Long time no see.
It has been a whirlwind adventure trying to get new business ventures stood up in both the US and Thailand.
I hope your spring, and now summer have been going well.
Grok |
The Zuck Tries to Catch Em All
TL;DR: Mark Zuckerberg is trying to build an AI super team to create superintelligence.
Meta for years has struggled to create products internally that capture market share. They have mostly benefited from acquiring companies and then positioning them into the broader Meta portfolio to help them grow. Most notably with Instagram.
Their own AI offerings have struggled to capture market share, with Llama being rated well behind other competing platforms. Meta has offered eight-figure salaries to some of the best AI talent on the market. They also recently acquired a 49% stake in Scale.AI in order to acqui-hire the CEO. Will this work? TBD. Based off history, the answer is seemingly no.
The founder of Instagram left. The founder of Oculus left. How long this super team can stick around and potentially not get frustrated remains to be seen.
Grok | Hollywood Robots
TL;DR: Hollywood still can't decide if it's going to embrace or fight AI
Traditional Hollywood studios are in a tough position when it comes to AI. Because they run off legacy business models and employ workers who are in strong unions threatened by AI, their hands have been tied with embracing AI.
Until Hollywood determines a way forward and continues this one-foot-in, one-foot-out approach, they likely continue to be under threat from a new entrants that fully embrace AI and are not tied down by legacy constraints.
Grok | Record Labels
TL;DR: Record labels try to use copyright law to slow the speed of AI music creation.
Major record labels are trying to follow the Napster playbook and go after AI music companies on copyright violation grounds.These cases are not as clear-cut as they appear on the surface, given that people are creating new music.
This is no different than if someone hears a song and then is inspired to write a completely different piece of music. These cases likely end with major record labels investing in the AI studios as we saw last year, because the record labels want to have access to the revenue stream that comes from AI music software training off of their libraries.
Reels
Soccer Robots: Chinese robots competed in the first ever robot soccer match. The novelty of this type of event is interesting, but the scalability remains a challenge. Similar to esports, how big of an audience is there to watch a new type of sport?
Film School AI: Students and professors in leading film schools are increasingly becoming into conflict over the use of AI in student films. Reflecting the challenges of Hollywood manifesting inside the classroom.
CJ ENM’s AI Future: Leading South Korean Entertainment giant CJ ENM views AI as a key component in their future content creation. They are planning to use AI in scripts, generating scripts, and developing visual narratives.
Thrills
Future Trips: The future of travel will likely be shaped by AI customization. AI will make it easier to craft custom itineraries and book trips based off content you viewed.
AI Game Creation: Video game prompting edges closer with Runway, now aiming to streamline game creation. Video game prompting remains an area where there is no clear market leader or even a reliable solution right now. Within 12 to 18 months, this will change with multiple products coming online. The challenge remains, can someone tell a compelling story using AI in a video game context and will gamers get over their hatred of AI?
AI Video Game Governance: Ubisoft is experimenting with new AI agents that can vote and govern within their games. They are aiming to experiment within their new blockchain-based game, Captain Laserhawk, to see if this opens up new gameplay avenues in the future.
Bills
AI Provisions: The Senate decided to remove a provision that would have banned states from making state-by-state AI regulations.