A Four-Day Coma Couldn't Stop This Game ft. Johnny Monsarrat, Founder of Turbine (MMO)
The AI XR Podcast.Show Notes
Charlie, Ted, and Rony open on the week's AI political theater, from the sudden rebrand of AI to "superintelligence" to Dario Amodei's uncomfortable White House appearance. From there, the conversation covers AMD's acquisition of Fei-Fei Li's World Labs, the curious divergence between OpenAI's and Anthropic's paths toward going public, and Rony's read on why liability risk may be the real story behind both. They also dig into Nvidia's push to regulate AI safety at the chip level, a stranger-than-fiction report about Anthropic bringing religious leaders in to discuss whether Claude might be conscious, OpenAI's new companion AI "Dots," and a candid look at where consumer VR actually stands right now.
Johnny Monsarrat, founder of Turbine and now of Monserrat, joins to talk about building what he calls the next platform for outdoor gaming, ten years in the making. Johnny explains why Niantic, despite Pokémon Go's success, is really a mapping company rather than a game company, and how his own approach, built around full 3D game zones rather than map pins, is meant to unlock genres outdoor gaming has never supported. He also shares a genuinely harrowing story from just before this interview: a medical emergency that left him in a coma for four and a half days, unreachable, while his team had no idea whether he was alive.
Key Moments: [00:25] AI's rebrand to "superintelligence" and a tense White House appearance [04:00] AMD acquires Fei-Fei Li's World Labs [05:28] OpenAI, Anthropic, and the liability question behind going public [08:37] Nvidia's push to regulate AI safety at the chip level [10:27] Anthropic brings religious leaders in to discuss AI consciousness [11:06] OpenAI's new companion AI, Dots, and the "Seven Sisters effect" [17:30] Where consumer VR actually stands right now [19:13] Johnny Monsarrat joins — and reveals he was just in a four-day coma [21:24] Why Niantic is a mapping company, not a game company [51:56] Johnny's pitch: outdoor gaming's "Atari moment" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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