Elevated Earnings for AI Enterprises Kobold and Elven as Second Life Celebrates 20th Anniversary

**Title: Musk vs. Zuckerberg: The Feud Takes to the Cage**

**Subtitle: Tech Titans Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Settle for a Cage Fight**

In a surprising turn of events, tech titans Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have taken their rivalry to new heights by challenging each other to a cage fight. What initially began as playful banter on social media has evolved into a serious showdown between these two billionaire CEOs. With both men boasting their physical prowess and determination to settle their differences, the world eagerly awaits the outcome of this highly anticipated clash.

**Kobold Metals Raises $200M for AI Mining of Minerals**

Rising demand for batteries in electric vehicles has led to an increase in the prices of essential minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper. Capitalizing on this trend, Berkeley-based mining company Kobold Metals has successfully raised $200 million in funding. The company employs artificial intelligence to explore the earth’s subsurface, delving deeper than conventional techniques allow. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, backed by industry giants Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Jack Ma, joined the funding round, along with Andreessen Horowitz and Bond Capital.

**Elven Labs Secures $19M to Transform Text into Authentic Speech**

Elven Labs, a groundbreaking AI company, has raised $19 million in its Series A funding round to further develop its technology. Elven Labs specializes in converting text into lifelike speech, mimicking the nuances and characteristics of various genders, ages, and ethnicities. The funding was co-led by entrepreneurs Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, alongside renowned investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Creator Ventures, and SV Angel. Noteworthy participants in the round also include Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, and O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly.

**Second Life Celebrates 20 Years**

Second Life, the pioneering metaverse that revolutionized online interaction, commemorates its 20th anniversary. Created in 2003, Second Life remains a thriving platform with an average of 750,000 monthly users. It set the stage for the concept of a fully immersive virtual world, boasting a vibrant creator economy powered by Tilia. Second Life was the first to introduce virtual land ownership and digital currency, known as Linden Dollars, which can be traded for real money globally. In 2021, the company was acquired by entrepreneur Brad Oberwager, marking a new chapter in its evolution.

**GPT Introduces App Store to Streamline Metaverse Experience**

ChatGPT has taken a significant step to bring order to the metaverse chaos by unveiling its own app store. The marketplace provides a more organized alternative to the current assortment of directories competing for attention and revenue. In a move that might surprise some, GPT aims to rival app stores operated by esteemed customers like Salesforce and Microsoft. The platform’s rapid growth has prompted it to establish a more structured infrastructure, offering users a curated selection of applications aligned with their preferences.

**Meta Lowers Minimum Age for VR to Ten**

In response to growing user demographics, Meta has revised the minimum age requirement for virtual reality (VR) experiences to ten years old. While visiting its own Horizon social VR Metaverse, the company realized that a substantial portion of its users were children. Meta acknowledges the importance of parental supervision and safety in these virtual environments, and this policy change seeks to address concerns surrounding unsupervised interaction between children and adults in VR.

**Meta AI Chief Acknowledges Limitations of AI**

Yann LeCun, the chief AI scientist at Meta, sheds light on the current limitations of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite AI’s ability to pass the Bar exam, an accomplishment usually achieved by aspiring attorneys, LeCun acknowledges the stark disparity between AI capabilities and practical skills. For instance, an AI cannot perform basic household tasks like loading a dishwasher, which a ten-year-old child can quickly learn. LeCun emphasizes the need for significant advancements in AI development to bridge the gap between its intelligence and that of humans and even animals.

**Meta’s Voicebox AI Revolutionizes Text-to-Speech**

Meta unveils Voicebox, a transformative text-to-speech model aimed at revolutionizing vocal communication. Offering a similar breakthrough to ChatGPT Dall-E’s impact on text and image generation, Voicebox holds the potential to shape the future of spoken communication. While Meta has chosen not to release the Voicebox app or its source code to the public due to concerns regarding potential misuse, the company recognizes the multitude of exciting applications for generative speech models.

**What We’re Reading**

– **”Making a Metaverse That Matters: From Snow Crash & Second Life to A Virtual World Worth Fighting For”** by James Wagner Au, an engaging exploration of the evolving concept of the metaverse over the past two decades.
– **”Microsoft’s XR Strategy Could Lead to A Windows Phone Moment”** by Scott Hayden, offering insights into Microsoft’s extended reality (XR) strategy and its potential impact on the industry.
– **”Quest Pro Was Meta’s Missed Opportunity To Prove The Future – It Should Try Again”** by David Heaney, a thought-provoking piece delving into Meta’s missed chance to showcase the potential of their product and the importance of future endeavors.

*Note: This article has been rewritten and tailored to provide unique content while incorporating relevant subheadings and keywords. The text has been revised to fix grammar issues and utilize active voice.*