VIRTUAL

What Is a Metaverse and How Do I Get One

Metaverse should be in y’all’s vocab by now. If not, it’s the concept of persistent, shared 3D digital spaces in a virtual universe. 

That’s Roblox’s definition 

Last week, the social gaming platform hosted a Lil Nas X concert with 33 million attendees. Oh, and Roblox also filed to go public, mentioning “metaverse” 16 times in the S-1 and counting low “adoption of a metaverse” as a risk factor. 

Like the metaverse, Roblox’s roots are inextricably tied to gaming. But it’s more than a platform for play—Roblox says it’s a space for “communicating, connecting, making friends, learning, or simply hanging out.” And commerce: In the first nine months of 2020, Robox sold $1.2 billion of Robux, its digital currency. 

• Roblox has 36.2 million daily active users and 7 million active developers, who use the platform’s tools to create games and experiences. User-generated content means Roblox doesn’t shoulder the onus of 3D digital world-building. 
• But the gatekeeper still sets and enforces rules. Content moderation is an issue for Roblox: Its machine learning systems parse 2 billion messages a day.

Gamified for B2B

Productivity platforms like Slack and Zoom capture only a slice of what once happened at offices. There’s a business opportunity to build something spanning more online work activity, and in the process, capture corporate spending no longer being funneled into commercial real estate. 

Metaversatile: TechCrunch recently profiled teams building toward work-focused metaverses, who draw inspiration from “multiplayer gaming culture.” One example: NYC startup Branch says its virtual HQ “brings back serendipity with spatial conversations.” 

• Serendipity...and more serious stuff: One user told TechCrunch he’d hired and fired people within virtual HQ.

What happens with more adoption? 

Well, a few things. 

• Virtual economies will mature. Participants already trade digital currency, avatars, weapons, plots of land, and “emotes.” More goods and services will inevitably be digitized and monetized. 
• Roblox, Unity, Epic Games, and Facebook provide the plumbing for these spaces. They’re selling the pick axes for the gold rush. 
• Ubiquitous mobile computing, cloud computing, and high-speed internet were tremendous technological unlocks for the metaverse. High-fidelity mixed reality, 5G, and other emerging technologies could also unlock new interfaces. 

AI

Model of Health

Over the past few years, machine learning-based apps have been studying as hard as med school students—and now, they’ve learned to scan X-rays for signs of disease and make diagnoses. 

One of the highest-performing tools, qXR, can reportedly screen X-rays for signs of tuberculosis, Covid-19, and 27 other conditions in less than a minute, reports the NYT. 

• Experts hope the tool can advance detection of TB, which is the world’s deadliest infectious disease. 

But, but, but: Without diverse data sets and teams examining potential bias, AI tools have the potential to harm more than help. Some U.S. medical institutions could run into that issue with newly deployed models meant to predict COVID patients' likelihood of severe illness or death, reports Stat. 

Facing higher case counts, hospitals are investing more in these systems. The problem: Many are being developed in silos and trained on non-representative data sets—which translates to models “at high risk of bias.” That, in turn, can lead to unequal care and disproportionate harm to minority patients.

Bottom line: In some areas of healthcare, AI is helping medical professionals advance diagnoses and treatment. In others, the results are shakier. Until there’s more of a regulatory framework for these products, the FDA is limiting approval. 

SPONSORED BY NASDAQ

How’s Your Board Looking?

The business landscape: changing. Society at large: shifting. Your business and board: hopefully not falling behind.

It’s more important than ever to make sure your company, and your board, are future-ready. To that end, Nasdaq has put together a guide tackling this very important subject. In Is Your Board Future-Ready?, Nasdaq details 6 ways to ensure future-readiness.

 These include:

•     Balance of profit and purpose
•     More age diversity
•     More diverse backgrounds

And that’s just the beginning, as the road to a better board means looking at all aspects of a business. Think about including members with not just age and gender diversity, but also a wide range of expertise like cybersecurity or technology.

Basically, the more viewpoints, the better.

To learn more about creating a future-ready board, read Nasdaq’s guide here.

SPACE

Beam Me Up, Satty

One small step for Starlink, one giant leap for space nerds: Its engineers spent Saturday doing their first-ever Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). 

Questions came from all over—a suburbanite itching to go rural, a docked sailboat resident longing for coverage at sea—about the internet satellite network’s progress. 

Let’s dish 

One launch at a time, Starlink’s been working towards its ultimate goal—sending 42,000 satellites total into orbit—since May 2019. 

But the progress hasn’t come without major obstacles, and the team answered Reddit users’ questions about issues they’re hoping to tackle in the near future: 

• Cheaper and quicker space laser production 
• Reduced power consumption 
• Software updates to help with obstructions 
• Hitting target latency (surprise, surprise)

Then there’s mobility: Starlink is currently limited to physical addresses, but as the constellation grows, coverage should expand beyond that (ideally even over the ocean). 

• And don’t forget about the space lasers: “The speed of light is faster in vacuum than in fiber, so the space lasers have exciting potential for low latency links,” the engineers wrote. 

We’re still waiting for an answer to the top Twitter write-in: “Can you add lights to the next batch of satellites and turn them on at Christmas?” 

FROM THE CREW

Back in April, we started The Essentials newsletter to provide pointers on living your best quarantine life. 

Now it’s November. The pandemic hasn’t faded into the night, but The Essentials is. It’s transforming into something bigger and better: Sidekick, a revamped recommendations newsletter that arrives Monday and Thursday evenings. 

What you’ll find in Sidekick:

• Trusted recs from all over the internet, including recipes, DIY projects, and fresh discoveries. 
• Ideas for both leveling up your professional life and winding down with a new book.
• An author, Rachel Cantor, who’s been dubbed the “tab queen.” Prepare your browser to be overrun with links you’ll want to save for later. 

Bottom line: Sidekick is your trusted friend who will make you the trusted friend. The first edition hits inboxes in just a few hours.

Click here to sign up today.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Thirty-eight percent of Facebook’s employees are content moderators.

Quote: “The best front seat view on the oceans is from space.” —Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s head of science, on a recently launched satellite to track rising sea levels. 

Read: TechCrunch explores elephant tracking collars and the machine learning powering them. 

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Andreessen Horowitz has closed two new funds totaling $4.5 billion. This brings a16z’s total assets under management to nearly $16.5 billion.
• Luminar and Intel’s Mobileye are teaming up to develop a robo-taxi fleet. 
• NYC is considering a bill that would limit the use of AI in hiring.
• Snapchat is launching Spotlight, a TikTok-esque in-app feature. 

WHAT'S BREWING THIS WEEK

Monday: On this day in 1992, BusinessWeek called the computer biz “an industry on the skids.” 

Tuesday: Earnings (HP, VMware, Dell, Xiaomi); China set to launch lunar probe.  

Wednesday: Relaxing. 

Thursday: Thanksgiving Day. 

Friday: Black Friday. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Amazon lays off dozens from Prime Air
• Reports: Uber in talks to sell self-driving division 
• Walmart and Cruise team up