Yuga Labs adds Epic Games exec as CTO

🔮 Metaproof

Metaproof is a media company that covers the business of the metaverse. We keep you informed on how the metaverse and web3 are changing YOUR industry.

✨ Top Picks

The Future, today. In just 3 minutes.

1/ Yuga Labs is ready for next stage of storytelling, hires former Epic Games exec as new CTO

Yuga Labs hired Fortnite creator Mike Seavers as its new CTO, who brings with him over two decades of experience in tech and product development.

This announcement comes just four months after Yuga Labs announced the hiring of Activision Blizzard veteran Daniel Alegre as CEO, who said:

"Mike has a proven track record of taking organizations to the next level, and he shares our vision for how important digital identity and community will be for the future of the internet. We have an opportunity to be the web3 platform at the forefront of community and social engagement, through media and entertainment."

Seavers - who led the teams behind Unreal Engine, Fortnite, and the Epic Games Store during his time at Epic Games, where he served as Executive VP of Development - will take over from current CTO and co-founder Kerem Atalay on May 22. Atalay stays on as a strategic advisor.

2/ 'Godfather of AI' leaves Google amid ethical concerns

AI and deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton makes a high-profile exit, telling The New York Times he resigned as Google VP and engineering fellow in April.

The reason: to warn of AI risks, particularly with potential ethical issues around Google joining the AI race and competing with ChatGPT and similar models.

Hinton’s arguments include:

• Generative AI could usher in a wave of misinformation, where one might "not be able to know what is true anymore.”

• It might go beyond eliminating "drudge work" by outright replacing some jobs.

• Amid the possibility of fully autonomous weapons, there’s the tendency of AI models to learn odd behavior from training data, which might escalate without due regulations or controls in place.

Hinton has led a stellar career studying AI-involved neural networks, yet is best known for developing an object recognition system in 2012.

Earlier this year, influential tech personalities and researchers like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak echoed Hinton’s concerns, urging a 6-month pause on AI development to tackle ethical and safety problems.

3/ Peacock now available in metaverse for streaming

NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock enters the metaverse, partnering with Meta to make it available on the Meta Quest lineup of VR headsets.

The new tie-up will see NBCUniversal bringing a range of interactive experiences to Meta’s Horizon Worlds and the Meta Avatars Store, such as creating a virtual TV set within Horizon Worlds to enable users to watch scripted shows and live sports through their Oculus headsets.

Peacock trails YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video in joining Meta’s platform, and in this latest move reflects a larger entertainment industry trend of roping in audiences in novel ways.

On a related note, Mark Zuckerberg promises that the “next-generation Quest headset,” presumably Meta Quest 3 set to be released this year, will be "accessible" to the masses with a reasonable price tag.

Despite Meta’s emphasis on AI (Zuckerberg emphasized Meta's focus on AI during a recent earnings call and mentioned the term "AI" 22 times in his opening presentation and 5 more times in response to questions), the CEO reiterates its commitment to their metaverse plans.

Its roster of VR headsets figure into this master plan, which appears to be disrupted by a newfound focus on building out Meta’s AI capacity to the tune of a $30B to $33B projected generative AI spend in 2023.

4/ Backlash against AI supermodels triggers wider fears in fashion workforce

Across industries, there are worries around tech displacing humans. In fashion, such anxiety collides with other labor concerns.

A few concerns and criticisms:

• Levi’s plans to test out AI-generated virtual clothing models drew backlash, said to potentially push professional models out of jobs with its partnership with AI design firm Lalaland.ai.

• Working with 100+ models, Yanii Models founder Yanii Gough said many of them are “dying to get back to consistency” post-pandemic, and harbor additional worries around models’ images being used without permission via AI.

• Shudu, the world’s 1st digital supermodel, has booked jobs with high-end brands like BMW and Louis Vuitton. Designed as a Black woman, she drew criticism toward her creator, AI modeling firm The Diigitals, and its founder Cameron-James Wilson, who is white.

🏃‍♂️ Quick Hits

🎮 Gaming

• Meta needs more VR games to survive. (Link)

• The Sandbox launches its Mega City 3 LAND sale in Greater China. (Link)

• Peek into the metaverse via blockchain game HolaCity. (Link)

• Canada’s metaverse industry, comprising gaming, is expected to grow by 38.3% annually and reach US$4,646.9M in 2023. (Link)

• BitNile Metaverse beta-launches its social game Roulette. (Link)

• Blockchain-based metaverse game My Neighbor Alice releases its 2023 roadmap. (Link)

🕶 Fashion

• The day has come: the AI Balenciaga frenzy reached Quentin Tarantino movies. (Link)

• Digital fashion house MNTGE releases a new collection merging the metaverse and IRL, including a ’70s jeans and a vintage shirt titled The Beach Tee. (Link)

• Why Bytedance’s virtual fashion community Pheagee failed to take off in China. (Link)

• The vision behind digital fashion platform DRAUP: “Code is the couture,” where each drop is created using generative algorithms. (Link)

• US-based PR firm Virgo PR forms its Digital Fashion division. (Link)

🏀 Sports

• Multi-screen view and "umpire view" in VR: How Apple's VR headset could immerse you in sports. (Link)

• Football simulation game Total Football integrates Rendering Accelerator SDK for enhanced mobile gaming visuals. (Link)

• What to expect from a new MMA fighting game with NFT from this Animoca unit. (Link)

• The next Forza will help blind players race by listening to “beeps and boops.” (Link)

• Web3 can uniquely offer sports brands and orgs a new way to engage with fans through loyalty programs. (Link)

🎥 Media & Entertainment

• How to join Chrissy Teigen and other celebs with invite codes from decentralized Twitter rival Bluesky. (Link)

• Communities impacted by the digital divide cannot ignore innovation in the metaverse, AI, and decentralization. (Link)

• Entertainment as a revolutionary use case for the metaverse, creating new revenue streams for creators through virtual experiences. (Link)

• Tyrone Taborn's Metaquake USA delves into the metaverse and its future implications. (Link)

• Revisiting the classics: Mario movie reaches $1B box office milestone. (Link)

🖼 Art

• Paris’ Centre Pompidou dedicates 2 rooms to an 18-piece digital collection. (Link)

• How to prevent IP infringement in NFTs. (Link)

• Gmoney: Top 25 Network Points earners on 9dcc get a free blue check and badge. (Link)

• The World of Women (WoW) NFT collection has a bid for diversity and strength through art, blockchain, and community building. (Link)

• Amrit Pal Singh's whimsical toys arrive in 3 Indian cities via the Toy Faces NFT exhibition. (Link)

🤖 AI

• Italy lifts ban on ChatGPT that previously cited privacy concerns. (Link)

• University of Georgia researchers discover a new planet with AI’s help. (Link)

• AI journalism is becoming indistinguishable from human work. (Link)

• Budget travel made easy with the AI app Travel Budol. (Link)

• AI detects retinopathy of prematurity, a major cause of childhood blindness. (Link)

• Secure payment tech 3line’s hackathon uncovers AI payment innovations. (Link)

💸 Funding & Partnerships

• Israeli startup Pinecone raises $100M for advanced AI database tech. (Link)

• GEM Digital boosts investment in Everdome metaverse project to $50M, up from initial $10M. (Link)

• Sei and Space ID partner to offer on-chain identity to enable users to create .Sei domain names. (Link)

• Reviewpad, a platform automating code review, raises €1M pre-seed funding. (Link)

• iGaming startup JNS Gaming partners with Delasport to relaunch its online casino and sportsbook brand LynxBet. (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.