The VR and AR arms race, Virtual worlds contain very real gold mines

The Spectator ^ | 4/16/24 | Ross Anderson

[Blood of Tyrants]

You probably don’t remember the Humane Pin, despite its dominating the tech-news cycle a few months ago.

It’s an elegant AI-powered square that sticks to your lapel and can send messages, search for information and tell you about what you’re seeing, all through voice commands. The Humane company raised more than $230 million in venture backing, and its rollout included a runway appearance at Paris Fashion Week, a TED talk and a chic announcement video where the pin repeatedly misinformed its user. According to the pin, almonds have far more protein than they do, and April’s solar eclipse would have been best viewed from Australia, where it wasn’t even visible. Also, there’s no way to use the pin other than with voice control. So don’t sext on it or ask private medical questions in public; everybody else will hear the responses. It starts at $699, plus a mandatory $24 per month subscription.

Humane’s Pin is a beautiful prototype for the post-smartphone future, but that future isn’t here yet. For now, it’s better to stick with your phone. I was thinking about this as I tested Apple’s new $3,500 headset, the Vision Pro.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It's a rather lengthy article touting how wonderful virtual reality is. But I see a future like the characters on the luxury cruise ship in the movie Wall-e where people lose the ability to interact with each other on a person to person level. I see zombies who interact with their computers more than their spouses and children. It's touted as revolutionary, but I see it as sad.

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[nitzy]

[nitzy]