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

Apple’s on an AI Roll, but Siri is Still a Year Away. Apple expects that iPhone 16 shipments will be about 10% higher than its sales iPhone 15, which sold 81 M units, due to interest in its advanced AI capabilities. However, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared a rumor that Siri won’t be ready to handle complex tasks like controlling other apps until next Spring. Apple introduces new functionalities in stages but damn, how hard can Siri be? It’s been 12 years already, and it can’t set a wake-up call.

Feeling Spatial

Matthew Ball Interviews Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth. This July 9 blog post details Ball’s recent discussions with Boz, who discusses Meta’s advancements in the Metaverse, XR, and AI. Bosworth outlines Meta’s three epochs in its Metaverse strategy, highlighting significant milestones such as the acquisition of Oculus VR, the launch of Quest headsets, and the company’s substantial investments in Reality Labs. He also discusses the design challenge of fitting a display into normal-looking audio smartglasses. Bosworth also detailed Meta’s plans for AI in the Metaverse. He views AI as a game-changer, accelerating progress and enabling new, unforeseen functionalities in consumer electronics and the Metaverse.

Follow the Money

AMD is acquiring Finnish AI startup Silo AI for $665 M. Silo AI is Europe’s largest private AI lab, with clients like Allianz, Unilever, and Rolls-Royce. CEO Peter Sarlin will continue leading his team within AMD’s AI Group. This acquisition aims to enhance AMD’s AI model and software development, positioning it as a stronger competitor to Nvidia in the AI hardware market. AMD, under CEO Lisa Su, is expanding its AI offerings with the MI300 accelerators, projecting $4 billion in revenue this year. Despite trailing Nvidia and the semiconductor index in stock gains, AMD’s market cap is near an all-time high at $286 billion. The move is part of AMD’s strategy to capture a larger share of the AI hardware market, which has significantly boosted Nvidia’s valuation.

AI Video Startup Captions Raises $60M. The investment values the company at $500M, bringing the total funding to $100M. The New York-based team has grown from 15 to 60 members in the past year, with over 10 million global creators using the app to produce 3 million videos monthly. The platform simplifies video creation for non-experts, offering tools for text-to-speech via photorealistic avatars and script generation. Captions also provides translations for subtitles and dubs in 28 languages. The startup integrates large language models from OpenAI and Anthropic and voice cloning from ElevenLabs. The round was led by Index Ventures, with return and new investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Adobe Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and actor Jared Leto.

Odyssey is Out of Stealh With $9M for glitch-free, Hollywood-quality AI-generated content. The new UK startup co-founded by veterans from the self-driving car industry has unveiled a Hollywood-grade Gen-AI text-to-video platform to generate cinematic-quality visuals and effects that are editable, addressing the limitations of current text-to-video tools. Odyssey’s team includes AI researchers from major tech companies and artists who worked on features like Dune and Avengers. Investors include Google Ventures and DeepMind’s Jeff Dean.

Infinite Reality Raises $350M and Acquires Landvault for $450M. Metaverse technology company Infinite Reality raised $350 and acquired game developer Landvault for $450 million. These moves have increased Infinite Reality’s valuation to $5.1 billion. New York-based Infinite Reality has been on an acquisition spree this year, spending over $800 million in stock on various companies, including The Drone Racing League ($250 million), Ethereal Engine ($75 million), Action Face ($10 million), and Stakes ($8 million). This recent $350 million investment, entirely in equity and not debt, was secured from a private multi-family office focused on global technology, media, and real estate. The funds will be deployed immediately to accelerate the company’s growth in the burgeoning market of immersive technologies.

Investors Pour $27.1 Billion Into A.I. Start-Ups, Defying a Downturn (New York Times)

The AI Desk

Samsung Unpacks AI in New Galaxy Phones. Bixby is back! The AI voice assistant will be integrated into the new Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6, which were unveiled this week at Samsung Unpacked. They have new AI features to enhance productivity, creativity, and communication such as Note Assist for translating, summarizing, and auto-formatting notes, PDF overlay translation, and the Composer feature in Samsung Keyboard for suggested text generation. The AI-powered ProVisual Engine optimizes photo quality, and Portrait Studio offers creative styles like 3D cartoons. The Galaxy Z Flip 6’s Auto Zoom adjusts framing for FlexCam photos. Additionally, Google Gemini integration provides an intelligent AI assistant accessible via swiping or voice command.

Musk says the next Neuralink brain implant is expected soon, despite issues with the first patient. Elon Musk’s Neuralink plans to implant its second human patient within a week, despite issues with the first trial. Neuralink’s brain-computer interface aims to help those with paralysis. The first implant, conducted this winter, has only 15% functionality, with some threads retracting from the brain, though the patient can still watch videos, read, and play games. To address these issues, Neuralink is making changes such as sculpting the skull surface and inserting threads deeper. Although Neuralink aims to implant more patients this year, no BCI, including Neuralink, has FDA approval for commercialization.

Kuaishou’s KLING video model is Like OpenAI’s Sora. KLING is only available to select creators. Their videos are going viral in China. I am among the over 500,000 users who have applied to beta test Kling.

DreamFlare AI Launches Interactive AI-Generated Streaming Service. The new service merges technology and creativity to deliver interactive storytelling experiences with Cinematic AI.

Toonstar Uses AI To Power Hit YouTube Series. Parker James’ YouTube show uses AI to achieve the speed, scale and efficiency that eludes the broader entertainment industry.

Limp Bizkit’s AI Music Video, AI Pirate Horror Fantasy, Found Footage From The Future, A Treat From Tokyo. I see dozens of Cinematic AI shorts every week and try to include the best in my weekly column. This week, there’s too much AI. It demanded its own story.

https://youtu.be/bSTX2xVpfPw

An AI Movie Made in One Text Prompt. (Eric Barmak/The Ankler)

Listen In

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. No show July 5th but on July 12th we’ll be back to our regular weekly schedule with Chandra Devam, co-founder and CEO, Aris MD. 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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