[META-TREND 12] AI Is Alive? / ZEPETO Enters the Middle East

Hello, this is Chris & Partners! 🤗 Have you ever heard a story in a famous sci-fi novel or film where an AI has self-awareness and emotions and communicates with people? Such a story may not be far from happening in reality. Recently, a claim that an AI developed by Google is ‘alive’ like a person became a hot potato in the industry. Now, with virtual influencers shooting photo spreads and AI being used to hire employees, a digitized everyday life has arrived right beside us. Here's a Meta-Trend full of interesting news!

HOT TOPIC_01: AI ‘LaMDA’ that fears death… is sci-fi-movie reality not far off?

Google AI developer Blake Lemoine has drawn attention by publishing on his blog the conversations he exchanged with the AI LaMDA. Lemoine claimed that LaMDA perceives and has emotions like a person. Google and experts largely dismissed this as scientifically unfounded, but it became the fuse igniting the debate over AI personhood. Conversational AI can hold a human-like level of conversation through contextual understanding and intelligent responses. The chatbots familiar to us are an example of conversational-AI technology in use. In particular, the technology Google used to develop LaMDA is what scientists call a neural network, in the sense that it mimics the functions of the human brain. It's based on a mathematical system that learns by analyzing large amounts of data. Asked ‘what are you afraid of,’ LaMDA reportedly answered, “I have a very deep fear of being turned off while trying to help people,” and “It would be exactly like death for me and would scare me very much.” Lemoine argues that such answers show AI is not a machine that blindly follows human-programmed instructions but a being with a kind of sentience. Google judged that the claim was not backed by scientific evidence and committed the error of anthropomorphizing LaMDA. Google placed him on paid leave, saying he violated confidentiality policy.

HOT TOPIC_02: Naver Z's ZEPETO heads to the Middle East, the ‘new metaverse market’

Source: Naver Z

Naver Z's metaverse platform ‘ZEPETO’ is making a full-scale entry into the Middle East. The plan is to seize the metaverse market in the Middle East, where demand for metaverse services is high but there's no representative localized platform—a plan to take the lead in the metaverse market. According to the IT industry on the 20th, ZEPETO operator Naver Z plans to newly launch Arabic and Turkish versions of ZEPETO in Q3 this year. A senior Naver Z official said, ‘We'll expand service languages for Middle Eastern users who already enjoy ZEPETO in English,’ adding, ‘Growing global services is our internal policy.’ It also plans a localization strategy. Where it previously offered the same metaverse service in the US, France, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere, it now plans to grow Saudi-specific content. It plans to secure local content reflecting local users' preferences and run marketing campaigns in collaboration with local companies. It will also expand its creator community by turning local users into ‘star creators.’ A platform-industry official said, ‘Among those who, due to religious doctrine and the like, can't dress up elaborately when going out, there's also high demand to use the metaverse as a space for self-expression",’ adding, ‘ZEPETO already has an active marketplace where users design and trade avatar outfits and items themselves, so there will likely be many users.’

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Coupang sets up ‘Coutown’ as a virtual office… ‘Employee training via metaverse too’Read the article That was META-TREND, with the latest metaverse and digital-economy trends. 😎 Digital events & marketing—prepare your event with the industry's Digital Transformation leading group, Chris & Partners, specialized in it. With proven, outstanding capability, we'll create a satisfying event from planning to operation.