Lab Weekly - 01/13/2023
CES 2023 in-depth trend recap; plus, the latest must-know news and stats
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CES 2023 Trend Recap
Must-know innovation trends in auto, smart home, digital health, and more, as seen on the CES show floors
In case you missed it…
Click here to watch a short recap video for the key insights from CES 2023
Click here for links to watch the recordings of our CES content sessions, covering a wide range of topics such as the future of entertainment, mobility, and healthcare
Ten Questions on Tech & Innovation for 2023
Highlighting key aspects of digital media and innovations to which we hope 2023 will bring answers
CES Recap Episode will be released early next week.
Find & subscribe to Floor 9 on your podcast player of choice.
OpenAI Begins Piloting Premium Tier For ChatGPT [TechCrunch]
The debate around generative AI tools continues apace while Open AI, the company behind the ChatGPT, is starting to start thinking about monetizing its viral chatbot service that can write essays, emails, poems and even computer code. The company started piloting a premium tier called ChatGPT Professional, which, as the name suggests, will be focusing on catering to the needs of enterprise users with unlimited requests and more stability. Time will tell if that’d be enough incentives to get people to subscribe and pay to use an otherwise free-to-use service.
ChatGPT scored over a million users as of early December, making it the leading generative AI tool on the market. Usage of ChatGPT ranges widely, from consumer tech website CNET reportedly publishing entire articles generated by AI, to being banned in New York public schools to prevent cheating.
Related: New York City Department of Education bans ChatGPT in public schools [Engadget]; CNET is reportedly publishing entire articles generated by AI [Futurism]; Microsoft to incorporate ChatGPT into Bing’s search results [The Information]
Amazon Launches Collaboration With Rent the Runway [Bloomberg]
Amazon continues its push into the fashion industry with a new partnership this week. Teaming up with designer clothing rental company Rent the Runway would allow the ecommerce giant to gain access to a new fashion consumer segment that previously may not have considered shopping for apparel on Amazon.
It is worth noting that this partnership is also geared towards resale buyers, which is a growing segment for designer fashion. A 2022 study by TreadUp found that the U.S. secondhand clothing market is projected to more than triple in value in the next 10 years, from $28 billion in 2019 to $80 billion in 2029. The online store on Amazon.com will feature previously worn styles from designers that Rent the Runway already works with, in addition to new designs. In 2023, we expect to see more fashion brands tap into the resale market and leverage digital channels to reach new audiences.
Related: ThredUP’s latest campaign raises awareness for fashion waste caused by festival season [Fashion United]; Naver closes on acquisition of Poshmark [Retail Dive]
Lenovo’s Project Chronos Lets You Beam Yourself Into Virtual Worlds [The Verge]
While this peculiar take on metaverse portals didn’t make it into our CES recap, I’d still like to highlight it here as evidence that the metaverse device debate is far from over. People tend to associate the concept of the metaverse with mixed reality devices, be it AR or VR headsets. But in reality, we are more likely to have an “omnichannel” approach to access the early iterations of the metaverse. While this Chronos concept is a bit clunky and lacks the type of ecosystem support to become a mainstream solution for accessing virtual worlds, it still provides an out-of-box solution for immersive media.
Related: Touch, smell become the next big thing for the metaverse at CES 2023 [CoinTelegraph]; The future of Metaverse and VR depends on these glasses-free 3D displays [Mashable]
Netflix To Livestream The Screen Actors Guild Awards From 2024 [Variety]
We already know that Netflix is looking to expand into live streaming for a while, and besides live sports, awards shows tend to be another popular genre of live events that can draw an audience. So, perhaps it should not come as a surprise that Netflix announced this week that it will be teaming up with SAG-AFTRA to become the new home for the annual SAG awards, which used to air on basic cable channels TNT and TBS. Mirroring sports broadcast rights moving to streaming services, this move should help boost SAG awards’ visibility, especially for global audiences. It will be interesting to see whether Netflix’s gamble with a smaller, niche awards show would pay off and lead them into acquiring the rights to bigger live events.
Related: Chris Rock to star in Netflix's first live streamed comedy show [LA Times]; Apple’s next step in ads will be built around new soccer deal [Bloomberg]
Deep discounts drove record holiday online shopping. American shoppers took advantage of deep discounts online and rang up a record $211.7 billion in e-commerce spending in November and December, according to a new Adobe Analytics report that was published last week..
Amazon’s first year of Thursday Night Football missed viewership goals. After hitting a six-year high in 2021, NFL ratings for the soon-to-conclude 2022-2023 season are expected to be down 3% from the prior year, Bloomberg reports. Press were quick to blame it on the NFL moving Thursday Night Football to Amazon Prime Video, but that doesn’t mean it’d have done better on cable TV anyway, considering the changing viewer behavior.
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