Welcome back to Spatial Beats, where we round up all the top news and happenings from around the spatial computing spectrum, including its escalating infusions with AI and other emerging tech. Let’s dive in…
The Lede
With the Olympics starting in Paris today, Nexus Studios shared the trailer for BBC’s coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Directed by Fx Goby and brought to life by Nexus Studios, the one-minute trailer is a love letter to the games. Embracing Paris’ reputation as the City of Love, Fx artfully explores the romance between athletes and their sports. The exquisite 2D animation foregoes traditional outlines, instead using light and shadow to suggest volume, effectively recreating each illustration 25 frames per second. Take that, AI.
The Meta Beat
Meta’s got four major-ish items in the news roundup this week. They are so broadly diversified in social media, AI, and XR, today, they are eating my entire beat. Meta is a social company and they like to talk about what they are doing. Interestingly, today’s column, by topic, goes, AI, AI, AI, Meta AI, Meta AI, Meta XR, Meta XR, followed by news from the Metaverse (which is thriving on Roblox and Fortnite).
Meta Releases Llama 3.1 Open Source LLM. On Tuesday, Meta announced Llama 3.1, its latest open-source AI model, which comes in three versions, with the largest being the most advanced to date. Meta’s making significant investments in AI to keep up with competitors like X, OpenAI, and Google. A key partner in this endeavor is Nvidia, providing the GPUs essential for training the models. Unlike its competitors, Meta doesn’t plan to monetize Llama directly but partners with companies like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure to offer access via their platforms. The largest model, Llama 3.1 405B, has 405 billion parameters, enabling complex tasks. Smaller versions are also available for applications like chatbots and coding assistants.
We put a very (very!) fun thing in Meta AI today.
Say "imagine me…" to see yourself anywhere your heart desires. If you're weird like me, you might imagine yourself with a magical emu.
🔜 try it in IG, Messenger, and https://t.co/3RP63jDI82 — @AIatMeta pic.twitter.com/AtWq4kgBmu
— Danny Trinh (@dtrinh) July 23, 2024
Meta AI Gets New Image Generation Features. The AI assistant is now accessible on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. The new features include “Imagine me” prompts, allowing users to create images based on their photos and prompts, and creative editing tools for modifying objects within images. The advanced Llama 405B model offers enhanced reasoning, particularly for math and coding queries, and is available on WhatsApp and meta.ai. An experimental AI upgrade to Meta’s RayBan audio smart glasses may be here as early as this fall.
Meta is making a strategic move to invest billions to acquire roughly 5% of EssilorLuxottica for $5 billion. Meta collaborated with the European eyewear giant on two generations of Ray-Ban smart glasses. This significant investment, confirmed by various sources, appears driven by Google’s recent interest in integrating its Gemini AI assistant into future smart glasses from EssilorLuxottica. The partnership with EssilorLuxottica is crucial for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term metaverse vision, offering manufacturing expertise and style that Meta needs to produce glasses people want to wear. With the latest Meta Ray-Bans performing well in the market, this collaboration is essential for Meta to maintain its competitive edge and expand its AR glasses’ acceptance.
Belt Tightening Comes to Reality Labs. Even with tens of billions of dollars in profits, Meta has to balance the massive funding needs of both XR and AI. On the last quarterly earnings call, Meta’s CEO said he remains committed to its metaverse vision. The Meta Quest 3’s launch has been meh. Utilization of the twenty million headsets sold to date is low. And development of new hardware is slow. Reality Labs posted $3.85B in losses last quarter and $55B since 2019. The bright spot has been their audio smart glasses, which are getting smarter all the time. The third generation is expected in 2025. The Meta Quest 4 headset is slated for 2026, with two versions planned. Additionally, a new Quest Pro is scheduled for 2027 to compete with the Apple Vision Pro.
Feeling Spatial
Magic Leap Shuts Down Sales and Marketing. This move signals a pivot in strategy under new CEO Ross Rosenberg, aiming to transition Magic Leap into a component vendor for other companies’ headsets. Despite early hype and significant investment, Magic Leap has struggled to meet performance targets and sales expectations, particularly with its Magic Leap 2 headset. The company’s reliance on Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, structured around performance-based funding, has not yielded the expected results. With its optics technology still considered advanced, Magic Leap’s future now hinges on its ability to reposition itself in the competitive AR market, while managing reduced revenue streams from military and healthcare contracts.
Immerzo Metaverse Talent Agency is now open for business. The new agency connects world builders on Fortnite and Roblox for brands seeking younger demographics. At launch, Immerzo represents over 100 influential creators, who reach more than 80 million players globally, offering innovative in-game branding and immersive virtual experiences. Immerzo saves brands and agencies time and money by streamlining the marketing process and targeting young demographics. It also empowers creators to monetize their work, turning their passion into sustainable income.
Shader AR creation tools launch an iOS app. In February, the company, founded by former Snap design lead Darya Sesitskaya, launched its website, Shader Camera, and announced raising a modest $610,000 in funding from notable investors like Betaworks. Shader is taking on established incumbents like Snap Lens Studio and TikTok’s Effect House with a no-code AR tool that uses AI to generate custom effects using text prompts. You gotta love the ex-designer who sees how to do it better and takes on category-leading giants, like the ex-boss, with laughably few resources, other than creativity, nerve, and optimism. Have some fun with it at Shader Playground and you’ll see the optimism may not be unfounded. Greg Karlin, former Instagram Monetization Lead, just joined the company as CTO. Shader also offers an API and plug-in for other companies to integrate its technology.
‘Walkabout Mini Golf’ VR Gets Wallace & Gromit Course. Developer Mighty Coconut has announced the launch of its highly anticipated ‘Wallace & Gromit’ paid DLC course, arriving Thursday, July 25th. Players can explore 62 West Wallaby Street, encountering clever contraptions and iconic scenes from the beloved films. Created in collaboration with Aardman Animation, the course features 18 holes in both easy and hard modes, a commemorative in-game putter, and themed avatars. The DLC will be available on all supported VR platforms, including Quest, PSVR 2, Pico, and SteamVR, as well as the non-VR Pocket Edition for iOS, priced at $4.
Book Review: ‘The Metaverse, Building The Spatial Internet,’ By Matthew Ball (Charlie Fink/Forbes)
Follow the Money
Cohere Closes $500M Series D. Toronto-based enterprise AI startup Cohere has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round, bringing its valuation to $5.5 billion. The capital will advance Cohere’s AI models, emphasizing data privacy, security, and multilingual accuracy. Cohere’s large language models have shown competitive performance against rivals like ChatGPT-4 Turbo. Led by PSP Investments, the round included new investors like Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, AMD Ventures, Magnetar, and Export Development Canada, with returning support from Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, and Nvidia.
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick Raises $4 M, launches Lumi Story AI. This AI company helps creators to produce, distribute, and merchandise their work. Lumi provides AI tools to content creators to generate content, manage logistics, and maintain control over their projects. Founder and CEO Kaepernnick raised $4M for Lumi in a seed round led by VC Seven Seven Six. Lumi’s platform will initially focus on comic books, later expanding to other formats. Kaepernick highlighted the platform’s role in filling creators’ skill gaps and democratizing storytelling. You can sign up for the waitlist on their website.
Here’s a full list of 28 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024 (Rebecca Szkutak/Techcrunch)
The AI Desk
XAI Opens Massive Data Center in Memphis. Training has commenced at Elon Musk’s “gigafactory of compute” supercomputer facility in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says this supercluster, named Project Colossus, is the world’s most powerful AI training cluster, housing 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips. This is the largest capital investment in the city’s history, they were all pretty happy until the facts of the new AI data center started to sink in: the gigafactory will use 50 megawatts of electricity, and will use 1.3 million gallons of water every day for cooling. That’s enough to power approximately 50,000 homes.
Civit AI Film Contest, A New AI Feature, Dishwashing Cats, More AI Videos. Rapid improvements in AI video generation tools, like Runway, Kling, Luma’s Dream Machine, and Hapier, are enabling more cinematic and realistic films.
Apple shows off open AI prowess: new models outperform Mistral and Hugging Face offerings (Subham Sharma/VentureBeat)
Listen & Learn
For more spatial commentary & insights, check out This Week in XR, hosted by author Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, former studio executive and co-founder of Red Camera, and Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap. This week our guest is Dr. Cody Rall, Psychiatrist, and wearable neurotechnology expert. You can find it on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.
Charlie Fink is an author and futurist focused on spatial computing. See his books here. Spatial Beats contains insights and inputs from Fink’s collaborators including Paramount Pictures futurist Ted Shilowitz.
More from AR Insider…
