Good morning. It’s Monday, May 12. Today we are covering:
Saudi Arabia launches AI venture Humain ahead of Donald Trump visit
The Dream of the Metaverse Is Dying. Manufacturing Is Keeping It Alive
I just tried Spacetop's new AR platform with Xreal smart glasses - and it feels like the future of computing
DNS Piracy Blocking Orders: Google, Cloudflare, and OpenDNS Respond Differently
Why Companies Looking For New Technologies Don't Manage To Innovate
Let’s dive in
Saudi Arabia launches AI venture Humain ahead of Donald Trump visit
By Andrew England via Financial Times
Saudi Arabia launched Humain, a multibillion-dollar AI company chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aimed at positioning the kingdom as a global AI hub, with plans to build advanced Arabic large language models and AI infrastructure.
The announcement precedes Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh, coinciding with a major US-Saudi investment forum expected to feature leaders like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg, and unveil multibillion-dollar deals across AI, defense, and other sectors.
Gulf states, including the UAE and Qatar, are intensifying AI investments to diversify their economies; meanwhile, the $940bn Public Investment Fund (PIF) is leading Saudi Arabia’s AI strategy with significant projects and partnerships, including a planned $600bn US investment over the next four years.
𝕏: “Saudi Arabia has launched a new artificial intelligence company that will be chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and be Riyadh’s prime vehicle to drive the kingdom’s strategy and investments as it seeks to become a global AI hub.” - Anna Jacobs (@AnnaLeaJacobs)
The Dream of the Metaverse Is Dying. Manufacturing Is Keeping It Alive
By Nicole Kobie via WIRED
While the consumer metaverse falters, the industrial metaverse is booming, expected to reach $100 billion by 2030, with companies like BMW, Amazon, and Lowe’s using digital twins and simulations to optimize production lines and facility layouts.
BMW’s virtual factories, built using Nvidia’s Omniverse and Pixar’s OpenUSD, allow detailed simulations of manufacturing processes, significantly reducing errors, costs, and inefficiencies before any physical construction begins.
The next phase involves integrating AI and robotics, using virtual environments to train autonomous systems and generate synthetic data, with experts predicting the rise of embodied AI—industrial robots trained through digital twins to navigate and operate in the physical world.
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By Alex Wawro via Tom's Guide
Sightful's Spacetop transforms AR productivity by turning any Windows laptop (with at least an Intel Meteor Lake Core Ultra 7 CPU) into a virtual workspace via Xreal Air 2 Ultra glasses, offering a massive, adjustable virtual canvas and subscription-based access at $199/year.
Despite some ergonomic trade-offs and visual fatigue, the author reports significant neck and back comfort, envisioning AR smart glasses as a potential future standard for modern, relaxed computing workflows.
Spacetop’s rollout is gaining momentum in the U.S. and Germany with partners like Intel, SHI International, and Deutsche Telekom, aiming for broader workplace adoption throughout 2025.
𝕏: I just saw the future of computing — and it makes me a believer in AR smart glasses - tipatat (@tipatat)
DNS Piracy Blocking Orders: Google, Cloudflare, and OpenDNS Respond Differently
By Ernesto Van der Sar via TorrentFreak
OpenDNS took the most drastic step by exiting France and Belgium entirely rather than comply with piracy blocking orders, leaving users in those countries without its services.
Cloudflare complies by using "alternate mechanisms" that result in an HTTP 451 error for blocked sites, informing users about censorship while avoiding direct DNS blocking through its 1.1.1.1 resolver.
Google silently refuses DNS queries for blocked domains via its 8.8.8.8 resolver, offering no transparency or user notifications, contrary to Belgian court recommendations for redirecting users to an explanatory page.
Why Companies Looking For New Technologies Don't Manage To Innovate
Forbes
Despite ambitions to source disruptive innovations, large companies often default to familiar technologies due to internal R&D biases and a reluctance to step outside established knowledge zones.
Biopharmaceutical firms (1995–2015) exemplified this trend, favoring familiar solutions even when top management urged exploration of novel technologies, except in cases where failures prompted a strategic reassessment.
To avoid innovation inertia, managers must embrace failure as a learning catalyst, actively engage in technology sourcing decisions, and align their narrative for novelty with actionable strategies that counteract organizational bias.
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