Goodbye VR, Hello AR, And Can AI Be More Human, Plz?
TechCrunch, Friday, July 21,2023
It seems like the fizzle has gone out of the VR conversation altogether, as every manufacturer and conversation is refocusing its attention on AR. That wasn't particularly new, but Apple's flagship headset is a huge leap away from virtual reality, embracing the blended world more fully.
Apple didn't actually add much to the conversation so far - the headset hasn't started shipping yet, after all - but you'd be a particularly spicy mixed blend of not-in-touch-with-reality spices to bet against the Cupertino giant these days. This represents a profound opportunity for startups.
There's an old joke: Bob says to his friend, peering into the infinite abyss of space: 'Do you think there's any intelligent life out there?' Anna replies: 'Why would there be - there's barely any down here.' Funny, yes, but the punchline keeps rattling around in my mind as the AI train continues to hurtle along the track. See, I don't think artificial intelligence is inherently evil or good, but it has to be trained on something, and the best we've got is a lot of human knowledge. Humans may not be inherently evil, but my goodness, we aren't particularly kind either.