Jamie Parmenter

UK startup Surf Security has launched a beta version of what it claims is the world’s first browser with a built-in feature designed to spot AI-generated deepfakes. The tool, available through Surf’s browser or as an extension, can detect with up to 98% accuracy whether the person you’re interacting with online is a real human or an AI imitation, the company said. The London-based cybersecurity upstart uses “military-grade” neural network technology to detect deepfakes. The system uses State Space Models, which detect AI-generated clones across languages and accents by analysing audio frames for inconsistencies. 

1

Right, it's been a while so let's do one of my favourite things: hawk my newsletter to the lovely LinkedIn punters. Video Games Industry Memo comes out every Thursday morning with the mission to explain games to you in 15 minutes flat. Each newsletter is stuffed with: 🤔 One big read that unpicks a topic shaping the industry 📰 Five news hits to help you get across the news agenda 💼 The job movers and job vacancies in games worth checking out 📅 Events and conferences worth keeping an eye on 🎮 And three video game releases to play over the weekend The feedback on VGIM from my 1450 subs has generally been tip top, with readers describing it as "the gold standard of industry newsletters" and "like having a conversation with you every time I read it." Get subscribed to the newsletter ahead of tomorrow's edition, which looks closely at the fortunes of Embracer Group 👀 https://lnkd.in/eEd6mCPM

31

4 Comments

Apparently, an NFT project from a while back by Damien Hirst had paintings that were mass-produced years later than claimed... Interesting one this...and ironically, could NFTs actually have been used to verify provenance when they were actually produced? 🤔 This is a good case to show just how quickly web3 tech moves with more innovations This project called 'The Currency' was only launched in 2021, that some may see it as outdated as already. It could have certainly been improved by the web3 tech we have today. BUT...it was also equal parts contemporary art, allowing the buyers to choose between digitally burning the NFT version of the art, or physically burning the physical version. Where does art end and tech begin? Should there have been more stringent protection on the physical art? https://lnkd.in/dcDanC4Y

12

1 Comment

🎶 You know... there's a way to solve these huge music copyright issues that have been looming over Suno and Udio. 💡 Use the same model that Spotify is using to remunerate creators. 🎧 Every generative AI model is using training data from hundreds of thousands/millions of sound recordings, but no one knows who/what/when/where. 🤷‍♂️ Step 1: AI platforms can be integrated with blockchain-based smart contracts that automatically track and record the use of sound recordings in training data. Every time an AI model utilizes a sound recording, the smart contract mints an ERC-20 token based on minutes, number of iterations, or other metrics and assigns tokens to the associated rightsholders' wallets. 💻🎵 Step 2: Platforms can allocate a portion of their overall proceeds directly back to rightsholders as a percentage of revenue, exactly like streaming platforms do, based on holdings of that ERC-20 token. It's fungible, tradeable, sellable, mintable, and represents exactly the metric that the AI platforms or rightsholders want it to represent. 💰 This ensures not only direct compensation for usage but also continuous revenue sharing as the AI platform grows. 📈🪙 Step 3: Profit? 🎉 Of course, this assumes that platforms want their AI to be responsibly trained, but I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole. 🕳️🐇 #musicai #musictech #musiccopyright

19

20 Comments

Investors — here's an updated list of founders looking for funding: consumer apps and mobile games ↓ 👾 mobile games → adventure / board · hybrid · seed · 🇬🇧 UK · 🏷️ strong IP · 🎖️25M & 22M downloads in two other games in the same category → kids education · IAP · seed · 🇩🇪 GER · 🏷️ 40+ apps launched, 20M downloads, 200K organic downloads/mo → sports + racing · hybrid · seed · 🇹🇷 TR · ⭐️ 2M downloads · 4.4 stars · 🏷️ strength on virality & community: 50M views via tiktok, instagram, youtube, and discord → hybrid casual · hybrid · seed · 🇹🇷 TR → F2P / hybrid casual · hybrid · pre-seed · 🇮🇱 ISR → gaming + social networking · TBD · seed · 🇺🇸 US → kids education · IAP + subscription · seed · 🇮🇱 ISR text me if you want the pitch deck of any of these companies ⚡️ consumer apps → lifestyle + gaming · hybrid · seed · 🇺🇸 US · 🏷️ strength on virality & community: 500K organic installs → music · subscription · M&A // on sale! · 🇺🇸 US + 🇵🇱 POL → kids education + gaming · subscription · series A · 🇹🇷 TR → productivity · IAP · pre-seed / angel · 🇺🇸 US → lifestyle · pre-rev · seed / angel or vc · 🇺🇸 US → productivity · hybrid · pre-seed · 🇵🇰 PAK text me if you want the pitch deck of any of these companies ☄️ bonus track: gaming community with 3K members & 10K subscribers is ON SALE! 💰 great opportunity for a B2B service provider in the gaming space 👀 if you are a mobile founder: · dm me to be featured in the next list · check my next post to see the list of investors actively funding good luck!

35

Some $PENGU meme coin airdrops have been announced for Pudgy Penguin NFT holders and the floor price for these NFTs is currently sky-rocketing. Are meme-coins going to save PFPs? I am still having a hard time what most meme coins art there for apart from pure speculation. https://lnkd.in/efgFSVvu

13

7 Comments

In New York for fantastic investor pitches organised by London & Partners. It has been really exciting to bring our AI technology and skills to NY. HOWEVER, this post is to share a summary from a brilliant keynote by Amy Kalokerinos AKalaid which has ten key insights that all non-US companies should address before moving to the US: 1. Product market fit outside of the US does not mean it will work in the US. Tip: Partnering with a local company that has a strong base in the US is a good short cut. 2. Sales people are coin-operated, meaning they need to have all the sales material in place before they start. This includes a CRM, Analytics, Ability to A/B test, and most importantly one single brilliant deck. 3. Separated by a common language. Having a UK spelling in comms or a deck is a mistake. Localize the spell check! Brits are humble, but that doesn't work in US start ups or sales for a more agressive and competitive environment. 4. Meetings Non-US meetings might chat for an hour about personal lives, family but not get to business. This is weird in the US. Stick to 10 mins pleasantries [I'd say 5 !] and then focus on why the meeting is happening, and what the outcomes should be. 5. Hire local It's tempting to send a rep, but hiring local with proven connections is the way to go, even though it will be more expensive. 6. Sales Channels The UK uses email for 30-40% of sales comms, but the US is an omnichannel market using phone, social media, LinkedIn, conferences and warm intros, and increasingly live chat on your websites, *but* control the volume across each channel to optimise. 7. Add value to all customer interactions Default to Speeds and Feeds. Listen to customer problems, and add value such as giving a white paper, insights, invites to an event. Become a great value-add partner over and above what you're selling. 8. Time to respond. The average time to respond to a sales lead in the UK is 47 hours. In New York, this is one hour. At most! 9. If a sales person is not performing, let them go. Make the overseer of the sales person is American, as the UK managers are likely to take much longer to fire an underperformer. Tip: NYC is the sales capital of the US, and with many redundancies there are more people on the market than usual. 10. Marketing owns the message, and Sales owns the relationship. A start-up often doesn't focus on getting the marketing right for two years after starting. Needs to be much sooner! Michal Marcinik, Oana Andreea Jinga, Kaushal Shah, Timo P Kunz 🎧, Serge Milbank, Tunde Ogundipe, Phil Westcott, Joshua Wöhle, Simon Hicks, Jeremy Brassington, Dami Hastrup, Jorge Muñoz, Juan Crosby, Gauthier Van Malderen, Gori Yahaya Laura Citron OBE Amrit Kang Richa Ghai Chauhan #Startupsuccess #Salesforstartups #Entrepreneurswhoscale

81

8 Comments

📣 Calling all founders! As a first-time technical founder, I've mostly focused on user metrics and satisfaction since launching ai_licia's open beta. Our community is at the heart of everything we do, which has always been reflected in our metrics. In our current fundraising journey, investors are keen on different metrics, like virality. For instance, 72% of our new users come from existing users, word of mouth or just seeing ai_licia in chat, highlighting the organic nature of our growth. Another key metric we've tackled is the LTV/CAC ratio. Initially tricky due to insufficient historical data, after a year of revenue, we've finally got meaningful figures. Our LTV to CAC ratio stands at an impressive 5.5:1, fully supporting our go-to-market strategy. Now, my focus is on post-funding strategy, to enhance this ratio further. What strategies have you employed post-investment to grow your customer base (besides paid ads)? https://lnkd.in/euS4QHFC

13

1 Comment

🚀Free NFT update 🚀 Are you really part of the #web3 avant-garde if you don't own at least one podcast NFT? Over on Farcaster, Lens and Zora, far from the web2 brands who still think it's 2022, NFTS are once again about art. Writing, music, film... podcasts. It's experimental, but it's working. Thousands of Podcast NFTs for shows such as UFO, Mint, Coop, Unchained, and Rehash are being minted daily. Is it going to bring down the walls of Spotify? No. Of course it isn't. It's never been a zero sum game; it's not about destroying the gatekeepers and tearing down the ivory towers. NFTs give you a choice. - Ownership - Distribution - Curation - Community If you want to experience how easy the process is, mint the latest episode of Thinking on Paper with Heale CEO Todd Haselhorst right here - https://lnkd.in/eBPrSzVn And you can get the answer to two blockchain solutions with one stone. Mint an NFT podcast, and learn how blockchain technology is revolutionizing logistics to be cheaper, faster, and smarter. #nfts #logistics #podcasts

5

NFTs aren't that useful if they are just pictures... That's why i was super excited when one of my favourite London artists decided to mint his first set of NFTs with the ability to win some real life art if you're lucky to mint one of each NFT in the collection. There were 5 of the most limited version of the NFT up for grabs of a total of 300 issued. It was a bit of a lottery, but my luck must be turning as i managed to bag all four and receive a real life sculpture worth £600 delivered in a box tagged by the artist. Collection here: https://lnkd.in/eFUfAc58 I love this concept for the NFT space. I think in the next 5 years we will see much more of a cross over between the digital and the physical world; be that through augmented reality or proof of ownership. Real life utility is so key to wider adoption and generating user value. I'm looking forward to seeing much more of this in art, gaming and fan based ecosystems.

23

7 Comments

Our little startup has had some set backs. Copyright is a serious issue and content licensing is expensive. So expensive that the target price for our service is immediately priced out by attempting to meet the demands from the licensing contracts needed to deliver what we've pieced together already. Let's say we did get funding to come to market. Most of those dollars would go to the licensing fees. We'd be working to fulfill the contractual obligation more than to refining our product. Here's even more of a kicker, some of the tech vendors we've talked to will only license existing content. Newly created content for new products are a new contract and additional cost. This is for the tech vendors who will actually talk to us! 10 months ago we saw that agents were the direction and have been building in that direction since. Today this is considered the future expectation that countless agents will be running atop of LLMs and in front of various tooling. I'm not sure how long our effort will continue as we are in gray mode at this point but its the right direction to enable #AI in infrastructure service delivery. We should have gone for the money grab first and worked on the idea second. #startup #ArtificialIntelligence #LLM #Infrastructure #Architecture #copyright #legal

4

2 Comments

I am thrilled to see star British jockey Saffie Osborne sporting the branding of The Winners Circle, the revolutionary fan engagement platform powered by the scalable and performant Zilliqa blockchain. Reflecting on this partnership and the intersection of #Web3 with traditional sport, it is plain to see a number of parallels between Zilliqa’s ethos and the values embodied in the sport of horse racing, four of which really stand out for me: 1️⃣ Equality and Inclusivity: Zilliqa's blockchain is designed to be inclusive, providing access and benefits to users of all sizes and capacities. Similarly, horse racing offers an inclusive arena where success is determined by talent and strategy, and anyone can compete in a fair race. 2️⃣ Scalability and Performance: Just as horse racing demands the performance possible from both horse and jockey, #Zilliqa focuses on high throughput and scalability, ensuring seamless operations even under high demand. 3️⃣ Community Engagement: Fans are the lifeblood of horse racing, driving the spectacle and excitement on race day. At Zilliqa, community involvement is also paramount, and our platform encourages participation in decision-making processes, mirroring the interactive and engaged community found in horse racing. 4️⃣ Global Accessibility: Zilliqa aims to make its platform universally accessible, fostering a global community. Horse racing, with its widespread appeal, is a prime example of a worldwide phenomenon - one that provides a perfect avenue for Zilliqa to showcase its technology across diverse markets. By powering The Winners Circle and integrating with a sport that embodies equality, performance, community engagement, and worldwide reach, Zilliqa amplifies these values and opens the door to a wider global audience of users for its high-throughput, low-cost network. Read more on The Winners Circle’s partnership with Saffie Osborne: https://lnkd.in/eEf7f_xy #TheWinnersCircle #FanEngagement #HorseRacing #Loyalty

23

3 Comments

The Hidenburg report on Roblox is FUD and Joost van Dreunen rightly calls BS on the tone and superficial nature of the analysis. Every app on the Internet has bots in their numbers. But the level of deception that is being alleged here would be fraud and there would be jail time for execs if they were intentionally misleading the street - which I very seriously doubt is the case. Also, we dealt with this child predator problem on Club Penguin all the time. Barely a week went by that we didn't make a criminal referral. This is the whack-a-mole of running an online service with kids. Roblox has built an expertise in this type of moderation that's different from what Facebook's moderators do. Comparing numbers of mods is useless because they do different things. Joost rightly points out that incident reporting is the better way to measure this, and Roblox has far from the biggest problem. But evidence that there are referrals is not evidence of unrestrained abuse. To the contrary, its evidence of enforcement. Hindenburg is a short seller. Easy money to be made for them by FUDding the stock. I'd keep their agenda in mind when evaluating this. "The Hindenburg report presents a loud but largely toothless challenge for Roblox, even if it highlights issues that deserve more serious attention. What weakens Hindenburg’s claims is that despite its self-righteous tone, the research remains thin, decontextualized, and targeted. Instead of presenting a quantified assessment and comparative analysis (something you’d expect from a financial firm), it leans into openly accusing Roblox of deliberate malpractice and indifference toward child safety in favor of growth. It makes an emotionally evocative argument, certainly, and taps into the increasingly pronounced skepticism among regulators and researchers."

7

From 25th May - 2nd of June Steve Moyler opened up Pathway XR studio in association with MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub and SO many talented professionals, for a first Virtual Production Film Hack. Top class DOPs and Directors together over 9 days to create 3 pieces of film using #virtualproduction that are everyone’s to create, own and share. "We want to show how creativity, innovation, AI and good old fashion skills to pay the bills can all live together to create something amazing..." - Well done Steve, you're nailing it. Building on Hack day #5 this is a ComfyUI video from this open source workflow https://lnkd.in/eDWeCraA Pure luck gave us the workflow we needed, matching the GPU provided by MITIH. Ryan Parker's endlessly enthusiastic bulldog Tony whipped out his best broadway lipstick, and provided a camera perfect moment. If you know, you know. https://lnkd.in/ebucdkSc Incorporating the work of Matt McHugh, Mukila Sri, Sophie Stewart, & loads of others, and the whole #opensource community. GenAI should be a tool that rapidly combines the ideas of real people into a creative moment. It can totally do that. Let's not have it replace people, let's give them their weekends back.

10

4 Comments

🎬 Behind the Scenes with a Social Good Startup Founder Ever wondered what it takes to tell the story of a visionary founder? At just 25, Holly Simmons founded Niya an AI-powered WhatsApp career platform, and by 25, raised £1.5 million to revolutionise the industry. 📹 The storytelling process As the producer and editor, my role was to capture the raw, unfiltered reality of Holly’s journey: - The strategy behind raising funding. - Moments of doubt and personal challenges threatening to compromise business performance. - Why, in just a few weeks, Niya’s new WhatsApp feature has already processed thousands of messages and is making a real impact on people’s lives. If you're curious about production, editing, and sharing the stories of tomorrow’s unicorn founders, follow along! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eHYu5NR2 - if you’re a Spotify person. https://lnkd.in/eb_dXaJB - if you love YouTube. Hi, by the way! I’m Jack, the creative producer at the Nova & Boba🧋 Follow me to dive deeper into the GOOD, BAD, and UGLY sides of being a startup founder. Let’s tell these stories together!

21

4 Comments

“Why does your XR project cost so much?” Surely it’s the most common question we get from clients. Some might be saying it for bargaining tactics, but some are genuinely concerned because they don’t have enough knowledge to fathom the number. I could explain the detail of my business and why it costs this much. But to be honest, that’s not what the clients actually care about. It’s not that the question of cost is irrelevant, just that it’s missing another complementary question. Every project has a cost… but every project also has a value. If cost is the dollar amount of the expenses, value is the result that you received —and most can be calculated in dollar amount too. Just like if a car costs $X, you wouldn’t be too concerned about the manufacturer’s labor, material, R&D, logistic and marketing costs. What you worry is, will spending $X gives me much more than $X in value? Cost-benefit analysis is critical for decision making of every XR projects we discussed. We discussed on how if the XR project is implemented, it could save/gain them more than what they invested to the project. Of course sometimes the result to the discussion is: no, it does not bring them more value. In such cases, we’re always the first one trying to convince our clients to forego the project, or at least rethink the plan. The key is discussion on benefits rather than the actual numerical cost which doesn’t mean anything without the former. For example, would you rather spend $1M or $10K for an XR project? If an XR project costs $1M, but it saves your company $2M or even more, would you convince your directors and procurement division to do it? Absolutely. On the other hand, even if by some miracle of hard bargaining and massive features shaving, an XR project costs $10K… but it doesn’t really help anything, would you convince your company to go ahead just because it’s ‘cheap’? I hope the answer is no. Focus on the value first, then we can discuss cost in relation to that.

58

6 Comments

Isn't it fun to realise the new #TRUMP Meme Coin is starting to pump as per CoinMarketCap I was reminded of the article I wrote for Cointelegraph (26th Feb 2017) back in the day were we were building the readership quickly - a mix of serious and spoof. I picked up on PutinCoin first and I predicted a TrumpCoin would be set for a head to head during Trumps first term. We now have a new SuperTrumpCoin making a move ahead of his second term. I'm not sure who's behind it as with any crypto, especially meme coin do you research. Apparently I have to add these days "this is not financial advise and I am not encouraging anyone to buy the tokens mentions here"! And yes the search for Satoshi continues - as he was spotted at Twickenham during England vs France, ahead of the launch of ChocoholicCoin ready for Easter 2017. This activity also saw the launch of @hyperledger Fabric at IBM Labs Hursley, nr Portsmouth, UK. I remain a big fan of Decentralised Ledger Technology that is vastly more powerful than Blockchain architectures. Watch this space for more fun and games. #blockchain #crypto #DLT #meme #memecoins https://lnkd.in/d48jQJZ

3

1 Comment

This week's Video Games Industry Memo - sponsored by Sumo Digital Ltd - hit over 2000 inboxes earlier today with an article exploring the economic impact of Roblox creators on the American economy. Between 2017 and 2023, experience makers have added $1.2bn in GDP, supported nearly 18,000 full time equivalents (jobs) and contributed more than $300m in tax. But while the headline figures may be a little less impressive than they sound, the trends driving those figures suggest the UGC economy could be a force for genuine economic value in the years to come. Along with the deep dive into Roblox, VGIM also contained: 📰 News about Russian intelligence agents targeting US gamers for misinformation campaigns 💼 All the big job moves and some great open roles at major games companies 📅 Forthcoming conferences including Nexus in Dublin, Tokyo Game Show and Game Connect Asia Pacific in Melbourne 🎮 Funko Pop Fusion heading up the round-up of the week's releases You can read Video Games Industry Memo now by searching for it on Substack, Google or by clicking the Newsletter link in my LinkedIn profile. And if you're not subscribed, make sure to sign up ahead of next Thursday's edition where we'll take a look inside a building described as the Large Hadron Collider for the Mind...

21