10.6.25
The end of an Era (In the best possible way!)
For almost a decade WISRD members have been exploring AR, VR, Metaverse, or XR. However, after renewed interest in 2023 after the announcement of the Apple Vision Pro, it has become increasingly evident that the field of consumer Integrated Visual Augmentation has advanced to the stage that WISRD can no longer meaningfully add directly to the technical field. Make no mistake, WISRD has overseen and tracked great advancement in the field going from the first Oculus, and Hololens all the way through to the Apple Vision Pro. Given our rapidly aging inventory and despite limited renewed interest by some WISRD members Megan, Matt and myself have decided to sunset the dedicated WISRD XR Lab. This does not mean that WISRD still won’t use XR products in work or research, it just means how we do it is changing. WIE will take a large amount of our legacy equipment, they are the continuation of the XR lab, their purpose is commercial exploration, the other side of the same coin as WISRD and we look forward to working with them on how to best utilize XR and are already in talks for further shared CapEx on the technology. The other XR assets will be nominally managed by INSIGHT however will be effectively generalised WISRD inventory until they are retired from that as well. We are excited for the collaborative future of XR in WISRD with our wonderful partners at WIE and the opportunities and insight they will provide! Thank you to all the people who have worked on XR over the years, Guy G: 2023-2025, Marley Z.: 2021-2023, Max V: 2021-2022, Will S: 2021-2022, Jack C: 2021-2022, Remy: 2016-2020, Colin H.: 2017-2020, Jesse B: 2017-2019, Mathew M.: 2020-2021, Avery: 2017-2019, Cole: 2020-2021, Axil: 2019-2020, Kai S.: 2016-2017, Jojo G: 2017, Will B: 2014-2017, Cameron: 2016-2017, Sam B: 2015, Abe B: 2017, Felix: 2016-2018 and of course Bob, Megan, and Joe for supporting our endeavors and nurturing our ability to reflect .
Futurum tam splendidum est, ocularia solaria induere debeo,
All the best,
Guy Gendell
10.1.25
Dear Reader,
The labs are moving along nicely we have a new member! Dash F. will be joining the INSIGHT lab! Dash will primarily help advance our bioinformatics projects forward through the view of (mostly) non AI emerging technologies. At the risk of my journal turning into a Browser Review blog, I dowloaded Fellou an Agentic AI Browser for a project we will talk more about more next week. Continued discussions into the discussion of the Generative AI lab with my techs. WISRD also had a social it was wonderful and unique from all previous socials due to the new presentation format. I have continued discussion with relevant parties on the future of XR in WISRD. I also participated in the training test the RECON lab did on Monday night and that was very fun, if tiring.
Until next time, per aspera ad astra
All the best,
Guy Gendell
9.26.25
Dear Reader,
I have been as you must understand very busy. First and most excitingly the Generative AI group is welcoming two new members, Austin S and Leo D! With this increased participation in the group we will be able to conduct a wider range of more in depth research within a shorter time span. This will be crucial for continuing both our long term and more short term projects (e.g. the quick investigations of new flashy OSS models that come out from time to time). Our new project we are rolling out this year is regarding the new field of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) also known as AI Optimization (AIO) in websites. We will discuss more over the coming weeks but for now we will say that the new project will focus on the behavior of model linked scrapers on websites and how best to regulate them. Other than that we will likely be continuing our small scale research into adolescent use of AI and possibly continue incentive testing within INSIGHT. Also it should be noted that over the past weeks myself and the new Lab techs of the AI group have together completed several games of testing and skill such as mapping every possible permutation of the hand game chopsticks. Which while a simple game is a great introduction to primitive game theory. As promised Above the photo of the generative embedded model from earlier this month. Finally I have been given access to Perplexity’s Comet Browser and I must say though for now it will not be my default the incredible ability and flexibility of the models and agent sytems are incredible, especially compared to competitors like DIA, Pumpkin or even Meteor.
All the best,
Guy Gendell
9.4.25
Dear Reader,
Over the past week or so I have been rebuilding or resetting up many interesting opportunities for the generative AI group as well as other groups and/or projects that I may be a part of. I am excited it does appear that this year generative AI group as well as the Bioinformatics group may gain several new members which will be incredibly exciting. I’ve spent the past few weeks getting to know them. Who exactly that is will become clear as of next week. I can say that some of them have been engaging with me on a small team building exercise of sorts using Teachable Machine from Google to build embedded models to get a better understanding of ML. In this case we are just building an embedded model to recognize the number of digits the occupant of the frame was holding up. This rendered mixed results primarily due to insufficient and lower quality data sources. However I will give my new colleagues space to give their input on the matter and may provide a more detailed report depending on our next course of action. The lab appears to be off to a good start, if a slow one, however, given the increased manpower and resources granted to us this year and proliferation of new tools and methods for study, I believe this to be an auspicious start to the year and cannot wait to share more in due course
Note: Just before I was about to publish this, news broke that The Browser Company of New York, makers of Arc and Dia browser(s) had agreed to be acquired by Atlassian. This represents one of the largest consumer facing AI company acquisitions this decade. As an avid fan of BCNY I wish them all the best and hope that are able to continue their mission of making web browsing more accessible and personal. I have in the past had my issues with both BCNY and Atlassian, however I am excited for this new chapter in their history and I hope this acquisition does not preclude the consumer from access to these incredible tools.
Best,
Guy Gendell