e424 — What’s AI got to do with it?

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strolling robot
Photo by Kindel Media on Pexels

Published 17 July 2023

Michael and Michael get together to cohost this episode while Andy is away.  Topics for this show include stories about the spate of lawsuits related to intellectual property ownership issues for generative AI, Furby, screenless AI and BMW’s ConnectedRide AR glasses.

Starting off with the legal side of AI – while neither Michael nor Michael are attorneys, they are fascinated with the challenges of intellectual property ownership, fair use and licensing in the generative AI domain.  After bringing up a couple of recent articles on the subject, they turn to the Furby toy and the potential for generative AI in that market.

Next, the co-hosts turn to screen less AI – using the example from as a reference, and bringing in the Humane AI Pin to the discussion.  

Switching from the screenless example to AR glasses, Michael and Michael talk about BMW’s AR glasses – check out the video in the show notes below.  They talked about AR in motorcycle helmets way back in e194.

How do you see AI evolving next?  Will screenless design win out over AR or VR?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

AI

CNN Business article: Sarah Silverman sues OpenAI and Meta alleging copyright infringement

CNN Business article: Google hit with lawsuit alleging it stole data from millions of users to train its AI tools

The Verge article: My kids love Furby — send help

Wikipedia article: Teddy Ruxpin

FastCompany article: Why Apple’s Vision Pro should remove the screen

Argodesign

Games at Work e416 — AR Space Invaders

Humane News post: Humane reveals the name of first device, the Humane Ai Pin

AR Vision

Mixed News article: BMW introduces Smartglasses for Motorcycling

Games at Work e194: Human Roombas

TechCrunch article: LiveMap shows off latest prototype of augmented reality motorcycle helmet

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e423 — Take me out to the (virtual) ball game

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DOS Baseball game
Photo by Michael Martine, July 2023

Published 10 July 2023

Andy, Michael and Michael are all together to cohost this episode.  Topics for this show include Andy’s recent Liverpool experiences, AR, VR and AI.  Andy kicked off with details about Liverpool MakeFest, and several of the elements showcased there that caught his eye.  Among these elements are a hot air balloon, the architectural beauty of the Central Library and recycling 3D printing material via Precious Plastic Machines.  He also returned to blogging form and links to his two posts are included below.

On Saturday, 8 July, Major League Baseball hosted a VR stadium for the celebrity All Star Game.  A YouTube recording of the experience by 1stmint is included in the show notes so you can check it out.  

With all of the recent discussion on Apple’s VisionPro, there are a couple of stories about what Supernova Technologies have done on a Quest Pro.  Also on the docket is the new Game Porting Toolkit beta. 

Turning next to AI, the cohosts share their thoughts on Google’s updated privacy policy as it relates to using publicly available information to help improve it’s AI models.  Wrapping up for the episode Michael M shares some of his experiences from MIT’s Dr. Cynthia Breazeal’s talk on social robotics and AI. Dr. Breazeal was the co-founder and Chief Scientist & Chief Experience Officer of Jibo, the social robotics company that featured in several Games at Work episodes over the years.

There’s never quite enough time to get to everything – so the intriguing additional stories the team did not get to discuss today are included in the show notes bonus links below.

Are you changing your online posting behavior to avoid or encourage inclusion of your content in LLMs?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  All rights reserved.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

Andy’s Liverpool Experiences

Liverpool MakeFest, Makers 2023

Diode Zone post: Indoor Hot Air Balloon at Liverpool MakeFest 2023 #livmf23

DoES Liverpool Makerspace

Precious Plastic Machines

Andy’s The Lost Outpost blog: Liverpool Makefest 2023

Andy’s The Lost Outpost blog: Running a 3D print catalogue with VanDAM

AR & VR

Mashable article: MLB will debut a metaverse stadium for the celebrity All-Star game

MLB’s Virtual Ballpark

9 to 5 Mac article: You can kind of try visionOS in VR now without Vision Pro

Accidental Tech Podcast

9 to 5 Mac article: Apple’s Game Porting Tool for macOS got its first update – and it’s a huge one

AI

Gizmodo article: Google Says It’ll Scrape Everything You Post Online for AI

So glad that I was invited to attend a talk by Dr. Cynthia Breazeal yesterday on & . Fascinating story about the entrepreneurial experience of starting and where her research has led her now. media.mit.edu/people/cynthiab/

— Michael Martine (@michaelmartine) 2023-07-07T10:57:17.355Z

MIT Media Lab: Jibo Social Robotic Research Platform

MIT Media Lab: Dr. Cynthia Breazeal

Games at Work e230 Dance this AR Around

Bonus links

Thought we’d have flying cars by now

USA Today article: The first flying electric car, ‘Model A,’ approved by the FAA and it’s 100% electric

Entertainment

Slashfilm article: Futurama Season 11 Trailer: The Animated Series Returns Yet Again

Slashfilm article: Dune: Part Two Trailer: What’s Spice Got To Dune With It?

Hextraction

Hackspace Magazine, Issue 68

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e422 — Meta-Empire Strikes Back

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VR headset
Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash

Published 3 July 2023

Michael and Michael get together to cohost this episode, all about 3D, AR, VR, AI and the metaverse.  Starting things off with a story from Gizmodo, the pair discuss how scientists are able to recreate 3D images of reflections from a person’s eye.  After remembering other intriguing security stories from past episodes, the team turns to a story reporting that Google has discontinued Project Iris – it’s augmented reality glasses effort.  

Next, several metaverse stories take center stage.  Per an article from The Register, metaverses are not succeeding in the marketplace.  The Atlantic has an excellent article on Second Life, authored by Wagner James Au, who also has a new book out called Making a Metaverse that Matters.  Continuing on this theme are stories about how Meta is bundling games in a subscription model and have provided a significant software update to Meta Quest 2 owners.  There is also a piece on how LEGO and Epic Games are partnering up to leverage the Unreal Engine for new experiences.

Then the team turns to AI with several stories on Marvel’s use of AI in a human + AI augmented fashion, what AI is doing to the “old web” and amazing new capabilities from Midjourney.

What are your predictions for AR, the metaverse and AI?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

3D / AR / VR

Gizmodo article: Computer, Enhance: Scientists Reconstruct 3D Images From Eye Reflections

Games at Work e321 – Three Thumbs Up

The Verge article: Google has reportedly killed its Project Iris augmented reality glasses

The Register article: Metaverses are flopping – hard – says Gartner

The Atlantic article: There Will Never Be Another Second Life

Making a Metaverse that Matters by Wagner James Au

The Verge article: Meta’s new Quest Plus subscription gets you two free VR games per month

Fast Company article: Lego and Epic Games want to prove the metaverse is alive and well

LEGO Castaways

Laptop article: Meta Quest 2 owners now own a Meta Quest 2.5 (sort of)

AI

The Verge article: Secret Invasion studio under fire for AI art says ‘no artists’ jobs’ were lost

The Verge article: AI is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born

Ars Technika article: “Stunning”—Midjourney update wows AI artists with camera-like feature

Bonus links

SlashFilm article: LEGO’s Batman Returns Batcave Is A Punishingly Tedious Build, But It’s Worth The Time And Effort

Laughing Squid article: ‘The Mandalorian’ Reimagined as ‘The A-Team’

Uncharted Territories blog post: Maps Distort How We See the World

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e421 — Zero AIs Given

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NYC pedestrian light signal showing a red stop hand and the countdown clock at zero
Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

Published 26 June 2023

The full contingent of cohosts were available for this first episode of summer 2023.  Following on the last two episodes discussion of Apple’s WWDC keynote, Michael R’s edu-staycation and the Vision Pro, there was much to discuss.

Leading off for this episode, is proof positive of Andy’s correct observation that there was zero mention of AI in the WWDC keynote – and for good reason, as the Atlantic article explains.  Michael R shares some of his experiences in working in visionOS (including a screenshot from the visionOS simulator from his Wasted Time app using the newly available developer tools.  The team has a discussion on the kinds of apps that are not allowed as yet for the VisionPro, and notes that there is a “Travel Mode” when the speed of the person wearing the VisionPro exceeds a certain threshold.  

Wrapping up for this week is a discussion on the latest Marvel movie incarnation “Secret Invasion” which uses generative AI for the opening credits, much to the chagrin of the internet, and a robotic version of an AT-AT that takes Andy down memory lane to the Kenner toy.

We are curious to know what you think about the kind of apps that will be among the first and best uses for VisionPro and visionOS.  What toy would you like to see made into a robot?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

The Atlantic article: Apple Is an AI Company Now

Games at Work e419 – A Vision of the Future

IMDB Babylon 5 A Voice in the Wilderness: Part 1— Claudia Christian: Lt. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova

Financial Times article: Sci-fi writer Ted Chiang: ‘The machines we have now are not conscious’

Apple VisionPro

Cult of Mac article: Here are the Vision Pro apps that Apple won’t allow

visionOS SDK is out!
apple.com/newsroom/2023/06/dev

— ntakayama (@ntakayama) 2023-06-21T20:38:39.638Z

Apple Newsroom post: Developer tools to create spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro now available

visionOS simulation image capture of an amazing website & the Wasted Time app
visionOS simulation image capture by Michael Rowe

Apple App Store: Wasted Time by Michael Rowe

@michaelrowe01 I (well an AI) created you a 3d cuckoo as per your request and conversation with @andypiper on @gamesatwork_biz last week 🙂

— Epredator (@epredator) 2023-06-23T13:51:58.777Z

9 to 5 Mac article: Apple Vision Pro has a speed limit, Travel Mode required for use on flights

MacStories article: Developers’ Early Experiments with visionOS

@gamesatwork_biz one for you 🙂 pcgamer.com/they-actually-did-

— Epredator (@epredator) 2023-06-22T07:27:16.767Z

Has anyone ported the 90's Virtuality games to Apple Vision yet?

— Thomas 🔭🕹️ (@thomasfuchs) 2023-06-23T04:00:08.555Z

Wikipedia article: Virtuality

AI and AT-AT

Huffpost article: Marvel Slammed Over Using AI For ‘Secret Invasion’ Opening Credits

huckster.io article: Boring AT-AT Toy Becomes Impressive Robot

ActionFigure411.com post: Kenner vintage collection AT-AT

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