Newsletter Recap, Sep 16th
NYC/Lisbon Events & Building for the Messy AI Media Era - Ambistream Fall Update
Ambistream is building infrastructure for an AI-driven economy, where media can be created, remixed, and licensed while paying people fairly. Here are some upcoming NYC and Lisbon events as well as other updates:
Fall event season is approaching,
which is our busy season
During Lisbon AI Week we’ll be showing prototypes, joining conversations, and filming more of our AI Hot Takes series at all of these events:
Tuesday, September 22nd (Lisbon AI Week):
This Socratic AI event is more intimate and limited in capacity, and Ambistream will be present for 10 minutes on the future of tech, media and business.
Friday, September 25th (Lisbon AI Week):
The Block, a web3 coworking space, is having a presentation and meetup that questions how AI agents can be trusted, followed by more networking and filming AI Hot Takes.
FEATURED EVENT
Thursday, October 8th (AI Week NY/Digital event):
This is our 3rd time hosting a Bohemian AI Salon for AI Week NY, but this is our first time hosting it via zoom. As usual, the goal is to bring people with very different perspectives together to discuss their hopes, concerns and predictions about where this is all headed.
Tuesday, November 10th (Portugal Tech Week/Web Summit):
We’re co-hosting the 9th annual LGBTQ+ gathering at Late Birds. And we’re finally considered an official event!
Not to over-brag, but these AI Hot Takes (Click here to see a Youtube Playlist) have a life of their own, it feels like it’s capturing a unique moment in time when nobody really knows what is going to happen next. It reminds us why we are building Ambistream in the first place: the next generation of media ecosystems is being created in real time, and we want more people to have a say in how it works.
We’ve been accepted into the StartOut Spark Lab program this fall!
The timing is useful because we’re revisiting our customer journeys, partnerships, and assumptions about how new media products get adopted in a world where everyone can suddenly build software and launch generic consumer apps. We want to build out our pilots, partnerships, and experiences to make sure we’re focused on the things that people care about.
The program starts later this month and by November we’ll have an updated business plan and traction to help us fundraise. But it’s always worth noting that we consistently have mentorship and business/investment opportunity conversations all year round, and you can connect with us or reach out to us here.
Thoughts on the Industry and the state of the union, in case you’re still reading the newsletter:
TBH this past year has been a strange one. We’ve spent a lot of time putting Ambistream in front of people and learning where the story and business focus lands and where it doesn’t, and at the same time the AI market has moved as rapidly as we expected.
The upside is that a lot of the problems we’ve been thinking about for years are becoming much more visible:
AI makes media super easy to create and modify, while things like rights, attribution, privacy, preferences, payments, and compliance are getting harder to manage across companies (especially when you consider the differences across countries and AI systems).
That has made us more confident about our direction and long term strategy, while also pushing us to rethink any conventional go-to-market strategy that existed before AI took over.
Behind the scenes we’ve continued to secure international IP and started rebuilding more of our product ideas as working prototypes based on our patent claims, product scopes, and years of written technical documentation. Here’s a preview of the kinds of things that are being built:
Rithm.TV: VJ software for interactive cross-device media experiences related to education, entertainment, fitness and wellbeing,
Vixtape: AI-assisted multilayer media editing
MicroMacro.TV: Combining different types of media (streaming channels, offline,UGC, microdramas) into customizable channels
And a new gallery prototype built for letting people interact with, rent, buy, and share digital media at physical events
*see animated gif image above to get an idea of what it looks like
It’s also worth pointing out that we’re able to build interactive demos much easier now, and for less money than we could previously, but having a stable and scalable system still requires us to invest more into our technical teams and partnerships. Embracing new AI technology and combining it with respectful human collaboration is the right path.
Connect with us!
I am always looking for partnerships, investment opportunities, or just a good conversation about the future of media.
Reach out via email or through our social accounts:
Instagram / YouTube / LinkedIn
Thanks, Michael and the Ambistream team