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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.
Airbnb’s Design To Live And Work Anywhere
“We’ve designed a way for you to live and work anywhere—while collaborating in a highly coordinated way, and experiencing the in-person connection that makes Airbnb special. Our design has five key features:
- You can work from home or the office
- You can move anywhere in the country you work in and your compensation won’t change
- You have the flexibility to travel and work around the world
- We’ll meet up regularly for team gatherings, off-sites, and social events
- We’ll continue to work in a highly coordinated way”
Will more companies follow these ideas?
Gen Z Does Not Dream Of Labor
“Over the past two years, young millennials and members of Gen Z have created an abundance of memes and pithy commentary about their generational disillusionment toward work. The jokes, which correspond with the rise of anti-work ideology online, range from shallow and shameless (“Rich housewife is the goal”) to candid and pessimistic. […] On TikTok and online, the youngest workers are rejecting work as we know it. How will that play out IRL?”
Dove’s Disturbing Deepfakes Expose Social Media’s Toxic Influence on Teen Girls
“Last year it emerged that Facebook had hidden internal data suggesting that Instagram worsens body image issues for teenage girls. The revelation chimes with new research from Unilever brand Dove, which found one in two girls say idealized beauty content on social media causes low self-esteem.
Dove is tackling this problem head-on in its latest campaign to champion wider definitions of beauty and make social media a more positive environment. The brand set up a social experiment that uses Deepfake technology to expose the dangers of toxic beauty advice online.”
Snapchat’s Flying Camera
“Yes, Snap made a drone. Called Pixy, the small yellow puck takes off from your hand, follows you around, and captures video that can be sent back to Snapchat. It’s Snap’s attempt at making a drone that’s friendlier and more approachable than other products on the market — and it may hint at the more advanced, AR-powered future Snap is building toward.”
AI Is Creating A New Colonial World Order
“Over the last few years, an increasing number of scholars have argued that the impact of AI is repeating the patterns of colonial history. European colonialism, they say, was characterized by the violent capture of land, extraction of resources, and exploitation of people—for example, through slavery—for the economic enrichment of the conquering country. While it would diminish the depth of past traumas to say the AI industry is repeating this violence today, it is now using other, more insidious means to enrich the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the poor. […] The AI industry does not seek to capture land as the conquistadors of the Caribbean and Latin America did, but the same desire for profit drives it to expand its reach. The more users a company can acquire for its products, the more subjects it can have for its algorithms, and the more resources—data—it can harvest from their activities, their movements, and even their bodies.”
A new generation of scholars is championing a “decolonial AI” to return power from Silicon Valley back to the people. Web3 might be the solution.
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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.
