English | EN 
On the 15th of October our book “Real Fake – Playing with Reality in the Age of AI, Deepfakes and the Metaverse” has been released. It is our take on synthetic media, deepfakes, fake news, conspiracy theories, memes, internet culture, Generation Z and Alpha, crypto, narrative economics, virtual humans, CGI influencers, vTubers, NFTs, DAOs, VR, Web3, the Creator Economy and the Metaverse. Real Fake is about how humans continuously manipulate reality and how new digital technology tools enable us to go one step further in this ancient game.
My Own Hologram At AG TechFest 2022
Last week I gave a presentation about our book Real Fake at the AG TechFest 2022. Afterwards I had the opportunity to create a hologram. It was great fun to jump around like a fool and see your hologram do the same. 😉
Make-A-Video
“Make-A-Video research builds on the recent progress made in text-to-image generation technology built to enable text-to-video generation. The system uses images with descriptions to learn what the world looks like and how it is often described. It also uses unlabeled videos to learn how the world moves. With this data, Make-A-Video lets you bring your imagination to life by generating whimsical, one-of-a-kind videos with just a few words or lines of text.”
Make-A-Video can only create video’s that last for 5 seconds. Already there is a competitor with variable length video’s: Phenaki.
TikTok Is The New King Of Social Media
“One way to understand the past five years of social media is as a race to see who can copy TikTok the fastest and with the least dignity.”
The Teens Making Thousands Thanks To TikTok
“A lot of amplification happens on TikTok. We have seen a number of hashtag trends that start incredibly small but snowball. […] Because of how TikTok’s algorithm works, learning what users like and finding similar content, it’s easy for videos to land in front of their target market, as opposed to Instagram or Facebook, where often brands have to invest more to cut through the clutter and insert themselves into people’s feeds. […] TikTok is so contextual that if you can latch on to a trend or a community, then you are going to find your content organically inserted into people’s For You page. It’s an incredibly powerful platform for all young entrepreneurs who don’t have huge marketing budgets.”
Bruce Willis Sells Face To Deepfake Firm
Bruce Willis has become the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a “digital twin” of himself to be created for use on screen. Willis allowed US firm Deepcake, which makes “digital twins”, to use his face. In a statement on its website, Willis said: “I liked the precision with which my character turned out. It’s a mini-movie in my usual action-comedy genre. For me, it is a great opportunity to go back in time. “With the advent of modern technology, even when I was on another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in the filming. It’s a very new and interesting experience, and I thank our entire team.”
James Earl Jones, the voice behind the Star Wars’ character Darth Vader, recently sold the rights to his voice. So I guess this will become common practice in the near future. Question is, do we want to listen to synthetic voices and see synthetic characters on the big screen?
Update: According to the BBC the story about Bruce Willis selling his face is fake news.
MUST READ: The Era of Redefinition
“6 trends that are reshaping the fabric of human systems.”
MUST READ: The Metaverse Beyond Fantasy
“Businesses should not underestimate the importance and potential of the Metaverse. Put simply, it promises to be the future version of the Internet, powered with new properties that will open up new usages and business models — in a similar way to how the smartphone transformed the Web.”
$ynth3t1( w0rld, r3al 3(0n0my – [Synthetic world, real economy]
MUST WATCH: BeReal on SNL
MUST WATCH: How To Start A New Country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nqzn92nvC8
Contact
Real Fake is a weekly newsletter in which SogetiLabs’s Research Institute VINT examines the future where synthetic reality becomes part or our objective reality. We investigate the impact of new technology on people, organisations and our society. If you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us at vint@sogeti.com.
