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Future of VR is now becoming Future of Disruptive Tech! After talking to a few of our readers and running a poll, it’s clear to us that a lot of our readers are into all forms of disruptive tech (not just virtual reality).

Going forward, we will still be writing about virtual reality as always. But we will also be writing about AI, Crypto, and other gamechangers in tech. We’re super excited to be making this transition and hope you are too!

Today’s Menu

• Apple Vision Pro Release

• First Neuralink Human Implant

• FTX Scandal Updates

• Tether Vs. Coca-Cola

TODAY IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Apple Vision Pro Release

Apple’s Vision Pro was officially released to the public today and is available at Apple Stores nationwide. Here in Miami, we work out of the WeWork in Brickell City Centre and will definitely be stopping by the Apple Store for a demo this weekend.

If you don’t live near an Apple Store and would like to demo the Vision Pro before dropping $3,500 on it, simply click this link, enter your Apple ID, and request a demo (this will be available starting February 5th).

Meta’s VR division finally crossed into the $1B category in Q4 of last year after achieving $1.07B in revenue due to the Quest 3 launch.

Apple has already pre-sold $700M worth of Vision Pro sales (200,000 headsets) so it wouldn’t surprise us if they cross into the $1B range before the end of this quarter.

Although these numbers may sound large, it pales in comparison to the amount of money spent by Apple and Meta to get to this point.

Meta recorded a $4.65B loss in Q4 last year. Plus their Metaverse division has lost $42B since 2020.

Although Apple and Meta are competitors in this space, we think they are actually complementary to one another. With back to back product launches, ultimately both are pushing aggressively to move the entire virtual reality industry forward.

TODAY IN AI

First Neuralink Human Implant

Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, successfully implanted one of their chips into a human brain for the very first time this week.

Musk is an outspoken critic of AI for many reasons and has repeatedly stated that it will essentially end humanity. One of his main goals with Neuralink is to avoid letting AI take over by enabling humans to grow along with AI.

Although we can’t speak to the specifics on this, we’re picturing something very similar to the classic Bradley Cooper movie, Limitless. Inside this film, the main character takes a daily drug that essentially makes him a machine.

He becomes a genius stock trader and goes from broke to making millions in about 72 hours. He writes a book during that time too.

Could Neuralink basically merge the knowledge and capabilities of an LLM like ChatGPT with a human? If so, what would that mean for humanity?

It’s difficult to say. However, a lot of reports allege that Sam Altman may be on the verge of a major breakthrough with AGI. Neuralink could be a hedge against the dangers that brings.

TODAY IN CRYPTO

FTX Recovers $7B In Assets

Apparently FTX has managed to scrap together $7B and plans to repay users who lost money on it. Here’s the fine print though…

Their plan is to repay users based on November 2022 pricing as opposed to updated February 2024 prices. For reference, BTC was at $17,000 at this time and now sits around $43,000 (so it’s more than doubled).

It definitely sucks for users who lost substantial amounts of money on this whole FTX scandal. But to look on the bright side, we’d rather take 40% of our money back than get 0%.

We’ll believe it when we see it though if FTX users ever see a dime of it.

The Future of Disruptive Tech

We saw a statistic on Twitter earlier this week breaking down how the crypto stablecoin Tether, is on pace to do slightly more revenue than the large conglomerate Coca-Cola.

The only difference between these two companies?

Coca-Cola has 79,000 employees. Tether has 60.

In the future, disruptive tech (especially AI) will enable substantially more leverage for companies. This allows for leaner, faster moving organizations that generate more revenue (without having to run a massive organization).

Look at an industry like Media.

In the past, dominant institutions were companies like Fox (22,000 employees), CNN (4,000 employees), and the New York Times (5,800 employees).

Nowadays you see big name influencers like Joe Rogan who have extremely small teams yet have 15M followers.

You have companies like the Morning Brew that have less than 300 employees.

Overall we are moving toward leaner, more profitable companies due to changes in technology.

On one hand this is great for business owners. They make more money. It’s easier than ever to start a business. Solopreneurs can thrive better than ever.

On the other hand, a lot of layoffs will likely occur leaving lots of people jobless.

What’s our main conclusion from this?

Learn how to use AI. It’s moving incredibly fast and if you want to thrive in the future, you will need to learn how to leverage it.

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Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Damon