This Week in Web3...

🤔 “NFTs are worthless”. Coverage from the Rolling Stone about NFTs is making the rounds, citing 95% of NFT collections have no practical value. The article has caused more media coverage of the same tone on the topic, but web3 die-hards are still here, still making memes on the topic. Another article where the data isn’t really accurate either: '

🎉 DeLabs announces a y00ts rebrand. While some people support the change, the majority are asking why DeGods needed to change their logo twice in a year, without delivering much else.

💖 Pokemon on Polygon. Pokemon cards are now trading on Polygon. All 175 Pokemon cards sold out instantly in mystery boxes that could be opened on-chain to see what PSA-graded cards were inside. The cards are facilitated by Courtyard, a digital assets marketplace that offers physical vaulting through Brink’s Security.

🖼 Physical meets digital art. Dmitri Cherniack is releasing a timed Open Edition on September 28 in partnership with Avant Arte & the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Ringers #962: The LACMA Iterations is a 3-color silkscreen print, signed by the artist and an NFT featuring the same image as the print edition.

Quick Headlines

• Friendtech continues to make new all-time-highs on total value locked and for daily transactions on Base.

• Squiggles has new community traits causing debate.

• Generative art lovers are in Marfa, Texas for Spectrum, ArtBlocks’ annual Marfa weekend.

• Proof Founder Kevin Rose gets in hot water for removing Moonbirds from his bio.

• Proof of Play, a Web3 gaming startup led by Farmville’s co-creator Amitt Mahajan, raises $33 million to build on-chain games.

AI Corner

Artists sue ChatGPT. The Authors Guild is suing OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT saying that writers should be compensated for the use of their work in training AI models.

🔎 Google is rewriting their rules on SEO in the age of AI. Previously, Google has always prioritized “content written by people”, but this week Google changed to highlight valuable content that benefits users, regardless of whether humans or machines produced it.

🎙 Alexa goes LLM. On Wednesday, Amazon revealed an all-new Alexa voice assistant powered by its new Alexa large language model. The new Alexa can understand and respond to conversational phrases better, taking “I’m cold” into turning up the thermostat instead of getting confused at what you want added to what list.

📺 New AI tools for creators. YouTube announced a series of AI-enabled features they will be adding to the product over the coming months, including AI-generated photo and video backgrounds, AI video topic suggestions, and music search.

🧠 Allie K. Miller breaks down four big AI announcements this week on Twitter:

This Week We’re Bullish On

POC Labs founded by Simone Berry and Akbar Hamid, celebrates Black, brown women, people of color, disabled and LGBTQIA+ communities through their PFP collection with traits for all types of ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identification, as well as events and activations in metaverses like Spatial and Sandbox.

This week, they launched The Cultureverse: a metaverse celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, in collaboration with Walmart:

Positive Affirmation for the Week

Always ask for what you want. 💫 The right person or opportunity will listen and try to meet you where you’re at and find a win/win.

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With gratitude,

ShiraFrom Bitcoin Setbacks to AI Art Exhibits