Article had another interesting tidbit: "advent of generative AI has made it easier for companies of all sizes to create try-on experiences for their customers and made it harder for us to differentiate our offering.”"

Some other large companies (can't mention names) have also done layoffs targetting genAI recently. I was surprised by this.

Is it really startups eating their lunch???

Yes. Anybody can create tryout pipeline using Stable Diffusion + inpainting + controlnet. The moat is gone.

In the world of high interest rates, companies like Snap that have not figured out a business model in the 10 yeas of their existence are not likely to survive. Not surprising. Unfortunately there will be more of these from Snap and the likes of it.

As someone deeply interested in AR/VR as an industry, it makes me really sad constantly seeing Snap fumble.

I remember looking at a XIX century painting of the Pasterze glacier in neighbouring Austria - and a photo of how it looks today.

Of course it's mostly gone. My mother is a painter so I always appreciated the artform, but I found a new way to appreciate it that day.

Haven't heard from Snapchat for a long while. It's Instagram and TikTok now, right?

Maybe Apple VR will change things, but so far AR/VR seems like the Metaverse - full of hot air.

praise high interest rates