The Augmented City Podcast

Steve Koenig, Vice President of Research for the Consumer Technology Association provides a glimpse into the trends and numbers behind Web3 and Metaverse technologies. Recorded live at Goya Studios during the Infinity Festival Hollywood 2022.

This is a conversation about synthetic biology. What's needed to jump from the laboratory to the factory floor? My guest is Joshua Lachter, the co-founder and chief business officer for Synonym, a New York based company financing and helping source production capacity for synthetic biology companies. Joshua and I take a pretty broad based hike into synthetic biology. What is it? How do we use it today? What's the core science? What opportunities ahead, and what challenges must be overcome to get there? Dig in.

John McInnes: Make Movies with Game Engines by The Soundcasting Network

Brent Friedman: When the Audience is the Creator by The Soundcasting Network

Alyssa Martino: Podcasts, Books and Film Converge by The Soundcasting Network

Beini Huang: A Visual Take on Podcasts by The Soundcasting Network

Zack Lipovsky: The Podcast/Film Nexus by The Soundcasting Network

Remington Scott: Virtual Humans and the Future of Identity by The Soundcasting Network

Steve Read: Virtual Production Transforms Content Creation by The Soundcasting Network

Stephanie Arakelian: Dare to Stretch Podcast Boundaries by The Soundcasting Network

Brian Storm: Know Your Audience, Own Your Content by The Soundcasting Network

Steve Masur: Protecting Your IP As It Evolves by The Soundcasting Network

In Part II of our series on synthetic media, we explore the impact of AI-powered content creation with Ian Beacraft, the CEO of Signal and Cipher. Synthetic media offers new opportunities for non-specialists to express their ideas in ways they never imagined. Professional creators gain superpowers to scale their work like never before. And like all powerful technologies, synthetic media is bound to be misunderstood and even misapplied until people focus on use cases that truly make sense.

We met Theresa E. Gonzales at Podcast Movement 2022 in Dallas, TX. There, she and Noelle Silver gave a presentation called "AI and Podcast Advertising: How to Reach a $3 Trillion Market". To be sure, the key words got me inside the room. But once there, I heard a lot more -- especially how some of the biggest brands miss out by the widest margin. Even as AI technology works as advertised, the in-built biases in AI training data mean large swaths of people are effectively invisible online. Their needs and voices don't break through or are depicted in perverse ways. Simultaneously, underrepresented populations wield significant economic spend in the overall economy. In a nutshell, driving inclusivity into AI training data isn't just the right thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do to find new markets and serve them better.

We speak with Ian Beacraft, the CEO and Chief Futurist at Signal & Cipher out of Chicago. Ian is an internationally recognized expert in synthetic media and its impact on across industries, not just media & entertainment. In Part 1, Ian provides an overview of synthetic media, why it burst upon the scene, the categories and who's using it. Part 2 will focus on the impact of synthetic media on creators and the creative industries.

We interview Devin Finley, voice actor and professional model, and Natalie Monbiot, Head of Strategy for Hour One, about the process of transforming a human performer into a synthetic character. We discuss the creative process, the studio shoot, the business arrangement, and the creative branding by a New York actor to become an AI-generated synthetic character for use in a text-to-video service for enterprises and brands. DISCLOSURE: The Augmented City is working with both Devin and Natalie to bring AI Devin to Season 2 of our audio fiction series "Burner Face", which will begin production in late 2022.

Nelson Mandela once said, "If you speak to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you speak to a man in his own language, that goes to his heart." The Augmented City podcast dug into that idea from the viewpoint of synthetic media with Alex Seriduk, the CEO of Respeecher. Based in Ukraine, Respeecher uses AI and Deep Learning to enable *Speech-to-Speech* synthetic voices. NFL Football fans heard Respeecher's work during the 2021 Superbowl when the voice of Vince Lombardi was re-imagined for a motivational message about prevailing over Covid-19. Star Wars fans experienced the voice of a 20 year old Luke Skywalker delivered by 68 year old Mark Hamill courtesy of Respeecher. Alex and John explore those use cases while covering some of the ethical and practical considerations for working with synthetic voices.

If Aliens landed on a university campus, which department would they visit first? We speak with Dr. Hollis Robbins, who makes the case for the Humanities as that "go-to" source of knowledge about people and what makes them tick. Hollis is a dean and a professor, a poet and a futurist, plus the founder of Sci Fi Talk, a 40000 member community of science fiction enthusiasts who meet on Clubhouse most Sunday nights. Hollis and John use Sci-Fi as a jumping off point to explore how the Humanities will evolve in a hotter and more Covid-normal future.

Every day, billions of people, and hundreds of billions of transactions, depend on security based around public key infrastructure (PKI) --- the cryptographic paradigm that underpins the Internet. From electronic commerce, to streaming movies, to banking, or looking for a soul mate online, the building blocks for participating in daily life are increasingly online and interactive. PKI is the "bit-based" (1s and 0s) computer security model that enables this lifestyle. Enter Quantum Computing, which is not based on 1s and 0s. Quantum Computing harnesses properties of sub-atomic physics to be a "qubit-based" (1---Everything-in-between---0) computing paradigm. Which computer would you bet on to crack the largest crypto-keys? We spoke with Skip Sanzeri, the chief operating officer of QuSecure to get a grounding in quantum computing, and how it will transform the security landscape for decades to come. This show will help you learn the difference between a classical and quantum computer. You'll understand how this difference relates to cryptography and digital life. You'll hear what's being done by government and industry to respond. What new benefits come along with the new risks. And where people can go to learn more about quantum computing.

We sit down with Shyamala Prayaga, founder of the Digital Assistant Academy and product owner of digital assistants for Ford Motor Company. In this conversation, we focus on the Digital Assistant Academy, which brings a use-case and craft orientation to conversational design for chatbots, virtual assistants and many other combinations. Which skills do people need to become successful designers in this exciting new space? How are organizations responding to the demand for conversational design? We unpack these questions and more.

Visual effects wizardry meets machine learning in this conversation about virtual humans with Doug Roble and Matthias Wittman of Digital Domain. From Virtual Tupac, Benjamin Button, to Thanos, Digital Domain has created some of the most iconic virtual characters in media & entertainment. Now, the company is expanding its efforts into the burgeoning field of virtual humans, lifelike 3D avatars combining Hollywood quality photorealism on the front end, with AI and machine learning in the back. We talk about virtual humans as an artistic concept, a business proposition, as well as the talent and attitude required to succeed in this exciting new medium for creativity.

We sit down with Brian Storm to talk about the role of audio in developing documentary journalism. Giving people a voice is more than simply making them sound good. Conversational interviewing with great audio forms the linear spine of many a great story. How that will evolve in a world of smart speakers and social audio means it's a fantastic time to be a creator.

After interviewing leaders in pop culture, journalism, videogames and conversational AI, the AC podcast takes a quick look at the role of audio as a storytelling medium. Looking across four main themes: audio as immersive technology, audio as a general interface, audio as a creative medium, and audio as a social medium, we return to the idea that the ultimate theater still exists in the human mind.

We speak with Jeff Gomez, who is a veteran transmedia producer for some of Hollywood's biggest film franchises (ex. Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar), video games (Halo, Splinter Cell), and toys (Mattel & Hasbro). Jeff is a big believer in the potential for audio to become an integral part of large scale branded storyworlds where the audience "dwells" within media content as they consume it.

We interview Dr. Aki Nakamura of Japan's Ritsumeikan University Center for Game Studies about the role of audio in videogame culture in Japan and Asia. Japan is a global hotspot for game innovation and experimental media. Dr. Nakamura provides a glimpse into how new audio technologies and experiences are taking that dynamic to a new level.

We sit down with Dr. Dona Kim Murphey, neuro-scientist and education advocate to talk about how the overemphasis on standardized test results ignores so much of a child's development. Dr. Murphey combines her scientific background with a fierce determination to change things on the ground for the kids in her Houston area school district, not to mention the national debate over the role of standardized tests in schools and how they skew what is taught in class.

Everyone has planned where to go and what to do when you get there. If it's just one stop, the routing problem is easy. Almost the same with two stops. But the more stops you add, the more complex things become. So imagine you're a public transit agency trying to calculate the best routes for the best experience for the most people in the most efficient and delightful way possible. You'd need a graduate degree from MIT just to list all the variables. Fortunately, that's what Alex Wallar, CTO of The Routing Company brings to the table. Find out how transit agencies are rethinking how they deploy 80% fewer vehicles to offer a better experience to their passengers.

Covid-19 flipped a circuit breaker between the world before the pandemic and a different world that's emerging from the aftermath. The AC podcast dug into its archives to re-connect with some of the people we interviewed in the past. We wanted to understand how they navigated 2020 and how they're positioning themselves for the future. It's my take on how history is lurching forward, rather than progressing in a nice, smooth line.

We speak with Brent Friedman, a narrative writer for tier-one video games like Resident Evil 2. Brent talks about how storytelling skills honed in Hollywood and video games might be redeployed for things like mask-wearing and vaccination - the stories that matter.

This episode features a conversation with Hanson Hosein, a leading thinker and advocate about the power - and peril - of storytelling to effect social change.

In this show, we speak with Devin Liddell of Teague, one of the original product and service design firms. Devin speaks about sets of futures, designing the future we want, and how those processes might interact in the context of the pandemic.

This show features a conversation with Steve Masur, a leading media and intellectual property attorney. Steve speaks about how March 13, 2020 (a Friday naturally) marked the end of the old world while Monday March 16, 2020 heralded the launch of a different world.

In this show, we speak with Missy Cruz, emergency room technician and one of the first covid-19 patients in the United States. Missy walks us through some of the earliest days of the pandemic and her journey through covid-19 when first-hand knowledge was little to none.

This episode features a conversation with Natalie Monbiot, Head of Business for Hour One. We speak about covid-19 and how the push to a virtual-centric collaborative model will accelerate the adoption of avatars and other types of virtual assistants.

In this episode, we speak with Shelley Peterson, Principal Investigator for Augmented Reality for Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Shelley not only works in sky-High Tech, she personally experienced a bout with Covid-19 as one of the first patients in the state of Colorado.

This episode features Laura Rizzotto, an award winning musician and performer, about how she navigated new relationships with her fans and her approach to art during the pandemic.

This episode features John Rossant, Chairman of the New Cities Foundation and mobility expert. We discuss how Covid-19 impacted how people and goods move around a city and what that means for the future.

In this episode, we speak with Lori H. Schwartz, a top experiential marketing pro and technology watcher, about how B2B brands can stay connected with their audiences when everything goes virtual.

In this episode we speak to Knotel's Edward Shenderovich about dealing with a world whose need for real estate has altered drastically, and how he's managing the transition to a remote-work future.

In this episode, we speak with Francesca Marie Smith, an experienced creative artist and scholar of media and its impact on people.

We release this show while votes are being counted from the 2020 US General Election. Four years ago, we published one of the first Augmented City shows in the week following the election of Donald Trump. That show tried to illustrate the decisive role played by social media in the 2016 contest [see below for a link]. This time, we look at how social media and AI have matured as potent political tools and ask the question: how well will democratic societies weather the onslaught of fake news and other forms of digital content designed to nudge people in a particular ideological direction? The 2020 election will force a reckoning at all levels of society and the technology industry about the impact of social media and AI on our democratic processes. One of the most important intellectual hurdles will be a realization that the Internet and social media are now mature infrastructures. If Andrew Ng is right that AI (even social media) is the new electricity, we must recognize that digital pollution is as real as its physical counterpart. "These are early days" is an oft-used phrase that must be retired. From 2016: https://soundcloud.com/the-augmented-city/augmented-city-project-ai-elections

Professor Ian Angell is one of the most influential and controversial thinkers about the global consequences of information technology. Formerly the chair of the Department of Information Systems at the London School of Economics, Prof. Angell wrote a book called "The New Barbarian Manifesto", which published on January 1, 2000. I know the book because Ian and I bounced around certain ideas within it while I was a student at the LSE. We take a look at the ideas of Empire and Barbarians from a socio-political viewpoint in the context of technology and the breaking apart of the Post WWII international order. We don't agree on everything and neither should you. But given current times, many of the warnings from 20 years ago ring terribly true.

AC interviewed Dr. Steven Schkolne about his new book, "Living with Frankenstein: The History and Destiny of Machine Consciousness". We cover some of the scientific, philosophical and humanistic ideas and controversies about consciousness and what it means for machines to exhibit similar attributes. The rubber will meet the road with digital humans, 3D avatars that combine Hollywood quality realism on the front-end with AI in the back. Even if these creations pass the classic Turing Test, does it mean they're actually intelligent and/or conscious or does it mean we need a new test for both? This interview builds on our continuing work on digital humans, the signature example of merging culture & code.

John speaks with Natalie Monbiot of Hour One, a NYC-based company that develops AI-powered synthetic characters for retail and other types of customer service. This interview is part of our ongoing series about the blurring lines between real and imaginary people we meet online.

AC speaks with Christina Heller, CEO of Metastage, one of LA's premier creative technology service providers. Christina is an expert on volumetric capture, the ability to capture a 3D media asset from a human performance. We go over the fundamentals of volumetric as well as how it's being applied in Hollywood for movies and for music.

As an award winner singer and musician, Laura Rizzotto has performed on numerous stages --- including the inside of a 16oz glass of beer. A beer glass is a tight squeeze for a flesh and blood human but a cinch for a 3D hologram. 3D human performance capture has become common practice for producing high-end digital media. Scores of articles and interviews cover the technical and business side of this mash-up of film making and computer science. But what does this rapidly maturing platform mean for performers? What is unique and what stays the same? We sit down with professional musician and Eurovision winner Laura Rizzotto to explore the artist's perspective of 3D performance capture.