The AI XR Podcast.

Ted and Charlie open with a quieter AI news week, giving them room to dig into XR hardware, including hands-on impressions of two new smart glasses, a Norway story on camera glasses restrictions, the shutdown of the XR Association, backlash over Meta’s Muse app, and a tour through AI’s fast-moving film scene.

Charles Melcher, founder of the Future of Storytelling summit and author of the book of the same name, joins to talk about two decades spent studying how people want to experience stories. Charles explains why he thinks VR never quite broke through for mainstream audiences, walks through his theory of the “actience,” his term for audiences who now expect to participate rather than just watch, and makes the case that AI’s biggest opportunity in entertainment isn’t visual effects but deeply personalized, responsive storytelling. The conversation wraps with a tour through some of the best immersive entertainment happening right now, from the Sphere and ABBA Voyage to Meow Wolf and Vegas’s underground escape-room scene.

Key Moments:
[00:39] Hands-on impressions of Samsung’s Aura vs. Snap’s Specs
[03:29] The ergonomics problem still holding back smart glasses
[06:39] Norway’s new restrictions on camera glasses
[08:26] The XR Association shuts down
[10:00] Meta’s Muse app and the backlash over its user dossiers
[11:47] A tour through the fast-moving world of AI filmmaking
[18:00] Charles Melcher joins — the origin of Future of Storytelling
[24:15] Why VR never had its mainstream moment
[39:00] Charles’s concept of the “actience”
[42:33] A tour of the Sphere, ABBA Voyage, and Meow Wolf
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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"
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Cortney Harding steps in as guest co-host this week, joining Charlie to unpack a genuinely strong Meta Connect, new occluded VR glasses aimed squarely at the Vision Pro, a camera-free Ray-Ban, and Muse AI's surprise climb to the top of the app stores. From there, the conversation turns to Disney's newly created CTO role, the quiet fate of its big-money bets on Epic Games and Sora, and Jeffrey Katzenberg's open letter arguing entertainment has always been a technology business. They close out the news with a sharp exchange on Amazon's push into drone delivery and a pointed critique of DraftKings' use of AI to target its most engaged, and most vulnerable, customers.

Simon Horsman and Daniel Wood, co-founders of Quilty.app, join to talk about building an AI-powered script coverage tool for screenwriters who have no access to Hollywood's traditional gatekeepers. The two walk through how Quilty scores a script the way a studio story analyst would, the leaderboard system built to surface strong writing, and a striking real-world comparison Simon shares from his years running a film fund: a big-budget historical epic north of $220 million versus a hybrid AI production covering similar ground for under a million dollars. The conversation closes with how Quilty is trying to connect writers directly to producers in a system that's traditionally shut most people out.

Key Moments:
[01:35] A confident, glitch-free Meta Connect and what it signals
[11:35] Disney creates a company-wide CTO role, hired from Character AI
[13:35] The quiet status of Disney's Epic Games and Sora deals
[15:35] Jeffrey Katzenberg's open letter on tech and entertainment
[19:35] The backlash brewing over Amazon's drone delivery push
[21:35] DraftKings, AI, and the ethics of targeting engaged gamblers
[24:35] Simon Horsman and Daniel Wood join to introduce Quilty.app
[30:35] A real budget comparison: $220M studio epic vs. under $1M hybrid AI film
[34:35] How Quilty scores scripts and connects writers to producers

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Charlie and Rony open with Charlie's hands-on take on Snap's $2,200 Specs launch and Rony's theory on how big tech companies let smaller players pioneer risky new hardware first. From there, the conversation turns to a tense week in AI safety, sparked by Dario Amodei's call for frontier labs to slow down, and a sharp debate over whether the industry's talk of needing regulation is really about something else entirely. They close out the news with a look at how China is approaching AI development differently than the West, plus a genuinely stunning breakthrough in brain-computer interfaces.

Jan Goetgeluk, founder and CEO of Virtuix, joins to talk about the company's path from a Shark Tank rejection to a recent Nasdaq listing (VTIX). Jan walks through Virtuix's VR treadmill business, the surprising overlap between gaming and fitness that's driving consumer sales, and why the company is leaning harder into defense contracts and location-based entertainment than the crowded consumer VR space. The conversation closes with what it's actually like running a public company day to day, and Jan's outlook for the next two years, including a possible move into autism therapy.

Key Moments:
[01:35] Charlie's hands-on impressions from the Snap Specs launch
[04:35] Rony's theory: why big tech lets pioneers take the risk first
[06:35] Dario Amodei's essay and the case for pacing frontier AI
[08:35] Is AI safety talk really about dodging product liability?
[12:35] China's practical approach to AI vs. the race for AGI
[15:35] A brain-computer interface breakthrough restores speech
[20:35] Jan Goetgeluk joins — Virtuix's path to Nasdaq
[30:35] The surprising fitness angle driving VR treadmill sales
[32:35] Virtuix's pivot toward defense contracts

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Recorded on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, this episode opens on a somber note: Charlie, Rony, and Ted remember where they were in 2001 and reflect on where they are now. By happenstance, Ted is actually in New York right now & is joined by the team behind GLO, a mixed-reality graffiti tour running through the streets of Manhattan on Magic Leap 2 headsets, live from their office. After a brief catch-up with friends (and a promo code waiting for you at the end of this description), the news turns dark fast. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's resignation, and his warning that AI could kill us all within a decade, sparks a pointed debate about why the AI industry has no equivalent of the FAA or FDA, and why "regulate it like we regulate everything else dangerous" isn't the same as stopping innovation.

Paulina Borsook, former Wired writer and author of the newly re-released Cyberselfish: a Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech, joins to talk about the 26-year throughline connecting her original critique of Silicon Valley's libertarian culture to today's AI safety crisis. The conversation covers the amorality she identified in tech back in the 90s & 2000s, some candid psychological reads on the Tech Fascists of today, and a shared frustration with "spreadsheet philanthropy" and effective altruism's obsession with measurable ROI over genuine selflessness.

Key Moments:
[07:15] A live mixed-reality graffiti tour through Manhattan with the GLO.city team
[15:32] Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's resignation and AI risk warnings
[19:30] Why AI has no FAA or FDA equivalent
[22:50] Paulina Borsook joins as today's guest to discuss the 26-year legacy of her book, Cyberselfish
[30:22] Silicon Valley's libertarian culture, then and now
[57:27] A psychological read on Zuckerberg's philanthropic reversals
[1:01:00] Effective altruism, "spreadsheet philanthropy," and doing good without an ROI

Cyberselfish by Paulina Borsook is being re-printed via Tin House in 2026 and is available for purchase on September 15th. Find out more on where you can purchase the book in your territory at https://www.cyberselfish.com/.

Special offer: Get 25% off your mixed-reality graffiti tour of New York with promo code AIXR25. Visit www.glo.city, click Book Now to select your date and time, and enter AIXR25 at checkout. Follow Glo.City on Instagram, Tiktok, and X at @GLOdotcity.

Brought to you by Zappar and Mattercraft, the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences. Start building at mattercraft.io.
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