addition, others expressed concerns about distraction, especially for individuals with ADHD.

• Suggested Replies and Follow-up Questions: To reduce user fatigue and enhance engagement, ChatGPT now suggests relevant replies and follow-up questions during conversations.

• Default GPT-4 Setting: Paying ChatGPT Plus subscribers will no longer need to toggle on GPT-4 every time they begin a new chat - a default setting ensuring a seamless user experience.

• Extended Session Duration: Users can now stay logged into ChatGPT beyond the previous 2-week period, providing added convenience for prolonged usage.

• Enhanced OpenAI Code Interpreter Plugin: The latest update allows users to upload multiple files when utilizing the OpenAI Code Interpreter plugin.

The new features have elicited mixed responses from users, with appreciation for the default GPT-4 setting and extended session duration and concerns about the example prompts being distracting, especially for users with special needs.

Quick Hits

🎮 Gaming

• The Animoca-backed game Wreck League embeds Bored Apes into its storyline and lets players assemble giant robotic characters via collectible NFT parts. (Link)

• EA announces Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. (Link)

• A week old, New Bitcoin City currently offers casual games, board games, and strategy games on both web and mobile running on Bitcoin. (Link)

• Bandai Namco offers a modern take on the classic Tamagotchi with the AI virtual pet NFT game RYUZO. (Link)

• YouTuber Jordi “Kwebbelkop” Van Den Bussche, with 15M+ subscribers on the platform, seeks to create his own AI replacement. (Link)

🕶 Fashion

• Digital fashion house MNTGE is back with NFC-chipped denim essentials. (Link)

• Luxury brands like Gucci are banking on the phygital. But where does a mixed-reality product fit in today’s market? (Link)

• After a 4-year hiatus, the angels are back with a vengeance: the Victoria’s Secret fashion show makes its return in September on Amazon Prime Video. (Link)

• 72% of luxury fashion consumers in the UK find AR solutions from brands important to their shopping, says a new Vogue Business and Snap study. (Link)

• AI systems can analyze vast amounts of data from social media, fashion blogs, and online stores to spot emerging trends. (Link)

• Barbie causes a 500% surge in Google searches for Birkenstock, finds virtual fitting room firm 3DLOOK. (Link)

🏀 Sports

• Dana White and Mark Zuckerberg partner to offer MMA fans a social VR platform wherein MMA fans can watch their favorite fights in 4K, with 180-degree streams of fights. (Link)

• LootMogul launches MogulX.ai, touted as a community-driven sports AI game engine to drive the sports tech industry. (Link)

• Game4Ukraine, a charity soccer match announced by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, leans on the metaverse to help rebuild the nation. (Link)

• Now in open beta, Genesis League Goals (GLG) is a web3 soccer game that brings the thrill of the sport to players worldwide. (Link)

• A new tie-up between DAZN Group and Fanatics lets fans access licensed merch and get on the DAZN app with personalization, 1-click purchasing, and more. (Link)

🎥 Media & Entertainment

• Alliance for OpenUSD - comprising Apple, Pixar, Adobe, Autodesk, and Nvidia - aims to standardize Universal Scene Description (USD) for seamless 3D creation across multiple platforms. (Link)

• Entertainment and gaming franchise WAGMI Games hires Esteban Gil and Brent Pease to bring web3 and NFT tech to the gaming space. (Link)

• Cinematic game-changers: Advanced chips and CPUs have enabled virtual production to transform media and entertainment. (Link)

• Meet HRDR, a virtual humanoid Al model for virtual idols with music, dance, and social. (Link)

• Privacy-focused Brave Search launches its own image and video search, accessible from its own index. (Link)

🖼 Art

• Chinese political pop artist Yue Minjun presents his iconic laughing figures in the digital realm with Kingdom of the Laughing Man. (Link)

• Forgotten Runes’ art team achieves the extraordinary: 10,000 Wizards brought to life in 3D. (Link)

• Koichi Hatta, the founder of marumaruNFT, discusses how Japanese culture intertwines NFTs with the metaverse. (Link)

• Playground AI releases Mixed Image Editing, enabling users to blend real photos with AI-generated artwork. (Link)

• Digital artist Frederic Duquette, a.k.a. Fvckrenderhails, hails his debut solo show in London as a "diary" of the past 8 years, finding solace in art amid daily panic attacks. (Link)

• MeMeraki, a "culture-tech" platform, unveils an AR tool that enables art aficionados to envision how art pieces would look in their homes before buying. (Link)

🤖 AI

• Alibaba challenges Meta via its LLM Tongyi Qianwen, which allows AI content generation in English and Chinese. (Link)

• IBM and NASA release the open-source WatsonX.AI geospatial foundation model to unlock the value of satellite imagery in climate science. (Link)

• Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek announces the upcoming release of KoGPT 2.0, a hyperscale AI model. (Link)

• South Korean companies are rushing to launch exotic AI-based services. (Link)

• This AI assistant helps developers create smart contracts, integrate data, and improve QA. (Link)

• Uber reveals an AI chatbot is in the works to enhance user experience on their app. (Link)

💸 Funding & Partnerships

• Popular image pinboarding and shopping inspiration site Pinterest touts the progress of its Amazon partnership and AI efforts in Q2 2023. (Link)

• GoStudent adds another $95M to its war chest to deliver VR and AI-enhanced tutoring. (Link)

• Odore, a customer engagement platform used by beauty brands including Armani, Lancôme, and YSL, raises $5M (£3.9M) in a seed funding round. (Link)

• Specialized cloud provider CoreWeave raises a $2.3B debt facility to expand and meet the rising AI workload. (Link)

• McDowell’s No1 Soda collaborates with Hungama Digital Media to unveil the metaverse-based Yaariverse. (Link)

• Lupe Fiasco teams up with Google to introduce TextFX, an AI tool aiding artists in songwriting with alternate meanings and phrases. (Link)

—

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 📈

Stay informed via our Twitter and Subscribe here to get your metaverse news every day.