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
The talking baby meme below took the social media world by storm after Canadian comedian Jonathan Lajoie posted it on Instagram last week.
There is a serious side to this hilarious meme, writes technology consultant and influencer Shelly Palmer. “We’re just months away from living in a world where any given image (especially in media, marketing, ecommerce, and presentations) has a high likelihood of being AI-generated.” He writes. “The political, cultural, economic, and creative implications will be massive.”
I wrote to Lajoie for comment, but have not heard back yet. It looks like a clever combination of Google’s Notebook LLM podcast maker and one of the realistic avatars created by app like Captions, but that’s speculation on my part.
Feeling Spatial
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel will deliver a keynote at AWE USA 2025 on June 10 in Long Beach, marking his first appearance at the XR industry’s flagship event. Spiegel is expected to outline Snap’s distinct approach to augmented reality, centered on Spectacles smart glasses and its in-house tools, Snap OS and Lens Studio. Unlike Meta’s gaming focus or Apple’s productivity push, Snap emphasizes social, location-based AR experiences. The keynote comes as AWE expands its programming with new initiatives like the Builders Nexus and AWE Gaming Hub to support XR creators. The 2025 conference will feature over 6,000 attendees, 400 speakers, and 300 exhibitors, including Qualcomm and XREAL. Snap’s ecosystem has often placed it outside mainstream XR circles, but Spiegel’s presence at AWE signals growing engagement. Full event details and ticket information are available on the AWE USA 2025 website.
Tribeca Festival has unveiled its 2025 immersive program, In Search of Us, featuring 11 XR and AI-driven projects, including six world premieres. Presented in partnership with Onassis ONX and Agog, the exhibition explores themes like memory, identity, and collective imagination. Projects range from a haptic VR experience about electroshock therapy to an AI-generated installation on media violence. Notable creators include Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Cameron Kostopolous, Idris Brewster, and Meghna Singh. The works will be presented at Water Street Projects at WSA, a Lower Manhattan arts hub. General admission tickets go on sale April 29 at TribecaFilm.com.
Stay: Forever Home for the Quest 3 was created by Windup Minds, a team led by Bernard Yee, the ex-Meta lead who was responsible for all the first-party Quest showcase apps you know and love like First Steps and First Contact. Using an AI-powered personality engine, Ember will react and learn from your interactions and develop a unique bond with their owner over time.
The 50 Best Selling Titles on Meta Quest Store (Road to VR). The top five titles might not surprise you, but the rest of them might.
Infinite Reality’s $3 Billion Mystery Deepens Amid Lawsuits and Scrutiny. In a follow-up to its January funding announcement, Infinite Reality now says its $3 billion investment came through Sterling Select, though confusion, lawsuits, and denials persist. A Forbes investigation reveals mounting skepticism about the Florida-based metaverse startup’s financial claims, valuation, and governance. The company has faced SEC subpoenas, unpaid vendor lawsuits, and murky investor disclosures. Questions remain about whether Sterling Select controls sufficient capital and why multiple entities cited in IR’s press materials—such as Ashcroft Law and Google—distanced themselves. The company has acquired over a dozen firms in all-stock deals, boosting its self-reported valuation to $15.5 billion despite only $75M in 2024 revenue. Former partners, investors, and insiders expressed confusion or disbelief about IR’s scale, while a former board member sued for financial documents. Infinite Reality says funds are arriving from offshore accounts and insists the valuation is justified. Trading on Nasdaq Private Markets is planned but hasn’t begun.
Will Google’s AI Mode Accelerate AR? Google’s continued convergence of AR and AI took a step forward recently with AI Mode. Specifically, it now works with images to let users have conversational dialogues to contextualize their surroundings – a longstanding promise of AR.
The AI Desk
Arcana Labs has emerged from stealth with $5.5 million in funding led by SEMCAP AI, introducing Arcana AI—a comprehensive AI-powered content production platform. Founded by industry veterans, including CEO Jonathan Yunger, known for producing blockbuster franchises like Expendables and Hellboy, Arcana AI offers over 21 integrated tools for image, video, and audio creation, aiming to streamline the filmmaking process. The platform is designed to address real-world production challenges, providing features such as hyperrealistic rendering, character consistency, and seamless integration with models like DALL·E and Stable Diffusion. Currently, Arcana Labs has over 20 films in development, including a fully AI-generated sci-fi epic featuring SAG actors and the first entirely AI-produced horror movie. The company is also launching Arcana Productions to assist with content creation and Arcana Academy to educate filmmakers on AI-driven production techniques.
Riffusion, a San Francisco-based AI startup, has launched a free web platform that enables users to create original music using artificial intelligence. The platform features a new AI model named Fuzz, capable of generating complete songs from text descriptions, audio clips, or visual prompts. Fuzz distinguishes itself by learning individual users’ musical preferences over time, offering a personalized creative experience. Co-founder and CEO Seth Forsgren emphasizes the platform’s aim to democratize music creation, stating that everyone has inherent creativity. Unlike competitors that charge subscription fees, Riffusion’s platform is freely available worldwide, appealing to both professional musicians and casual enthusiasts. The technology builds upon the company’s previous work in applying image diffusion techniques to audio spectrograms. Industry professionals, including The Chainsmokers’ Alex Pall, have joined Riffusion’s advisory board, highlighting the platform’s potential in the music industry. With a small team of 10 artists, engineers, and researchers, Riffusion aims to make music creation more accessible and enjoyable for all.
Numidia Valley Taps Lamina1 for Web3 Creative Economy Pilot. In a bid to accelerate digital transformation, Algeria’s Numidia Valley is launching a pilot with Lamina1, the blockchain platform co-founded by Neal Stephenson. The project aims to establish a regional Web3 creative economy by providing infrastructure and support for local artists, storytellers, and developers. Built on Lamina1’s decentralized protocol, the initiative will include training, NFT marketplaces, and smart contract frameworks for media rights and distribution. It’s part of a broader strategy to position Algeria as a center for blockchain innovation in North Africa.
Asteria Launches AI-Enhanced Animated Series ‘The Odd Birds Show.’ Asteria, a generative AI film and animation studio, has launched The Odd Birds Show, a short-form adult animated series created by Swedish animator Arvid Tappert. The series debuts across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and follows a dysfunctional bird family hosting their own talk show. Tappert developed a hybrid production pipeline combining hand-drawn art, 3D modeling, LoRA fine-tuning, VR puppeteering, motion tracking, and AI-assisted animation. Asteria says the approach enables high-quality output with small teams. The studio is also expanding the project into a longer-form series. Asteria’s proprietary AI model, Marey, was trained on ethically licensed content.
Spatial Audio
For more spatial commentary & insights, check out the AI/XR Podcast, hosted by the author of this column, Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, former Paramount futurist and co-founder of Red Camera, and Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap, Mako Robotics, and Synthbee AI. This week’s guest is Sam Liang, CEO of Otter AI. 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.
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