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- Zuck’s Metaverse baby Reality Labs is bleeding $$$
Zuck’s Metaverse baby Reality Labs is bleeding $$$
PLUS: Viral ‘Barbie’ AI selfie generator built in one hour
Yawn
July 31, 2023
A cheerful Friday from your friends at Yawn ✌🏼
Things are moving quick in the emerging tech world. We’re here to slow it down a little and give you an edge on what’s what.
Here’s today’s agenda:
Zuck’s Metaverse baby Reality Labs is bleeding money 😲
Viral ‘Barbie’ AI selfie generator built in one hour 👚
Four AI giants unite to regulate AI 🤝
3 Sleepy Snippets 💤
Read time: 5 minutes
Meta's ‘metaverse’ division lost $21.3 billion since early 2022 on its VR/AR initiative. Reality Labs revenue declined to $276 million in Q2 2022 from $339 million in Q1, showing limited mainstream traction.
Meta executives warned Reality Labs operating losses will "increase meaningfully" as product development continues. In Q2 2022 alone, Reality Labs posted $3.7 billion in operating losses.
However, Meta's latest earnings report indicated the Zuckerberg-led company achieved an overall quarterly revenue of $32 billion, representing an 11% increase compared to the same period last year.
But, to bring things down to more of a bummer note for Zuck…Threads user count is down by more than HALF.
Prior to the movie’s debut, Barbie launched an AI-powered selfie generator that lets users upload a selfie, then transforms it into a Barbie-style portrait, attracted 13 million users in a week.
The success of an app like this exemplifies how marketers are tapping into the hype around AI to grab consumer eyeballs. This creative tech has been at the forefront of advertising in 2022, with big brands like Coca-Cola and Mint Mobile rolling out attention-grabbing AI activations already.
The craziest part of this story to us, is that it took less than an hour for PhotoRoom to build, suggesting similar viral hits could be within reach for other studios.
"There are endless opportunities to harness generative AI's power for our upcoming campaigns," said Cameron Curtis, Warner Bros. EVP of Worldwide Digital Marketing. "Its potential for captivating, personalized storytelling and audience engagement is truly groundbreaking, opening doors that were once unimaginable."
The runaway success of this ingenious filter signals that Hollywood is eager to jump on the bandwagon of leveraging AI for marketing. We'll likely see even more ambitious interactive experiments from studios in the future thanks to more accessible AI tools. But risks around data ethics, bias and consent will need navigating as entertainment AI expands.
Just this week, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic launched a group called the Frontier AI Model Forum. It aims to ensure safe development of advanced "frontier" AI models exceeding current capabilities.
Frontier AI refers to models with broad task potential posing severe public safety risks per OpenAI. One of the goals is to align companies on safety practices for powerful AI before issues emerge.
While it will focus on advancing AI safety research and identifying best practices, the group also plans to collaborate with policymakers, academics and civil society. The Forum exemplifies tech companies trying to self-regulate nascent AI proactively.
Though currently leading the worldwide AI development race, some experts caution that America jeopardizes losing its economic and strategic edge by lagging behind in practically implementing the technology throughout its industries. They argue that if the US does not accelerate AI integration and adoption across sectors, China may ultimately leverage the technology more extensively within its economy.
AutogenAI, an AI writing assistant for sales bids and pitches, has raised $22.3 million. The platform uses generative AI to compose tailored proposals and responses for clients. Users provide key talking points and AutogenAI generates full prose content. The funding comes amid surging demand for business-focused generative AI.
Stack Overflow launched OverflowAI, a new generative AI service to help developers and builders. It leverages Anthropic's Claude AI system fine-tuned on Stack Overflow content. Users describe coding problems in plain English and OverflowAI returns code solutions. The service aims to make AI-assisted development accessible for all skill levels.
