What happens when someone who grew up in the Lucasfilm Games golden era decides that today’s AI tools are failing creatives? Mike Levine has spent more than 30 years building at the intersection of games, XR, VFX, and interactive storytelling—and his verdict is clear: the current AI stack is a fragmented, overcomplicated mess that turns directors into prompt engineers.

Mike started as a tester at Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArts), working his way into the art department on titles like Sam & Max and The Dig before helping ship live-action Star Wars games such as Rebel Assault and Jedi Knight II. He later built rotoscoping tools used across the VFX industry, collaborated with ILM and Pixar, experimented with mobile AR games for Hasbro and HoloLens, and dipped into crypto gaming—before finally co-founding MovieFlow (now FilmSpark), an AI-native production platform designed so that filmmakers, agencies, and showrunners can move from script to screen without needing a computer science degree.

The AI XR news you should know: Apple taps Google Gemini to power Siri, acknowledging that building world-class LLMs in-house makes little financial sense. Meta cuts 10% of Reality Labs, right-sizing its VR bets while pivoting toward wearables. Xreal raises another $100M amid questions about Chinese state influence and data flows. Higgs Field lands $80M at a $1.3B valuation for AI cinematography tools that many filmmakers still find unreliable. Wikipedia signs licensing deals with major AI companies after years of being scraped for free. OpenAI invests $252M in Sam Altman–backed Merge Labs, raising fresh conflict-of-interest questions.

Key Moments Timestamps:

[00:23:02] From Boston journalist-to-be to accidental hire at Lucasfilm Games

[00:26:24] The “test pit” culture at Lucas and how Nintendo experience got Mike in the door

[00:28:45] Moving into the art department, learning Photoshop from early legends, and shipping Sam & Max

[00:31:15] Live-action Star Wars games: Rebel Assault, Jedi Knight II, and convincing George Lucas

[00:34:38] Visiting Pixar with new VFX tools and recognizing the same creative “magic” as LucasArts

[00:36:24] Doug Trumbull’s influence on Mike’s sense of cinematic possibility and immersion

[00:43:27] The urinal meeting at Magic Leap and what early spatial computing got right (and wrong)

[00:49:00] Why most AI tools are “dark ages” for filmmakers: node graphs, 10+ subscriptions, no story view

[00:51:00] Building MovieFlow/FilmSpark: story-first, timeline-based AI production for long-form and vertical shows

[00:53:00] The Neighborhood Podcast: a 90-second vertical murder mystery as proof-of-concept for AI-native series

When humans can generate shots, scenes, and even entire episodes in minutes, the bottleneck shifts from production to vision. Mike argues that the winning AI tools will be the ones that let directors see their whole story, maintain continuity, and iterate fast—without ever feeling like they left the edit bay for a dev console. His vertical drama collaboration with Charlie, The Neighborhood Podcast, is an early look at what happens when narrative craft meets AI-native pipelines instead of fighting them.

This episode is brought to you by Zapar creators of Mattercraft—the leading visual development environment for building immersive 3D web experiences. Build smarter at mattercraft.io.

Watch the full episode on YouTube and subscribe to the AI XR Podcast for weekly conversations with the people building the future of AI, XR, and interactive media.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dean Takahashi is the dean of tech writers and a 25-year veteran correspondent covering consumer electronics, gaming, and emerging technology for GamesBeat. He's covered every major tech transition—from mobile's rise to VR's boom-and-bust cycles to the current AI explosion—with a skeptical eye and a talent for finding the human story beneath the hype. This is his fifth appearance on the AI XR Podcast.

For CES 2026, Dean walked the floors across the Convention Center, the Venetian Expo Center (Eureka Park), Pepcom, and Showstoppers, emerging with a clear reading: China has decisively shifted from periphery to center stage in consumer electronics manufacturing, American incumbents are pulling back and rethinking their booth strategy, and the economics of CES itself are in transition. Robotics companies are moving from prototype to commercial faster than expected—but they still can't answer basic questions about pricing and labor displacement.

News: Sony cuts its booth to demo an electric car instead of TVs. Samsung skips the show floor entirely for the first time. Nvidia takes over the Fontainebleau to showcase its role in robotics enablement. Lenovo dominates the Sphere with a Gwen Stefani concert. Chinese robotics companies proliferate with laundry folders, latte makers, and toilet-cleaning units. Roomba files for bankruptcy; Chinese competitors take over the robotic vacuum market.

Key Moments:

• [00:01:23] Dean receives his virtual green jacket as a five-time returning guest and Charlie thanks him for his insights
• [00:03:00] China takeover at CES: TCL dominates Central Hall, ROED owns the XR booth, robotics companies fill the floor
• [00:06:00] Nvidia's Fontainebleau takeover and the "chest-pumping" show of force; why scale messaging still matters
• [00:14:18] The robotics explosion explained: Nvidia's digital twins, Cosmos world models, and synthetic testing accelerate time-to-market
• [00:19:00] The pricing problem: robotics companies won't answer how much their products cost; the minimum wage rental model doesn't translate globally

When American companies built the show, CES reflected American manufacturing dominance. Now that China manufactures most consumer electronics, CES reflects that shift—and the implications ripple through labor, supply chains, and where the next epicenter of innovation will be. Dean, Charlie, and Ted grapple with what CES 2026 signals about global manufacturing advantage and why the geography of tech matters more than we think.

This episode is brought to you by Zappar, creators of Mattercraft—the leading visual development environment for building immersive 3D web experiences for mobile headsets and desktop. Mattercraft combines the power of a game engine with the flexibility of the web, and now features an AI assistant that helps you design, code, and debug in real time, right in your browser. Build smarter at mattercraft.io.

Listen to the full post-CES debrief and subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of AI, XR, and consumer technology.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gary Shapiro has spent decades at the center of the global consumer technology industry, leading the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and building CES into one of the most important stages for innovation, policy, and deal-making on the planet.

In this first episode of 2026, Gary joins Charlie, Rony, and Ted to preview CES, unpack the explosion of AI across every category, and deliver unusually blunt takes on tariffs, China, manufacturing, and U.S. innovation policy. He explains how CES has evolved from a TV-and-gadgets show into a global platform where boards meet, standards are set, and policymakers, chip designers, robotics firms, and health-tech startups all collide.

In the News: Before Gary joins, the hosts break down Nvidia’s $20 billion “not-a-deal” with Singapore’s Groq, the stake in Intel, and what that combo might signal about the edge of the GPU bubble and the shift toward inference compute, x86, and U.S. industrial policy. They also dig into Netflix’s acquisition of Ready Player Me and what it suggests about a Netflix metaverse and location-based entertainment strategy, plus Starlink’s rapid growth and an onslaught of “AI everything” products ahead of CES.

Gary walks through new features at this year’s show: CES Foundry at the Fontainebleau for AI and quantum, expanded tracks on manufacturing, wearables, women’s health, and accessibility, plus an AI-powered show app already fielding thousands of questions (top query: where to pick up badges).

He also talks candidly about his biggest concern—that fragmented state-level AI regulation (1,200+ state bills in 2025) will crush startups while big players shrug—and why he believes federal standards via NIST are the only realistic path. The discussion ranges from AI-driven healthcare and precision agriculture to robotics, demographics, labor culture, global supply chains, and what CES might look like in 2056.

5 Key Takeaways from Gary:

• AI is now the spine of CES. CES 2026 centers on AI as infrastructure: CES Foundry at the Fontainebleau for AI + quantum, AI training tracks for strategy, implementation, agentic AI, and AI-driven marketing, and an AI-powered app helping attendees navigate the show.
• Fragmented state AI laws are an existential risk for startups. Over 1,200 state AI bills in 2025—including proposals to criminalize agentic AI counseling—could create a compliance maze only large incumbents can survive, which is why Gary argues for federal standards via NIST.
• Wearables are becoming systems, not gadgets. Oura rings, wrist devices, body sensors, and subdermal glucose monitors are starting to be designed as interoperable families of devices, with partnerships emerging to combine data into unified health services.
• Robotics is breaking out of the industrial niche. CES will showcase the largest robotics presence yet, moving beyond factory arms and drones to humanoids, logistics, social companions, and applied AI systems across sectors.
• Tariffs, alliances, and AI will reshape manufacturing. Gary is skeptical of “Fortress USA” strategies that try to onshore everything, pointing instead to allied reshoring (Latin America, Europe, Japan, South Korea) and the long-term role of AI-powered robotics in changing labor economics and global supply chains.

This episode is brought to you by Zappar, creators of Mattercraft—the leading visual development environment for building immersive 3D web experiences for mobile headsets and desktop. Mattercraft combines the power of a game engine with the flexibility of the web, and now features an AI assistant that helps you design, code, and debug in real time, right in your browser. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or just getting started, start building smarter at mattercraft.io.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shelly Palmer has spent 45 years watching technology reshape every industry—from writing news themes for CBS to consulting with every major media company on AI strategy.

On this year-end recap, he cuts through the noise with one devastating observation: 2025 was the year everyone talked about AI while almost nobody actually used it. Executives shook their heads knowingly in meetings, pontificated about capabilities the models don't yet have, and parroted nonsense they read from other people who knew nothing. But when you asked one innocent question, they crumbled.

In the News: CES 2026 shapes up with Nvidia sponsoring two full days of AI training. Samsung is skipping the main floor for a massive offsite activation. Sony brings no electronics—only Honda's experimental vehicles. The TCL and Chinese companies' presence hinges on tariff policy. The innovation series breakfast that Shelly runs is becoming an official CES event after a decade of independence.

The conversation spirals into deeper territory: $3 trillion in government money is stacked behind AI development. The U.S. explicitly states it must beat China to AGI—making this the Manhattan Project of our lifetime. Shelly walks through what he's seen in successful companies (leadership using the tech, paid "Tech Tuesdays" for AI experiments, cross-discipline teams with SecOps and legal at the table) versus the chaos of places with no process.

He breaks down what's real—drone warfare, cybersecurity applications, robotics—versus what's hot air. And he makes a case that won't be killed by AI itself, but by militarized applications and the geopolitical arms race we're already in.

5 Key Takeaways from Shelly:

• Leadership belief and hands-on use are non-negotiable. Companies winning with AI have senior leaders who actually use the technology. When the CEO walks into an LT meeting saying "I built this agent over the weekend," everyone else starts experimenting too.

• The recipe for AI success has three ingredients: leadership belief, paid time to experiment (Tech Tuesdays/Thursdays with real budgets), and cross-discipline teams (SecOps, legal, compliance, risk) paving the way. Chaos erupts without this structure.

• You cannot build a point of view on AI from reading blogs or watching YouTubers. Pick a personal project you care about, go hands-on with a model (Claude, Gemini, GPT), and complete it from beginning to end. Only lived experience grounds your understanding.

• AI parallelizes with web 1.0: In 1998, you had to hand-code HTML, build databases manually, write raw JavaScript. Today you can vibe code a site in 90 seconds. AI will eventually reach "spin me up an expert that does X" without asking questions—we're not there yet, but it's inevitable.

It's both bubble and Manhattan Project. Some valuations are insane and will burst. But military applications, cyber warfare, drone control, robotics—those aren't going anywhere. The government won't back off. Both outcomes happen simultaneously.

This episode is brought to you by Zappar, creators of Mattercraft—the leading visual development environment for building immersive 3D web experiences for mobile headsets and desktop.

Mattercraft combines game engine power with web flexibility and features an AI assistant to help you design, code, and debug in real time in your browser. Build smarter at mattercraft.io.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Caitlin Krause, author of Digital Wellbeing, argues that intentional design unlocks genuine connection within virtual spaces. Drawing on her teaching at Stanford and the University of Oregon, she's explored how XR environments can foster asynchronous connection and ambient awareness for people who crave belonging without hyper-social performance. Her framework rejects the "digital detox" model entirely—instead advocating for dignity-first design where users match attention with authentic intention.

The hosts debate the deeper question: what happens to human purpose when AI handles all labor? Rony Abovitz frames this as the "asymmetry of design"—it's easy to build addictive tech, hard to build wellbeing tech. Caitlin counters that we may return to the original meaning of "amateur" (from amor, "to love"), where humans find meaning through play, creativity, and what Harvard's lifespan study confirms: quality of relationship and presence. The conversation spirals from platform ethics to post-work society to what first principles we should use when designing XR.

5 Key Takeaways from Caitlin:

• Loneliness is a biological prompt to find another human—not a void to fill with endless content. XR can foster genuine forms of connection without requiring hyper-social performance.
• Dignity-first design unlocks freedom, invention, and agency. When digital spaces prioritize user agency over engagement metrics, people report feeling like they "got their life back."
• Science will soon prove what we already know about fractal patterns in nature and digital signals. The key is designing digital experiences that resonate with how humans biologically thrive.
• The "middle path" between nature and digital is both/and. Gamers building entire lives in virtual worlds can be healthy when those worlds offer creativity, belonging, and meaningful challenge.
• The post-labor economy needs a reset in literacy and values. When AI outperforms human workers, purpose shifts from survival to what makes you feel alive—maker culture, digital fab labs, hands-on creation, and "amateur" pursuits driven by love.

In the News: Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX close the $50 billion TikTok spin-off deal. Meta cuts Reality Labs by 30%, but CTO Andrew Bosworth says it's moving to AI. The TCL glasses demo 70 grams of lighter, more advanced XR hardware than Ray-Ban Meta—proving that smart spending beats mega-spend.

This episode is brought to you by Zappar, creators of Mattercraft—the leading visual development environment for building immersive 3D web experiences for mobile headsets and desktop. Build smarter at mattercraft.io.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this special live episode recorded at SynthBee headquarters in South Florida, hosts Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, and Rony Abovitz bring listeners inside a special gathering of neuroscientists, philosophers, and technologists debating the future of AI. Moving beyond hype, the conversation focuses on "Collaborative Intelligence" vs. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), exploring whether we are building tools that amplify humanity or autonomous systems that will eventually replace it.

Instead of traditional interviews, the hosts invite workshop speakers to the hot seat for rapid-fire insights on the deepest questions in tech: Can we measure an AI's true intentions? Is consciousness a physics problem? And how do we ensure these systems remain compatible with human flourishing?

News Highlights

• Disney invests $1B in OpenAI & licenses IP: The hosts debate whether this is a masterstroke to engage fans with user-generated Sora content or a "Yahoo powered by Google" mistake that hands the keys to the kingdom to a rival.
• Valve launches new PCVR hardware: A quick look at the attempt to revive the high-end PC VR market.
• Meta adds real-time vision to Ray-Bans: The next step in multimodal AI wearables.

Guest Highlights

• Dr. Uri Maoz (Neuroscientist, Chapman/Caltech): Discusses the "black box" problem of neural networks, comparing the opacity of AI to the human brain, and how neuroscience tools might help us detect deception in AI systems.
• Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Ethics Professor, Duke): Argues that ethical AI regulation shouldn't be a monolith; different cultures need "sovereignty of ethics" to allow diverse moral frameworks to coexist rather than one centralized Silicon Valley standard.
• Dr. Julio Frenk (Chancellor, UCLA): Frames the AI race as a battle between "Computational Democracy" (distributed, transparent power) and "Computational Autocracy" (centralized control), warning that universities must preserve critical thinking or risk losing the ability to govern AI at all.
• Reed Maxwell & Laura Condon (Hydrologists, Princeton/Arizona): Reveal how AI is modeling the planet's water crisis, predicting "black swan" climate events, and why funding for this critical earth-science work is mysteriously disappearing.
• Danny M (12-Year-Old Prodigy): Steals the show with a stunningly articulate take on AI consciousness, "trapped man" experiments, and how fractal geometry might map neural weights—proving the next generation is more ready for this future than we are.
• Dr. Aaron Schurger (Psychology, Chapman): Explores the neuroscience of spontaneous action and free will, debating whether "telepathic" connections and quantum effects in the brain could be the missing link for true human-AI compatibility.
• Jared Ficklin (Chief Product Officer, SynthBee): The former Frog Design fellow argues we must shift the conversation from AI "capability" to "compatibility," using the intuitive connection humans have with dogs or horses as the benchmark for successful AI interfaces.

Thanks to our sponsor Zappar!

Subscribe for weekly insider perspectives from veterans who aren't afraid to challenge Big Tech.

New episodes every Tuesday. Watch full episodes on YouTube.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Vince Kadlubek, co-founder of Meow Wolf, joins Charlie and Ted for a deep dive into the future of immersive entertainment, arguing that in an age of infinite AI-generated digital content, "physical reality is the only place novelty still exists." From Meow Wolf’s origins as a scrappy art collective dumpster-diving for materials in Santa Fe to becoming a global location-based entertainment juggernaut with new sites planned for Los Angeles and New York, Vince reveals the philosophy behind building "maximalist" worlds that don't just tell stories but allow audiences to inhabit them.

In the news segment, Charlie and Ted discuss Netflix's $83B acquisition of Warner Bros (HBO/IP assets only), Meta cutting 30% of Reality Labs to fund AI while poaching Apple's top designer, and the looming battle for 2026 as Android XR prepares to launch.

Vince breaks down Meow Wolf's evolution from static walkthrough experiences to "animated spatial storytelling" where environments and characters respond to user actions—a vision of "XR RPGs" (Extended Reality Role Playing Games) that bridge the gap between video games and theme parks.

He explains why the "monoculture" of Game of Thrones is gone forever, why Netflix's acquisition power signals the end of traditional scarcity models, and why the future of storytelling isn't on a screen—it's cross-reality, persistent, and physically grounded.

Guest Highlights

• Origins of the Multiverse: How a Santa Fe art collective turned a bowling alley into the "House of Eternal Return" with George R.R. Martin as landlord.
• The "Cross-Reality" Future: Why physical locations alone aren't enough—Meow Wolf is building a "mechanically connected transmedia universe" where your actions in the park affect your digital profile and vice versa.
• Hollywood 2.0: New LA location takes over a movie theater to "honor cinema" while deconstructing it into spatial storytelling.
• Novelty Theory: "I don't care about photorealistic AI gorillas anymore." Why digital content has zero value and physical presence is the new premium.
• Questing & Agency: New "XR RPG" mechanics in Dallas/Houston allow visitors to level up, solve puzzles, and impact the world—gamifying reality without headsets.

News Highlights

• Netflix acquires Warner Bros assets ($83B)—Streaming wars end with tech giants vacuuming up legacy IP; theaters face the "nail in the coffin."
• Meta cuts 30% of Reality Labs—Pivot to AI funding while hiring Apple's former design chief signals a shift from brute-force VR to refined wearables.
• Android XR & Samsung 2026—Google and Samsung prepare to challenge Vision Pro with a new ecosystem launch next year.
• Alibaba launches Quark AI Glasses—China enters the smart glasses race with multimodal AI assistants.

Subscribe for weekly insider perspectives from veterans who aren't afraid to challenge Big Tech. New episodes every Tuesday. Watch full episodes on YouTube.

Thanks to our sponsor Zappar!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

David Jiang, CEO of VITURE, joins Charlie, Ted, and Rony for a special Black Friday episode to discuss the breakout year for "display glasses" and why his company is betting on gamers, not just enterprise, to drive mass adoption. With VITURE now hitting shelves at Best Buy and flashing on billboards along Silicon Valley’s Highway 101, Jiang reveals the data behind the device’s surprising "stickiness"—average daily users are logging nearly three hours a day, often to play console games in bed or on the couch to avoid "social pressure" from family over occupying the main TV.

The conversation dives deep into the hardware reality check: why David believes "smart glasses" (like Meta Ray-Bans) and high-fidelity "display glasses" (like VITURE/XREAL) won’t merge into a single device for another decade. He breaks down the physics of weight thresholds—40g for all-day wear, 80g for session-based viewing, and 200g for full headsets—and explains why trying to force high-end compute into a Ray-Ban form factor today is a fool’s errand. David also unpacks VITURE’s new real-time 2D-to-3D AI conversion and why he views Android XR as the inevitable "destiny" for the open ecosystem.

In the news segment, the hosts debate Casio’s $600 AI hamster "Moflin" (cute but annoying), analyze why Snapchat can't monetize despite hitting 1 billion users, and discuss Disney's new autonomous robots roaming the parks.

• VITURE enters mainstream retail: Now available at Best Buy, marking a shift from niche tech to consumer electronics.
• "Secretly sticky" usage data: Active users average 2 hours 50 minutes daily; top 5% users hit 10+ hours/day replacing monitors.
• The "At-Home Mobility" Insight: Gamers aren't just using glasses on planes—they use them to play Steam Deck/Switch in bed while partners watch TV.
• Real-time AI 2D-to-3D: New feature converts legacy content (YouTube, photos, retro games) into 3D on the fly.
• Weight Philosophy: Defines strict form-factor limits: 40g (glasses), 80g (media visor), 200g (VR headset).

• Casio's Moflin AI Pet—Charlie reviews the $600 emotional support robot; cute, but drives the dog crazy.
• Snapchat hits 1 Billion Users—massive reach milestone, yet the hosts debate why they still can't monetize like Meta.
• Disney's AI Robotics—autonomous characters like the "frozen snowman" begin roaming parks.
• Android XR & Samsung—Google Maps AR updates and the "Gear VR" revival signal a major ecosystem shift for 2026.

Subscribe for weekly insider perspectives from veterans who aren't afraid to challenge Big Tech.

New episodes every Tuesday. Watch full episodes on YouTube.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.