The future of entertainment is AI-powered storytelling
With January coming to an end, we start to see fewer 2019 trend reports on LinkedIn. Here are some interesting snippets from last week.
The future of entertainment includes “virtual beings” powered by AI
Edward Saatchi, former head of Oculus Stories Studios and current founder and executive producer of VR startup Fable, discusses AI-powered storytelling in an interview with The Next Web. He describes a future in which you can pluck a character from your favourite book and interact with them as they are.
Soon, virtual beings can exist in any digital medium because the AI powering them can adapt to the situation. Because of this, it will feel like the character is aware of you and engaging you, not because it’s been animated to do so, but because it’s reacting to you as an individual.
“The difference between a servant AI or chatbot AI, and a virtual being based on a character, is in the storytelling. If you download a virtual Batman, it shouldn’t be happy to change the volume on your connected home speakers. That’s a waste of Batman’s time and “he” should tell you as much” says Edward Saatchi.
Facebook moves all their messaging apps to the same infrastructure
According to the New York Times, Facebook plans to integrate its messaging services — WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. According to four people involved in the project, the services will continue to operate as stand-alone apps, but their underlying technical infrastructure will be unified.
The initiative, planned to finish in the end of this year or beginning of next, will bring together three of the world’s largest messaging networks, which between them have more than 2.6 billion users, allowing people to communicate across the platforms for the first time.
This gives Mark Zuckerberg control over the company’s sprawling divisions at a time when its business has been battered by scandal. The move will strengthen Facebook’s grip on users, raising antitrust, privacy and security questions. It also underscores how Zuckerberg is imposing his authority over units he once vowed to leave alone.
Google opens up their WordPress plugin for beta testers
Google has invited beta testers to test its WordPress plugin, Site Kit. Site Kit allows users to access information from Search Console, Analytics, AdSense, and PageSpeed Insights directly from the WordPress admin panel.
With the plugin installed, WordPress users can access unified insights and Google product capabilities directly from WordPress. And for WordPress users, it will also be very helpful that Site Kit provides deep links to Google products for advanced reports and product configuration.
While Site Kit doesn’t add any new insights that are not already available in Google’s tools, it makes them easier to access. For example, users can navigate to a page on their website and click the Site Kit button in the admin panel to view stats for that page.
