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Category: Metaverse

Web 2 Oh, It’s Not Over Yet: The Era of the Fakes

Web 2 Oh, It’s Not Over Yet: The Era of the Fakes

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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Despite all of the discussion about Web 3, it has been eclipsed of late by Generative AIs such as ChatGPT, which, according to many an article we’ve seen, is going to make a lot of white-collar workers redundant, as the Brits say. Artificial Intelligence Passes MBA Exam (given by a Wharton professor, FYI) and New ‘Robot’ Lawyer to Represent Defendant in US Court. ChatGPT even passed the US Medical Licensing exam. As we know, it’s also being used to write news articles, tweets and who know what else in startup land, giving new meaning to the term, ‘fake it till you make it.’

When we first got wind of the Generative AI, knowing that it was scraping the internet and well aware of the rampant censorship that has been and is being practiced by the social networks, all of whom have had a stranglehold on the conversation for quite some time, including the pre-Musk Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, we knew this would be a problem. And lest we forget, the programs tend to be written by programmers who have a certain bias, or whose C-Level has a certain bias, and in case you missed it:  The damage done to the credibility of AI by ChatGPT engineers building in political bias is irreparable. The AIs will always have human biases, because it’s humans who are creating it.

Generative AI isn’t the only thing that’s faking it. Getting more sophisticated and no doubt soon to hit that same tipping point are the Deepfakes, both visual and audio. For how many years has Big Tech been capturing your face and voice?  “With no barriers to creating AI-synthesized text, audio and video, the potential for misuse in identity theft, financial fraud and tarnish reputations has sparked global alarm,” the Japan Times reported. Read More...

Has Zuck Run Out of Luck?

Has Zuck Run Out of Luck?

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Photo by Annie Spratt @unsplash

 Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook (now Meta) has always been something of a bellwether for the Web 2.0 Age of Surveillance nee Age of Social and high time to just call it as it is.

Since Zuckerberg did help to define the last iteration, it stands to reason that he would lead us once more into the fray as we barrel towards Web 3, no?

He thinks so. He may not be building his own metaverse as originally planned, but nor is he sitting idly by. Au contraire. Instead, as Futurism noted, “the company wants to get in on the ground floor and determine its rules.” Read More...

Is Facebook Imploding?

Is Facebook Imploding?

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Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Although you might believe that we meant to say ‘Meta,’ no, we meant Facebook, which is a division of Meta.

According to Techcrunch, Meta says its metaverse biz lost another $3B in Q1 – but the 2030s will be ‘exciting’ and damn the torpedoes. Make no mistake about it and according to Input, Mark Zuckerberg is hell-bent on the metaverse — and getting you to work in VR, pointing out that “The Facebook CEO…sees it as the “successor to the mobile internet”…The big question is if anyone will follow Zuckerberg into the metaverse.”

Certainly not Sheryl Sandberg. According to the Wall Street Journal, “One of the world’s most powerful executives became increasingly burned out and disconnected from the mega-business she was instrumental in building. That dovetailed with a company investigation into her activities. Read More...

The New Era of Tracking: Too Much to Swallow?

The New Era of Tracking: Too Much to Swallow?

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

 We have entered a new era of tech. Web 3.0, including blockchain/the distributed web, cryptocurrency, the metaverse, 5G and before too long, quantum computing (The Need, Promise, and Reality of Quantum Computing), which will certainly be a huge game-changer.

After all the loss of privacy we’d experienced during Web 2.0h???, as we now like to call it, as capturing all our personal data was supposedly all in the name of selling us yet another pair of, say, sneakers. Oh, and connecting the world through social, too, as it was the social web after all, no matter how anti-social it became over time. But considering how much more the next era in tech is promising – and let’s not forget robotics, connected glasses, eg the upcoming Apple Glasses, the Internet of Things, AI, Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, et al are also in the mix – what a wonderful era of promise awaits us! We’re finally going to get it all right and in fact, to help you prepare, head’s up: “To succeed in the future, you MUST learn web3, @Mishadavinci tweeted.  These 7 world-changing concepts get you up to speed.”

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Same Schmidt, Different Day

Same Schmidt, Different Day

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It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on the tech cabal,. You know that there’s always something to see. And something they’d prefer you’d not see.

One of the latest reports is that Apple and Meta Gave User Data to Hackers Who Used Forged Legal Requests. It seems the two behemoths “provided customer data to hackers who masqueraded as law enforcement officials,” Yahoo!finance reported, including “basic subscriber details, such as a customer’s address, phone number and IP address, in mid-2021 in response to the forged “emergency data requests.””

It seems that rather than hacking Apple and Meta (nee Facebook) directly, given their armies of coders, instead, the hackers breached law enforcement agencies worldwide. For the record, the hackers who sell this information to various and nefarious, only charge $100-$250 for this service. In 2021, Meta received 21,000+ ‘emergency requests’ which do not need to be signed off by a judge, and complied with 77% of them, while Apple received over 1100 and complied with 93% of them. Read More...

The Metaverse and the Peloton Saga: A Cautionary Tale

The Metaverse and the Peloton Saga: A Cautionary Tale

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Technologies change with time and circumstances. The lockdowns brought the rise of Zoom, Peloton and Hopin, to name a few. But times change, as do needs and fortunes.

While much attention given of late to Peloton, it’s also notable that Virtual events platform Hopin cut(s) 12% of staff, citing goal of ‘sustainable growth.’ As Techcrunch reported, “Following unprecedented growth and several acquisitions, we are reorganizing to align with our goals for greater efficiency and sustainable growth,” the company said in a statement…Hopin acquired five companies in just 2021, including a $250 million purchase of StreamYard.”

David Bowie said that tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming, and as TechCrunch noted, Hopin “merely 11 months prior…closed a $400 million raise at a $5.65 billion valuation. Then (founder Johnny) Boufarhat told TechCrunch that “his company intends on being operationally IPO-ready next year.” Read More...

Is the Long Arm of Silicon Valley Being Cut Off at the Knees?

Is the Long Arm of Silicon Valley Being Cut Off at the Knees?

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

f you’ve been following what’s been going on lately in tech and focusing on the headlines, you might have missed the forest through the trees.

Silicon Valley Disruption Part 1:

Facebook just lost half a million users, the headlines screamed (out of nearly 2B, and no bigs, you’d think, but a) they’re not growing, b) those users are in the US: prime market, which meant they took a big hit on their profits and c) it’s the first time ever that FB lost users), and the stock was devalued 20%, wiping  $200BN off the value of parent-firm Meta. Of course, founder  Mark Zuckerberg was quick to come up with the excuses, par usual (ever notice that it’s never his bad?): Read More...

“Beware the Tech Industrial Complex”

“Beware the Tech Industrial Complex”

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It was President Dwight D. Eisenhower who said that when leaving office, although most people quote his warning to beware the military industrial complex. He was right on both counts, but the former seems just a bit more prescient at this juncture.

The news that grabbed the headlines this week was Microsoft’s $70B bid for the troubled Activision (Microsoft’s Activision buy could shake up gaming), but the real news is that Microsoft is bigger than Google, Amazon and Facebook. But now lawmakers treat it like an ally in antitrust battles.

Odd, given that so much attention is focused these days on anti-trust and Big Tech and note to self, the acquisition would make Microsoft bigger in the gaming space than Nintendo. This, as we stand at the threshold of the metaverse and given Microsoft’s ownership of LinkedIn, this would consolidate its position in the metaverse in both work and play. Read More...

Life, the Metaverse and Everything

Life, the Metaverse and Everything

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The reference is the third book in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, FYI.

It’s traditional at this time of the year to either look back at the best/worst ofs from the year before, or to prognosticate about the year ahead.

This point in the trajectory of tech feels different, as we venture across the threshold of Web 3.0. meaning that there have been two prior iterations: Read More...