TOP10 NEWS / 12.15.23
This is the weekly review, where we share must-read news and stories that matter for the new economy: FASHION SYSTEM, METAPHYSICS (web3, metaverse, ar/vr), SINGULARITY (artificial intelligence), VALUE (community, investment, decentralized finance).
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FASHION SYSTEM
WHAT IS KARLIE KLOSS' ROBLOX KLOSETTE?
As a young fashionista in the early aughts, one of my favorite fashion moments was seeing Cher Horowitz’s digital closet in?Clueless. An entire metaphysical catalog of your wardrobe designed to smartly pair your outfits based on the aesthetic of the day? Sign me up. Too bad I didn’t have the option back in high school. Today, that’s changing thanks to?Roblox and Karlie Kloss’ Klossette. Roblox is redefining fashion trends for millennial and Gen Z users by releasing metaverse fashion collaborations with designers like Rebecca Minkoff, icons like Elton John, and, of course, Kloss. For the uninitiated,?Roblox?is an entertainment platform best known as the ultimate online simulation world, where users are able to create as well as play in each other’s experiences, whether that’s a theme park, racing track or fashion show. (For the latest,?check out their uber cool trend report.) One of the most fantastic parts is being able to create your avatar’s looks and fits. This means your online persona can reflect your real-life personality and vice versa.
Although I’m sure bouts of decision fatigues are bound to happen, these endless possibilities mean an innovation into fashion like never before. Digital fashion is truly the next pioneer, and so I sought out 101 tips and tricks from?Rush_X (real name: Rush Bogin), one of the young and emerging online designers who collaborated with?Karlie Kloss for Karlie’s Klossette?on the platform.Use your trendy metaverse fashion looks to inform your next IRL outfit.“Virtual fashion is inspiring real fashion, and this is inspiring real world trends,” Rush_X says. The twenty-year trend cycle is now shortening and overlapping with Roblox as a safe space for users to try out styles first. The clothing on the platform has insane detailing, with PBR (multi layered texturing, high quality 3-D movement) that you don’t see in other experiences to further enhance your avatar’s fits. You can upload and design your own looks and send them off on the runway in places like Karlie’s Klossette.
Rush_X suggests really using that liberation online as the first way to experiment with a real-life look you’ve been finagling with. It’s also a great way of sourcing feedback. “I tried a bunch of trending styles and am seeing what people connect with and comment most,” Rush_X says. “I got my own Discord server and people are interacting with me… I check what users are enjoying.”
HOW LONG SHOULD BRANDS GIVE A CREATIVE DIRECTOR TO SUCCEED?
From Gucci to Louis Vuitton Men, some of luxury’s biggest houses have had a changing of the guard over the last year. And there’s more to come in 2024, as the industry anticipates debuts from Seán McGirr at?Alexander McQueen , Chemena Kamali at?Chloé , Matteo Tamburini at?TOD'S , Alessandro Vigilante at?Rochas, Walter Chiapponi at?Blumarine, and new appointments at Lanvin and Moschino.For executives, the expectation and hope is that a new creative director will immediately launch a new creative era and drive a sales uplift from the very first collection; based on success stories like that of Alessandro Michele, who propelled Gucci’s sales from €3.6 billion in 2015 to almost €10 billion over his eight-year tenure. Or Daniel Lee, who revived Bottega Veneta to become an accessories powerhouse, with sales up 28 per cent from €1.17 billion in 2019 to €1.5 billion in 2021, over his three years in the role (he?exited?suddenly in 2021).But in reality, this kind of revamp isn’t so easy to achieve. Brands including Ann Demeulemeester, Trussardi and Bally all?hired young creative directors?in recent years, only to replace them after less than three seasons. It remains to be seen if Lee can replicate his Bottega Veneta success at Burberry, where?sales growth is slowing?in line with the wider market.And even when a designer manages to invigorate a house, they’re still not in the clear – a plateau in revenue growth can be enough for the company to pursue a new creative leader. “[The brand] may still be making money and have sound financial health, but more than [that], brands with weak top-line growth would seek out new creative energy,” says Luca Solca, managing director of luxury goods at Bernstein.This impatience for commercial success could be damaging to the industry and its design talents, critics say. “The hiring and firing of creative directors and the teams behind them — in the space of a few seasons — has reached an unprecedented level of what I can only call cruelty,” says Sarah Mower ,?Vogue?chief critic, BFC’s ambassador for emerging talent and chair of the BFC Newgen committee, who has nurtured many of the UK’s most prominent talents, including Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson. “The truth is that brands only risk their own credibility when they do this. The way it puts the ‘blame’ on designers after putting them in the spotlight, and then damaging their reputations makes me very uncomfortable. Turning around the fortunes — and the design style — of any company takes longer than five minutes. It can’t just be on the creative director to do this cosmetically.”
WHY ONLINE LUXURY IS BROKEN
Reports of financial strain at FARFETCH amid a stalled deal with Richemont have driven confidence in multi-brand e-commerce to all-time lows. With value propositions eroding and investment drying up, a way forward remains unclear.The crisis at FARFETCH has been well-documented over the past week — but its woes are hardly singular in online luxury.But online luxury’s problems go beyond Farfetch and YNAP. Montréal-based SSENSE , which does not disclose revenues, cut its workforce by 7 percent in January, citing slower growth. Last month, MATCHESFASHION LIMITED reported 2022 results including widening losses of £33.7 million and a third consecutive year of slipping sales. Meanwhile, Munich-based online destination Mytheresa reported a sales growth slowdown in September. The company’s gross merchandise volume — a measure of goods sold on the platform — rose 3 percent year over year to €204 million, compared to a 13 percent increase in the previous quarter. Even Tmall -owner Alibaba Group — which always had an advantage in its powerful network of exclusive logistics partners and integrations with Chinese payment and messaging apps — has shown signs of pressure amid rising competition from scrappier rivals like Pindoudou, Temu and Douyin.Investors have spent years pouring money into e-commerce darlings, betting that as adoption of e-commerce increased, operating at a bigger scale would ease the challenges of turning a profit. That hasn’t been the case. Even for behemoths like Farfetch, the landscape has only gotten more competitive, as nearly all brands operate their own e-commerce platforms, limiting the need for intermediaries.The macro-economic environment has also changed: The end of a decade of ultra-low interest rates is hitting the luxury economy hard, particularly among aspirational shoppers. With travel and experiences on hold during the pandemic, customers were able to fall back in love with stuff, shelling out for luxury bags and shoes. Now, more customers have to choose between a vacation or a handbag — or homeownership. Luxury sales will likely rise 1 to 4 percent next year, compared to 8 percent growth at constant currency in 2023, consultancy Bain forecasts.E-commerce players are likely to be doubly punished by rising interest rates, as higher yields on safe investments have led markets to become less interested in placing bets on loss-making businesses.“These platforms that had promised to bring physical multi-brand retail, the grands magasins, online are finding out that online is a completely different world,” e-commerce expert and advisor Michel Campan said. “Ultimately, raising money is the thing these companies were actually good at. But eventually investors’ patience runs out.”
TRUMP GOES PHYGITAL, BORROWING FROM DIGITAL FASHION PLAYBOOK
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has embraced a popular digital fashion trend in his latest NFT collection. What's next?For months it’s been the hottest trend in digital fashion, attracting the interest of industry titans like?Louis Vuitton,?Dior,?Gucci, and?Balmain.?Now, “phygital” NFT collections have a new biggest fan: Donald J. Trump.?On Tuesday, Trump?announced his third NFT collection, which, like the last two, features a buffed up, thinned out version of the former president performing a variety of tasks, from traversing fields on horseback to entering space as a cyborg.?Unlike the previous two trading card collections, though, which were completely digital, Tuesday’s set features a very unique physical perk: collectors who purchase at least 47 of Trump’s newest trading cards (at $99 a piece) will also receive a?tiny, little?piece of the navy suit he wore while having his mugshot taken earlier this fall in Georgia, while being booked for allegedly?violating state racketeering laws?in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.There are reportedly 2,024 such fabric swatches up for grabs, plus a further 225 pieces of “suit and tie” from the same outfit that are only available to buyers of over 100 “Mugshot Edition” Trump cards. You'd effectively need to buy nearly all 100,000 of the latest NFTs to?collect Trump’s entire mugshot-day suit, which would only run you about $10 million or so.While Trump’s newest venture certainly makes for a uniquely colorful example, the concept of tying NFTs to physical collectibles is nothing new. In the last year, digital fashion startups and dominant fashion houses alike have gone all-in on tying collectible NFTs to physical objects such as?shoes?and?luggage.This fusion of innovative digital collectibles with more tangible, traditional perks and products has been popularized with the term “phygital”—a word despised by many in the digital fashion industry that nonetheless has yet to be usurped by anything stickier.
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METAPHYSICS
HOW TO GET YOUR BRAND INVOLVED IN WEB3 GAMING AND WHY
"In traditional gaming models, the control and ownership of digital assets, such as characters, items, and environments, reside predominantly with the game developers and operators. Despite investing time and money, players have limited rights over the digital assets they acquire or interact with within these games. However, Web3 gaming disrupts this dynamic, shifting the power balance toward the players.Web3 gaming introduces the concept of actual digital ownership, primarily through verifiable digital assets that players can truly own, trade, and even monetize outside the game’s ecosystem.
This newfound autonomy and control open up many player engagement and investment possibilities, creating a more dynamic and participative gaming environment.
CORE ELEMENTS OF WEB3 GAMING
Diverse and innovative technologies and concepts form the foundation of the Web3 gaming landscape. They enable the decentralized nature of Web3 games and enhance the overall gaming experience through improved security, ownership, and interactivity.From the underlying infrastructure to the user interface, each technological component plays a pivotal role in shaping the unique characteristics of Web3 gaming.Let’s explore the key technologies integral to the functioning and growth of the Web3 gaming ecosystem. Ownership, Control, and Provenance TrackingEnabled by blockchain and smart contracts, Web3 gaming ensures players have real, transferable ownership of their in-game items, typically as NFTs. These assets are not just in-game illusions but hold real-world value and can be securely managed and traded through digital wallets, empowering players with unprecedented control in the gaming world.Innovative EconomiesThe introduction of cryptocurrencies and in-game currencies in Web3 gaming has led to the development of innovative economies. These digital currencies allow players to earn, spend, and trade within the game and potentially convert their in-game success into real-world value. The Play-to-Earn model, a direct result of this innovation, transforms gaming into a potential source of income, rewarding players for their skills and achievements.InteroperabilityInteroperability enables players to use their digital assets, like NFTs and in-game currencies, across various games and platforms. This fluidity enhances the gaming experience, allowing players to leverage assets in multiple gaming environments, adding a layer of continuity and value to their gaming investments. Digital ScarcityDigital scarcity is a unique concept brought to life in Web3 gaming through NFTs. By making in-game items rare and unique, they become more valuable and sought after.
MIAMI ART WEEK EMBRACES DIGITAL FASHION, NFTS AND WEB3
Drawing in discerning art collectors, fashion moguls, Hollywood heavyweights, and emerging tech proponents from across the globe, Miami’s annual art week is an opportunity for both traditional fashion houses and promising newcomers to diversify their audience. In recent years, the cultural hotbed has also been valorized as the official stomping ground for Web3 enthusiasts, with many flocking to the city to connect, share, and soak up the evolving digital art scene. This year’s meetup was no different, with the likes of Web3 design studio Rtfkt and digital fashion house Syky unveiling new activations, each stretching the boundaries of what constitutes ‘luxury’ fashion today. Here’s our round up of the top Web3 fashion and beauty events from the week.
Syky x GlitchofmindIn conjunction with Miami Art Week’s pinnacle event Art Basel, digital fashion house Syky launched its latest collection from visual artist and designer Glitchofmind, a rising talent from Syky’s incubator. The designer’s debut virtual fashion collection fuses art, fashion, and editorial to create what Glitchofmind describes as “storytelling couture.” Four artworks inspired by biomaterials were available to mint for three days following Syky’s official lunch launch event on December 7. An extra asset, dubbed “The Whisperer,” was also airdropped to Syky Keystone holders who originally minted the couture piece “The Weaver.”ShiseidoFollowing the launch of its world-first AI-powered non-fungible token (NFT) beauty community program in February, Japanese beauty label Shiseido headed across the pond to Miami Art Week to unveil a new NFT generative art project on December 6. “Future Reflections” marked the second cutting-edge activation to arrive from the skincare pioneer, and tapped esteemed next-gen artists Hannah Yan, Jen Stark, Kaoru Tanaka, and Robert Hodgin to create algorithm-enabled, one-of-a-kind creations. The activation was also powered by minting technology leader Art Blocks Engine. Miami Art Week visitors could head over to a special pop-up event from December 6 to 8 to explore the collection in an immersive setting, and learn more about Shiseido’s commitment to embracing modernity.Rtfkt x LedgerPerhaps the calendar’s most high-profile Web3 activation of the week, emerging tech giants Rtfkt and Ledger announced their newest collaboration on December 6 by hosting their own exclusive reveal party. Celebrating the launch of the “Rtfkt x Ledger collaboration Nano and Vial Case” project, which drops on Wednesday this week, the duo invited dedicated token collectors and enthusiasts to mark the occasion at private members club Soho House Wynwood.
META'S RAY BAN SMART GLASSES CAN NOW OFFER FASHION ADVICE
A new test for Meta AI adds capabilities, like identifying food, suggesting recipes and explaining what goes with that new blouse.The latest Ray-Bans already offer some limited Meta AI capabilities, such as snapping a photo using voice. But now Meta is significantly expanding the range of what its new bot can do: On Tuesday, the company announced that it’s testing a new “multi-modal” artificial intelligence feature that can recognize objects, as seen through the smart glasses, hear requests and answer relevant questions about them —?from identifying foods to offering style guidance.The key to this “early access” experience is the outward-facing camera system in the eyeglass frames. The Ray-Bans don’t pack the beefy processor chips included in, say, the latest iPhones and Pixel smartphones, so it can’t do onboard computations or processing. Meta AI must send the requests and images to the company’s servers for processing, before the glasses can respond. This can lead to a few seconds of lag, though the engineering team is actively working to shorten the delay.When the user speaks an inquiry or command out loud, the device captures and transmits images of what the person sees to the company’s servers, so that Meta AI can understand what the wearer is looking at and give a response relevant to the subject. It’s somewhat akin to stuffing Google Lens into a pair of Amazon’s Echo Frames.In a demo for WWD, the glasses were pointed at a multi-colored patterned top, and the bot was asked, “Hey Meta, look and tell me what goes with this top.” Meta AI suggested dark pants to set off the print. For black leather ankle boots with studs, the tech recommended pairing it with jeans. But it can’t specify a particular set of jeans or search for shops that sell this particular boot, as Google Lens can do. At least not yet.“Sometimes, you’ll hear that in an error message; when you try that in early access, you’ll hear, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t answer product questions, but I’m working on getting that capability soon’,” Anant Narayanan, Meta’s engineering director of smart glasses, told WWD. “We know that there’s more work specifically that we have to do to get this right. But for now, in the early access stage, it’s more generic ‘what goes well with that’–type questions.”According to Narayanan, the wait may not be long, as the team aims to deliver product-driven abilities next year. This should surprise no one. Meta AI has been spreading across the company’s device and social media portfolio, and social commerce is on track to become a billion-dollar business this year.?Statista estimates that 2023 global sales across Instagram,?Facebook?and other platforms will total roughly $1.3 billion by year’s end.
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SINGULARITY
THE YEAR AHEAD: HOW GEN AI IS RESHAPING FASHION'S CREATIVITY
After generative AI’s breakout year in 2023, The State of Fashion 2024 examines emerging use cases across creative industries.Disruptive technologies in the?workplace?generally fall into three categories — those that enhance existing skills while creating new ones; those that replace skills while reducing the need for others; and those that fall somewhere in between. So where does one of 2023′s buzziest technologies — generative?artificial intelligence?— fit? For creative teams in the fashion industry, the year ahead could help them find the answer.Gen AI — algorithms pre-trained on large volumes of data such as text, images and code, often fine-tuned with other corporate data, that can create new, complex content — had a breakout year in 2023 as powerful new tools hit the market. By January, two months after its launch, ChatGPT reached an estimated 100 million users, a record pace of growth at the time. Multiple platforms and tools have since entered the market, and a dizzying array of start-ups are seeking to leverage these, while strong open-source alternatives are challenging proprietary models.While the technology’s use is nascent in many industries, it’s accelerating. If its trajectory continues, it could be one of the most transformative technologies for the fashion industry in a long while. Early experiments have offered a promising start, but the transformative power of gen AI will become more evident as use cases move beyond one-off projects and become embedded within fashion’s value chain.The overall financial impact of gen AI on the industry is potentially significant. According to recent McKinsey analysis, as much as one-fourth of the value is expected to be driven by use cases at the design and product development stage of the value chain.
LOOKING BACK ON AI'S IMPACT ON FASHION IN 2023
Artificial intelligence (AI) has not only democratised and undergone rapid development in 2023, but it has also provided a lot to talk about.?FashionUnited?invites you to take a look at the most relevant events associated with this theme, many of which have laid the foundations for what is in store for 2024.First steps of regulating AIAt the end of 2022, AI had been highlighted as word of the year, and had already come into question by international organisations that looked to integrate regulations onto the tech. The Spanish government, for example, announced the creation of a Spanish Artificial Intelligence Oversight Agency in response to the need to establish a regulatory and supervisory framework to address the challenges and risks associated with the growing use of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, in the US, where AI policies are being handled on a state-by-state basis, at least 30 states or territories have already introduced bills and regulations regarding AI throughout 2022.It would not be until late 2023, during the?International Summit on Artificial Intelligence Security, which brought together 28 nations including global superpowers such as the US, China and the European Union, when the potentially "catastrophic" risks associated with the rapid advance of this technology would be addressed.Marketing reinvents itselfIn March, Stradivarius , the young fashion chain belonging to the Spanish group Inditex , surprised the industry by presenting a SS23 campaign "reinterpreted" with AI and starring models who do not really exist and whose faces have been generated with artificial intelligence. This was just one of the instances in which AI had redefined fashion advertising this year, and research on the subject promises unprecedented benefits.This was confirmed in an interview with FashionUnited by The Clueless, an AI modelling agency that has shaken up social media in a matter of months with the creation of two influencers who, although they look real, have been created using AI. Co-founder Rubén Cruz said of the AI influencers: “Our models couldn't just be a pretty face, we had to create a personality and a life for them to work. Even if they don't exist, they may have things in common with you. [One model named] Aitana is an empowered woman, she is a gamer, she likes sports... she shares many hobbies with the new generations.”
STUDENTS ARE WORRIED ABOUT AI TAKING THEIR JOBS
New research shows that 50 per cent of students think their job prospects could be under threat due to the rise of?artificial intelligence20-year-old Sandra Ubege is in her final year of studying Media Studies at the The University of Huddersfield . Like most soon-to-be graduates, she’s worried about securing her first job after university. But for Sandra’s cohort and the cohorts which come after, these anxieties about securing work are becoming exacerbated by the growing power of?AI.Sandra is a creative, and is particularly keen to get into screenwriting and film directing. “This year we’ve seen how easy it is for studios to implement AI in production and push out humans that put in the effort,” she says. “My understanding is that AI steals from human artists, and that’s how it learns, and as such studios will take advantage of the fact they don’t have to pay AI like they pay human artists.” She refers to the?Hollywood strikers who walked out over issues?regarding AI as a potent example of just how much of an impact new technology is having on the creative industries. “I’m too disconcerted by the growth of this technology to even look at the positives.”?“One of my modules is about short film, and another is about journalistic writing; in both of these we’ve had a few lectures where we talk about AI and what it’s doing to the industry. Professors are basically saying that this is going to be a part of the arts industry now, and we have to embrace it. I really hated that,” Sandra continues.?“I’m extremely worried about AI’s impact on my career prospects, because?it can only get worse from here [...]?I’m trying to be optimistic but I just can’t.”Sandra isn’t alone: a new study?from Kingston University has found that half of current students at university think their job prospects could be under threat from AI. This chimes with?BMG resarch for the i, which found that some 52 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are worried about the impact of the technology on their future employment prospects, compared to 39 per cent of the general population. The situation across the pond is identical, where?half of US college and university graduates?also feel threatened by the growth of AI.Since the launch of OpenAI chatbot?ChatGPT?in November last year, conversations surrounding artificial intelligence’s capabilities have grown increasingly urgent. Many have expressed concern over the possibility of?AI supplanting workers from their jobs, leaving swathes of the population unemployed.
CAN AI PREDICT WHAT SHOPPERS WILL BUY?
One of the technology’s great promises is to let retailers make far more accurate forecasts about how much to produce, down to the level of size and colour. But knowing what consumers will want months in advance isn’t so simple.Of the services that Sparkbox, an AI-centric retail planning platform, offers to customers, one seeing demand uses AI to?place quick in-season reorders?of products that are performing well. Another gaining momentum?leverages the technology to optimise pricing.But one yet to find users is its AI-powered demand forecasting for initial buys, which predicts a product’s performance weeks into the future.“It’s something that a lot of people are asking about, but it’s not something that anyone wants to immediately do,” said Sparkbox co-founder Lindsay Fisher . “No one wants to take the first step.”Brands are still sceptical about the validity of AI forecasts, she said, and to make decisions with AI about their initial buys, they need to have clear, quantifiable assumptions to base their models on. Many, however, still rely on gut feeling.Sophisticated AI forecasts are still a relatively new tool for fashion, and companies are still working out how much to rely on them. They’re also up against the fact that fashion purchases are often driven by emotion, novelty and the strength of the particular product, meaning previous sales, even of similar items, can only tell you so much.Of course, human merchandisers have always had to predict the future when placing their initial production orders for all the clothes that will fill their stores and online shops. The average fashion business operates on lead times of?37 to 45 weeks, according to Boston Consulting Group. That means they’re guessing every style, colour and size customers will buy as far as 10 months in advance. Wrong guesses translate to money lost on discounted and unsold items, as well as more waste.In theory, AI could offer more accurate forecasts than historical methods, which combine mathematical models applied to past sales, and maybe a few variables, with pure instinct. AI, by contrast, is able to take in far more data, on the order of dozens to hundreds of variables, finding unexpected relationships and signals that potentially allow for better predictions.But not everyone believes it’s ready to fully take over the job of setting initial buys.“If you’re trying to forecast the future, AI is not going to help you,” said Ahmed Zaidi, co-founder and chief executive of Hyran Technologies, an AI-powered planning and supply chain platform for fashion. “If anything, it’s probably more dangerous than the way we used to do it before, because it’s disguising itself as objective.”
GOOGLE'S BEST GEMINI DEMO WAS FAKED
Google ’s?new Gemini AI model?is getting a?mixed reception?after its big debut yesterday, but users may have less confidence in the company’s tech or integrity after finding out that the most impressive demo of Gemini was pretty much faked.A video called?“Hands-on with Gemini: Interacting with multimodal AI”?hit a million views over the last day, and it’s not hard to see why. The impressive demo “highlights some of our favorite interactions with Gemini,” showing how the multimodal model (i.e., it understands and mixes language and visual understanding) can be flexible and responsive to a variety of inputs.To begin with, it narrates an evolving sketch of a duck from a squiggle to a completed drawing, which it says is an unrealistic color, then evinces surprise (“What the quack!”) when seeing a toy blue duck. It then responds to various voice queries about that toy, then the demo moves on to other show-off moves, like tracking a ball in a cup-switching game, recognizing shadow puppet gestures, reordering sketches of planets, and so on.It ’s all very responsive, too, though the video does caution that “latency has been reduced and Gemini outputs have been shortened.” So they skip a hesitation here and an overlong answer there, got it. All in all, it was a pretty mind-blowing show of force in the domain of multimodal understanding. My own skepticism that Google could ship a contender took a hit when I watched the hands-on.Just one problem: The video isn’t real. “We created the demo by capturing footage in order to test Gemini’s capabilities on a wide range of challenges. Then we prompted Gemini using still image frames from the footage, and prompting via text.” (Parmy Olson at Bloomberg was the?first to report?the discrepancy.)So although it might kind of do the things Google shows in the video, it didn’t, and maybe couldn’t, do them live and in the way they implied. In actuality, it was a series of carefully tuned text prompts with still images, clearly selected and shortened to misrepresent what the interaction is actually like. You can see some of the actual prompts and responses in?a related blog post?— which, to be fair, is linked in the video description, albeit below the ” . . . more.”On one hand, Gemini really does appear to have generated the responses shown in the video. And who wants to see some housekeeping commands like telling the model to flush its cache? But viewers are misled about the speed, accuracy, and fundamental mode of interaction with the model.For instance, at 2:45 in the video, a hand is shown silently making a series of gestures. Gemini quickly responds, “I know what you’re doing! You’re playing Rock, Paper, Scissors!”read more:https://lnkd.in/giySmRBC
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VALUE
ANDREESSEN-HOROWITZ PREDICTS CRYPTO TRENDS FOR 2024
Venture capital firm?Andreessen Horowitz ?(a16z) published its “Big Ideas” report outlining predictions for the industry in the upcoming year. The report covers various domains, including American Dynamism, Bio&Healthcare, Consumer Technology, Cryptocurrency, Enterprise, Fintech, Games, Infrastructure and other areas, closely examining the most compelling trends. In the realm of cryptocurrency, the company highlighted specific trends that are highly anticipated in 2024, claiming notable advancements.
A New Era of DecentralizationAnalysts at Andreessen Horowitz emphasized the mission of?decentralization?— aimed to democratize systems by facilitating credibly neutral and composable internet infrastructure, fostering competition, promoting ecosystem diversity and providing users with increased choice and ownership.The efficiency and stability of centralized systems presented obstacles to decentralization earlier.However, recent years have witnessed a shift in the landscape. Emerging models for decentralization now accommodate applications with advanced capabilities, including innovative approaches such as Machiavellian DAOs that enforce leadership accountability.“As such models evolve, we should soon see unprecedented levels of decentralized coordination, operational functionality, and innovations”, said Miles Jennings , General Counsel & Head of Decentralization at Andreessen Horowitz.Revamping User ExperienceWhile experts have criticized the lack of user experience (UX) updates since 2016, developers are actively working on solutions. Innovations include automatically generated passkeys, smart accounts, embedded wallets, MPC (multi-party computation) and advanced RPC endpoints.“The listed technologies not only help web3 go more mainstream but can also enhance the UX, making it better and more secure than in web2,” explained Eddy Lazzarin , chief technology officer at a16z cryptoAdvancement through Modular Technology StackAnalysts advocated for an open-source, modular tech stack to promote limitless innovation. In contrast to monolithic architectures, this architecture allows participants to specialize and incentivizes more competition.?Synergy of AI and BlockchainAccording to experts, decentralized blockchains are a counterweight to centralized?artificial intelligence?(AI). Currently, AI models can only be trained and operated by a limited number of tech giants due to significant computing power and data requirements.
FRENCH AI-BASED SIZE RECOMMENDATION TOOL KLEEP RAISES €1.8M
French AI-based size recommendation solution Kleep, launched in June 2023, has raised €1.8 million in a funding round to help accelerate its growth. Kleep also intends to use the capital to develop its own product search website.The funding round involved several investors, including?David Dayan ?(CEO of showroomprive.com ), Laurent Grosman (co-founder of?Celio), Philippe Berlan (CEO of?La Redoute), Rachel Chicheportiche (former president of Jér?me Dreyfus), Olivier Schaeffer (COO of Le?Printemps?group), Eric de Bettignies (founder of Advancy), Rossella Blatt (former head of AI at Levi’s and?Nordstrom), HR consultant Chantal Baudron , and Irani Ventures, the venture capital fund of Israeli fashion e-tailer Factory 54.Kleep was created as a start-up in 2021 by Federico Fortis and Théophile Bousquet , and currently has 20 fashion labels as clients. Its technology helps them minimise returns from online clothes purchases, which are often motivated by sizes and cuts at odds with the customers’ body shape and expectations. Kleep’s AI-based solution is potentially able to halve return rates, and to improve conversion rates by 15% to 25%.“While existing sizing solutions are based on the customers’ approximate measurements and on generic garment information, Kleep’s algorithms are able to make size recommendations tailored to each product and body morphology, and to each customer’s personal preferences,” said Kleep. Kleep needs only two pictures from its users to launch a garment search.
Gestionnaire d'investissement chez Indépendant | Certifié en gestion des employés
11 个月Thank for sharing