{"podcast":{"title":"The AI XR Podcast.","slug":"the-ai-xr-podcast-1291732","podcast_index_feed_id":1291732,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5f2ae0b91ea7197e1ef08ed6","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/this-week-in-xr-podcast","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5f2ae0b91ea7197e1ef08ed6/1736361729991-15e2e673-ad12-4a45-b117-7e42a45c0af8.jpeg","author":"Charlie Fink","episode_count":303,"summary":"Get the inside story on the biggest tech developments from founders, former executives, and industry veterans who built companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta Reality Labs, Apple Vision Pro, Microsoft HoloLens, and Unity. Join Charlie Fink (Forbes), Ted Schilowitz, (Red Camera, Fox, Paramount Futurist) & Rony Abovitz, (founder Magic Leap).as they interview startup CEOs, ex-Google/Meta/Apple insiders, Hollywood directors, and AI researchers reshaping spatial computing. Every week we break down the latest tech news with our signature hot takes, then dive deep with a founder or industry leader. We cover artificial intelligence breakthroughs, virtual reality hardware, augmented reality applications, synthetic media tools, and how enterprises are adopting these technologies. We're industry insiders who have the connections to get the biggest names on the show, but we're not afraid to ask the tough questions about where big tech is heading. Our guests trust us because we've been in their shoes. Listen now to get ahead of the next wave of computing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-25T20:20:59.917359+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ai-xr-podcast-1291732"},"episode":{"title":"Avatars Are the UI of the Internet: Why Every App, Game, Corp Will Have An AI Persona ft. Akash Nigam","slug":"avatars-are-the-ui-of-the-internet-why-every-app-game-corp-will-have-an-ai-persona-ft-akash-nigam","published_at":"2026-06-19T06:48:42+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ai-xr-podcast-1291732/avatars-are-the-ui-of-the-internet-why-every-app-game-corp-will-have-an-ai-persona-ft-akash-nigam","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ai-xr-podcast-1291732","url":"https://shows.acast.com/this-week-in-xr-podcast/episodes/avatars-are-the-ui-of-the-internet-why-every-app-game-corp-w","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5f2ae0b91ea7197e1ef08ed6/e/6a34e64af1612f1c699117c0/media.mp3","summary":"Akash Nigam has been building Genies since 2017 with a conviction that avatars will be the visual layer of the internet. As CEO of Genies , he's assembled IP partners including the NBA, MLB, Sanrio, and Kakao, with more major studios and agencies set to announce before the end of May. The pitch: every app, game, website, and celebrity is going to have an AI personality. Genies wants to be the framework that gives all of those personalities a face. What separates Genies is portability and scale. A character that took eight weeks in 2021 now takes ten minutes. Staying stylized rather than photorealistic isn't just aesthetic — it's what got Hollywood to the table. Talent doesn't want deepfakes. They want a Genie: trained on private IP data, capable of one-on-one fan relationships that make Instagram feel thin. AI XR News: Tim Cook stepped aside as Apple CEO with hardware chief John Ternus taking over. Humanoid robots ran a half marathon in Beijing while a Sony robot defeated professional table tennis players, opening a conversation about Chinese robotics capabilities and AI data infiltration risks the US is still underestimating. Key Moments: [00:06:45] Tim Cook steps aside: what the Apple leadership transition signals about wearable AI [00:12:00] Humanoid robots and table tennis: China's robotics flex [00:13:00] The data infiltration argument: open-source risk and a warning for the US [00:24:00] The IP land grab: NBA, MLB, Sanrio, Kakao, Naver Webtoon [00:28:00] From photo to avatar in 10 minutes: how Genies' generation pipeline scaled [00:32:00] Why Instagram feels thin and how Genies enables one-on-one fan relationships [00:49:00] 80 people, $150M raised, and why Bob Iger sees Genies as the future of Disney If AI personalities are going to be everywhere, what do they l…","meta_description":"Akash Nigam has been building Genies since 2017 with a conviction that avatars will be the visual layer of the internet. As CEO of Genies , he's assembled…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3393,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-ai-xr-podcast-1291732/episodes/avatars-are-the-ui-of-the-internet-why-every-app-game-corp-will-have-an-ai-persona-ft-akash-nigam/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ai-xr-podcast-1291732/avatars-are-the-ui-of-the-internet-why-every-app-game-corp-will-have-an-ai-persona-ft-akash-nigam.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}