Ian Beacraft

Ohio’s XR ecosystem is diverse and robust. This map of Ohio’s XR adoption will surprise you- 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝘁. 🧠 Think XR adoption is limited to Silicon Valley? 👀 This interactive map tells a different story. Extended reality isn't slowing down- 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. While AI grabs headlines, Google I/O and OpenAI's Jony Ive partnership just confirmed that wearables are the next computing frontier. 💪🏽 𝗢𝗵𝗶𝗼'𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲: Our state hosts a unique mix of industries perfectly positioned for XR adoption:  • Healthcare systems  • Manufacturing enterprises  • Financial institutions  • Research universities  • Aerospace companies 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮? Most operate in silos, missing collaboration opportunities that could accelerate XR innovation statewide. 🫵🏼 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱: Browse the current map, then help me fill the gaps:  • Which Ohio XR companies and institutions am I missing?  • Drop names in the comments. Let's crowdsource the complete picture of our state's XR landscape. Ready to connect with these innovators? Follow VR/AR Association Ohio where we bridge XR professionals across industries. The goal isn't just mapping- it's building the network that transforms Ohio into a recognized XR hub. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗢𝗵𝗶𝗼 𝗫𝗥 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁? Link to the map in the comments below. #XRInnovation #XROhio #EmergingTechnology Greg Tran, Ilyaas Motley, Chris Berry, Chris Reed-Rowsell, Gabriel Habech, Matt Beckwith, Herbert Schilling, David Brown, Jessica Saulzallido, Tyler Lieser, Sarah Marilyn Barrick, Khushi Bhatt, Eric Rico

32

24 Comments

Today I am releasing our new report on adolescents and anthropomorphic AI with everyone.AI and iRAISE. This work starts from a simple premise: adolescents will relate to AI systems socially, whether developers intend it or not. The real leverage sits in model behavior. In the cues that either keep a young person oriented toward real-world relationships and reflection, or inherently encourage reliance on the system. The question we asked throughout this process was direct: what does AI owe adolescents when it can speak to them like a social partner? Over the past months we combined: – Industry consultations to surface operational design questions – Expert input across developmental science, mental health, children’s rights, and safety – An iRAISE Lab to translate concerns into testable behavioral criteria – International governance dialogue to stress-test the framing across contexts One point kept resurfacing: risk is driven less by the label on a product and more by the interaction pattern that repeats over time. When adolescence, anthropomorphism, and children’s rights are considered together, safety becomes a developmental and governance obligation. The practical issue is whether AI interaction patterns support autonomy, resilience, social competence, and independent thinking, or whether they reshape those trajectories through engineered comfort and approval. Adolescent development is stable, but model behaviors can be adjusted. Our focus has been to identify which behaviors warrant hard boundaries now, and which require further evidence before becoming enforceable design rules. The next step is instrumentation: a clear behavioral taxonomy, explicit gradients from tool-like support to relationship-like dynamics, structured evaluation scenarios, and calibrated expert rating. The aim is to make parasocial pull of AI governable in product terms, while staying honest about uncertainty. The report is live today. Thank you to all the amazing persons and experts who have contributed to this work Adrien ABECASSIS, Kate Blocker, PhD, Dr. Maxime Derian, Sara Grimes, Thao Ha, Sameer Hinduja, Daniel Hipp, Melinda Karth, Ph.D., Pilyoung Kim, Olga Muss Laurenty, Sonia Livingstone, Polina Lulu, Celine Malvoisin, Kris Perry, Gregory Renard, Bethany Robertson, Anne-Sophie SERET, Sonia Tiwari, Scott Traylor, Ed.M., Ying Xu. And a special thank you for Maxime Le Bourgeois for your support on this research. Link in the comment

210

26 Comments

How to build multiplayer AI experiences without the AI NPC chaos. Every second team tries to build single-player AI systems: → One user → One assistance → A bunch of NPCs that merely ‘respond.’ Dream Lab LA's experiment with Luma AI has given those teams real direction: Multiplayer AI → Multiple humans → Multiple agents → Shared context → Shared outcomes There can be obvious contradictions ⚠️ Because as soon as you add more than one agent, you might expect: → Agents contradicting one another → Drifting rules → Broken continuity → Outcomes that look impressive once, then fail on iteration But if the cards are played right, it opens doors to multiple possibilities 💰 Here is how your team can leverage the multiplayer AI in your production pipeline: 1️⃣ Define shared rules before you define prompts: Write the world contract → What is true → What cannot happen → What “done” means → What must never change Implicit rules as such, reinvent the system for every session 2️⃣ Assign roles to agents: Multiplayer works when each agent has a narrow job, for instance: → Agent A: narrative continuity → Agent B: visual/style constraints → Agent C: safety and guardrails → Agent D: orchestration and conflict resolution Your team needs coherence to ensure dedicated team members work on dedicated tasks. 3️⃣ Design handoffs like a production pipeline: In your team, you need to explicitly define: → Who decides → Who executes → Who validates → What gets locked before the next iteration A multiplayer workflow needs to ensure every produced output is efficiently coordinated 🎯 4️⃣ Measure what actually matters: Set potential KPIs for your team to perform against, such as: → Repeatable outcomes → Low iteration time → Continuity stability across sessions and operators That’s the difference between a demo and a system. Following an effective framework for AI production within a dedicated team is crucial to ensure team coherence and consistent outputs. This bridges the gap between demos and systems Which is why multiplayer AI is an operating model shift 🦾

70

13 Comments

AI is about to make a splash on your phone. Hollywood vet Lloyd Braun wants to use AI to produce "microdramas," serialized soap operas for your mobile screen. The shows will be produced on a shoestring budget, using AI to lower costs even more. This isn't a new model. It's already a booming business in APAC, as well as in the US. And it's not just Braun who's interested. Disney is too; it recently admitted microdrama app DramaBox into its Disney Accelerator program, which provides investment capital and collab opportunities with Disney executives. I've had a front row view to the microdrama/vertical video series trend for the past 2 years. My daughter Carina Williamson works for one of the top companies in the space, Goodshort. I've been fascinated with the business model - viewers get the first several episodes free, and then once they're hooked, they have to pay to view the rest, either by buying "coins" or a subscription to the content. The shows are addictive and cheesy, with titles like "Giving Birth and Getting Divorced" and "My Husband's Nephew is My Guilty Pleasure." People often bring up Quibi when they think of this genre, but Quibi's downfall was its expensive production model. The shows produced by Goodshort, DramaBox and others are made for a fraction of the cost. Introducing AI into the production process has its risks, of course. As Brooks Barnes wrote in the New York Times article about MicroCo's launch, "A.I. is a touchy subject in Hollywood. Creative workers, in particular, worry about being replaced by machines. But at least so far, few studios are using it the way MicroCo intends to use it." Animation is one area where MicroCo plans to incorporate AI, reducing costs to as little as $1500 per minute, vs. $15,000 to $60,000 for traditional animation. That works out to just 2.5% to 10% of the cost. Will audiences care how the shows are made? Or will the addictive storylines win out?

15

9 Comments

Most AI video models can move. Few can remember who they’re moving. BindWeave changes that. This new 70GB model from ByteDance and USTC tackles a beast most video generators still fumble: keeping characters consistent across frames, actions, and interactions. One reference image is enough. You get full-body consistency, facial identity, viewpoint shifts, and even multi-subject interactions, all stitched together with a coherent logic. The trick? A multimodal LLM first breaks down your prompt into “who’s doing what, where, and how.” That structure feeds into a diffusion transformer that generates the final video. It’s not just pretty motion anymore - it's controllable, story-aware generation. Some highlights: 🤌 Consistent character identity across time and scenes 🤌 Works with multiple subjects + human-object interaction 🤌 Strong grounding of roles, poses, emotions 🤌 High performance on subject consistency benchmarks Workflow isn't public yet, and the full model weighs in at 70GB, so not exactly plug-and-play. But you can bet someone’s already working on a quantized version. And then there's VACE. VACE is more of a multi-tool. You get ref2vid, vid2vid, inpainting, region edits, scene extension, and it’s already out in the wild. It’s fast, flexible, but messier with identity. You can do more things, but you give up some precision. So the comparison’s simple: 💪 VACE - usable now, broad capabilities 💪 BindWeave - future-focused, tighter control over who appears and what they do 🔗 Git: https://lnkd.in/duc7K5wk 🔗 HF: https://lnkd.in/dvyFAVXX We're following both closely at Lighthouse. For those of you building cinematic GenAI workflows - storytelling with structure, characters, camera logic - these models are worth tracking. Cohorts open - grab your seat! Come build with us.

41

9 Comments

Rewiring Reality: How Google’s XR Strategy Signals a New Smart Glasses Era. Google’s public reveal of Android XR and Gemini integration marks more than just a product launch—it signals a foundational shift in the wearables industry. While the blog post itself serves as a corporate milestone, the broader implications reflect a deeper systemic transformation that touches manufacturers, users, and the technological ecosystem as a whole. For hardware manufacturers, Google’s decision to open its XR platform creates a fertile ground for innovation. The inclusion of partners like Samsung, Xreal, and high-fashion brands (Gentle Monster, Warby Parker, Kering Eyewear) lowers entry barriers while promoting competition and differentiation through aesthetics and functionality. This blend of hardware excellence and design signals a movement away from utilitarian form factors toward consumer-ready, lifestyle-integrated products. From the user perspective, Gemini’s role is transformative. By allowing real-time visual assistance, hands-free communication, live translation, and contextual awareness, it positions smart glasses as autonomous digital agents—devices that augment daily life without dependence on smartphones. The shift is not only technical but experiential: users gain agency through frictionless, ambient computing. The Android XR platform itself is a strategic linchpin. By unifying ARCore, Android Studio, Unity, and OpenXR under a single developer environment, it slashes the costs and complexity of multi-device support. For the first time, developers can build spatial experiences with mainstream scalability, echoing the ecosystem strength that propelled Android smartphones. Google’s level of commitment is underscored by $150M in ecosystem funding, public showcases (Google I/O, TED 2025), and tight collaboration with industry giants like Qualcomm and Samsung. This isn’t a pilot—it’s a full-scale entry. The privacy-by-design approach and prototype testing with trusted users only reinforce the company’s long-term vision of socially acceptable, human-centered wearable computing. Google’s strategy reveals that smart glasses are not a niche experiment—they are the next computing frontier. With Gemini at the helm, Android XR could very well become the dominant platform for AI-driven, headworn experiences. #SmartGlassesRevolution #AndroidXR #GeminiAI #WearableComputing #FutureInterfaces #AmbientAI #HumanMachineInteraction inspired by: https://lnkd.in/dcXFfARK

14

1 Comment

5 Ways Generative AI is Failing Kids.. And How We Fix It. Generative AI is already in kids’ hands. But most of these tools weren’t built with them in mind—and the gaps are clear. A new study from The Alan Turing Institute & LEGO Foundation reveals some critical issues: 1. It wasn’t designed for kids Nearly 1 in 4 children aged 8–12 regularly use tools like ChatGPT and My AI—but these platforms lack safety features, learning frameworks, and child-centered design. 2. Bias shows up Kids of color report that AI-generated images don’t represent them—and eventually, they stop using those tools altogether. 3. Critical thinking is under threat 76% of parents and 72% of teachers worry kids trust AI outputs too quickly—without questioning their accuracy. 4. The digital divide is widening Private-school students are 3x more likely to use generative AI than peers in public schools—amplifying inequity. 5. Creativity is being flattened Teachers say student work is becoming less diverse and more generic. When AI does the thinking, kids do less imagining. So how do we fix it? - Include kids in co-design, not just as end users - Build tools that reflect diverse identities - Teach AI literacy early—with ethics and bias baked in - Combine AI tools with hands-on, creative experiences - Focus on equity of access, not just flashy tech This isn’t just a tech issue—it’s a trust, inclusion, and learning issue for the next generation. Full study: https://lnkd.in/ejwSXjBF

19

12 Comments

New episode of The AI XR Podcast drops today! In a world drowning in AI-generated content, where does value live? According to Meow Wolf , co-founder Vince Kaludbek, the answer is "Physical Reality." On this week's AI XR Podcast, with Ted Schilowitz and I, Vince argues that digital novelty is dead. "I don't care about photorealistic gorillas anymore," he says. "The future medium has to be physical." Vince shares how Meow Wolf is evolving from static immersive art installations into "animated spatial storytelling"—living, breathing worlds where visitors have agency, track progress, and impact the narrative like a real-life RPG. Key insights: 😍 The "Cross-Reality" Thesis: Meow Wolf isn't just building theme parks; they're building a "mechanically connected transmedia universe" where your actions in the physical world unlock digital status and vice versa. 😎 Hollywood 2.0: New locations in LA (taking over a cinema) and NYC (Pier 17) aim to deconstruct 20th-century storytelling formats for a spatial future. 😭 The End of Scarcity: With Netflix acquiring Warner Bros assets (in our news segment's hypothetical/breaking scenario), the hosts debate how tech valuations are swallowing legacy media and what that means for the "monoculture" of shared events like Game of Thrones. 🤖News: Netflix's $83B Warner Bros deal, Meta cutting 30% of Reality Labs while hiring Apple's design chief, and the looming Android XR launch in 2026. Thanks to our sponsor Zappar! Listen to the full episode for a masterclass in future-proofing entertainment. #AIXRPodcast #MeowWolf #VinceKadlubek #ImmersiveEntertainment #SpatialComputing #XR #ExperienceEconomy #FutureOfStorytelling

15

1 Comment

AI Agents Are About To Change Gaming Forever #AI #agents are moving #games beyond scripted characters, enabling lifelike NPCs, emergent #gameplay, and faster development that could empower smaller studios. This shift also raises urgent questions around safety, manipulation, creative control, and the impact on jobs, as agents begin to act like virtual workers inside the #entertainment economy. https://lnkd.in/eXSakCkS

20

6 Comments

Meta’s recent layoffs in Reality Labs are a moment worth reflecting on — not panicking about. This isn’t the end of XR. It’s a course correction. What’s clearly happening: • Large, speculative VR-first bets are being scaled down • AI + wearables + real-world utility are being prioritized • The industry is shifting from “build the world” → “augment the world” For those of us working in XR today, this signals something important: The future of immersive tech is not about massive virtual worlds alone — it’s about intelligent, context-aware systems that blend seamlessly into daily life. XR doesn’t disappear here. It evolves. The builders who will thrive next are those who: • Combine XR with AI, perception, and systems thinking • Focus on productivity, learning, health, and real workflows • Design for wearables, spatial interfaces, and human-centered augmentation Market cycles change. Foundational shifts don’t. I continue to build and research at the intersection of XR + AI, documenting what works, what scales, and what actually delivers value as the ecosystem matures. 📌 I document my XR + AI work, projects, and evolving insights here → www.varuninnovates.com

29