Sam Altman's UBI study 😮

Happy Thursday, Cyborgs.

This week’s newsletter is jam-packed with so many juicy highlights - from the results of Sam Altman’s UBI study (!!) to California DMV putting car titles on-chain.

On a community-centric note, we’re so excited to be back with monthly salons in LA&NY starting again in September - invitation to Sept 11 Virtual Beings Salon at Neuehouse Madison Square in this newsletter! We’re also kicking off community creator/builder spotlights this week, featuring our dear friend and community member James Joseph, founder of CYBR Magazine.

Please enjoy this week’s jam-packed edition and as always, do let us know what you want to see more of, love & don’t love 🙃

Today’s rundown:

• TLDR: This week in Future + Culture

  • Sam Altman’s UBI research study presents mixed results

  • Creative tool Leonardo.ai acquired by Canva

  • Major platform updates: OpenAI, Meta, Runway, Apple

  • CA DMV puts 42million car titles on-chain

• Community Shares

• NYC Virtual Beings Event announced - Sept 11 @ Neuehouse Madison Square

• Community Spotlight: Builder of the Week James Joseph of CYBR Magazine

Sam Altman’s Universal Basic Income (UBI) research study was just released after 3 years, with mixed results

Back in the day, Sam Altman funded a UBI research study - and the results are out. We were surprised not to see more coverage on this, and also surprised to see the mixed results in coverage across media outlets. We decided to ask ChatGPT to distill the facts, and then site the differences across a few articles.

Here is the link to the actual study conducted by OpenResearch

Here are the nuts and bolts of the facts according to ChatGPT:

• Study Overview:

  • Conducted by OpenResearch, backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman.

  • Spanned three years in Illinois and Texas.

  • Provided $1,000 monthly stipends to 1,000 low-income individuals.

  • A control group of 2,000 received $50 per month​

Now, the results seemed less objective, so we asked ChatGPT to summarize the hot takes from different articles. According to GPT, “these articles provide a range of viewpoints on the efficacy and implications of the UBI study, highlighting both positive outcomes and limitations.”:

1. Bloomberg: Discusses the comprehensive findings of the UBI study, noting that the additional income primarily went to essential needs like food and housing. The study found no significant reduction in work hours among participants, but highlighted increased flexibility, autonomy, and improved financial planning. Despite these benefits, there were no substantial improvements in long-term financial health or physical well-being, leading to mixed reactions from policymakers and media​ (Enterprise Technology News and Analysis)​​ (AI Breakfast)​​ (the deep dive)​.

2. The Register: Highlights the nuanced outcomes of the UBI study, such as increased health care visits without significant health improvements, and a slight reduction in work hours, emphasizing that UBI alone may not solve systemic issues​ (Enterprise Technology News and Analysis)​.

3. The Deep Dive: Critiques the UBI study's results, pointing out the lack of significant long-term financial or health benefits and the mixed reactions from policymakers and media​ (the deep dive)​.

Why we care: the plot thickens in this continued controversial discussion surrounding UBI.

Creative tool Leonardo.ai announces acquisition by Canva

The fastest growing AI creative tool gets acquired by Canva after just 18mo. They will continue to run as an independent platform while tapping into the wider Canva ecosystem and resources.

Leonardo is Sydney-based, has 120 employees, over 19 million registered users, and has raised over $38.8M from the likes of Smash Capital, Blackbird, and Samsung Next. $26bn design leader Canva has been investing in AI since 2022 and will integrate Leonardo’s technology into its Magic Studio. Read more about the acquisition here.

Why we care: this is a major acquisition in the AI creative tool space, and it happened so fast. Super curious to see how things evolve with Leonardo as they integrate into the Canva ecosystem.

Major platform updates: there’s so much, we can barely keep up 🤯

Google’s newest, open-source, tiny AI model Gemma 2 2B outperforms GPT3.5. This is a big advancement by Google as a pioneer in small model size.

OpenAI has kicked off the roll out of advanced voice mode, which aims to improve the model's ability to handle content safely and enhance the user experience with human-like conversations with the AI. This model leverages the capabilities of the GPT-4o model to enable the AI to understand and respond with emotions and non-verbal cues, creating interactions that mimic human dialogue more closely.

On a separate note…have you noticed that ChatGPT has started to include link to sources in its answers, per last week’s update? Loving this.

Meta releases “Segment Anything Model 2 (SAM2)” with AI-powered object identification in images and video. This new model focuses on segment analysis within videos and improves image segmentation abilities, helping ease the process of video editing or AI-based video generation, as well as power mixed-reality experiences in the Meta ecosystem.

Runway announces Gen-3 Alpha image to video, allowing you to use any image as the first frame of video generation.

Apple Intelligence is coming to iOS18, including features like the updated Siri and writing tools. 

Wildcard: California DMV puts 42million car titles on-chain 🤯

The California DMV is uploading 42 million car titles to the Avalanche blockchain, allowing users to claim and access their car titles through an app in effort to prevent fraud and cut down IRL traffic at the DMV.

Why we care: A breakthrough move involving the government, the DMV, and blockchain? We’re kind of shook 🤯 

👫ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ꜱʜᴀʀᴇꜱ👫

Joel Perlgut has shared with us Leonardo’s creator program, which gives creatives access to free credits & tokens to use the platform, early access to new features and resources from the Leonardo team. If you apply, shoot me a note and I will put in a good word.

I’m literally brimming with excitement to share an early access invitation to our upcoming Virtual Beings Salon on Sept 11 at Neuehouse Madison Square in NYC!! See below…finally 😻

😺ᵤₚcₒₘᵢₙg ₑᵥₑₙₜₛ😺

We’re back in salon-mode this Fall with Virtual Beings NYC edition at Neuehouse Madison Square, on Sept 11! This event topic was such a hit at our last event this June in LA, we had to make sure we hosted round 2 on our other coast. We’ll feature a panel of founders, artists and engineers sharing their process of envisioning and creating virtual beings. We’ll explore the role of virtual beings in relation to humans, different types of AI-powered avatars, and sample use cases. Speakers announced soon! Secure your spot, we expect high turnout :)

And don’t worry, we’re announcing our LA September event soon as well stay tuned 🙂 We can’t wait to see all of your beautiful faces so soon!

💡 𝐀&𝐌 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭💡

ᴶᵃᵐᵉˢ ᴶᵒˢᵉᵖʰ, ᶜʸᴮᴿ ᵐᵃᵍᵃᶻⁱⁿᵉ

James has an innovative media background, having honed his craft at GARAGE Magazine under the guidance of Dasha Zhukova and Charlotte Stockdale. He developed large-scale AR experiences with high-profile collaborators like Kendall Jenner, Marvel, and Burberry, all before Instagram and Snap launched their AR Lens Studio. Following the Vice Media acquisition of Garage, James founded CYBR Magazine to continue pioneering the future of media. At CYBR, he launched Grimes A.I. and created striking covers like Chemiluminescence with Julia Fox. Recently, James was invited to Harvard's innovation lab to work on A.I. projects.

What’s inspiring you these days?

I have this term: “Technology To Free Us”. As someone who romanticizes those raw emotional moments, a struck match, a whiskey by the campfire, or riding horseback, the idea of doom scrolling and VR leading to digital mind uploading whilst a technological marvel is just not something I want for the future. Instead, I want to push cutting edge creativity and media through wearable A.I. and interactive A.I. experiences that allow us to have our heads up, engage in the world around us, and connect on a real level.

What’s your current industry hot take?
Ethical A.I. is the next step with companies like OpenLicense creating ways for creators and artists to get paid for their work being scraped and used in A.I. image creation and more.