A new report, commissioned by Meta examines the economic opportunity of the metaverse that could be achieved in the US, Canada, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey and Asia, also estimating the economic potential of the metaverse for the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Meta Newsroom
Understanding the Economic Potential of the Metaverse
New research reports examine the economic opportunities the metaverse presents around the world.
The metaverse is transforming the way we interact with virtual environments and opening up a plethora of business opportunities across various industries
Check out these 5 promising sectors ready to thrive in the Metaverse:
1. Virtual Real Estate: Secure your digital presence by buying, selling, or leasing virtual land and properties.
2. Retail: Expand your product offerings with virtual goods and services, catering to the fashion-savvy, home decorators, and more
3. Advertising: Connect with your target audience in innovative ways through immersive ads, virtual events, and interactive experiences.
4. Entertainment: Revolutionize live performances, film festivals, and gaming events by offering unique, engaging experiences in the Metaverse.
5. Gig Economy: Create new job opportunities like virtual tour guides, event planners, and content creators for a more flexible and global workforce.
Check out these 5 promising sectors ready to thrive in the Metaverse:
1. Virtual Real Estate: Secure your digital presence by buying, selling, or leasing virtual land and properties.
2. Retail: Expand your product offerings with virtual goods and services, catering to the fashion-savvy, home decorators, and more
3. Advertising: Connect with your target audience in innovative ways through immersive ads, virtual events, and interactive experiences.
4. Entertainment: Revolutionize live performances, film festivals, and gaming events by offering unique, engaging experiences in the Metaverse.
5. Gig Economy: Create new job opportunities like virtual tour guides, event planners, and content creators for a more flexible and global workforce.
The Metaverse Insider
10 Staggering Metaverse Business Opportunities In 2023
There are several exciting Metaverse business opportunities, including virtual event management, e-commerce, retail and more.
Amazon’s secret AI robot codenamed ‘Burnham’
A leaked internal document by Insider reports that Amazon is working on a secret AI project named Burnham, aimed at enhancing the intelligence of Amazon’s Astro robot with AI.
The new tech can add a ‘conversational interface’ and a deeper understanding of household contexts, allowing Astro to accurately remember and respond to situations.
This might include alerting homeowners about a stove left on, calling 911 in emergencies, or finding lost keys.
A leaked internal document by Insider reports that Amazon is working on a secret AI project named Burnham, aimed at enhancing the intelligence of Amazon’s Astro robot with AI.
The new tech can add a ‘conversational interface’ and a deeper understanding of household contexts, allowing Astro to accurately remember and respond to situations.
This might include alerting homeowners about a stove left on, calling 911 in emergencies, or finding lost keys.
The Verge
Can generative AI finally bring us Rosie the Robot?
Maybe advanced AI will make Amazon’s Astro robot more useful.
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This article is written by an ER doctor, Joshua Tamayo-Sarver, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAMIA, who explains how he uses ChatGPT, to explain complex medical situations to patients and their families in a simple, compassionate, and understandable way, rather than as a diagnostic tool.
The author recounts an incident where he used ChatGPT to help explain to a family why their mother, who had pulmonary edema, could not receive IV fluids despite appearing dehydrated. The AI model provided a clear and compassionate explanation, which ultimately helped the family understand the situation and allowed the medical team to focus on treating the patient.
Tamayo-Sarver suggests that ChatGPT can act like a highly intelligent, though occasionally fallible, intern. It can take down patient histories, create written communication for patients and staff, and simplify complex medical information.
He emphasizes that the output must be carefully checked, but argues that reviewing the work is usually faster than starting from scratch.
He hopes that the Healthcare industry will focus on such immediately useful applications of AI, rather than on more distant possibilities, such as completely transforming Medicine.
He notes that there are challenges to integrating AI in healthcare, including issues of patient privacy and workflow, but argues these are not insurmountable.
He also points out that using AI to explain complex medical situations in simple terms could save significant time and help avoid "doctor speak," which often confuses patients.
Tamayo-Sarver argues that AI has actually allowed him and his staff to devote more time to the human aspect of healthcare.
The author recounts an incident where he used ChatGPT to help explain to a family why their mother, who had pulmonary edema, could not receive IV fluids despite appearing dehydrated. The AI model provided a clear and compassionate explanation, which ultimately helped the family understand the situation and allowed the medical team to focus on treating the patient.
Tamayo-Sarver suggests that ChatGPT can act like a highly intelligent, though occasionally fallible, intern. It can take down patient histories, create written communication for patients and staff, and simplify complex medical information.
He emphasizes that the output must be carefully checked, but argues that reviewing the work is usually faster than starting from scratch.
He hopes that the Healthcare industry will focus on such immediately useful applications of AI, rather than on more distant possibilities, such as completely transforming Medicine.
He notes that there are challenges to integrating AI in healthcare, including issues of patient privacy and workflow, but argues these are not insurmountable.
He also points out that using AI to explain complex medical situations in simple terms could save significant time and help avoid "doctor speak," which often confuses patients.
Tamayo-Sarver argues that AI has actually allowed him and his staff to devote more time to the human aspect of healthcare.
Fast Company
I’m an ER doctor. Here’s how I’m already using ChatGPT to help treat patients
There are many futuristic possibilities for how AI might transform health care. But it can help doctors do a better job in small, safe ways right now.
EU council adopts legal framework for crypto sector
MiCA requires crypto firms such as wallet providers and exchanges to seek a license to operate across the bloc, and stablecoin issuers to hold suitable reserves.
Its main features were politically agreed in June, but it’s been subject to administrative hold-ups. Major provisions take effect just over a year after it’s published in the bloc’s official journal, which is now likely in June or July.
The finance ministers are also set to formalize their consent to new measures that will allow tax authorities to share data on people's crypto holdings on Tuesday.
MiCA requires crypto firms such as wallet providers and exchanges to seek a license to operate across the bloc, and stablecoin issuers to hold suitable reserves.
Its main features were politically agreed in June, but it’s been subject to administrative hold-ups. Major provisions take effect just over a year after it’s published in the bloc’s official journal, which is now likely in June or July.
The finance ministers are also set to formalize their consent to new measures that will allow tax authorities to share data on people's crypto holdings on Tuesday.
CoinDesk
EU’s Crypto Legal Framework Inches Towards Law With Finance Ministers’ Sign-Off
The landmark Markets in Crypto Assets regulation was given final approval by the EU’s Council, which also agreed a new law for sharing data on crypto tax holdings.
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General Catalyst, A16z back Hippocratic AI for $50 million
Hippocratic AI — a new venture launching out of stealth today with a $50 million seed investment from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz — aims to investigate the potential role of large language models in health care.
Founders Munjal Shah and Meenesh Bhimani tell me their current goals are exploratory: researching and developing a large language model that's tuned to health care topics, figuring out how to test it against a wide range of knowledge benchmarks, and measuring its bedside manner.
The rival venture funds appear to be heavily involved in the startup: Hippocratic has tapped into both funds' health system and payer networks, and General Catalyst said managing partner Hemant Taneja helped create the company.
“Us and the rest of the world woke up about the same time,” Shah said. “What would happen if we just had an infinite supply of health care workers…what if we gave every person in the country a free dietitian?”
Hippocratic AI — a new venture launching out of stealth today with a $50 million seed investment from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz — aims to investigate the potential role of large language models in health care.
Founders Munjal Shah and Meenesh Bhimani tell me their current goals are exploratory: researching and developing a large language model that's tuned to health care topics, figuring out how to test it against a wide range of knowledge benchmarks, and measuring its bedside manner.
The rival venture funds appear to be heavily involved in the startup: Hippocratic has tapped into both funds' health system and payer networks, and General Catalyst said managing partner Hemant Taneja helped create the company.
“Us and the rest of the world woke up about the same time,” Shah said. “What would happen if we just had an infinite supply of health care workers…what if we gave every person in the country a free dietitian?”
How we live determines how long we live. Our health late in life is also affected by what our parents did before we were born.
New study finds the DNA regions affected by our mother’s smoking & drinking habits, intelligence & their rate of aging
New study finds the DNA regions affected by our mother’s smoking & drinking habits, intelligence & their rate of aging
BioMed Central
Phenome-wide analyses identify an association between the parent-of-origin effects dependent methylome and the rate of aging in…
Background The variation in the rate at which humans age may be rooted in early events acting through the genomic regions that are influenced by such events and subsequently are related to health phenotypes in later life. The parent-of-origin-effect (POE)…
Cognixion received FDA breakthrough device designation for its brain computer Interface with augmented reality for assistive communication
PR Newswire
Cognixion Receives FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its Brain-Computer Interface with Augmented Reality for Assistive Communication
U.S. FDA Breakthrough Device designations are granted to expedite the review of technologies with the potential to greatly impact those suffering from life...
A new AI system can translate a person’s brain activity — while listening to a story or silently imagining telling a story — into a continuous stream of text.
The system developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin might help people who are mentally conscious yet unable to physically speak, such as those debilitated by strokes, to communicate intelligibly again.
The work relies in part on a transformer model, similar to the ones that power Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
Unlike other language decoding systems in development, this system does not require subjects to have surgical implants, making the process noninvasive.
Participants also do not need to use only words from a prescribed list.
Brain activity is measured using an fMRI scanner after extensive training of the decoder, in which the individual listens to hours of podcasts in the scanner.
Later, provided that the participant is open to having their thoughts decoded, their listening to a new story or imagining telling a story allows the machine to generate corresponding text from brain activity alone.
The system developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin might help people who are mentally conscious yet unable to physically speak, such as those debilitated by strokes, to communicate intelligibly again.
The work relies in part on a transformer model, similar to the ones that power Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
Unlike other language decoding systems in development, this system does not require subjects to have surgical implants, making the process noninvasive.
Participants also do not need to use only words from a prescribed list.
Brain activity is measured using an fMRI scanner after extensive training of the decoder, in which the individual listens to hours of podcasts in the scanner.
Later, provided that the participant is open to having their thoughts decoded, their listening to a new story or imagining telling a story allows the machine to generate corresponding text from brain activity alone.
UT Austin News - The University of Texas at Austin
Brain Activity Decoder Can Reveal Stories in People’s Minds
AUSTIN, Texas — A new artificial intelligence system called a semantic decoder can translate a person’s brain activity — while listening to a story or
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Mercedes designers, engineers, and manufacturers make use of VR technology in a number of ways during the process of conceptualizing and constructing vehicles.
This year, the company began a partnership with Nvidia focused on the use of the chipset manufacturer’s Omniverse platform. This is a VR-enabled digitaltwin collaborative environment for 3D design.
This year, the company began a partnership with Nvidia focused on the use of the chipset manufacturer’s Omniverse platform. This is a VR-enabled digitaltwin collaborative environment for 3D design.
Forbes
How Mercedes-Benz Uses Virtual And Augmented Reality To Sell Cars, Train Staff, And Create New Customer Experiences
Mercedes-Benz utilizes virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies for engineering, marketing, driver, and customer experiences, as well as employee training, enhancing various aspects of the car manufacturing process and transforming customer interactions…
Meta partnered with BMW to create VR/XR
YouTube
Meta x BMW Research Update | Reality Labs Research
The goal of our research project with BMW is to explore how AR and VR could one day be integrated into smart vehicles to safely enhance the passenger experience. Check out the latest news: https://tech.facebook.com/reality-labs/2023/5/meta-bmw-quest-pro-project…
EEG + LLM interfaces have a high chance of being ferociously important soon.
ARAYA Inc. | Make the future of humanity overwhelmingly interesting through AI x Neurotech.
Successfully conducted experiment on operating G-mail using ultra-high-density electroencephalograph | Araya Inc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRllZOq6s7U ArayaSasai, R&D Dept.
This LLM guidance language from Microsoft is super interesting. Worth a read-through for sure.
GitHub
GitHub - guidance-ai/guidance: A guidance language for controlling large language models.
A guidance language for controlling large language models. - guidance-ai/guidance
Microsoft's artificial nose is able to recognize smells!
We are one step closer to human-like AI Robots.
With a simple gas sensor and a micro-controller, AI nose can identify the smell of bread, coffee, and many more scents.
The Artificial Nose uses a neural network to correlate the concentration of gases in the air to categories of smell.
When connected to an IoT platform, this nose could be used for a variety of scenarios: it could help to craft a real-time alert system for when foods have spoiled, or for detecting specific gases in the air.
Gas sensors measure the concentration of various gases emanating from a substance. An AI model extract the key characteristics of these gases and uses them to infer the corresponding smell.
The inferred result is shown to the user and can also be sent to Azure IoT to be further analyzed (ex. send alerts), or to contribute to updating and improving the model.
Building this Artificial Nose starts with the hardware, an off-the-self gas sensor and a microcontroller. The sensors can detect the concentration of gases—like Carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Ethyl alcohol(C2H5OH), and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)—found in the surrounding air.
The sensor is connected to a microcontroller, which is used to read and collect gas sensor data and feed it into the AI model.
The Artificial Nose “smells” by using a neural network to correlate the concentration of gases (CO, NO2, etc.) in the air—data inputs received from the gas sensor— to certain categories of smell (coffee, whiskey, bread).
The smell category is then displayed on the microcontroller screen along with a visual cue indicating the model’s degree of certainty in its correlation.
We are one step closer to human-like AI Robots.
With a simple gas sensor and a micro-controller, AI nose can identify the smell of bread, coffee, and many more scents.
The Artificial Nose uses a neural network to correlate the concentration of gases in the air to categories of smell.
When connected to an IoT platform, this nose could be used for a variety of scenarios: it could help to craft a real-time alert system for when foods have spoiled, or for detecting specific gases in the air.
Gas sensors measure the concentration of various gases emanating from a substance. An AI model extract the key characteristics of these gases and uses them to infer the corresponding smell.
The inferred result is shown to the user and can also be sent to Azure IoT to be further analyzed (ex. send alerts), or to contribute to updating and improving the model.
Building this Artificial Nose starts with the hardware, an off-the-self gas sensor and a microcontroller. The sensors can detect the concentration of gases—like Carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Ethyl alcohol(C2H5OH), and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)—found in the surrounding air.
The sensor is connected to a microcontroller, which is used to read and collect gas sensor data and feed it into the AI model.
The Artificial Nose “smells” by using a neural network to correlate the concentration of gases (CO, NO2, etc.) in the air—data inputs received from the gas sensor— to certain categories of smell (coffee, whiskey, bread).
The smell category is then displayed on the microcontroller screen along with a visual cue indicating the model’s degree of certainty in its correlation.
Microsoft Research
AI For Good Lab - Microsoft Research
The Microsoft AI For Good team helps researchers and organizations reach solutions on some of the world’s biggest problems.
ChatGPT iOS app is live in the US, rolling out in other countries over upcoming weeks.
App Store
ChatGPT App - App Store
Download ChatGPT by OpenAI on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like ChatGPT.
1. next gen data centers designed from the ground up for AI workloads,
2. first custom silicon for AI training & inference,
3. phase two of Research Supercluster,
4. of the world’s most powerful AI supercomputers.
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Facebook
Reimagining Meta’s infrastructure for the AI age
Meta is executing on an ambitious plan to build the next generation of its infrastructure backbone – specifically for AI. This includes our first custom chip for running AI models, a new AI-optimized data center design, and phase 2 of our 16,000 GPU supercomputer…
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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the commencement of the e-HKD Pilot Programme, including full-fledged payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenized deposits, settlement of Web3 transactions and settlement of tokenized assets.
18 companies selected Only Ripple Labs is a company in the field of cryptocurrency, and the others are Alipay Visa Mastercard and 9 banks. Ripple labs is involved in tokenized asset settlement projects.
18 companies selected Only Ripple Labs is a company in the field of cryptocurrency, and the others are Alipay Visa Mastercard and 9 banks. Ripple labs is involved in tokenized asset settlement projects.
Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Hong Kong Monetary Authority - Commencement of the e-HKD Pilot Programme
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (18 May) announced the commencement of the e-HKD Pilot Programme. A total of 16 firms (see Annex) from the financial, payment and technology sectors have
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Here are 10 new YC-backed AI companies you need to pay attention to:
1. Stack AI
Focus: Build LLM applications (i.e. ChatGPT) in minutes.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: stack-ai.com
2. Quazel
Focus: Language learning with a conversational AI Tutor.
Location: Zürich, Switzerland.
Website: quazel.com
3. Magicflow
Focus: Webflow for AI development.
Location: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
Website: magicflow.ai
4. JustPaid io
Focus: AI-powered financial controller automating bill pay and invoicing.
Location: Mountain View, CA.
Website: justpaid.io
5. Linum
Focus: Midjourney for Video.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: linum.ai
6. Layup
Focus: AI that builds workflows across company apps.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: layupai.com
7. Buildt
Focus: AI devtool to search and understand large codebases.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: buildt.ai
8. Type
Focus: The AI-first document editor.
Location: New York, NY.
Website: type.ai
9. Persana AI
Focus: Intelligent sales copilot powered by fine-tuned models.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: persana.ai
10. Turntable
Focus: AI-native operating system for analytics teams.
Location: New York, NY.
Website: turntable.so
1. Stack AI
Focus: Build LLM applications (i.e. ChatGPT) in minutes.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: stack-ai.com
2. Quazel
Focus: Language learning with a conversational AI Tutor.
Location: Zürich, Switzerland.
Website: quazel.com
3. Magicflow
Focus: Webflow for AI development.
Location: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
Website: magicflow.ai
4. JustPaid io
Focus: AI-powered financial controller automating bill pay and invoicing.
Location: Mountain View, CA.
Website: justpaid.io
5. Linum
Focus: Midjourney for Video.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: linum.ai
6. Layup
Focus: AI that builds workflows across company apps.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: layupai.com
7. Buildt
Focus: AI devtool to search and understand large codebases.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: buildt.ai
8. Type
Focus: The AI-first document editor.
Location: New York, NY.
Website: type.ai
9. Persana AI
Focus: Intelligent sales copilot powered by fine-tuned models.
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Website: persana.ai
10. Turntable
Focus: AI-native operating system for analytics teams.
Location: New York, NY.
Website: turntable.so
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The ChatGPT effect rolls on. Snowflake in advanced talks to buy Neeva as database giant pushes into AI
Database software provider Snowflake has been in advanced talks to acquire Neeva, a search startup founded by former top Google ad tech executive Sridhar Ramaswamy.
Buying Neeva could help Snowflake offer AI software that helps companies search for information in internal documents and data, according to people who do business with Snowflake.
Neeva primarily sells an ad-free web-search app for consumers, but it developed software that combines search with large-language models, which are trained on text to understand the nuances of speech and writing.
That could fit with Snowflake’s efforts to help cloud customers use the kind of AI popularized by chatbots like ChatGPT that respond to conversational commands and can automate some business tasks.
Snowflake is trying to catch up to rivals such as Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud that already sell access to such AI software.
Database software provider Snowflake has been in advanced talks to acquire Neeva, a search startup founded by former top Google ad tech executive Sridhar Ramaswamy.
Buying Neeva could help Snowflake offer AI software that helps companies search for information in internal documents and data, according to people who do business with Snowflake.
Neeva primarily sells an ad-free web-search app for consumers, but it developed software that combines search with large-language models, which are trained on text to understand the nuances of speech and writing.
That could fit with Snowflake’s efforts to help cloud customers use the kind of AI popularized by chatbots like ChatGPT that respond to conversational commands and can automate some business tasks.
Snowflake is trying to catch up to rivals such as Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud that already sell access to such AI software.
The Information
Snowflake in Talks to Buy Search Startup Neeva in AI Push
Database software provider Snowflake has been in advanced talks to acquire Neeva, a search startup founded by former top Google ad tech executive Sridhar Ramaswamy, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. Buying Neeva could help Snowflake…
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