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The Future of AI and Travel: 12 Industry Leaders Explain the Impact

Also: How to do the AI Yearbook trend that’s taking over the internet

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AI KATANA
October 02, 2023

Hi!

In today’s newsletter, industry insiders at Skift Global Forum 2023 expressed optimism on AI transforming travel through improved customer engagement and streamlined operations, despite calls for managing its workforce repercussions. The AI Yearbook trend has gained popularity on social media, enabling users to create vintage yearbook images through the EPIK app. Meta unveiled its AI-powered Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, aiming for a hands-free user experience despite past underwhelming sales. A collaboration between NASA and ADC Energy USA, Inc. led to a groundbreaking AI-aided "alternating direct current" technology promising lossless power transmission. OpenAI enhanced ChatGPT with real-time web browsing and voice interactions, moving closer to AI assistants like Siri. Lastly, a Forbes piece speculated on potential blockbuster AI M&A deals, reflecting AI's crucial role in strategic business endeavors.

Sliced:

  • ✈️ The Future of AI and Travel: 12 Industry Leaders Explain the Impact

  • 🏫 How to do the AI Yearbook trend that’s taking over the internet

  • 😎 The new Ray-Ban smart glasses are powered by Meta AI

  • 🚀 AI-Tech Leads To NASA Energy Breakthrough

At the Skift Global Forum 2023, industry leaders shared optimistic views on how AI will revolutionize travel by enhancing customer engagement and operational efficiency. Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky, highlighted the long-term transformative potential of AI, while Altimeter's Brad Gerstner envisioned effortless travel planning through AI. Uber and Delta Air Lines executives envisaged personalized experiences and seamless operations respectively. Concerns were voiced too; Bookings Holdings CEO, Glenn Fogel, urged governmental intervention on AI's workforce impact. Technology entrepreneur Jason Calacanis and others acknowledged AI's efficiency boost but also its threat to certain jobs. The discourse underscored AI's capacity to refine travel experiences, optimize business processes, yet also necessitated thoughtful management of its societal impact.

The AI Yearbook trend, gaining traction on social media, allows users to envision themselves as high school popular figures. By utilizing the EPIK app, available on both iOS and Android, users can get their own AI-generated vintage yearbook photos. The process involves choosing the "AI Yearbook" option in the app, uploading 8-12 clear selfies, selecting gender, and opting for a payment plan—either Standard or Express. After creating the yearbook images, users can personalize them with frames and filters. It's advisable to use well-lit selfies with a range of expressions for optimal results, and due to the trend's popularity, users might encounter a waiting period due to high demand on the app.

Meta recently unveiled its new Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, a successor to the 2021 Ray-Ban Stories, now powered by Meta AI. Despite the lukewarm reception of the Metaverse and previous smart glasses—selling only 120,000 of a projected 300,000 pairs—Meta persists in leveraging AI across its offerings, evidenced by AI-driven chatbots and these enhanced glasses. The revamped smart glasses offer notable upgrades including better audio, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and a 36-hour battery life with the charging case, addressing a major criticism of the earlier model. The defining feature is the integration of Meta AI, promising a "hands-free, on-the-go experience" with upcoming capabilities to provide information about the users' surroundings. Priced at USD $299, pre-orders for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are currently open, marking Meta's continued strive towards intertwining AI and daily life, despite existing debates surrounding AI's societal impact.

NASA and energy startup ADC Energy USA, Inc. have unveiled a notable advancement in energy technology through their research on "alternating direct current" (ADC), aiming to replace conventional AC/DC power conversion. This AI-aided technology promises lossless power transmission, potentially saving millions of megawatt-hours usually lost to resistance during transmission. The breakthrough, compared to the works of Edison and Tesla, enables both AC and DC to function on existing wiring, eliminating energy conversion needs. Additionally, recent developments in room-temperature superconductivity by other researchers hint at a future of significantly efficient power grids, where the new superconducting material could drastically reduce power transmission losses and have broad applications, from revolutionizing transportation to enhancing medical imaging.

🛠️ AI tools updates

OpenAI has enabled web browsing for ChatGPT, extending its data access beyond the previous cutoff of September 2021. Initially available to Plus and Enterprise users, this feature will soon roll out to all users. To browse, users select "Browse with Bing" under GPT-4. OpenAI also introduced a major update allowing ChatGPT to have voice interactions and process images, aligning it closer to AI assistants like Siri. Earlier, a browsing feature through Bing was tested but disabled over concerns it might allow users to bypass paywalls.

💵 Venture Capital updates

The article from Forbes delves into the speculated wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the AI sector, illustrating 10 conjectural deals. It highlights Microsoft's potential acquisition of Hugging Face to reinforce its open-source developer ecosystem, Meta's prospective purchase of Character.ai to enrich its social media offerings, and Snowflake's hypothetical acquisition of Pinecone to keep pace with evolving database technologies amidst the AI surge. These scenarios underline how pivotal AI has become in strategic business expansion, with companies possibly making substantial investments to remain competitive and innovative in the dynamically evolving tech landscape.

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