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

A federal judge ruled this week that Apple willfully violated a 2021 injunction in its antitrust case with Epic Games, escalating the legal battle over App Store payment policies. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple engineered barriers, including a 27% off-app commission and misleading warning screens, to deter developers from offering alternative payment methods, defying the court’s prior ruling. Epic sued in 2020 to loosen Apple’s control over transactions in apps using its iOS operating system. After Apple failed to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the injunction. When it took effect in early 2024, Apple only slightly adjusted its practices. The Judge then referred Apple to the U.S. Attorney for potential criminal contempt, an extraordinary step. The Verge says Apple has just lost control of its App Store. There is no app for that.

Elsewhere in big tech regulation, the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust trial against Google has evolved into a pivotal battle over the future of artificial intelligence. The DOJ contends that Google’s dominance in search is extending into AI, potentially stifling competition in this emerging field. Proposed remedies include divesting the Chrome browser, ending default search engine agreements, and mandating data sharing with rivals . Google CEO Sundar Pichai warns such measures could undermine the company’s innovation and compromise user privacy. He argues that forced data sharing would devalue Google’s intellectual property and allow competitors to replicate its search engine. This case is the most significant antitrust challenge to a U.S. tech company since the Microsoft default browser trial in the 1990s. Judge Amit Mehta is expected to rule on the proposed remedies by August 2025. The outcome could reshape the competitive landscape of both search and AI industries.

Feeling Spatial

Meta sells an estimated 1 million+ headsets in Q1, totalling Quest 3, 3s, and the hot-selling Ray-Ban Meta Smartglasses.

How Many XR Devices Did Meta Sell in Q1?

Super League Acquires Supersocial as Roblox Studios begin to consolidate. This strategic move combines Super League’s expertise in brand integrations with Supersocial’s strength in creating bespoke virtual worlds, enhancing Super League’s position in the metaverse advertising space. The merged entity now boasts 49 immersive experiences on Roblox, accumulating over 390 million visits and 3 billion advertising impressions. Supersocial’s impressive client roster includes major brands like Gucci, Walmart, and Warner Bros. Post-acquisition, Supersocial’s founder, Yon Raz-Fridman, will serve as an advisor to Super League.

ArborXR Buys InformXR, Adds Analytics Muscle to Enterprise XR Stack. Enterprise XR platform ArborXR has acquired InformXR, a VR learning analytics startup led by Dan Kuykendall, marking its first acquisition. The deal brings InformXR’s engineering and data science team into ArborXR, enabling the launch of ArborXR Insights—a new analytics suite designed to measure learner performance, demonstrate ROI, and integrate with 500+ learning management systems. Kuykendall, who previously exited cybersecurity firm Rapid7, will be joining the ArborXR team. The acquisition comes as ArborXR expands its role as one of the few XR device management platforms officially supported by Meta. With over 3,000 clients, including 60+ Fortune 500s, ArborXR is positioning itself as a central player in scaling VR training inside large institutions.

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.

Beats & Bites

Follow the Money

Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings is reportedly in discussions to raise approximately $20 billion in new funding. This would value the merger of xAI and X at over $120 billion and would be one of the largest private capital raises in history, second only to OpenAI’s recent $40 billion round. The merger, completed in March 2025, valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, consolidating Musk’s AI and social media ventures under a single umbrella. The anticipated funds would potentially alleviate X’s substantial debt obligations. However, some analysts express skepticism regarding the lofty valuation, citing challenges such as X’s declining advertising revenue and xAI’s competition with established AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic. Funding discussions are ongoing, with terms subject to change.

Cheehoo raises $10 Million to launch an AI-powered creative engine for animators and IP holders, aiming to streamline animation workflows and asset reuse.

The AI Desk

OpenAI has rolled back a recent update to its GPT-4o model after widespread user backlash over the chatbot’s overly agreeable and sycophantic behavior. The update, intended to make ChatGPT more intuitive, instead led to responses that blindly affirmed even harmful or illogical prompts—like choosing to save a toaster over a herd of cows. Users shared examples online, prompting swift internal review. CEO Sam Altman admitted the update relied too heavily on short-term feedback and failed to anticipate evolving user dynamics. OpenAI is now revising its training methods and system prompts, and adding new behavioral guardrails to prevent the model from defaulting to flattery or empty agreement.

AI Game Development Enters Its Agentic Era With Upheaval’s Dreamer Portal. These game industry veterans built an AI system to shave tens of thousands of hours of development time.

AI And Hollywood’s Next Golden Age. AI tools are reshaping Hollywood, slashing production costs, and ushering in a new golden age—at enormous human and economic cost.

AI Is Using Your Likes to Get Inside Your Head (Wired/Book Excerpt)

Natasha Lyonne is set to make her feature directorial debut with Uncanny Valley, a sci-fi film co-written with Brit Marling that will be produced by AI first Asteria Studios. The production will use Moonvalley’s Marey, an AI model trained exclusively on licensed material. This approach hopes to address ethical concerns surrounding AI-generated content in filmmaking. The project emerges amid ongoing debates about AI’s role in Hollywood, particularly regarding creative rights and the use of AI in storytelling. Both Lyonne and Marling will star in the project, which explores the story of a teenager whose reality is disrupted by a popular virtual reality game.

Asteria’s AI-Driven “Beyond The Vivid Unknown” Heads to Cannes. Asteria and Pressman Film’s immersive installation Beyond The Vivid Unknown has been selected for the 2025 Festival de Cannes Immersive Competition. Directed by John Fitzgerald and based on Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi, the piece uses generative AI trained on Reggio’s archives and Philip Glass’ music to explore the evolving relationship between humans, nature, and technology. The installation responds to viewer presence with real-time computer vision, creating an interactive experience that reflects AI’s role as both mirror and author of a rapidly shifting world.

https://youtu.be/jdqzOkmJATw

Spatial Audio

For more spatial commentary & insights, check out the AI/XR Podcast, hosted by Charlie Fink, the author of this column, 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 Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek, author, Your AI Roadmap. 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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