Beyond CES, quite a start for 2023!
Carlo De Marchis
Advisor. 35+ years in sports & media tech. "A guy with a scarf" Public speaker. C-suite, strategy, product, innovation, OTT, digital, B2B/D2C marketing, AI/ML.
This is?"A guy with a scarf" ?episode No.6 for January 2023, and first for this year. (Subscribe if you are not yet in the community)
TL;DR: Nerdy CES2023 was predictably ok-ish but biggest news came outside of that IMHO. Apple xrOS announcement and Microsoft move on OpenAI.
So, CES2023 just ended in Las Vegas. I have not been there. I am not a big fan of CES, nor Las Vegas. BUT in zero-coherence mode I then read a lot about it.
If you read the many obvious reviews you get a sense of cool stuff that we can see materialize sooner or later, just out of the Jetsons (for younger readers this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jetsons )
Paraphrasing Allen Ginsberg's Howl (for those not alive ion the 60s and 70s this: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl )
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by color-changing cars, starving hysterical hologramed in a box, dragging themselves through the techie streets at dawn looking for a double-screen laptop and wifi tv screen fix...
CES 2023 obvious reviews
A quick-list for the main business media reviews I read:
Highlight: Sony Sport and Manchester City
Sony owns Hawkeye and Pulselive and recently acquired Beyondsport (they recently did the goal replay in Roblox for FIFA World Cup which I am keen to learn more about). This is becoming so interesting at least for me.
CES 2023 Insights directly from the cool people
From FAST-guru Marion Ranchet
From the Italian (who just met with Tim Cook) with the biggest anglo-accent Paolo Pescatore
From the Media Universe Cartographer Evan Shapīro
From the metaverse creative Joe Farren
If you have any insights you may want to share send them my way and I will add here.
Apple goes xrOS
As always Apple does not go to CES then fires a shot that put that in the shadow.
We have been waiting for some years now for someone who could try with some chance of success to get AR/VR/XR experiences adopted. We all thought that could be only Apple. especially after Meta half-assed attempt in 2022.
Here it is.
"Apple has prioritized development of the operating system for its upcoming AR/VR headset, which is expected to be named “xrOS.” This means Apple has diverted engineering resources away from work on features for iOS 17 and macOS 14, in order to get the headset software over the line in time for a planned product launch later this year."
Highly relevant for the metaverse and beyond, but more than the tech features or the experience is how that will drive adoption. Minor issue here: price expected to be around 3k. So this maybe a first step to show something that people would like to use and the next ones will be the one people may be able to buy.
Microsoft goes deeper into OpenAI (rumours)
Big news in the first week of January, OpenAI (world famous for being the company behind ChatGPT, AI-wunderkind who got 1M users in 5 days and all us techies inundating any major social space with our attempts - me guilty too) has been valued at a staggering $29B and his CEO Sam Altman on most media outlets, mostly misreading what maybe happening (where is journalism today?).
BUT that was not the real big news. That value is due to a potential $10B investment by Microsoft who intend to integrate it even further than before announced into their Office suite and Bing search. This can be transformational. Satya Nadella is accelerating the adoption of AI as an integral part of common tools. Very relevant!
"The funding, which would also include other venture firms, would value OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, at $29 billion, including the new investment, the people said. It’s unclear if the deal has been finalized but documents sent to prospective investors in recent weeks outlining its terms indicated a targeted close by the end of 2022.
Microsoft’s infusion would be part of a complicated deal in which the company would get 75% of OpenAI’s profits until it recoups its investment, the people said. (It’s not clear whether money that OpenAI spends on Microsoft’s cloud-computing arm would count toward evening its account.)
After that threshold is reached, it would revert to a structure that reflects ownership of OpenAI, with Microsoft having a 49% stake, other investors taking another 49% and OpenAI’s nonprofit parent getting 2%. There’s also a profit cap that varies for each set of investors — unusual for venture deals, which investors hope might return 20 or 30 times their money. The terms and the investment amount could change, and the deal could fall apart."
Meanwhile...
Anne-Sophie Voumard Became IOC Managing Director at IOC Television & Marketing Services SA (TMS). Congrats!
This post was written without any harm being inflicted on obsessed-techie-nerds and alpha-males. Unfortunately.
Advisor. 35+ years in sports & media tech. "A guy with a scarf" Public speaker. C-suite, strategy, product, innovation, OTT, digital, B2B/D2C marketing, AI/ML.
1 年Added Evan Shapiro Media Universe Cartographer
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1 年Thanks for Posting.