Lab Weekly - 06/02/2023
Two new regional Outlook POVs; plus, the latest news about Meta’s mixed-reality headsets, Instagram’s new features, and Photoshop’s meme-spurring AI integration, along with some must-know stats
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Outlook 2023: LATAM POV
Written by Dante Leví Bautista, Head of Strategy for Initiative Mexico, and Sebastián González-Rubio, Digital Director of Unilever México, this regional POV dives into the dynamic local specificities of the Latin American countries and extrapolates the ways in which brands are navigating the transitory era of interregnum.
Outlook 2023: China POV
Jocelyn Tse, Chief Strategy Officer of UM China, unpacks how the key trends in media and innovation highlighted in our Outlook 2023 report are being reflected through China’s unique market reality and interpreted as a transition towards fresh beginnings.
In case you missed it…
Retail 2023 Trends: The Comeback of Suburban Retail & Pop-up Stores
No, retail is not “in distress”; it is in transition to figure out a new path forward
Social Media In Flux: Existential Threats and Generative AI’s Impact
Key questions about the future of social media that brand marketers should keep a close eye on
Lessons from an Unusual 2023 Upfronts Season
The WGA strike has had a major impact on this upfront season — here’s what it says about the future of the media industry
Meta Unveils Quest 3 Headset Starting At $500 [The Verge]
Four days ahead of Apple’s widely speculated unveiling of its mixed reality headset, Meta has decided to beat the new cycle and unceremoniously unveiled its next-gen Quest 3 headset. Scheduled to launch “this fall,” Quest 3 will feature faster processors, sharper graphics, and better controllers, all promising to turn your living room into a virtual playground. The accompanying launch video that Meta released entirely focuses on gaming as the device’s sole use case, indicating that the company still hasn’t figured out a proper product-market fit other than a fancy gaming console. Doubling down on that, Meta also unveiled over 20 new games for Quest headsets. It is perhaps unsurprising to see only one passing mention of the Horizon Worlds, or any of Meta’s metaverse initiatives in the video, considering that the tech world has found a new buzzword in generative AI to obsess over lately. Now, all eyes are on Apple to see if the iPhone maker can do a better job at articulating the value of an expensive mixed-reality headset outside immersive gaming.
Related: Meta is dropping the price of the Quest 2 back to $300 [The Verge]; Analyst Ross Young says Apple's upcoming MR headset will have two 1.41" Micro OLED displays [9to5Mac]
Instagram Tests New User Control And Transparency Tools [TechCrunch]
Instagram is testing two new features that, taken together, represents a step in the right direction to grant users more control and access to the algorithms powering the content feeds, as it harnesses user feedback as a way to finetune its content algorithms. First is a feature that will allow users to have more control over what they see on the social network. Users can now select an “Interested” button on recommended posts to inform the app that they want to see more of that type of content. In addition, Instagram is also experimenting with new transparency notifications to help creators understand when the reach of their content, such as Reels, may be limited due to a watermark. The new feature will help creators understand why certain Reels aren’t being distributed to non-followers. As algorithmic content feeds continue to rule all major social platforms, a more concerted effort will be needed to give users more insights and control over the content they see.
Related: BeReal is adding a messaging feature called RealChat [TechCrunch]; Twitter not removing hateful posts from subscribed users [Axios]
Adobe Is Adding AI Image Generator “Firefly” To Photoshop [The Verge]
This integration of Firefly into a mainstream app like Photoshop marks a new era of democratized digital creativity, as it widely broadens the accessibility of image-generating AI tools. Already, we’re starting to see the impact of this new tool on the meme economy, as AI-savvy early adopters have spurred a new trend of “expanding” classic art like the Mona Lisa using AI tools. Last week, various iterations of AI-expanded album cover artworks made with this new Photoshop feature also went viral. It is worth noting that, unlike other AI image-generators like Midjourney or Dall-E, Firefly is only trained on images that’s licensed by Adobe or its partners, or out of copyright, and excludes creations by digital artists. Therefore, it safeguards against some of the thornier questions around generative AI’s copyright and compensation issues.
Related: Nvidia announces AI products and updates, including the DGX GH200 supercomputer platform, gaming features, data center networking tools, and a robotics platform [Bloomberg]; OpenAI and DeepMind executives, Geoffrey Hinton, and 350+ others sign a statement saying “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority” [NYT]
Ahead of its upcoming WWDC event on Monday, Apple is touting an Analysis Group study saying that its App Store ecosystem generated $1.1 trillion in 2022, up 29% YoY; $910 billion came from the sale of physical goods and services, TechCrunch reports, meaning that only 10% of that $1.1 trillion came from app purchases and in-app sales.
85% of American workers have used AI tools to perform tasks at work. Millennials lead the group with 89% saying they’ve used AI at work, a new survey by Checkr, a startup that specializes in online background checks, found. The survey also found that 79% of American workers feel pressured to learn more about AI tools.
The latest data suggests that the “Great Resignation” has ended. The quit rate among American workers is back down to pre-pandemic levels, per Quartz’s tracking. As of April 2023, it has fallen to 2.4%, in line with the quits rate that existed in 2019.
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