by 
Bonjour from Paris! I’m on a whirlwind 48-hour trip for a client. But before I went to the airport, I filmed this week’s episode in the M7 studio before “hopping over the pond.” This week on the Brief we cover: Sam Altman wants the government to protect OpenAI, Meta quietly launches an app for sharing mini AI experiences, and Amazon has enough satellites to provide internet service.
I am fascinated with the intersection of technology and anthropological behavior shifts, so I love international trips for people-watching with this perspective in mind. While I see plenty of AirPods in ears, I haven’t seen a single pair of smart glasses being worn by any Parisian (or tourist for that matter). While I traveled with my own pair of smart glasses that double as my reading eyewear, I don’t feel comfortable wearing them in public, especially in Paris. The irony? I’m in Europe giving a keynote on consumer behavior shifts in media, with a side quest of monitoring the behaviors of every person I’m currently sharing the Metro with, yet it is my own behavior that has completely changed based on the context of my travels.
What am I afraid of? Is it a Parisian waiter yelling at me to take them off? Is it because I’ll get dirty looks, or attract more attention? Is it the feeling that I’m breaking a social contract by having Meta’s surveillance device attached to my face? The answer is yes to all. That’s my reflection for this week. You can have the most powerful, most useful technology in the world, but if it breaks a social contract, its value, application and utility plummets to zero. So goes the early days of innovation in the Spatial Computing space. Au revoir!