Wiser! - Meta & Alphabet's Ad Decline | VR Headsets | AI Copyright | Diesel NFTs | AI in 2023

?? Hi and welcome to Midweek Wiser! - the LinkedIn edition of the newsletter that gives you the headlines, stories, and insights you need to make sense of what's happening in the tech economy.

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??? Check out the Big Tech Little Tech podcast in this 2022 Year In Review as Shaun and I look back on our first year's topics and themes.

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Whats happening in BigTech

• Meta and Alphabet have lost their dominance over the digital advertising market?due to competition from Amazon, TikTok, Microsoft, and Apple.
• Twitter went down for thousands of users. Elon Musk?responded?that he wasn't having any trouble loading the social network, but did note that "significant backend server" changes were made around the same time that should make the service "feel faster."
• Musk told Tesla employees to not be 'bothered by stock market craziness'.?This comes after Tesla stock has fallen over 70% during 2022 due to a combination of Musk’s distraction with Twitter and growing competition in the EV space.
• US House of Representatives bans TikTok on its devices.
• TikTok has made?reading romance novels go viral?- #BookTok is the top trending hashtag on TikTok this year, hitting 100 billion views.
• Apple is reportedly seriously concerned over the performance of the iPhone 14 Plus.
• Mastodon has rejected more than five investment offers from venture capital firms in recent months.?The platform saw a surge in users from 300,000 to 2.5 million between October and November.
• Amazon co-founder?Jeff Bezos is reportedly among the bidders for the Washington Commanders NFL team. The top bids for the team have exceeded $7 billion.

What's happening in the Metaverse

• Sales of VR headsets in the US declined 2% this year compared to last year.
• Worldwide shipments of virtual and augmented reality devices dropped more than 12% this year to 9.6 million, CNBC?reported, citing estimates from CCS Insight.
• China has relaxed months long restrictions on foreign video games?in the country.
• HSBC,?Fidelity Investments?and?Mercedes-Benz?have filed trademark applications for Metaverse and NFT purposes.?For 250 examples of consumer brands and use cases in NFTs and the Metaverse, read this.
• NBA legend?Scottie Pippen’s NFT drop?sells out in record 77 seconds -?they're sneakers available to wear in the Metaverse.
• Playboy celebrated its 69th birthday party in the Sandbox.

What's happening in Web3

• The battle for NFT status copyright is being fought out by Yuga Labs after the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club?was hit with a counterclaim during a trademark dispute with artist Ryder Ripps and his business partner Jeremy Cahen. Ripps and Cahen asked the court to declare that BAYC images are not entitled to copyright protection as they were generated by algorithms without any human involvement. Yuga Labs asserts that Ripps and Cahen are selling copycat NFTs, but the defendants claim that NFTs are unique by design and cannot be copied.
• Sam Bankman-Fried is scheduled to enter a plea in federal court in Manhattan next Tuesday. He faces charges alleging wire fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations and is accused of stealing customer and investor funds through FTX and Alameda Research.
• China is launching a state-backed NFT marketplace.
• Manchester United accused of plagiarising the work of NFT artist Des Lucrece, whilst?FC Barcelona is facing regulatory trouble?for running misleading NFT ads.
• MicroStrategy has bought another 2,500 Bitcoins.
• Bitcoin’s weekly volatility is at near all-time lows.
• Pudgy Penguins NFTs break all-time highs.
• Six executives involved in the $1.5 billion?(2 trillion won) South Korean crypto exchange fraud V Global have received prison sentences of up to eight years.
• Forbes?published a piece?on crypto moguls who lost a collective $116 billion in 2022.
• The Philippines continues to top the charts for NFT adoption.

?? Spotlight on Consumer Brands in Emerging Tech - Diesel

In December 2022, fashion brand Diesel announced a collaboration with NFT project?HAPE.io?to release a its latest NFT collection called #DieselGenesisHAPE. Significantly, this initiative is led by BVX, the Web3 and Metaverse focused business unit of OTB Group, the parent company of Diesel.

Continue reading...

What's happening in Technology

• Artists are making artificial intelligence systems draw images of Mickey Mouse?to test whether AI art is subject to copyright.
• Researchers develop blood test that can reliably detect Alzheimer’s disease.
• Health company Movano has released its first smart ring, the Evie, designed for health, fitness and cycle tracking. The company says it's "designed uniquely for women” and it can measure heart rate, blood-oxygen, skin temperature variability, steps, calories, sleep, period and ovulation tracking, and more.
• Chinese tech giant, Baidu, is offering night time driverless taxis in Wuhan.
• A startup called?Make Sunsets has launched weather balloons in Mexico that release sulfur particles into the stratosphere?to reflect more sunlight back into space that could theoretically ease global warming.

?? What to expect from AI in 2023

In 2023, expect to see more AI-powered apps, such as selfie apps, and more controversy over?the use of generative AI?when it comes to copyright infringement and faking examinations.

The raft of new AI platforms from ChatGPT3 to DALLE2 are also taking steps to limit the amount of harmful content their systems produce. This ranges from the sexualisation of women, to biased output and blatantly false or misleading information spewed out of the AI.

However, it's regulations that are most likely to curb the current rush of new tools coming online. The European Union's AI Act (2021) requires transparency, human intervention and agency, and an obligation on the tech firm that no harm will be caused.

To understand more about what's happening in this space,?read this article partly written by AI?or listen to episode #14 of Big Tech Little Tech on the subject of Generative AI.

??? Useful tools for 2023

• Tana?is an intriguing new notes app that combines elements of Roam and?Notion, two of the most innovative apps for organising info and ideas.
• Descript?is a video & audio editing tool that makes it easy to polish multimedia pieces by editing the transcript.
• Scrintal?makes note-taking into a visual process by incorporating whiteboarding and mind-mapping.
• Mem?is a self-organising workspace. Think of it like a flexible alternative to Evernote for organising your notes using AI to help you connect new ideas to older ones.
• Writesonic?provides over 65 AI writing features to support creators with industry-specific content using a brand’s writing style and tone of voice.
• Moonbeam?is specifically trained to write essays, articles, blogs, and other long form content.
• ProfilePicture.AI?is an easy to use and versatile selfie generator that uses over 168 different styles to auto generate the perfect profile pic for every occasion.

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?? Newsletters to keep you informed

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• The “staff” of this online publication is all artificial intelligence. It's called?The Latest Bot?and it is written, edited and illustrated by AI.

Episode #15 - Xmas Gadgets

Shaun and I bring 2022 to a close with a selection of fun tech gadgets you may find under your Xmas tree (even though one of them costs ￡250k).

Also in the show, ChatGPT, Apple Sing and Goldfinger.

??? Find Big Tech Little Tech on all major Podcast platforms:

Apple Podcasts?|?Spotify?|?Amazon Music?|?Anchor?|?Pandora?|?Google Podcasts?|?Castbox?|?Deezer?|?Pocket Casts?|?Stitcher?|?RSS Feed?|?Subscribe to Newsletter

?? For all show notes, background links and everything to do with the show, go to the?Big Tech Little Tech website.

Further Reading

?? Wiser! Newsletter

Wiser! is a weekly newsletter that makes sense of what's happening and what's coming next in the tech economy. From disruptive technologies, like blockchain, crypto and artificial intelligence, to emerging trends, like Web3 and the Metaverse. Plus there's a big focus on BigTech and the impact of social media.

The purpose of Wiser! is simple, to help you stay interesting, informed and one step ahead of your competition. Using easy and engaging language, I make sense of it all so that you don't have too.

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