The Meta Economist meets professor Andrea Bertolini to make an interesting analysis about the EU AI Act. Bertolini is the Director of the European Center of Excellence on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Regulation (Eura) and professor of private Law at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. His research starts from private law to technological regulation (robotics and AI) and bioethics, with a comparative and law and economics approach.
The Italian Newspaper la Repubblica just inserted professor Bertolini among the 500 italian researchers that counts on AI subjects.
The European market is still relevant - says Bertolini - and European citizens are still much of interest for even non-European companies, that anyone who will want to do business in Europe or with European citizens will have to abide by and comply with AI Act and all European legislation. So this should provide Europe the possibility of influencing the global development and production of AI systems. Because if an American company wants to bring their AI based product to the European market and have European users use that product, then they will have to comply with the AI Act".
And even if that is true, European technical research in the field of artificial intelligence is not as advanced as that occurring in the US and maybe China, Europe decided to regulate it before other Countries and that's the advantage now. About this and other topics we focused on this interview.
Read also---> The EU AI Act is law by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
Memes are now an integral part of everyday online life and online communities, being in fact images, videos, texts but more particularly and in detail, symbols and fictional characters, which are also entertaining, they spread rapidly, changing and adapting to trends, particularly social ones when it comes to political and social purposes.
But what are memes really? And what is their impact on our society? The term "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene". Dawkins defined it as a unit of cultural information that is transmitted from individual to individual through imitation. In a digital context, memes take the form of images, videos, GIFs, or texts that are shared online, often with added captions or tongue-in-cheek edits.
The increase in the use of social media can make memes become a real means of communication with which very concrete things are expressed, even: actions and choices. Memes as a means of communication, diffusion and even propaganda are enjoying so much success in terms of visibility and excel so much in terms of replicability and ability to influence, to the point that even the business world has begun to take notice. The more a meme is capable of arousing an emotion, a laugh or a sense of identification, the more likely it is that it will be shared and spread, so why not create awareness and transform it into an opportunity? This replication process leads to the evolution of the meme itself, which changes and adapts to the different cultures and contexts in which it is received. One day, through the memes of a period of an era, we will be able to retrace the trends, fashions and tastes of the web in a specific historical period. Their ability to make us laugh and reflect at the same time makes them a fascinating phenomenon with a great impact on our society.
Among the most viral memes at the moment we find PEPE, a frog face that dresses up in all situations, more precisely PEPE is a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body. The origins of the character date back to the comic Boy's Club, written by the American Matt Furie in 2005, therefore PEPE represents first of all an American experience, but what makes it even more incredible is how Decentralized Finance has made its diffusion as COIN possible starting since 2023 and how much the cryptocurrency market and investors have reacted.
With an ROI that crypto.com cites at around +100,000,000%, an all-time high of 0.000009877 Euros and 420T PEPE in circulation, the cryptocurrency that acts as a tribute to PEPE is in the DeFI world a real project developed within Ethereum in stages and scalable and yet not the only one of its kind, it grows dramatically every day with the aim of becoming the ideal COIN of everyone and for everyone, a currency close to people.
Born in Italy in 1976. Graduated in Political Science, Computer programmer & web 3.0 supporter and user. Real Estate Expert (two professional technical register and two active official roles) - Extrajudical civil mediator.
Disney and Epic Games will collaborate to create an open and persistent game universe, bringing together characters from Star Wars, Marvel, Avatar and Pixar. The Walt Disney Company is taking a $1.5 billion equity stake in Epic Games to build what it calls a "persistent universe," less than a year after shuttering its Metaverse division. Founded in 1991, Epic Games is an American company founded by CEO Tim Sweeney. The company is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina and has more than 40 offices worldwide. Today Epic is a leading interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology.
In a official statement, Disney said the multi-year project — subject to regulatory approval — will be a gaming experience that interacts with Fortnite, Epic's flagship game. The project will be a “universe of games and entertainment,” allowing users to “play, watch, shop and interact with content, characters and stories” from Disney assets. Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, stated that the two companies will "build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem", while Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, stated that "this marks Disney's largest entry into the world of games". Disney added that "players, gamers and fans will be able to create their own stories and experiences." Epic's game engine, Unreal Engine, will power the so-called universe, but no details on the project's launch date have been shared.
Disney's move comes less than a year after it dismantled its Metaverse division in March 2023, cutting about 50 workers in an effort to reduce operating expenses. This choice is going to the direction, for Disney, to become part of one of the huge metaverse, without having the possibilities to own its space in the metaverse without using Fortnite. That's the turning point here. Is this the destiny of metaverse? Or maybe there's an alternative. Better said, we need the bravery to create independent metaverses, where data and users can run with precise rules and privacy.
The partnership announcement comes on the same day as Disney's Q1 2024 results, following a string of major box office and streaming flops in 2023. For the quarter ended December 30, 2023, Disney posted revenue of $23.6 billion, narrowly beating the estimates of Zacks Wall Street analysts. However, revenue growth remained flat compared to the $23.5 billion reported in the same quarter a year earlier. Disney said it will pay a dividend of 45 cents per share, a 50% increase from the last paid in January. Its stock price closed the day at around $99, according to Google Finance, but jumped nearly 7% to over $105 in after-hours trading. Epic's Sweeney has been focusing on the metaverse for some time and in May 2023 he joked about the idea that the latter was "dead", citing the 600 million monthly active users across multiple metaverses. However, four months later, in September, Epic cut its headcount by 16% — about 830 people — saying that unrealistic revenue expectations from the metaverse caused it to spend "way more" than it could afford. Epic has already collaborated on similar projects in the past.
SOURCE: Cointelegraph
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
The number of startups and new companies led by women saw a slight increase from 8.3% in 2022 to 8.6% in the third quarter of 2023. A research by Bitget discovered that the gender gap is present also in this new workfield and this is due to the investments. Over the past two years, a research team has been studying, based on qualitative and quantitative data, to provide a transparent overview of the gap in investments received by male- and female-led blockchain startups between 2022 and 2023.
Some characteristics that emerge from the research are that:
•There is a strong need for incubators capable of nurturing start-ups founded by women and promoting a more inclusive and encouraging environment for their development
• Fundraising by blockchain startups declined 70.1% per quarter between Q1 2022 and Q3 2023.
•During the study period, blockchain startups raised $27.85 billion, with female-led blockchain startups securing only 6.34% of overall funding
•The number of female-led blockchain startups has declined by 45.2% since the start of 2022, but is already showing a recovery
The data about female-led blockchain startups is influenced, as Il Sole 24 Ore reported - by overall investment trends, the cryptocurrency market situation, investor sentiment and investor prejudices. At the end the result is that more than 90% of funding going to male-led projects. In relation to these numbers, the exchange therefore decided to launch the Blockchain4Her initiative, that allocates 10 million dollars to promote gender diversity and inclusiveness in the blockchain sector.
Gender bias has been proven to have a determining effect on investments, as statistics indicate that male-led startups have attracted $27.85 billion, while female-led blockchain startups have raised $1.77 billion, only 6.34% of the total amount. Based on this information, the amount of investments in start-ups has decreased, but does not present the same constant downward trend recorded in the previous year. Quantitative indicators of startup operations also decreased.
The new economic system was born with an equality and democratic aim. We need this to be also in order to create the same opportunities for new companies that wants to open this market crating jobs. The disparities highlighted by the study underlines that we must proactively work to create an ecosystem where talent and potential are the only criteria, without gender bias. Every work sector needs to become an inclusive environment, where everyone, regardless of gender, enjoys equal opportunities.
SOURCE: Il Sole 24 Ore
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
With the word "ICO" we mean a crowdfunding system in the financial sector. Despite a long time history, in these day the web 3 is talking about ICOs linked to a revolutionary Bitcoin Dogs project recently announced. The launch is scheduled for February 14th, 2024 and it will be the world's first ICO on the Bitcoin blockchain. With pre-salt set to debut next week, the new project aims to gain significant traction with its fresh approach.
To support the growth of the platform, Bitcoin Dogs will distribute 900 million 0DOG tokens during a 30-day flash presale. Beyond the obvious investment appeal, these tokens will give holders access to an exclusive collection of NFTs and an engaging social gaming ecosystem. Using the paradigm-shifting Ordinals protocol, players will store their NFTs on the Bitcoin BRC-20 blockchain, offering a new level of security and reliability when stacked up against competitors Solana and Ethereum.
The question is: could the 0DOG token represent an investment opportunity with profits of 50x-100x? Will it enter crypto history as the world's first presale on the Bitcoin blockchain?
From initial public offerings (IPOs) to crowdfunding platforms to initial coin offerings (ICOs), the world of fundraising has undergone enormous transformations.
Let's go back to the history of ICOs, as we told before in this article, 2013 is the year where this story begun. The first ICO was launched in 2013 for the launch of the Mastercoin cryptocurrency. In 2014, an ICO was added to the Ethereum cryptocurrency. The ICO is very popular. Last year 2017 was released about 20 months ago and the ICO for a new web browser called Brave generated about $35 million in 30 seconds. There are at least 18 websites that track ICOs.
Just to clarify, the first ICO was launched to be re-founded by new cryptocurrencies, but the current ICO is used to qualify. Typically these tokens are sold to be stored, with the existence of the token and the defined behavior of the mathematical algorithm. If there is a difference between similar tender offers, the acquisition of the token is not regulated by the government and does not guarantee ownership or other conditions.
SOURCES: BitPanda, Blockchain News
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
The need for a web with social networks that are not owned by a single large company that can use them for all its own purposes, also deciding their trends, but social platforms that, being a resource of the IT network, are immutable, uncensorable and visible without algorithms of uncertain application. Decentralized Finance is more than ever and increasingly an established reality, DeFi representing an alternative and a complete world in itself for new financial horizons, apparently freer and less binding.
If DeFi, therefore represents the world of cryptocurrencies, DeSo is and will be the world of decentralized social networks, a project already full of applications that is trying to network and offer everyone the opportunity to create them; DeSo already offers a world map where you can identify yourself as a web3 enthusiast, clearly not everyone decides to be visible, but those who do will certainly be able to start networking. It tends to seem that the decentralized social networks of the future will be created based on common purposes, projects and topics; this effectively provides further confirmation that social media and communities will be practically the same thing. At the moment the most functional, interconnected, productive and active communities on web 2 are found only on Discord which could prove to be the only "social" that will be saved in a new era for the web.
The DeSo token can be purchased from 2021 as a cryptocurrency, initially it started with a very high and optimistic value, but for two years its decline has been weighty and constant, only at the moment is it recovering. In web 3 there are many projects which, although absolutely interesting, have suffered a huge setback with huge losses, the problem probably lies in the anticipation of the needs that these projects represent, but it can't go much differently from this, presumably it will still take 5 years for the decentralized web to become a reality for almost everyone, at the moment it is for many, but all in all, for very few.
Over 70% of the population still uses social media on the centralized web, especially Meta, and only in the last two years have people begun to develop a certain intolerance in the use of Facebook and Instagram, but it will remain equally and certainly a large pillar in Meta, or Whatsapp for example.
Today, there are over 100 other projects running nodes and building apps on DeSo. You can find the application already available on deso web site
Social tokens, social NFTs, and social tipping, three categories of products pioneered by DeSo, are already changing the game in terms of how creators monetize on the internet, but they're only the beginning.
Because DeSo is money-native and open-source, anyone in the world can start to experiment with new ways for creators to monetize by building an app on top of DeSo. The DeSo blockchain is fundamentally an open protocol that the entire world can build on collaboratively.
Here are a few ideas of what's possible to build on DeSo (fully on-chain):
Born in Italy in 1976. Graduated in Political Science, Computer programmer & web 3.0 supporter and user. Real Estate Expert (two professional technical register and two active official roles) - Extrajudical civil mediator.
2024 started with big news for metaverse and blockchain. One of the things we must analyze is the relationship between States, worldwide, and the new web technologies. If 3D experiences will be enabled for citizens to have public services, something will really change in daily life. And here come the States political decisions, with their strategies and their regulations of the Metaverse.
Finland has recently presented its Metaverse Strategy, which should lead it to become one of the global excellences of the metaverse by 2035. The Netherlands and South Korea are also investing on it. They will begin to seriously poke their noses into it with investments, regulations and long-term plans in general. Will Italy stand by and watch or play an active game? And finally, speaking of regulations, the first positive signs are already widely visible. Here once again the European Union demonstrates that it knows how to lead. In fact, with the recently ratified Digital Markets Act, which imposes the progressive opening of digital store monopolies, we will finally begin to get closer to the much desired interoperability of the various social worlds virtual, and therefore perhaps to the true Metaverse imagined by technology theorists.
The Finnish government report, entitled ‘Metaverse Initiative by the Finnish Ecosystem: Virtual Potential into Real-World Impact’, states that Finland would like to become “a global leader in the metaverse industry”. The country is home to leading companies in extended reality, such as Varjo, Dispelix, and Optofidelity, but also to important companies in the telecom sector, like Nokia and Cinia. Finland also ranks among the best in the world in several converging technologies. While China, Japan, the UK, and the United Arab Emirates have started to work on similar strategies, this is the first national metaverse strategy from an EU member state.
According to the Finnish report, as Euractiv reported, while there have been several definitions, today, “the term [metaverse] has been used to describe various visions of virtual worlds that are immersive and experiential, and that may integrate elements of the physical and digital worlds.”
For users, it is also possible to socialise, communicate, or trade in the metaverse and move between virtual worlds and platforms while transferring their data. According to Patrick Grady, editor at policy hub Metaverse EU, Finland’s “definition for the ‘metaverse’—and not ‘virtual worlds’—helps to clarify rather than confuse key elements of new immersive technology”.
In the report we can read: “Finland’s geopolitical position between superpowers of the world allows it to balance its interests between different actors and regions and to create mutual trust in other countries”.
Finland city Tampere has a pioneering position among metaverse cities and smart cities innovation. Many of the metaverse themes where at the center of Tampere Smart City Expo & Conference in Finland. By seamlessly combining the digital and physical worlds, the metaverse creates a vibrant digital environment that enhances the lives of city dwellers. It fosters and promotes a hassle-free everyday experience for citizens and provides a favorable platform for businesses to thrive. As Business wire reported, with its forward-thinking approach, Tampere is setting the stage for the future of urban living.
"We invite companies to test their solutions in Tampere. The city acts as a testing platform and an open partner for businesses and research. Through intelligent solutions, our goal is to enhance the well-being of citizens, provide a positive urban experience, and create favorable conditions for people's everyday lives", listed Teppo Rantanen, the Executive Director of Growth, Innovation and Competitiveness at the City of Tampere.
Tampere's metaverse development is a result of collaborations with industry-leading companies. Through partnerships with VTT and global technology giants such as Microsoft and Nokia. Revolutionize the urban planning and create intelligent solutions has to be mixed with the well-being of its residents.
2035 is the year, according to the report, that the annual metaverse industry turnover will be more than €30 billion. Finland aims to become a global leader by achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal and this would be translated in "reducing emissions, enhancing circularity, improving wellbeing, and fostering social cohesion”.
Finland’s Metaverse strategy highlights a firm commitment to protecting digital rights and ethics, placing premium importance on user privacy, security, and independence. The Finnish metaverse idea is shaped to connect “different actors, sectors, and domains” and to ensure an environment “for standardisation, regulation, cybersecurity, and education”. Metaverse has to be designed as "inclusive and accessible for all people regardless of their background, location, or abilities”. The other aspect that is underlined in the Finnish strategy towards metaverse is to become a “global advocate for digital rights and ethics in the metaverse”, making sure that the “users’ privacy, security, and autonomy are respected and protected” so to create transparency, and accountability in the governance and development of the metaverse.
Let's say in the end that step by step Finland could contribute to create a global model for States that wants to use web at the top of its potential, with the new immersive experience.
SOURCES: Euractiv, Businesswire
Read also: Metaverse: how many inhabitants?
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Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
In 2023, blockchain gaming recorded investments of 2.3 billion dollars. Those data, provided by DappRadar, a monitoring platform for decentralized apps, shows that $600 million was invested in the blockchain gaming sector in the third quarter of 2023.
Among investments in Q3 2023, $213 million went into the development of games and technologies related to the metaverse, despite some declaring it dead. According to DappRadar, the remainder of the quarter's investments went to gaming infrastructure and Web3 investment firms.
The unstoppable growth in the Blockchain gaming market tells about a well-stocked duo: video games and blockchain technology. Hard data collected by Fortune Business Insights indicates an annual growth of the blockchain gaming market between 2017 and 2021 of 21.8%, confirming not only the current robustness of the sector, but also a constantly rising trend. The outlook for 2030 promises an era of unprecedented innovation in the gaming world.
Growing interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the ever-widening adoption of blockchain technology in gaming is driving a wave of growth. Regions such as North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific, especially China, Japan and South Korea, are set to play a leading role in this development. North America Leads the Blockchain Gaming Field. In 2022, there was generated over $30 billion from industry sales, capturing approximately 24% of the global market share. This dominance seems destined to persist over time, keeping North America as the undisputed leader. Role Playing Games thanks to their immersive worlds and distinctive characters integrate perfectly with blockchain technology, offering innovative opportunities. In 2022, they accounted for more than 33% of the blockchain gaming market's total sales. The conclusion we have to underline is that this growth shows an important way of using blockchain for free time purposes and this means a new revolutions are coming with the web 3 as protagonist.
SOURCES: Cryptonews
Read also ---> Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
A look from Scott Newton's point of view about the digital transformation that companies are living in the last decade. Scott Newton is a company advisor, he is also The Managing Partner of Thinking Dimensions, and a member of the Board of Directors at Strategy Tools.
Mr. Newton works with Boards, CEOs, Private Equity, and senior leaders on Strategy, M&A, Value Creation, and Digital Transformation with an emphasis on embedding sustainability into their business models today and for the future.
His experiences have taken him to North America, Latin America, Europe, MENA, and Asia Pacific regions assisting global organizations in major change. Scott and his teams focus on building new business model portfolios, future proofing the organization, and linking impact to sustainable growth and profitability opportunities.
ESG is a major point of attention in the board room and the C- Suite, and with more than 25 years of international experience in advisory activities balanced between both multinational and family- controlled enterprises, Scott has had the unique opportunity to assist more than 250 CEO’s and Senior Business Leaders.
The organizations Scott works with achieve speed, alignment, and most importantly sustainable results by focusing on the necessary competencies to develop with a long-term view in mind.
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
