Hour One creates a synthetic person with a face of your choosing. It offers micropayments to those who rent their face. Image credit: Hour One

Another Israeli company, Deepdub, is using AI to create localized content from a single piece of recorded content. Think of it as AI powered dubbing to multiple languages. Deepdub takes two to three minutes of the original actors’ voice data and uses that to generate a model that translates the characteristics of the original voice into the target languages. Can’t wait to hear Judy Garland's true voice saying “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore” in Japanese. And imagine the 6’oclock news automatically translated into the language of your choice. 

The JPEG of 3D
JPEGs played a central role in transforming the web from a text-based world to a world of images. The emerging file format for 3D graphics language transmission (glTF) is looking to provide the same contantainer-like structure for 3D objects, especially those used in the metaverse and digital twins. The gITF format, spearheaded by the Khronos Group, is royalty free and is being widely adopted by companies from Adobe to Microsoft. Geek alert: Venturebeat’s interview with Khronos’s Neil Trevett.

Where Does All that Data Go?
For a mind-blowing infographic about how much data we create, how it gets used, and how it is stored, study this graphic from Cloudtweaks.com. For instance, some experts have calculated that 90% of the data in the world today has been generated in the last two years. And today, best estimates suggest that at least 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every day (that’s 2.5 followed by a staggering 18 zeros!). As the infographic points out, that’s everything from data collected by the Curiosity Rover on Mars, to your Facebook photos from your latest vacation.

Much of that data is visual, especially video. I thought about this in the context of events, as I suspect that much of the long-form video captured at event sessions and product launches does not get watched very much. We have become a world where highlight reels and snippets allow us to cut to the chase and let us know whether we want to dig deeper. So, I was impressed with Sports Video Group’s collection of curated moments from the NAB show and expect we’ll be seeing more and more curated collections of short form post-panel wrap-ups at events.

Dishing on Virtual Reality and Social Media
Jaron Lanier, a pioneer in virtual reality, went on to write several critically acclaimed (and highly critical) books about media and our future including Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now and Who Owns the Future?. Both tackle the darker, thornier side of the future of information. Lanier spoke with Jennifer Egan, author of The Candy House, a novel that explores what might happen if we were capable of downloading our memories into a publicly shared collective. The conversation between the two is a great listen for anyone who wants a cautiously optimistic look at the future of AI, social media and virtual reality. Produced by City Arts and Lectures.