Ukrainian deeptech Zibra AI raises $500k from a16z Speedrun AIN Capital

This is not surprising given the long history of trying to give computers a voice through speech synthesis. Companies include Sonantic, Coqui, Replica Studios, Resemble.ai, Readspeaker.ai, and many more. We have created a market map to capture a list of the companies we’ve identified in each of these categories where we see generative AI impacting games. This blog post goes through each of those categories, explaining it in a bit more detail, and highlighting the most exciting companies in each category. We also know of another game developer that is using AI to let players create their own in-game avatar.

• Ideogram’s founding team consists of people who have previously led AI projects at Google Brain, UC Berkeley, and the University of Toronto.
• This is a relatively recent doomer concern that branched off from and somewhat took over the “AI risk” movement that I described above.
• Ukrainian deeptech company Zibra AI, which specialises in AI-generated 3D assets for games and virtual environments, has announced that it has raised $500,000 as part of the inaugural Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Speedrun accelerator program.
• But already there are generative AI models for virtually all assets involved in games, from 3D models, to character animations, to dialog and music.
• The publisher’s writers use the tool today to generate first drafts of background chatter and barks (dialogue snippets during triggered events) that help simulate a living world around the player.

” In fact, these Baptists’ position is so non-scientific and so extreme – a conspiracy theory about math and code – and is already calling for physical violence, that I will do something I would normally not do and question their motives as well. This moral panic is already being used as a motivating force Yakov Livshits by a variety of actors to demand policy action – new AI restrictions, regulations, and laws. These actors, who are making extremely dramatic public statements about the dangers of AI – feeding on and further inflaming moral panic – all present themselves as selfless champions of the public good.

Five reasons why it’s more critical than ever to look to in-game advertising

In recent years, we have seen a new wave of AI applications built on top of or incorporating large foundation models, commonly referred to as generative AI. This post will explore the economic potential of generative AI, its impact on traditional AI, and the transformative effects on various industries. However, selling across the globe is becoming more complex given changing laws around the definition of where taxes are owed (i.e., the “tax nexus”) for digital products. For example, the U.S. now considers any state in which a company sells a product or service a tax nexus, even if they don’t have a physical presence in that state. Additionally, some countries have no minimum threshold for owing and paying taxes (e.g., India).

Another compelling reason to look forward to generative AI tools for level design would be the ability to create levels and worlds in different styles. You could imagine asking tools to generate a world in 1920’s flapper era New York, vs dystopian blade-runner-esque future, vs. Tolkien-esque fantasy world. This is an RPG game that features AI-created characters for virtually unlimited new gameplay.

Model providers invented generative AI, but haven’t reached large commercial scale

We also analyzed how these products have grown over time, and where growth is coming from. Without AI, some games are almost difficult to make, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, which allows players to fly an airplane around the globe. It would be absurd to try to build such a large globe by hand, but AI can do it with ease using 2D satellite photographs Blackshark. The technology stack architecture from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is very useful.

They play a crucial role in our economy, but they’re often short-staffed and overwhelmed, especially given recent labor shortages. A deep learning and biology company developing Biological Software, the molecules at the core of novel RNA medicines. Based on the available data, it’s just not clear if there will be a long-term, winner-take-all dynamic in generative AI. None of this is scientific, mind you, but if you sketch out an idealized case where a model is used to perform an existing service, the numbers tend to be 3-4 orders of magnitude cheaper than the current status quo, and commonly 2-3 orders of magnitude faster. For example, the costs for an LLM to summarize and answer questions on a complex legal brief is fractions of a penny, while a lawyer would typically charge hundreds (and up to thousands) of dollars per hour and would take hours or days.

Yakov Livshits
Founder of the DevEducation project
A prolific businessman and investor, and the founder of several large companies in Israel, the USA and the UAE, Yakov’s corporation comprises over 2,000 employees all over the world. He graduated from the University of Oxford in the UK and Technion in Israel, before moving on to study complex systems science at NECSI in the USA. Yakov has a Masters in Software Development.

An apt reference point is the LEGO universe’s concept of Master Builders – rare folks gifted with the ability to see the blueprint for any creation they can imagine at time of need. While text-based stories are popular, many gamers also aspire to see their stories come to life visually. One of the largest opportunities for generative AI in games may be in helping to create the living worlds that players spend countless hours in. Yet while these hurdles are being worked through, AI as a copilot for human storytellers is very much here already.

Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, Zibra AI has continued to successfully raise capital alongside the hottest startups in the world despite the exceptional challenges of its wartime reality, and currently has an open seed round. The company raised a pre-seed round of $1.2 million in November 2022 from investors including Gismart, SID Venture Partners and angels including The Sandbox’s Sebastian Borget and Phil Libin from Evernote. Zibra AI was also a recipient of an Epic MegaGrant from Epic Games in December 2022. In conclusion, Marc Andreessen’s perspective on the future role of AI in making people “extremely productive” shines a light on the transformative potential of this technology. As AI continues to advance, it is vital for individuals and businesses alike to embrace this paradigm shift and adapt to the changing landscape. By fostering a deeper understanding of AI and promoting ethical and responsible use, we can work towards a future where humans and AI collaborate synergistically, ultimately leading to a more productive and innovative world.

However, we think AI will turbocharge these artists and their teams, enabling them to use their time more efficiently and get games out faster and with lower costs. For early evidence of this, check out the subreddits of AI chatbot products like Replika,  Anima, and CharacterAI. Many users find real meaning in their relationships with these bots, spending hours each week in conversation. Imagine an AI-powered language teacher who can converse in real-time and give feedback on pronunciation or phrasing. We’ve seen products that teach new concepts or help learners get “unstuck” in almost every subject. Apps like Photomath and Mathly walk students through math problems, while PeopleAI and Historical Figures teach history by simulating chats with prominent figures.

But there’s a steep learning curve and it’s not easy for most players to figure out how to get started. A game could combine a procedural asset generator with a LLM in the user interface. The game Townscaper uses a procedural system to take just two player inputs (block placement and color) and turn them into gorgeous town landscapes on the fly. Imagine Townscaper with a LLM added to the user interface, helping players iterate their way to even more nuanced and beautiful creations via natural language prompts.

So, in this post, we’re sharing a curated list of resources we’ve relied on to get smarter about modern AI. We call it the “AI Canon” because these papers, blog posts, courses, and guides have had an outsized impact on the field over the past several years. We’re still in the early phases of the generative AI revolution, but we’re excited to share how this technology will impact how we work, learn, create, and play. In the coming days, we’ll be taking deeper dives into AI’s impact on these consumer categories.