Chaos & Amazement #2339 Zuckerberg in the Metaverse, YouTube Create App, and Jony Ive’s Secret OpenAI Project

Welcome to this week’s Chaos & Amazement, where we dive into the latest in tech, from the Metaverse musings of Mark Zuckerberg to intriguing AI collaborations and the evolving smartphone landscape.

Tech News

• Lex Fridman's interview with a photorealistic avatar of Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse sparks discussions about the future of this virtual world and its potential impact on technology. Maybe we all will end up in the Metaverse after all.

  • Meta's 2023 Connect conference highlighted personal chatbots, but questions remain about AI's impact on privacy and authenticity.

    A conversational assistant you can use across our apps, new tools to easily edit your images, AI characters played by Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, Snoop Dogg and lots more.

• Google introduces the YouTube Create app, enabling Shorts creators to edit videos directly from their mobile devices. The app is available on Android and plans to launch on iOS in the coming year. YouTube is going all in on AI

  

  • YouTube's move to centralize podcasts on YouTube Music promises enhancements for creators and fans, but it also means the discontinuation of Google Podcasts. The transition will take time, and YouTube will need to ensure a smooth process. Creating a centralized podcast destination on YouTube Music. I see Google is continuing its push to have all things media under the YouTube brand.

• A recent report reveals that 95% of NFT collections have lost value, affecting 23 million investors and underlining the importance of caution in NFT investments. The once-hyped market's bubble has burst, emphasizing the importance of due diligence in high-value purchases. Two years after tech trend that swept up artists and celebrities, researchers estimate 23 million people hold worthless investments

• The smartphone market experiences a decline in the number of active brands, with evolving customer preferences, R&D challenges, and competition from Tier-1 Chinese brands contributing to this trend. Over 700 smartphone brands were competing in 2017, but now there are only around 250 active brands in 2023. https://counterpointresearch.com/insights/nearly-500-brands-exited-smartphone-market-during-2017-2023/

  • Apple's anti-repair antics are a disservice to consumers and the environment.

    Cory Doctorow exposes the truth: Parts-pairing, DRM, and DMCA 1201 stand in the way of our right to repair. https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

Fresh AI

• OpenAI had a stellar week:

  • ChatGPT Web Browsing Feature: OpenAI has expanded ChatGPT's capabilities with web browsing, providing up-to-date information and direct source links, breaking free from its prior data limitations. Looking forward to its integration with Bing.

  • Reports suggest a mysterious collaboration between Jony Ive and OpenAI, generating significant curiosity within the tech community, despite a lack of specific details. Just speculating, but if that crypto eyeball scanner for OpenAI, designed by Jony Ive, becomes a reality, it might still have that signature aluminum shine!

    Despite total lack of specifics, rumored collaboration has everyone guessing.

• Wondercraft.ai offers a suite of podcasting tools powered by AI. Easily convert text to podcasts with realistic AI voices, host on popular platforms, generate scripts/ show notes, multilingual support. Worth considering for podcast creators. Some recent examples on Spotify, with e.g. @lexfridman

• This weak I learnt about videotyping. A brand new video making experience with AI at pika.art. Join Beta: http://discord.gg/pika

  matancohengrumi

  

  A post shared by @matancohengrumi

From my blog

• AI is a tool, not a friend https://bnox.be/2023/09/ai-is-tool-not-friend.html

  • In the era of voice assistants and chatbots, it's common to humanize digital entities. No, ChatGPT cannot "see, hear and speak". It can be integrated with sensors that will feed it information in different modalities.

• A Playful Expedition Back to Dial-Up Days https://bnox.be/2023/09/a-playful-expedition-back-to-dial-up.html Could you still use a dial-up modem to surf on the internet?

  • 25 years ago, Google Search started in a California garage. Since then, it's become a global phenomenon, fundamentally impacting our daily lives.

    #Google25 https://goo.gle/46nJ4Jm

• The Aztec Death Whistle https://bnox.be/2023/09/the-aztec-death-whistle.html

Weird and Wonderful

• A website that provides many free tools for working with PDF files. Completely offline in your browser.

  https://pdftool.org

• Explore a curated collection of free audiobooks featuring American literary classics from the 19th and 20th centuries. No subscriptions, no payments – just timeless stories at your fingertips. Dive into the world of literature today!

  https://marhamilresearch4.blob.core.windows.net/gutenberg-public/Website/browse.html

• Discovering a website where you can break virtual glass!

  Just like the Nick Lowe song, but without the mess! https://glass.funwebsite.fun

• robotics.ovh - Dancing robots you can fling

• What Red Hot Chili Peppers sound like to people who don't like Red Hot Chili Peppers...