CEO of Auki Labs Nils Pihl breaks down what spatial computing is and all of the possibilities for bringing computers into the real world.

Opening Bell

Spatial Computing Could Replace the Smartphone

Well, excitement for artificial intelligence led by the magnificent seven companies including Invidia is spurring the market to reach these new levels. And joining me now to break down how spatial computing like the technology used to create Apple's vision pro has said could be the next horizon for A I is the CEO of labs. Welcome. Thank you for having me, Kristen, you were happy to have you. So there is a lot of hype out there, right? As it relates to A I and semiconductors. How does this impact spatial computing? What spatial computing is ultimately is teaching computers to understand the physical world? Apple very interestingly chose not to call the vision pro an A or A VR headset instead calling it a spatial computer to kind of highlight what this product is about. It's a computer that understands its surroundings. So spatial computing is big part, not just of what Apple is doing, but also of what Tesla is doing. What Amazon is doing. Anyone that is building an A I ultimately have to think about how can we get this A I to leave the confines of the internet and be helpful to humans in the physical world. It is fascinating, we see people touching the space with their hands to actually engage in the spatial computing realm. How is this a transformation almost an evolution of the metaverse? You could say that over the past few decades, you know, ever since I was a kid growing up, humans have been disappearing into digital worlds and exploring them. But now with the advent of spatial computing, there is this great historical inversion where for the first time we are inviting digital things to join us in the physical world. All right. So virtual reality, augmented reality nes how should people separate these different terms as they relate to spatial computing. Virtual reality typically means that you go into the digital world and you leave the physical world behind to be fully immersed in that digital context. Whereas augmented reality means that you bring some digital element and anchor it in the physical world. This can be very helpful for things like communication outside of entertainment. Being able to put digital information in physical space is a very powerful way for people to manifest their ideas, their imagination and their knowledge directly in the minds of others. So what kind of spatial computing projects nils are you doing at your company? We focus on collaborative spatial computing, helping different devices have a shared spatial understanding so that they can communicate and reason about space together. We build applications on top of this, especially for retailers, a very complex physical environment that without spatial computing would be at a disadvantage because A I would be more capable of helping, for example, an E commerce business that is entirely digital bringing spatial computing to retail allows them to make use of spatial A I. And in that way, still be competitive against E commerce. Is it B to B or do you think that in terms of the consumer, you'll be able to engage with the consumer more over time. We are already doing very exciting experiments engaging directly with consumers, customers and shoppers. But there are still hurdles to spatial computing. Many retailers of course, are very careful not to make the shoppers leave the app that they already have and for the retailers to add spatial computing capabilities to their own existing apps, it is a journey that will take some time. Some retailers are already experimenting with apps made by others and are very fun activations and adding discovery and search and personalization again, features that E commerce have had for a long time. But now thanks to spatial computing even make the physical retail experience better. Yeah. So when it comes to generative A I, we've seen NVIDIA as the largest beneficiary when it comes to hardware, right? Making these chips that actually power the generative A I are there unique hardware needs when it comes to spatial computing. Spatial computing is a very broad field touching on a lot of hardware, everything from the accelerometer in your phone and your headset to different kinds of cameras that are capable of seeing depth like lidar sensors, things like this. There are a lot of different sensors that come into play when you are trying to teach the computer to see the world. One way to think of Tesla. For example, in interesting perspective on Tesla is that they are first and foremost a spatial computing company in that they have millions of cars with cameras trained on the road building up this digital replica that will make it possible for their optimus robot to be able to navigate in the future. So do you think that spatial computing does allow some smaller companies the ability to compete with the major cap tech names like the magnificent seven in software? There is always an opportunity for small companies to compete with big companies. Software is a very democratic field where the greatest minds always have a chance to compete that is not different this decade than previous decades. And we are seeing a lot of very interesting developments from smaller studios, but also now through advancements in things like Blockchain and the ecosystem that has grown around, that have the capability to fund own and operate infrastructure projects democratically the new deep end trend for most. How do you see consumers really engaging with spatial computing? And I asked that because we tried, I was able to try the Apple Vision pro headset here on set and I think it's great for early adopters, but it is a heavy device and an expensive device. So what does that mean for consumers now? And over time, um the headset is perhaps will one day be seen as a historical anecdote. The first spatial computer is already in your pocket in your hands. Your iphone or Android is a perfectly capable spatial computer. When you ask it to be, the headset is big and will eventually be smaller form shape of glasses. And already today, there are companies working on contact lenses. And of course, Elon Musk is famously working on his neuralink project. The headset might be around for a decade or two. But spatial computing is ultimately about digital information existing in physical space. The spatial internet is agnostic of the kind of device you are using and consumers will be able to engage with spatial computing when they do things like leave notes for their loved ones in their home with reminders of when to water the plants, private little love messages that no one else can see but the person you intend for it. When the world becomes your canvas, the imagination can really run wild. And spatial computing is one of the most empowering technologies for consumers this way. What do you think is the timeline on this? We are seeing businesses adopt spatial computing already when it comes to consumers. Spatial computing is still very much focused on VR and gaming. And entertaining experiences. But here in Hong Kong, the needs are slightly different. Hong Kong is a very complex dimensional cities. There are more skyscrapers here in the greater Bay area than in the United States and Europe combined. So systems like the GPS really struggle in this kind of environment. And here spatial computing is increasingly helping people just find their way in everyday life. But what's a realistic price point for an average consumer and a device probably not as big as the Apple Vision pro that really can see more mass adoption on this. It's hard to say. I think when the iphone first came out, a lot of people were skeptical that there would be a big market for smartphones, they were thought of as too expensive. But today, a lot of people have smartphones as expensive as computers. They are now pocket computers. It's hard to predict how much a device will be worth. It will be dependent a lot on the kind of utility it is bringing to the person we see already for businesses, especially retailers that once you can start shaving off minutes on every order served, etc that the hardware almost pays for itself no matter what the price point. And I imagine that before too long, people will be quite comfortable spending thousands of dollars on a spatial computer once the more mainstream applications reach the consumers. Ok, so you're telling me. Goodbye ipad. Goodbye. Desktop. Goodbye. Cell phone is that. Right. I think that is eventually what we will see. I think our relationship to the smartphone will definitely change over this decade before we adopt glasses, we will increasingly be looking through our phone like a magical looking glass into the augmented reality metaverse rather than just looking into the palm of our and your iphone is already a quite capable spatial computer and can do many of the tricks that the vision pro can do just through a much smaller keyhole. So I imagine over the next 5 to 10 years, our relationship to the phones will change even though we will still have a pocket computer if you want. Neil. Thanks so much for joining. Fascinating stuff. I know there's a big time difference you're joining from Hong Kong but fascinating segment. That's Neils Pels Ceo of Cul Las.