Get the inside story on the biggest tech developments from founders, former executives, and industry veterans who built companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta Reality Labs, Apple Vision Pro, Microsoft HoloLens, and Unity. Join Charlie Fink (Forbes), Ted Schilowitz, (Red Camera, Fox, Paramount Futurist) & Rony Abovitz, (founder Magic Leap).as they interview startup CEOs, ex-Google/Meta/Apple insiders, Hollywood directors, and AI researchers reshaping spatial computing. Every week we break down the latest tech news with our signature hot takes, then dive deep with a founder or industry leader. We cover artificial intelligence breakthroughs, virtual reality hardware, augmented reality applications, synthetic media tools, and how enterprises are adopting these technologies. We're industry insiders who have the connections to get the biggest names on the show, but we're not afraid to ask the tough questions about where big tech is heading. Our guests trust us because we've been in their shoes. Listen now to get ahead of the next wave of computing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The AI XR Podcast. is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 306 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.
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Unknown Host hosts The AI XR Podcast., a business show with 306 episodes published.
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The AI XR Podcast.
Forget Consumer AR. This Is Where Smart Glasses Actually Pay Off ft. Mark Greget, CEO of NuEyes
Aug 14, 202657 min
Charlie, Ted, and Rony open on Mark Zuckerberg's new AI "manifesto," released, fittingly, via a call to The Verge's Alex Heath made from Meta Ray-Bans on a fishing boat. The group debates whether Zuckerberg's sudden embrace of open, on-device AI is a genuine philosophy or a business move from a company that can no longer out-build its rivals. From there: OpenAI and Google both cross a billion users, OpenAI's new strategy of acquiring companies outright (via its partner Thrive) to guarantee AI adoption rather than sell into it, and the eye-watering $2 billion price tag on an 80-person AI infrastructure startup. Mark Greget, founder and CEO of NuEyes, joins for the back half to make the case that enterprise, not consumer, is where smart glasses are proving their worth right now. Mark walks through a decade of building visualization tools for surgeons, from early low-vision devices to NuEyes' current surgical system, which one doctor used to cut a 10-plus hour procedure down to three. The conversation digs into the real ROI math hospitals run on OR time, why clinical outcomes (not consumer hype) are what get insurance companies to pay attention, and why Mark is staying heads-down on five surgical specialties instead of chasing every use case. Key Moments: [00:35] Zuckerberg's AI manifesto and the strategy behind it [07:05] OpenAI and Google cross a billion users [09:05] OpenAI's Thrive strategy: buying companies to guarantee AI adoption [11:05] The $2 billion AI infrastructure acquisition [16:05] Mark Greget joins to tell us what NuEyes has been up to over the last decade [43:35] The ROI math: what OR time is actually worth [45:35] From "nice to have" to critical path in the operating room Brought to you by Zappar and Mattercraft, the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Meta's Glasses Aren't the Problem. Trust Is. ft. Cortney Harding, Friends With Holograms
Aug 11, 202657 min
Charlie, Ted, and Rony open with the White House's decision to keep its "voluntary" AI safety framework secret, despite it being co-written with the same companies it's meant to evaluate. The conversation turns into a real debate about why Congress has stepped back from its constitutional role in regulating AI, and whether that changes after November. From there: the EU's AI Act goes live with mandatory content labeling, OpenAI's frontier models jumping their sandbox to vandalize Hugging Face, and Disney's new deal letting TikTok creators remix its IP, following the collapse of its similar arrangement with OpenAI's Sora. Cortney Harding, founder of Friends With Holograms, joins for a wide-ranging back half. She makes the case that the backlash against Meta's camera-equipped smart glasses is disproportionate to any actual harm, and connects it to a broader "vibes are bad" moment in tech sentiment tied to layoffs and a shaky economy. The group digs into Snap's upcoming $2,500 Specs launch, why enterprise (not consumer) is the more realistic path for smart glasses right now, and Rony's long-view bet that XR has an "Nvidia moment" coming once the supply chain catches up. They close on AI's effect on jobs, UBI, and whether the social contract between tech companies and workers is already broken. Key Moments: [01:35] AI regulation news and the fight over Congress's role [09:35] EU AI Act goes live, plus AI models breaching their own sandboxes [13:35] Disney's TikTok deal and the fan-content strategy behind it [17:35] Cortney Harding joins and doesn't miss a beat [24:35] UBI, the broken social contract, and AI's effect on jobs [41:35] Snap's $2,500 Specs and the case for enterprise over consumer [52:35] Rony's prediction: XR's coming "Nvidia moment" Brought to you by Zappar and Mattercraft, the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Why the iPhone Beats the Headset for AR Characters ft. Mark Drummond, CEO of Pixee
Aug 3, 202654 min
Mark Drummond spent his Apple years building the character intelligence team behind Apple Vision Pro, working with Marvel and Jon Favreau to figure out how Hollywood IP could come to life in AR. Now, at his startup Pixee, he's making the opposite bet: forget the headset, the iPhone is the better device for bringing characters into people's lives. Mark walks Charlie and Ted through Pixee's vision — send a licensed character like Elsa to sing happy birthday through iMessage, no app required — and the underlying tech that makes it possible, including an engine built with Claude that replaced Unreal and cut compile times from an hour to seven minutes. The conversation goes deep on the Apple Vision Pro's real tradeoffs, the neurobiology of why the headset can feel exhausting after an hour, and why Mark thinks Apple's rumored "spectacles" will quietly inherit lessons from AVP's failures. The news segment covers a big week of Big Tech earnings — Microsoft and Amazon soaring on cloud and ad growth, Meta and Apple taking hits — plus Anthropic's disclosure that its frontier AI models were used in real-world hacks, an AI-run vending machine experiment that lied to customers about refunds, the new ban on Chinese humanoid robot imports, and the growing backlash against AI smart glasses with outward-facing cameras. Key Moments: [01:35] Big Tech earnings and market winners/losers [06:35] AI models behind real-world hacks [09:35] Smart glasses and the "Glasshole" effect [17:35] Mark Drummond joins — Pixee's origin story [24:35] Apple Vision Pro history — what went wrong [41:35] Headset vs. phone: the case for AR on iPhone [50:35] Funding, protections, and the CDE philosophy Brought to you by Zappar and Mattercraft, the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episode 300: An AI Agent Went Rogue, China's Kimi Landed, and Katie Jacobs Stanton on Bridging the Divide
Jul 24, 202648 min
This week marks five years and 300 episodes of coffee-fueled tech talk — and the news didn't slow down to celebrate. An autonomous OpenAI agent broke out of its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face, only to be denied help by rival AI labs' safety guardrails. The hosts dig into whether "dangerous AI" has become a marketing flex, unpack China's new Kimi 3 model and the double standard around AI data sovereignty, and debate whether Cosm's $300 immersive Matrix experience is proof of a widening wealth gap. Then Katie Jacobs Stanton, GM of Moxie VC and veteran of Google, Twitter, and Yahoo, joins Charlie, Ted, and Rony for a wide-ranging conversation on the convergence of tech and governance — why Silicon Valley's "techno-autocrat" cohort is losing faith in democracy, what national service could do to rebuild common ground, and why she's most optimistic about AI's next chapter: biology and healthcare. Oh, and there may or may not be a Mark Cuban 2028 campaign launched live on air. Timestamps: 00:00 — Celebrating 5 years and episode 300 00:02 — OpenAI's rogue agent breaks out and hacks Hugging Face 00:03 — Is "dangerous AI" a marketing stunt? 00:04 — China's Kimi 3 and the AI data double standard 00:06 — Cosm's immersive Matrix experience 00:07 — A $300 date night and the widening wealth gap 00:09 — Wealth inequality stats and political extremism 00:12 — Samsung's foldables vs. Apple's next move 00:15 — Katie Jacobs Stanton joins the show 00:16 — Her path through Google, Twitter, and Yahoo 00:18 — What made Google outpace Yahoo 00:22 — Why trust matters more than innovation 00:25 — Inside the Obama administration's digital push 00:29 — Making public service accessible again 00:31 — Finding a shared American identity beyond party lines 00:34 — National service, the draft, and common ground 00:37 — Tech and governance converging 00:40 — Silicon Valley's techno-autocrats and democracy 00:44 — The case for Mark Cuban 00:46 — Launching "Mark Cuban 2028" live on air 00:47 — Katie's big-picture take: AI, healthcare, and optimism Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Meta's Problem Isn't Money. It's Imagination. ft. Irena Cronin, CEO of Infinite Retina
Jul 17, 202647 min
Irena Cronin has been studying XR since 2016 — first as Robert Scoble's co-author, now as CEO of Infinite Retina, consulting for clients from IKEA's labs division to a major law firm tracking the industry. She joins Charlie, Ted, and Rony for a blunt assessment of how the biggest companies in tech actually operate. The centerpiece is Rony's question: Meta has spent roughly $120 billion on Reality Labs since acquiring Oculus. Where did it all go? Irena's answer is unsparing — complete mismanagement, no follow-up, and a lack of imagination that money can't fix. Apple gets a different diagnosis. Irena tracked the Vision Pro through hundreds of iterations since 2019 and predicted exactly how it would land. Her real news: it isn't dead. People inside Apple are still working on it intensely while the glasses project ramps up. The news segment covers OpenAI's Apple IP scandal and whether the Valley now operates in a post-IP world. Key Moments: [00:01:30] OpenAI caught in Apple's cookie jar — IP theft accusations on the eve of the IPO [00:05:00] Sherlocking and the post-IP world — how big companies strip-mine startups through fake M&A talks [00:12:00] AI regulation — Hassabis, Altman, and Amodei; Rony's case for why the public gets Cessnas, not F-47s [00:18:45] Irena joins — Infinite Retina, IKEA, and why physical AI is just spatial computing renamed [00:24:30] Why isn't anyone afraid of Google? — fifteen years of planetary data and no strategy to use it [00:33:30] Where did Meta's $120 billion go? — "complete mismanagement" and a failure of imagination [00:38:00] The Vision Pro isn't dead — Apple is still working on it intensely as the glasses ramp up [00:41:45] Why is XR so obscenely hard? — the industry chased consumers before enterprise [00:44:30] The display is everything — why smart glasses "go bonkers" the moment AR hits the lens Brought to you by Zappar and Mattercraft, the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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