The Japan Metaverse Economic Zone - Tech Insiders News, March 2023
A curated collection of «signal over noise» links about interactive technologies, AI, web3, sense-making, entrepreneurship, and psychology.
- A group of Japanese companies has entered an agreement to create the «Japan Metaverse Economic Zone.»
The goal is to develop an open infrastructure for Japanese companies to join that Metaverse, with partnerships between finance, gamification, future lifestyles, risk, digital twins, data rights, and overseas expansion. A big program!
This is actually good, provided they manage to collaborate effectively and quickly, which will be challenging.
Indeed, I believe that 2023 is the year of the rationalization of the Metaverse, from the buzzword to actual initiatives, and this is a first step; it’s a good blend between government, industries, and enthusiasts, as the project initiator is Hajime Tabata, a world-renowned game creator.
To be complete, they should be joined by academics to provide science-based tools, by more startups for innovation, and by a community for user feedback (maybe VRChat?).
This would create a complete, holistic collective intelligence, which is the only way to achieve a Metaverse that benefits all the society. - As usual, lots of news on the AI front. Here’s my take, focusing on the most impactful ones:
GPT-4, the next iteration of Open AI models, might be announced and potentially released this week. It’s supposed to be multi-modal: instead of generating only text, it could also generate images or videos.
Hey Open AI, what about the supposed «slow, incremental releases»? Very related: here is why I’m against Open AI’s method of «let’s test our AIs in the real world and adjust». Snapchat has integrated ChatGPT, and it didn’t take long for a journalist impersonating a 13-year-old girl to get advice from the AI on how to lie to her parents and lose its virginity.
Even if Snapchat/ChatGPT fix this specific issue, how can they address the millions of possible conversations teenagers can have?
I’m usually quite nuanced, but for now, I’m strongly advocating for the AI race to slow down. We don’t know what we are dealing with. - March 8th was International Women’s Day, so I’d like to take this opportunity for a shout-out to a few in my circle: Kay Nguyen and Payton Grover doing an incredible job at Gimbal Cube; the power-connector Laura Leman; the thought-provoking Anne van der Giessen (check out her newsletter!); my mom Michèle Nogue for her unwavering support, and last but not least, my wife Mizuki for her dedication towards building her own brand Heart Closet.
Today’s image, thanks to Midjourney: “The Japanese Metaverse was built by a diverse group of women“.