In this special live episode recorded at SynthBee headquarters in South Florida, hosts Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, and Rony Abovitz bring listeners inside a special gathering of neuroscientists, philosophers, and technologists debating the future of AI. Moving beyond hype, the conversation focuses on "Collaborative Intelligence" vs. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), exploring whether we are building tools that amplify humanity or autonomous systems that will eventually replace it.

Instead of traditional interviews, the hosts invite workshop speakers to the hot seat for rapid-fire insights on the deepest questions in tech: Can we measure an AI's true intentions? Is consciousness a physics problem? And how do we ensure these systems remain compatible with human flourishing?

News Highlights

• Disney invests $1B in OpenAI & licenses IP: The hosts debate whether this is a masterstroke to engage fans with user-generated Sora content or a "Yahoo powered by Google" mistake that hands the keys to the kingdom to a rival.
• Valve launches new PCVR hardware: A quick look at the attempt to revive the high-end PC VR market.
• Meta adds real-time vision to Ray-Bans: The next step in multimodal AI wearables.

Guest Highlights

• Dr. Uri Maoz (Neuroscientist, Chapman/Caltech): Discusses the "black box" problem of neural networks, comparing the opacity of AI to the human brain, and how neuroscience tools might help us detect deception in AI systems.
• Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Ethics Professor, Duke): Argues that ethical AI regulation shouldn't be a monolith; different cultures need "sovereignty of ethics" to allow diverse moral frameworks to coexist rather than one centralized Silicon Valley standard.
• Dr. Julio Frenk (Chancellor, UCLA): Frames the AI race as a battle between "Computational Democracy" (distributed, transparent power) and "Computational Autocracy" (centralized control), warning that universities must preserve critical thinking or risk losing the ability to govern AI at all.
• Reed Maxwell & Laura Condon (Hydrologists, Princeton/Arizona): Reveal how AI is modeling the planet's water crisis, predicting "black swan" climate events, and why funding for this critical earth-science work is mysteriously disappearing.
• Danny M (12-Year-Old Prodigy): Steals the show with a stunningly articulate take on AI consciousness, "trapped man" experiments, and how fractal geometry might map neural weights—proving the next generation is more ready for this future than we are.
• Dr. Aaron Schurger (Psychology, Chapman): Explores the neuroscience of spontaneous action and free will, debating whether "telepathic" connections and quantum effects in the brain could be the missing link for true human-AI compatibility.
• Jared Ficklin (Chief Product Officer, SynthBee): The former Frog Design fellow argues we must shift the conversation from AI "capability" to "compatibility," using the intuitive connection humans have with dogs or horses as the benchmark for successful AI interfaces.

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Vince Kadlubek, co-founder of Meow Wolf, joins Charlie and Ted for a deep dive into the future of immersive entertainment, arguing that in an age of infinite AI-generated digital content, "physical reality is the only place novelty still exists." From Meow Wolf’s origins as a scrappy art collective dumpster-diving for materials in Santa Fe to becoming a global location-based entertainment juggernaut with new sites planned for Los Angeles and New York, Vince reveals the philosophy behind building "maximalist" worlds that don't just tell stories but allow audiences to inhabit them.

In the news segment, Charlie and Ted discuss Netflix's $83B acquisition of Warner Bros (HBO/IP assets only), Meta cutting 30% of Reality Labs to fund AI while poaching Apple's top designer, and the looming battle for 2026 as Android XR prepares to launch.

Vince breaks down Meow Wolf's evolution from static walkthrough experiences to "animated spatial storytelling" where environments and characters respond to user actions—a vision of "XR RPGs" (Extended Reality Role Playing Games) that bridge the gap between video games and theme parks.

He explains why the "monoculture" of Game of Thrones is gone forever, why Netflix's acquisition power signals the end of traditional scarcity models, and why the future of storytelling isn't on a screen—it's cross-reality, persistent, and physically grounded.

Guest Highlights

• Origins of the Multiverse: How a Santa Fe art collective turned a bowling alley into the "House of Eternal Return" with George R.R. Martin as landlord.
• The "Cross-Reality" Future: Why physical locations alone aren't enough—Meow Wolf is building a "mechanically connected transmedia universe" where your actions in the park affect your digital profile and vice versa.
• Hollywood 2.0: New LA location takes over a movie theater to "honor cinema" while deconstructing it into spatial storytelling.
• Novelty Theory: "I don't care about photorealistic AI gorillas anymore." Why digital content has zero value and physical presence is the new premium.
• Questing & Agency: New "XR RPG" mechanics in Dallas/Houston allow visitors to level up, solve puzzles, and impact the world—gamifying reality without headsets.

News Highlights

• Netflix acquires Warner Bros assets ($83B)—Streaming wars end with tech giants vacuuming up legacy IP; theaters face the "nail in the coffin."
• Meta cuts 30% of Reality Labs—Pivot to AI funding while hiring Apple's former design chief signals a shift from brute-force VR to refined wearables.
• Android XR & Samsung 2026—Google and Samsung prepare to challenge Vision Pro with a new ecosystem launch next year.
• Alibaba launches Quark AI Glasses—China enters the smart glasses race with multimodal AI assistants.

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Paul Travers, founder and CEO of Vuzix Corporation, returns to join hosts Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, and Rony Abovitz for a masterclass in enterprise XR resilience and the long game of hardware innovation. As the architect behind the world's first consumer VR headset (the VFX1 in 1992), Travers has survived every boom and bust cycle in wearable technology for over three decades. Now publicly traded with 80,000 shareholders, Vuzix represents what Rony calls "the GameStop of XR"—a dramatically undervalued company ($200M market cap) that could become the consolidation hub for smaller XR startups while taking on tech giants with superior enterprise focus and manufacturing capabilities.

The episode opens with the hosts' unfiltered critique of Meta's recent Connect announcements, where Rony argues that despite $100+ billion invested in Reality Labs, Meta's Ray-Ban display glasses represent minimal advancement over the original Google Glass—a "disappointing" return that small startups with minimal funding are already surpassing. This sets the stage for deeper discussions about Neon, the controversial app paying users $800/month to record conversations for AI training (which Rony compares to Neal Stephenson's "gargoyles" from Snow Crash), and Meta AI's new "Vibes" feed that separates AI-generated content from real-world posts to address deepfake concerns.

Travers pulls back the curtain on three decades of XR survival:

• The "Lindy Effect" advantage—how Vuzix's longevity through multiple extinction events creates predictive value for continued success, like "alligators surviving when everything else didn't make it"
• Enterprise-first strategy—why focusing on warehouse workers, Amazon distribution centers, and pharmaceutical operations (1,000+ systems deployed at Nadro) creates sustainable revenue streams versus consumer fashion battles
• Manufacturing at scale—Vuzix's Rochester facility produces 1.5 million waveguides annually at 90%+ yield rates, enabling 10,000-unit weekly deliveries and potential silicon carbide waveguide production (the same exotic technology Meta claims costs $10,000 per pair in their Orion prototypes)
• AI-agnostic platform approach—unlike Meta's closed ecosystem, Vuzix allows BMW, Amazon, and other enterprise clients to run their own AI models locally through NVIDIA Blueprint technology for IP protection
• The "GameStop potential"—with smart money recognizing XR's AI-enabled inflection point, Travers envisions Vuzix becoming the acquisition vehicle for consolidating smaller XR companies, potentially reaching the $20+ billion valuation that experience and manufacturing capability warrant

• Meta Connect critique reveals $100+ billion Reality Labs investment yielded minimal advancement over original Google Glass—disappointing monocular displays that startups with minimal funding already surpass
• Neon app controversy pays users $800/month to record conversations for AI training, creating "voice gargoyles" that transform people into data input mechanism
• Meta AI launches "Vibes" newsfeed separating AI-generated content from real-world posts to address deepfake and authenticity concerns across social platforms
• ChatGPT privacy settings reminder that users can disable data sharing through hidden personalization and security menus to avoid training their AI replacements

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In the week's news was a flurry of AI announcements. Musk's Grok AI launches, and it has promise. A real-time connection to the Internet is valuable, even if it comes from Twitter. Meta launches Imagine, a very fast, very simple, text-to-image app, and other AI features. Google unveils a new, powerful LLM, Gemini, which will succeed Bard. Our guest this week is writer-director-producer John MacInnes, who is making a horror film using Unreal Engine for Fortnite (UEFN) with the support of Epic Games. The finished film will cost about 1% of a typical studio budget.  

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Our guest this week is Joe Hunting, director of the award-winning HBO documentary, "We Met in VR." The hosts think big about events in tech, from OpenAI to Twitter, to Quantum Computing, IBM and AWS before a recap of the week's news, which includes a $55M financing round for text-to-video Gen AI app Pika Labs, and funding for three companies focused on XR. Joe Hunting's debut feature documentary has drawn attention to VR Chat as a unique platform for filmmaking and performance, and he's formed Painted Cloud Productions to focus on it. Joe is also curating a new festival for films set in VR Chat, Raindance Immersive, whose second edition will be in June, 2024. 

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The team is at full strength this week as we welcome Linda Jacobson, head of marketing for HaptX, the leader in VR gloves for enterprises. Rony kicks off the morning's tech news with an interesting rant about Tik-Tok, which he says is a threat to national security. Character AI is about to raise a billion dollars, mostly to train its characters, CIVIT.AI the free model repository for Stable Diffusion raised $5 M from Andressen, presumably to figure out a business plan, the tech that made Grimes' AI, Trinity, is now available on the web. The AI Pin is here. Now what? If you're interested in a deep dive into the importance of haptics to XR, don't miss this episode. 

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This week our guest is Michael Beneville, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of AREA15, an immersive entertainment venue in Las Vegas, anchored by Meow Wolf's Omera Mart. First, Ted and Charlie recap busy news week, starting with Open AI's first Developer Day, and Musk's xAI announces Grok, which will incorporate a real-time newsfeed from Twitter. We have details on the AI Pin launching next week. A new free translation app, Lipdub, does voice cloning and AI-driven lip-syncing of short videos. Beneville shares some secrets of AREA15's incredible success: his passion for immersive entertainment. 

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This week we're wondering how exactly the new US AI regulations are going to work, and hoping the EU will be a little more specific. In an international, open-source world, is this even possible? On the heels of a $4B investment from Amazon, Anthropic AI is now taking $2B from Amazon's competitor, Google. Xpanceo is bringing AR contact lenses back. Our guest is Amy LaMeyer, Managing Partner of the Women's XR Fund (WXR Fund). We're talking about their portfolio, the slow pace of XR adoption, and how to get more women into tech. 

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This week the hosts tear into weekly earnings, more changes at Magic Leap, big tech earnings, and Peter Theil's investment in a European drone maker. Our guest is legendary music producer Albhy Galuten. As a music producer he was responsible for over a dozen number one hits. As an executive and technologist, he shepherded Universal Musical into the digital era.

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This Week in XR Special episode with Jake Zim...

Jake Zim – SVP, Virtual Reality, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPVR)

Oversees global virtual reality production and strategy for the motion picture group. Jake has produced a wide variety of interactive projects across a spectrum of distribution channels including location-based, mobile and in-home. Zim has led the development of virtual reality experiences such as the Emmy® nominated Spider-Man: Homecoming VR; Ghostbusters: Dimension; The Emoji Movie VR Experience; Can You Walk The Walk; Hotel Transylvania Popstic VR; Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son; Jumanji: Reverse The Curse; and the Spider-Man: Far From Home VR Experience, the world’s first multiplayer VR game powered by 5G. Most recently, he led the production of Zombieland: Headshot Fever and is leading the team producing the highly-anticipated Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, launching on October 26, 2023.

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Charlie and Rony do the news while Ted is at Sony with SVP Jake Zim, playing their new “Ghostbusters” VR game. In the news this week, Charlie’s hot take on Quest 3, Mojo Vision gets its mojo back, raising another $21.4 M. Universal music sues Anthropic AI. 

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This week's tech news starts with an unhappy topic, as we explore the impact of the Hamas War, particularly on the Israeli tech sector. Unity CEO John Riccitello exits under a cloud; big layoffs at Qualcomm in San Diego. The bright side includes rave reviews of the Meta Quest 3 and new competitor to Meta's Ray-Ban Stories, Carrera, which uses Amazon's Alexa for smart glasses. Our guest this week is Meron Gribetz, founder and CEO of Inner Cosmos, which uses a brain-computer interface to treat patients with chronic depression and other disorders. His Digital Pill is a penny-sized device slipped under the skin.

Learn more about their work on their website and connect with them on LinkedIn at:

Inner Cosmos Company page

Meron's page

Darin's page

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This week it's all Ted and Rony, as Charlie and the guest were nixed by travel trouble. Top topic is wearable AI, like Humane's AI pin, which has a micro projector for visual data, projected on a table or your hand. Mr. Beast and Tom Hanks were Deep Faked. The importance of authentication, says Rony, is growing exponentially. Ted shares his impressions of Quest 3. 

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Tricia Biggio, CEO of Invisible Universe, joins hosts Charlie Fink and Ted Schilowitz for an illuminating deep-dive into how AI is revolutionizing content creation for social media. A veteran television producer who transitioned from traditional media to Snap, then launched her own company, Biggio reveals how her team built the world's first AI-powered content creation platform that reduces production costs by 95% per minute. From creating viral characters like Serena Williams' daughter's doll "Qai Qai" to launching Invisible Studio—a comprehensive AI toolset now used by eighth-graders to compete with major studios—Biggio demonstrates how authentic storytelling paired with rapid iteration is reshaping entertainment. Her company's brands have achieved billions of views across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Roblox, proving that social platforms can serve as testing grounds for intellectual property development rather than just marketing channels.

• How "minimum viable content" philosophy allows rapid testing and iteration with audiences rather than traditional seven-year development cycles
• Why authenticity beats polish—her grittiest Snap show (Bhad Bhabie) generated hundreds of millions of views while polished influencer content flopped
• The "Trojan horse" strategy of using social media as IP incubation rather than just distribution, turning audience feedback into real-time creative direction
• Building Invisible Studio—an all-in-one AI platform for script writing, voice generation, image creation, and video production that enterprise partners and individual creators can access
• How community-driven iteration replaces traditional media's "perfect then release" model, allowing brands to evolve in public and capture viral moments

Tricia emphasizes that successful AI content creation requires storytellers building tools for storytellers, not just technologists creating features. Her platform approach addresses both content creation and distribution challenges, recognizing that in a world of infinite content, strong narrative voice becomes more critical than ever. The conversation explores whether rapid AI-enabled production maintains creative integrity or if audiences actually prefer speed and authenticity over traditional craftsmanship.

• Meta's display-enabled AI glasses launch with mixed reviews—monocular display creates adjustment issues, neural wristband shows gesture control promise despite device failing twice in live demos
• TikTok sale finalized to consortium including Larry Ellison, algorithm changes suspected to appease conservative concerns, potential government stake like Intel deal
• Snap CEO "betting the house" on Spectacles AR glasses strategy—risky move requiring major behavior change may keep devices in "exotic Ferrari" market vs mainstream "Toyota" adoption
• Nothing raises $200M for UK-based minimalist Android phone expansion
• Nintendo releases Virtual Boy accessory in cardboard and premium plastic versions

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This week was packed with XR and AI news, starting with the formal introduction of the $500 Meta Quest 3, upgraded audio Ray Ban smart glasses, and AI integrations with Instagram. Also in the news, Amazon's multi-billion dollar investment in Anthropic, the AI startup whose Claude AI is a ChatGPT competitor. Our guests, Banks Boutee and Max Burman, are the co-founders of KitBash3D which makes premium assets for movies and video games like "Terminator" and "The Last of Us." 

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This week we're musing about the sad fate of NFTs, the race to build AI co-pilots, Neuralink human trials, and the new Caleb Wood GenAI Star Wars fan scene. Our guest is Michael Freeman, co-founder of Ocutrx, which is launching an AR HMD, the Oculenz, that will help macular degeneration patients see. 

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The boys are back with Space Aliens, AI in the US Senate, Text to Audio from Stability AI, and the Army resurrects its HoloLens for infantry AR project, IVAS. Our guest is entrepreneur Anna Belova, founder and CEO of Devar. 

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No big financing news but the holiday-shortened week brought up important topics, notably a ruling on an award-winning AI-generated image. There were a couple of juicy hardware rumors: Nintendo/Google and Meta/LG, which leads to a discussion of Meta vs. Apple brand strategy. Say hello to 'Ajax,' Apple's private LLM, which may be the future of Siri. Our guest is Curtis Hickman, Chief Creative Officer of the Void and the author of the new book, "Hyper-Reality: The Art of Designing Impossible Experiences."

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This week we're talking about OpenAI's one billion dollars in revenue, up from a measly 28 million in 2022. They've got plenty of competition, including Tel Aviv-based AI21, which just raised another $155 M to compete with their business offering. We also get into VRChat and Meta Horizon's new mobile apps, and the announcement the Magic Leap One Creators' Edition won't be supported after 2024, whatever that means. Our guest is Michael Mack, CEO and owner of Europa Park, the second-largest theme park in Europe, hosting six million visitors a year. The Park recently added a free-roam VR attraction, as well as an interactive restaurant, Adrenaline.  

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A slow week at the end of the summer, punctuated by blockbuster earnings from Nvidia, the primary beneficiary of the AI boom, at least for now. Rony thinks they could be a ten trillion dollar company in five years. Our guest is Anurupa Ganguly, the founder of Prisms, a VR learning platform for middle and high school students. She's an MIT-trained engineer who taught in Boston Public Schools where she identified the need, and the opportunity, to transform math and science instruction with VR. Prisms has proven itself by sending test scores through the roof, and they are now planning to roll out additional subjects.

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Slow news week gave us a lot of time with our guest, Walter Parkes, academy-award-winning producer and co-founder and Chairman of Dreamscape location-based VR, and Dreamscape Learn, a joint venture with ASU to create immersive learning centers around the world. Walter talks about his movies, the founding of Dreamscape, and its spin-off Dreamscape Learn. 

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Our guest this week is Inga Petryaevskaya, founder and CEO of ShapesXR, an app that enables you to prototype XR experiences in VR. They just raised an $8.6 round. Also in the news this week, Neuralink scores $280M to continue developing its brain implant, now being distastefully tested on chimps. Leia3D acquires competitor Dimenco, and Immersed going public through a SPAC. 

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Our guest is "Ready Player One" screenwriter Zak Penn. He is also a prolific filmmaker, earning nerd cred with the doc "Atari, Game Over." In the news this week, Siggraph's 50th kicks off in LA, $50M in funding for Inworld's AI NPCs, Virtuix (omnidirectional VR treadmill) raised $5M, and Hologate, the most successful LBVR company in the world, raised $8M. 

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This week we're talking about Meta's reported losses on the Metaverse, Sam Altman's Worldcoin, a company that scans your eyes to confirm you're human, like Blade Runner. Our guest is Rob Tercek, author of Vaporized, and social entrepreneur, who is working on a project to create regional tech hubs to foster innovation in 3D technologies in places like Santa Fe, Charleston and Little Rock by bringing together local governments, universities and private industry. 

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Charlie is back from the Venice Film Festival Immersive, where he also judged the Reply AI Film Festival. His standout was Blur, which he shared with Ted and Rony, though the Grand Prize went to The Clouds Are 2000 Meters Up. He also praised Doug Liman’s Asteroid on Samsung’s Moohan headset and noted growing work on Apple Vision Pro.

In the news: Anthropic raised $13B at a $183B valuation, Replit secured $250M, Viture raised $100M, Mojo Vision closed $75M, and Higgsfield raised $50M. Rony highlighted Rivet’s Army award and Brainlab’s ML2 FDA clearance. Apple AirPods added live translation.

Don Carson joined to discuss Walkabout Mini Golf and the upcoming Alice in Wonderland course, set for December. Carson, a former Disney Imagineer and now senior art director at Mighty Coconut, explained how each hole is designed as a vignette to guide players through the story. Amazon is preparing new smart glasses, and TwinMind is testing lifelogging concepts.

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This week the hosts are grappling with text-to-episode GenAI just released by the Simulation (formerly Fable Studio). Dan Olson, creator of the "Folding Ideas" YouTube channel and the film "Follow the Line," a debunking of crypto, which has garnered 11M views. The follow-up, "The Future is a Dead Mall," which takes on the Metaverse, earned 3M views. Olson schools the hosts on these topics, the future of AI, and the tech hype cycle. Dan's new movie tells the story of Meme stocks.

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What writers and actors fear about AI, Zuck's Threads, Elon's X, and Roblox VR. Guest Shawn Frayne, CEO of Looking Glass Factory, who talks about their 3D displays and their new AI driven holographic characters, Lifeforms. Chatbots made of light. Listener question: "What is XR's killer app?"

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The Zuck - Musk cage match, Threads v Twitter, is on, but it may play out in court. Our guest this week is the legendary Ken Bretschneider, founder of the Evermore and Grid theme parks, and co-founder of The VOID. He gave us a good taste of why he's been so successful at creating unmatched experiences: he thinks big. 

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Charlie and Ted celebrate show #150 by talking with Rony about Augmedics' big raise for its X-vision AR wearable that uses a patient's skin as a projection surface. Also, Google kills its AR project "Iris" (again), and Pokemon Go producer Niantic's layoffs. Our guests are David Ganek and Joel Newton, who co-founded City Lights, a VR Studio that finances, produces and distributes VR Experiences like "Spheres." They share details about their newest production "Yosemite," which uses photogrammetry to capture impossible spatial views of the park, coupled with its greatest stories.  

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Rony is off again but this week we had a great conversation with guests Kylan Gibbs, founder and CPO, and Academy Award Winner John Gaeta, CCO of inWorld.ai, which enables game designers to create independent AI characters who interact with players in a video game. In the news, the Elon-Zuck "cage match," Kobold AI mining raises $200M, Elven Labs $19M, and Second Life turns 20! 

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Charlie and Ted, and everyone else, are still talking about the Apple Vision Pro, even as three AI start-ups land over $450 M between them. One of them is four weeks old! Our guests this week are Dr. Simon Taylor, Co-Founder & Chief R&D Officer, and Kirk Ewing, Co-Founder & General Manager of Zapbox, here to introduce the new $80 AR headset, ZapBox. 

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Ted and Rony rip into Apple Vision Pro as they dig into the future of spatial computing. Guest is producer Ed Saatchi, founder of Fable Studio (“Wolves in the Walls”), creator of virtual (AI) beings, and an upcoming movie created exclusively with AI. 

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A brief recap of AWE, the surprise reveal of the Quest 3, and the upcoming launch of the Apple Reality One are the topics this week, followed by on-site interviews from AWE in Santa Clara with Unity CEO John Riccitiello and Hugo Swart, VP and GM of Qualcomm.

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This week Charlie and Ted are going old style - without Rony, who joined us last fall. Charlie and Rony are having a fireside at AWE next week. The news conversation includes Anthropic's $50M raise for its Claude chatbot, Meta licensing Magic Leap tech, Nreal rebrands to XReal, launches new Beam 3DOF headset and director Doug Liman launches Area 15, a mobile AR experience to the app stores.

Our guest this week is Artur Sychov, founder and CEO of Somnium Space, a SocialVR platform with a decentralized virtual economy based on blockchain with its own utility token called CUBE. The Czech company is also introducing their own VR headset called Somnium VR1 in collaboration with Vrgineers. 

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In the wake of OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman's plea for regulation in a Senate hearing, the hosts question whether this is even possible. Also in the news is the launch of Sightful's new screenless Spacetop, which uses Nreal Light smart glasses as a display. Disney is closing its Star Wars hotel. Our guest is Ori Inbar, Executive Producer of AWE, who gives us a preview of the world's largest conference focused on XR, May 31 - June 2nd in Silicon Valley. 

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On this week’s AIXR podcast, Ted Schilowitz and Rony Abovitz sit down with Jason Zada and Monica Monique of Secret Level, an AI-native production studio behind projects for Coca-Cola, Mercedes, and Will.i.am. The conversation explores the rapid changes in technology and storytelling, from Jason’s TED Talk experiment about a beaver and a magic sock, to the future of production where small creative teams can achieve what once took hundreds. Along the way, they cover Google’s antitrust case, Apple’s next iPhone event, Meta’s new headset prototypes, and how story and human taste remain central even as AI reshapes content creation.

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This week's top stories are Google I/O and the launch of PokemonGo maker Niantic's new mobile AR Game, Peridot. Our guest is entrepreneur and NYU Professor Joost van Dreunen, game industry expert and author of One Up. We discuss the Metaverse, AI in games, consolidation, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, and the future of VR games. 

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The hosts are their own guests in this second week after Ted's open heart surgery. There was no XR news so we jumped right into AI. Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic were at the White House to meet with the President and Vice-President. This comes as Jim Hinton, an AI pioneer, left Google to warn the public about AI's potential to flood the world with disinformation and destroy democracy by creating confusion about what is real.

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Ted heroically co-hosts four days after open heart surgery. Lots of talk about AI this morning, Charlie's new "AI Weekly" column in Forbes, Replit AI Github-like scored $97 M, and Hugging Face launches. The guest is Anand Agarawala, co-founder and CEO of cross-platform collaboration and world hosting space, Spatial.io, which recently integrated with Unity. They have effectively replaced the role of AltSpaceVR (RIP). AI is going to play a big role in their future.

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Rony and Charlie take a journey into the heart of Roblox with Product VP Raj Bhatia while Ted's recovering from surgery. This week the hosts share hot takes on five XR/Metaverse funding announcements (what recession?), Snap's Partner Summit, and YouTube tech critic Dan Olson.  

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Ted picked up RSV or something worse on his travels to Augusta and points east. He's on the mend after a scary stay in the ICU, but he has been there for FIVE days. This week we talk about VR's top ten, and welcome guest Sid Odedra, Head of UI/UX of AUDI who's been using the Magic Leap 2 to visualize the future of the automotive experience.

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Charlie does the news solo as Ted was late because he couldn't find a place to talk at The Masters golf tournament where smartphones, even in airplane mode, are not allowed. Rony is off for Passover. In the news this week, funding for display companies, Mojo Vision and OQmented. Styly, an AR company digitizing the physical world, and Sony's new 3D display. 

Our guest is James Kaplan, CEO of MeetKai, a browser-based Metaverse company that uses AI to assist content creation. 

The company was co-founded by Weilei Dai, the founder of Marvell Technologies. 

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This week our guest is Mathieu Nouzareth, CEO of the Sandbox metaverse.

 In the news and on our minds this week are Epic's Fortnite metaverse, Disney's dead metaverse, Apple's Reality One, Pico's Tik Tok problem, and Fat Boy Slim's amazing VR concert in EngageVR. 

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This week we're talking about GDC, Epic's "State of Unreal," its Fab new asset store, its virtual economy, and now users can upload content from UE5 into Fortnite. Spatial is doing something similar with Unity. Also, Luma 3D AI, Second Life mobile, and Adobe introduces Firefly AI. Our guest is CEO Steve Zhao of SandboxVR, a chain of 43 VR centers worldwide.  

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Ted and Charlie made good on their promise to record a special edition of the podcast this afternoon to finish their conversation about the multidisciplinary social musical mash-up that denizens call South-by. More about Leia 3D Lume Pad, Holokit, and meet Miroki, a helpful robot with a cartoon face. 

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Charlie and Ted are back with tales from SXSW. In the news: Meta layoffs, Adept AI's massive round, JP Morgan Payments backed Tilia raises $22M for metaverse currency and the Apple XR launch. Our guests are Karen Palmer, producer, and director of “Consensus Gentium” a smartphone movie that won first place at SXSW for Best XR Experiences Cameron Kostopoulos, whose VR experience “Body of Mine” won the special XR Jury Prize, and Roman Rappak of Miro Shot, which performed a sold out mixed reality concert in Austin.

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Charlie Fink hosts a special episode of the AIXR podcast with Rokid and CaringKind to discuss the launch of Rokid Glass, lightweight AI smart glasses. The conversation centers on how the device supports people with vision loss, dementia, and other disabilities through features like navigation, memory support, and safety monitoring, while also addressing privacy safeguards. Rokid announced a successful Kickstarter launch ($300k+ day one) and plans to expand use in healthcare and underserved communities.

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Charlie is live in Austin at SXSW and Ted soon will be. Our guest is Blake Kammerdiener, who's responsible for programming the XR Exhibition. Also up this week, RIP Altspace, Pimax Hi-Res HMD scores $30M, Live, free Rec Room music festival. 

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This week we're talking about Mobile World Congress, Xiaomi's AR smart glasses, Meta's product roadmap, Hexa 3D and the AI driven conversion of 2D photos into 3D assets. Our guest, Qualcomm VP Hugo Swart, will be joining us from MWC in Barcelona, to talk about Qualcomm's dual compute, carrier partnerships and Snapdragon Spaces.

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The hosts are focused on AI this week, and in particular its application to immersive media. Bigscreen's making a VR HMD, and guest Alex Herrity, CEO of Anima, has launched a line of AI enabled virtual pets which you see and interact with in AR. Rony's full of startup advice for his developing business. 

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