Bart Wronski 🇺🇦🇵🇸

I remember during the early VR/AR craze, people were pitching it to me, "come work on it! this will be the new mobile!"
Some were genuine, and some were just bullshiters riding on the hype wave. I shrugged. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now, in the last few weeks (especially in the last few days), I have seen a bunch of laypeople, general IT people, and ML experts alike say "this is the new iPhone moment!".
Those were followed up by product announcements from almost everyone.

And, this time, I definitely agree.

Mar 21, 2023 at 3:05pmWeb
Show threadDan PiponiMar 21, 2023
@BartWronski I'm old enough that "the new mobile" wasn't a phrase that made sense in the first wave of VR I experienced :)
Show threadBart Wronski 🇺🇦🇵🇸Mar 21, 2023
@dpiponi what was the phrase then? :)
or was global hype and marketing not present back then? (as I imagine it's the wave that predates even the dotcom stuff)
Show threadDan PiponiMar 21, 2023

@BartWronski Virtuality is even older than I thought. Not so many mobile phones then. And as they were just phones, they weren't really the important cultural thing they are today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(product)

Virtuality (product) - Wikipedia

Show threadGiancarlo TodoneMar 21, 2023
@BartWronski I’d trust your judgement, but I’m not too convinced myself.
People like to use the “iPhone moment” argument, but what they’re thinking about is a new “internet for the masses” moment - except it was not a moment but years in the making, and it was not a single coordinated effort by some company trying to capitalize on it.
Show threadBart Wronski 🇺🇦🇵🇸Mar 21, 2023

@nemo with AI it's also a decade in the making - research across all universities in the world, research labs of all companies.

After this decade of effort of hundreds of thousands researchers and engineers, now every company that invested something into it will monetize it.

the "iPhone moment" is IMO adequate analogy, as it wasn't anything novel on its own, but for the first time, it was useful enough, packaged, and productionized to appeal to masses

Show threadScott NagyMar 21, 2023
@BartWronski it's just like the iPhone in that everyone is trying to think of the fart app that's gonna make them a million dollars for 4 hours of work
Show threadBart Wronski 🇺🇦🇵🇸Mar 21, 2023
@snagy and for some, this will certainly happen :)
Show threadScott NagyMar 21, 2023
@BartWronski but this time around there will be an equal number of people who accidentally end up with a million dollar azure bill
Show threadSander van Rossen🇺🇦Mar 21, 2023
@BartWronski I agree. VR will never come close to iPhone (even though the tech is absolutely cool)
AI on the other hand is a paradigm shift (& a much bigger deal than the iPhone)
I wasn't a believer in the "technological singularity" before .. now I'm honestly not so sure anymore