New Vive headset leaked, Qualcomm shows off new chips, Meta's big bang with Galactica

New Vive headset leaked, Qualcomm shows off new chips, Meta's big bang with Galactica

Our weekly recap: HTC wants to compete with a slim consumer XR headset next year. Qualcomm unveils new chips for AR glasses. Meta releases an AI language model trained with scientific data and has to take a demo offline just hours after launch.

New Vive headset: fast, slim, modular

HTC has been teasing a new VR headset for weeks. Youtuber Brad Lynch claims to have leaked the design and the technology: HTC's new headset is supposed to be a mixture of Vive Flow and Vive Focus 3 - slim, but with standalone mode.

Qualcomm’s new AR chips

AR glasses need chips that are small, cool and low-power. Qualcomm's Snapdragon AR2 is designed specifically for these needs. Together with Niantic, Qualcomm also shows a new reference AR headset that is optimized for outdoor use.

Zwei seitliche Fotos des Outdoor AR Headset von Niantic und Qualcomm

According to Qualcomm and Niantic, such an AR headset is suitable for outdoor use. | Image: Niantic, Qualcomm

Metaverse bet: Is Zuckerberg too early?

Meta's market value is suffering from a weak advertising market, rising competition and slowing social growth. But it's the billion-dollar investment in the uncertain Metaverse that has investors scratching their heads. Did Zuckerberg bet too big too early?

Apple is reportedly experimenting with a 3D mixed reality world

In the context of such thoughts, Zuckerberg should be happy if Apple is working on its own 3D mixed reality world, as current rumors suggest. This would be strong competition for Meta, but would also strengthen Zuckerberg's business thesis.

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AI images from MRI scans and a big bang for Galactica

A new AI system reconstructs images from MRI data two-thirds more accurately than known systems. This is made possible by more data and diffusion models. Despite the quality improvements, the image reconstructions are only about 25 percent accurate - still a long way from an actual brain reader, but it's getting there.

More stories from our AI magazine THE DECODER: The well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz believes in a generative AI revolution in gaming.

Meta's large language AI "Galactica," trained with scientific data, is causing controversy because it sometimes generates incorrect information - a mortal sin for many scientists. Meta took a Galactica demo offline just hours after its release, as protests on Twitter ran rampant.