a16z picks the next tech hype after Web3 and AI! It’s … anime?
a16z picks the next tech hype after Web3 and AI! It’s … anime?
Web3 was a washout. AI isn’t delivering returns. What’s next for venture capital? Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) want you to believe the next lottery win explosion will be … anime! Yes, really — …
as brought up in the stubsack
AI is deepening the previously parasocial relationships we had with our favorite anime characters from passive linear media, into powerful new, interactive relationships.
I think this is legitimately the first time that I've seen someone speak about parasocial relationships not only positively, but also suggesting that, hey, we should remove the human element even more from it because it's not creepy enough as it is.
I imagine the joy is similar to an addict learning they can cook their fix at home.
I think it also makes sense to keep in mind that these bayfuckers are extremely brained by the knowledge of how big tiktok etc are presently - platforms that operate as amplifying distributors and enlarge the likelihood of parasocial relationships, as well as that allows someone like themselves to be the bridge troll they wish to be[0]
that they want to encourage it is also not too surprising, because they do not give a shit about the health of their marks
[0] - because again, rent extraction is the only business model they understand
From para-social to faux-social!
Out of my sample of Anime fans who actively participate in the hobby and spend money on it,
100% of them hate genAI primarily because, and I quote, "if I pay you $40 for something and it is exactly equivalent to what a $0.05 prompt garbage result would be, I won't pay you again."
Fans, the real fans, can tell. Like, this is their whole hobby brah.
from bsky:
Weeb3
Dragon Ball A16Z: We have replaced interminable screaming powerup sequences and planet-destroying energy blasts with long panning shots of the characters using their abilities to light giant mountains of cash on fire. If you give us a series C at a valuation of $420 million, we may be able to determine why test audience surveys have thus far come back unfavorable
Money represents the aggregate value of the intersection between human labour, ingenuity and scarce finite resources. Human lives are routinely rendered down, ground up and consumed by the drive to generate this representative value. Entire ways of living, forms of self perception and our understanding of what makes a human worthy of existing is inextricably wrapped up in this value generating process.
As a society we have declared that these people are best placed to decide what to do with that value. They chose anime.
No, see, if they chose anime that would at least represent an investment in the creation of something however questionable it's overall value for the level of resources involved.
Instead they see anime as a thing people like and are trying to link their existing AI and crypto concepts to it in order to bouy their public perception and get a halo effect going.
They're not choosing to put that value in anime, they're hoping to use anime to make the things they did choose seem more valuable than they are, because otherwise they made horrible choices and won't be given as large a share of society's surplus output to use on the next thing.
that's literally it, yes
fucking blockchain games but the illustrations have big eyes
There was a lot I left unsaid in the Stubsack comment because of how difficult it is to express the uncanny valley effect I got from reading the a16z blog post. It's not just the very AI generated sounding prose, or the relatively broad knowledge of multiple forms of Japanese and Japan-inspired media combined with the glaring factual inaccuracies and extremely surface-level understanding of the topic. Even the whole angle of "how can we insert ourselves as a middle man to extract surplus from this" dressed up in a veil of celebratory excitement is par for the course for a private equity firm, but somehow they completely fail to understand anything about anime or video games as a business either.
The only way I can describe how the article reads is this: it's like if an anime fan gave an introductory presentation about Japanese media, then a business analyst gave a presentation on the size of anime business, revenue of gacha games and market value of Japanese entertainment brands, then an AI bro who knew nothing about either topic but took meticulous notes on both presentations threw them together into a blog post and padded out the word count using GPT.
Edit: Here's a long-form piece about Japanese cultural capital from someone who does know what he's talking about, as a palate cleanser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM2VIKfaY0Y
that being almost certainly the process - they got GPT to polish up their notes because they know they can't write and are literally unable to tell good writing from bad writing
this is why the VCs were going full AGI Chicken Little after GPT-3 because it could write better than them
The video about Anime and Propanganda is very good and reccomended. As a progressive weeb living in Japan, a very cathartic watch.
Coincidentally, NFT grifters Azuki bought the anime.com domain name and have funding from a16z competitor Y Combinator.
lmao
Oh my god the site changes your cursor into the TV headed cat.
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Oh I see, the cursor becomes the "sticker". JFC, imagine having a banger of a domain name like this and that is what you do with it. Some business genius smart boy man at the company that hosts wanker news looked at this and said "yes, if I give these people money it will surely pay itself back"?
Ah yes, a16z.
I'm not saying they're the stupidest fucks in this solar system, but I'm also very much not saying that either.
Kudos to Robin Guo and Jonathan Lai for managing to trick a16z to pay them for writing and researching this kind of shit. Turn your hobby into your work and you will etc.
let's not valorise people doing bad things, much less them getting paid for it :|
Yes, I meant this post more as 'doesn't a16z get he is being scammed here?'
Anyway this reminds me a bit of 2005 when there was an Asterix and Obelix comic where there was an invasion of space aliens, one of who was called the Nagma. Which went over a bit badly as it read as a weird freakout about how popular manga comix suddenly were. (So good job VCs you are not only behind the times, but 20 years behind the French! (I mean this as a light ribbing, I love the French/Belgian comics))
It’s all about finding an angle, no matter how creepy, and going for it
We trained a neural network on 29 years of Evangelion merchandise, and it screamed and dissolved into TANG.
Artificial instrumentality project is going great
This post serves as your periodic reminder that the bald people were the bad guys in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
Want to throw big money and solve real-world problems? ElderTech.
But sure, software that makes shit up, fake digital money, and animes are cool too.
You do you.