London is Open (for AI)

This week I was planning to dedicate this newsletter to the metaverse and even had a great title in mind for it to pay homage to one of my favourite bands (Fight me in the metaverse, the dark of the metaverse) and reference the surreal turn the Zuckerberg vs Musk cage fight news is taking.

Besides, since I attended the The Economist Enterprise Metaverse Summit on Wednesday and hosted a breakfast roundtable on Tuesday with a group of great companies and stakeholders in the immersive space, I thought it’d be great to share the key takeaways with you all, dear readers.

However, ?early in the week there were signs that AI might dominate the conversation this week.

But let me start from the beginning and not get ahead of myself.

Every few months we organise a breakfast roundtable with a focus on one of our key creative sectors to which we invite a group of our key stakeholders in that space. Since our close involvement with London Tech Week this year supporting the Metaverse stream with speakers, June was the perfect time to bring together some of our favourite people in the immersive tech space and catch up on all things metaverse.

So on Tuesday we had the pleasure to host Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network , Digital Catapult , Edge , Ultraleap , Magnopus , Framestore , Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion , The Sandbox , and Immersive Wire among others for a discussion on the future of the metaverse. If last time we hosted this session in September 2022 the conversation was around when the metaverse would become a reality, this time our guests agreed we have moved on from the when to the how.

As expected, the topics included the VisionPro, which has accelerated transformation in the virtual worlds space (and here I remarked how the world metaverse is slowly dropping from the conversation) and with it new opportunities are opening up. To begin with, content that people are willing to pay for to enjoy with such a device, but also the release of developer toolkits, or even subscription models for headsets.

While the VisionPro is at the top of its range -and there was consensus that it is aimed at early adopters who are aware of how much it costs to offer that level of technology- our guests agreed that is only a matter of time that the right device comes along at the right time and then that’ll be the tipping point to drive adoption of wearable tech more widely -and with it the creation of dedicated products and content for broader audiences, similarly to the rise of the apps when the smatphone entered our lives.

This is something that was echoed at the Enterprise Metaverse Summit the following day.

In fact, one of the panels touched on a theory that I have already shared about how in the future we’ll have an upgrade from headsets to something similar to cool sunglasses. The conversation moved on to how creating a device that people actually want to wear and show to others (smartwatches anyone?) can be key to drive adoption. It was not lost on the audience that the device not only has to look good, but perform to a good standard as otherwise there is no incentive for users.

And if you think that you don’t see yourself wearing funky sunglasses that allow you to tap into a world of digital experiences connected to the real world, then brace yourself because at different session at the Enterprise Summit it was predicted that we may go even further and get to a point where we’ll have smart contact lenses performing the same functions as headsets.

While we wait for that to happen, the attendees to our immersive breakfast on Tuesday had a more realistic approach and agreed that web-based experiences can present a more accessible entry point into virtual worlds for general audiences as they’re device agnostic. Likewise, there was consensus about integrating VR/AR functions into 2d content (such as games, films, or even tv shows) to allow for a more immersive and interactive experience that users can choose to opt in.

Perhaps the most interesting insight from this breakfast was how quickly the conversation was dominated by AI since the beginning, showing how we cannot talk about this moment of technological transformation creating a divide between AI and immersive technologies, and by extension the metaverse, pitting them against each other when they are so interconnected. In fact, the metaverse (or virtual worlds, as it seems to be the trend now) can be the right channel to showcase the power for good for generative AI through storytelling.

?And on this note, our guests also touched on how we may need to rethink our relationship with creativity and content creation as AI has completely disrupted this space at the same time that synthetic content is on the rise and may be the standard in the not so distant future.

As one of our guests shared, he’s now having more philosophical conversations about what being human may mean in 10 years’ time as future generations will not be questioning AI generated content in the same way we do now. Something that young people are starting to experience in first person as they consider what careers to choose.

Which leads me very nicely to my next topic: OpenAI.

If you’ve lived in London long enough, you may remember the good old days of the London is Open campaign. I certainly remember the amount of highly inappropriate jokes I made with that slogan to the delight and shock of my colleagues.

And yet, there was something of a cognitive dissonance with that message. While the city wanted to send a signal of openness, the UK as a whole felt a lot less welcoming both for businesses and people, as it transpired in the conversations we had at the time with companies.

Fast forward to 2023 and the rapid and growing rise of AI.

UK government is pushing for AI to be top of the agenda, for the UK to become a leader in safety in AI, defining standards and clear rules that protect users but also encourage innovation, planning for a Global AI Summit in the autumn to bring all key players together. This is announced at London Tech Week, the leading tech event in the UK, which this year celebrated its 10th anniversary.

And to show how far the London tech ecosystem has come, and how central government is aligned with supporting it to drive forward innovation in the sectors where it is radically transforming the way we live and work, Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind and Rishi Sunak take the stage for what looks like an informal chat between two friends catching up.

Except it isn’t: it is a symbol of how now the London tech ecosystem and the UK government are speaking the same language, giving the same message. London is Open for AI, and the UK is going to support that in what I’ve branded The Great AI Campaign (so original, I know!)

And then a string of headlines around AI in the days before, during and after LTW that support that same message leading to perhaps a not so surprising end result. Stay with me on this and it'll make sense.

Beginning with the European tour of OpenAI’s Sam Altman to meet with regulators and flag that too much regulation hinders innovation -which is already a message on where OpenAI stands- right to the EU passing the AI Act shortly after Rishi Sunak cleverly positioned the UK into a sweet spot between enough regulation to ensure safety and transparency -which is one of the key concerns about AI and the use it makes of data to train models- but not too rigid to suffocate what the technology can achieve. Following this statement, it was then announced that AI specialist Ian Hogarth has been hired by the government to lead on the AI Foundation Model Taskforce.

Sam Altman -wherever he was at the time- was probably salivating on hearing this, although Rishi Sunak is also looking to label deepfake images and AI-generated content.

Add to that the above news that London-based generative AI company Synthesia (which produces digital avatars that deliver presentations) has become the latest UK unicorn and US VC firm Andreessen Horowitz , which has an eye on AI and crypto, is opening a London office later in the year.

And last but not least, we have a report from Sequoia Capital that has revealed London is Europe’s top spot for AI talent.

If you mix all the previous ingredients, give them a good shake and a quick stir, when you pour them into your glass the name of the cocktail is OpenAI is coming to London.

Right in time to be part of the conversations that will define the upcoming Global AI Summit in the autumn, which is likely to prioritise conversations around safety as anticipated at London Tech Week

If you ask me, the best way to get an invitation to an event you want to be part of -and to which your biggest competitor has already been invited- is by making it obvious you love the event organiser and their way of doing things. Using lines such as that you’re “excited about what the future holds and to see the contributions our London office will make towards building and deploying safe AI” is always a big plus. ?

And it doesn’t hurt to keep a close eye on Google Deepmind now that you’re going to be in town and that Google had to ?delayed the launch of Bard in the EU due to concerns over privacy.

What can we expect from this move? Definitely a lot of quick changes that will no doubt transform the conversation around the future of technology and will accelerate the possibilities of virtual worlds (now that metaverse seems not to be trendy anymore).

We many need to wait until we hold our next breakfast roundtable to see the extent of these changes, but rest assure I'll keep you posted on them.

Meanwhile, hold on tight for very interesting times ahead. Good thing that this time both London and the UK are open to them.

Tech News

• Spotify is to launch a new ‘supremium’ tier that includes ultra-high definition audio
• Mastercard will launch blockchain App Store in beta this summer
• ?TikTok is expanding its online retail offerings to challenge rivals such as Shein and Amazon
• An amendment has been added to the Online Safety Bill which would force tech firms to hand over data to inquests into child deaths.
• ?Mayor of London launches new review harnessing technology to help London tackle climate threat

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Creative & Cultural News

• RIBA has named the best UK buildings of 2023 and the list is dominated by London-based projects.??
• Amazon is to fund 350 apprenticeships across TV, film and books in the UK
• ?Number of music hubs in England to be reduced from 116 to 43 from September 2024.
• Average earnings for freelancers in theatre are 17.5% below the UK national average salary, according to a new survey, and the gender pay gap is 37%.?
• ?The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Guildhall and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art are in the top 10 of The Hollywood Reporter’s top drama schools in the world.

Highlight of the week

• A couple of newsletters ago I shared that I had just started course on Ethics on AI organised by 英国伦敦政治经济学院
• Now that I have completed it I am even more passionate about the ethical and philosophical questions that the rapid growth of AI and its applications across different sectors have raised, as well as more convinced of the importance to bring this perspective to any future conversations around safety, transparency, and uses of AI. ?????
• I have also noticed that I react very strongly to news touching on how AI is seen as positive in areas that impact directly the way we have related to each other traditionally, especially when it comes to sensitive topics such as mental health or establishing relationships, which you probably already know if you read my regular posts.
• With this in mind, I'm thinking about giving this newsletter a spin to include those questions more regularly, and maybe take this content away from LinkedIn given that this platform is also changing its algorithm to punish people who publish content not strictly related to their already obvious areas of focus, therefore pigeonholing content and limiting the random discoveries that can lead you to great connections and enrich conversations.
• Having said that, I'm very open to feedback and suggestions. Remember this is a newsletter for people who are as clueless about tech as myself, so I don't have any ambitions to become your next futurist of reference. I'm just a girl in front of a screen trying to make sense of the impact of technology in our lives.

London Creative and Tech News is a weekly round-up of curated creative, cultural and tech news with a focus on London.