How To Use New Technologies To Your Advantage

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0:39Eastern Time for a massive blowout sale come buy some stuff for friends family and yourself I now am using AI as a thinking partner I'm literally asking a bunch of AI tools questions like why is long hair coming in wire caps back versus not you know why are people consuming this beverage? And so I think for the creative class, they default into thinking AI is going to take away my job instead of realizing AI is about to become your thinking partner. You're a celebrated entrepreneur, a major advocate for the eSports and Web3 gaming space. And you've also started your own Web3 platform, like I mentioned at the beginning, VFriends.

1:21So for those people in the audience that don't know about VFriends, can you just break that down for us and just tell us a bit about that? You know, I'm 47 years old. I was born in the Soviet Union, I came to the United States when I was three, and I grew up in the 80s, where an enormous amount of intellectual property was created on television and through toys. So, Transformers and Care Bears and My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake and G.I. Joe. And so I've been very affected by pop culture my whole life. And 14 years ago, I started a marketing company, VaynerMedia, but really, what it was actually looking to do was build a global communications framework that would allow me to accelerate extracting attention to whatever I wanted to do.

2:07My main point was in the back half of that mission was to really create a new form of private equity. When I think about private equity, those organizations are very good at buying businesses in a smart way and cutting costs and running a more efficient business. What I was always fascinated by and have done in my entire career has created hyper growth. So I wanted to create a platform, an operating system to create hyper growth. My plan was to buy an established historic intellectual property that I grew up with. Casper the Friendly Ghost, Gumby, Scooby-Doo. Wherever my professional career took me and my financial capabilities, I was gonna go and buy one.

2:51When I started seeing what was happening in Web3, it became very obvious to me that's similar to after school television or video games like with Mario and Zelda or other formats like books we've seen in history that this was a platform to create intellectual property. So VFriends in its simplest form is, in my view, a basis of almost 300 characters that kind of takes the essence of Sesame Street and Pokemon and brings them together. So a very high focus on being competitive like Pokemon but a very strong message of civility and kindness, empathy that comes from Jim Henson's world. So I launched that a couple years ago and I'm pretty excited about it.

3:33I mean, it's very early. I'm only two years into the journey, but it's something I plan on building in a very significant way. Yeah, well you say you're only two years into the journey, but from what I can see, what I can see is very successful in the early stages. It's amazing for you. For me, for 40 years I've been looking at trading cards and comic books and movies and television and marketing and so it's, I've had a lot of practice in it and I'm enjoying it. Yeah, I love that little stroll down memory lane as well. It makes me feel a bit old mentioning all those different programs and toys.

4:07Well, you know what's fun though and it's good timing because back to films and back to video games, I'm sure it's very much on everyone's radar how well the Super Mario movie is doing right now commercially. Yes. You know, for me gaming, you know, obviously it's a big week for me. I'm a part owner of version one with the Will family that owns the Minnesota Vikings in the US so obviously we are super proud of the win we had here in Rocket League and so I've been in gaming for a long time. Vayner Sports is a sports agency that I own that represents a bunch of athletes including Clix and Booga who are very prominent gamers so this is a space that I've spent a lot of time paying attention to and been involved in.

4:47It's interesting to hear what Michael's speaking about and kind of the way I'm thinking about intellectual property, we haven't, because we're only 24 months in, we're very early on the VFriends IP, but to me, if I'm able to accomplish what I'm trying to achieve, it's inconceivable to me that I can do that without having a major win in the gaming space. And so I spend a lot of time paying attention to it because if you look at, again, the Marios, the Zeldas, the things of that nature, plus more modern things like Angry Birds, intellectual property being built on the foundation of gaming is very clear and obvious.

5:25And the affinity and the emotion and the attachment to those characters through this format, very similar to sports, very similar to film, is very evident in human behavior and something I spend a lot of time on. Yeah, yeah. So an area that I want to touch on, I think we can't have this conversation without the acronym NFT. Yes. You are one of the most, quite a prolific voice in this space. Yes. What are your thoughts on the viability of NFTs in the future economy? Is there a future for this method, this form? Of course. Where NFT sits right now for most people in this audience and around the world is where the internet sat in 2000.

6:05If you remember, in 2000, all the internet companies were wildly overvalued in public markets because the hype of the internet engulfed us. Pets.com was worth$8 billion with no revenue. Obviously all those projects failed and a lot of people wrote many articles in 2000. Is the internet a fad? The web's a fad? From Hollywood to Wall Street. But the technology was too big. The same thing's happening right now in NFTs. The last two years there was way too much greed, way too much not realness. And what happened was the brand itself is being recorrected right now and being reset, but anybody here that is not paying attention very deeply to what's happening with blockchain technology, especially if you're in the gaming space, is making a humongous mistake of opportunity.

6:59I think over the next decade, when you think about what ownership means, think about all the games here that make remarkable revenue on the digital assets being sold in a closed ecosystem. It's a closed ecosystem. when you start understanding the dynamics of how that plays in an open ecosystem like the blockchain and how that's transferable and what that means to the gamers and what they are able to amass within games, you're trading your FIFA points for a Call of Duty point. Think about the kid that goes from Mindshare and Roblox to FIFA to Call of Duty and you're able to own those digital assets.

7:37I'm positive that Next World 2030 is talking about blockchains and NFTs, about 50 to 70 % of the panels. Today, because of the greed of the last year or two in NFT land, everyone's putting it on the side. Much like internet 2001, two, three, four, five, that was the time to actually build. And I think the one to 2 % in this audience that are thoughtful and understand their history of technology and understand pattern recognition will dive deeper into Web3 and I think it's an inevitable outcome. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting because, you know, the way NFTs blew up and now there's a bit of a stigma attached to it.

8:15And I don't think people really truly understand the power of blockchain, the power of this technology to basically give back the ownership to gamers, to users, not putting in the power of big companies. The issue that happened with NFTs is people forget that only 1 % of things work. Everybody thought every NFT project was going to work. Only 1 % of films become iconic. Only 1 % of iPhone apps become successful. Only 1 % of art or trading cards or collectibles become the top. And so what happened was it was such a new technology, everybody thought all of it was going to work, when in reality only 1 % of a genre can ever reach the levels that people anticipated.

8:56So it's cliche human behavior. The greed took over. Now we reset. but the macro technology of decentralized servers will be one of the most significant things that impacts everybody in the world. And when you think about the context of a country like this that is so dynamic, moving so much faster than the rest of the world, I do think it's a missed opportunity for people not to take things like blockchain and AI and all the emerging technology serious because that's where all the opportunity lies in the next half decade. Yeah, do you think though, because of emerging technologies, there's this inherent fear, whether big companies, small companies, big players, little players, just to get involved in that space because it's new territory, it's uncharted territory.

9:37Yes, that's why it's so lucrative when you're good at it. Michael, please educate everybody here how Hollywood looked at the internet in the late 90s, early 2000s. Well, I was never computer savvy, so how did they look at it? I thought it was pretty groundbreaking. It was groundbreaking, definitely. I mean, I remember the Apple thing with little discs, right? But then it's used for piracy quite a bit. The music industry, the film industry. Bill Gates was at the top of the technology sphere in the mid-90s and completely poo-pooed the internet of having any viability. So I think the biggest thing for everybody in this room is to understand that the incumbents of any technology are often not financially incentivized to support the new technologies because their money is at risk.

10:34Right. Yeah. And that is always where the opportunity is based on consumer behavior, not based on your pockets. And so there will be many decisions made by entities, governments, entrepreneurs, enterprises that are always wrong because they are worried about their short-term finances instead of how humans are actually interacting. Yeah, just ignoring all the signs. It's like right there, go this way. And it's like, oh no. It's another version of the greed that screwed up the NFT brand in the short term. People are worried about the ROI of their money tomorrow and they dismiss what consumers are doing.

11:12The consumer behavior interacting with the blockchain and AI today is at the highest level it's ever been. Yeah. And so again, I think people are incredibly short-term thinking, transactional, and that is where all the opportunity always sits. Yeah, yeah. Do you know, it'll be really interesting in the same vein that we can look back at the early 2000s, you read these articles, like the internet is fad that's never going to take off. And it'll be interesting in the next 15 to 20 years where we're going to be at and how people reacted to blockchain, Web3. Do you remember this little thing? There are many people in this audience and around the world that said they would never use this because the BlackBerry had buttons on it and they needed their buttons.

11:52Humans are very good at saying no to new technology. What all of us need to do, especially dynamic places like this, is you must be in the business of maybe. You must be in the business of maybe and you must spend your 10 or 20 hours. There are plenty of people in this audience right now that have profound opinions on AI and NFTs and have never played with it. That is the issue at hand in the world in technology. Most people are not practitioners. their headline readers. Yes, that is very, very true. And just my final question to you. You know, there's obviously a current, a very obvious current dip in NFTs at the moment.

12:31I think I know your answer, but would you say this is just temporary? Is things gonna change? What do you think? No, I think it's permanent for the 99 % of projects that stink. The macro is established. NFTs will be here for the rest of our lives. but remember, a non-fungible token is the slang term we know it today as a digital collectible. What it really is is far bigger than that. The majority of people in this room will have contracts of buying homes, doing deeds, insurance. Day-to-day things will be done in the form of an NFT because it's a more secure contract than anything that sits on earth.

13:12And so, no, I think the brand will recover with better usage, but no, I think this is the way it was always supposed to be. 99.9 % of footballers' rookie cards are worthless. His isn't, because he was great, right? And so the problem is 99 % of, you like that one, Garrett? That was a good one. Thank you. 99 % of NFT projects, it's not gonna get any better because the creator, the creative, the operator is not capable of creating demand and affinity. But for the 1%, it will be like writing a Harry Potter book worked out, writing a bad book did not work out. And I think that's where people got it confused.

13:57They kind of lumped the whole genre together. That's like saying gaming does or doesn't work. The amount of games that come out every year are profound. The far majority of them don't get to come to things like this. And so I think early technologies get lumped as a genre and they're misunderstood and I think that's where we are right now. Yeah, so there's a massive education that needs to happen at the minute. Yeah, absolutely. So I want to move on to the, just talk briefly about the cinematic influence on video games. We've seen AAA games have huge budgets, you know, it's like rival big Hollywood productions, if not more.

14:33So Michael, what Hollywood trends have you seen that are influencing or having a major effect on enhancing storytelling when it comes to gaming? With the accent, excuse me? Oh, sorry. What trends or Hollywood trends, what things have you been seeing that are influencing or having an effect on gaming or the essence of storytelling in gaming? Well, like I was saying, I really do think there's... Games can aspire with movie people, cinematic people, with the artists and whatnot to try to create together. I think you can make the stronger game. You know, you can make... The dirty secret when you're a movie director is it's time.

15:15Time is your enemy. And you have two hours. And when you're cutting a movie, it starts at three or four, and you're cutting it down. And then all of a sudden, I carry this sheet around. Oh, my God, we got two seconds today. We took out four seconds today, three seconds. It really matters. Whereas a game, you can have a much more involving story. And I think it's interesting. It's different than a movie. You can have the audience, the participant, help create the game, help the franchise grow. They can be participants in the storytelling, which is kind of, I think, a great thing. It's an exciting thing.

16:02But listen, there's been a lot of successful movie game things. But, you know. Yeah, yeah. In fact, I just want to rewind back a little bit. What I'm saying ultimately is if they participate more together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to go back to, I just remembered we had a quick chat backstage. I want to hear your opinion on the NFT space. On NFTs? Yeah. I'm in the 99 % now. No. It makes a lot of sense what he's saying. It really does. So he's opened my eyes, you know? But that's the education that I was talking about. It's the same story over and over. People need to be educated. But what about hacking?

16:41People getting all your stuff stolen. I think, are people worried about that? Of course they are. But to remind everybody. Are you going to, you know, you're going to insure people? Just to remind everybody. I think history is something people struggle with. There used to be a time where humans lived on Earth without banks. That's real life. It was a long, long time ago, but it was existence. You know, people used to be scared to put their credit card into a computer. All money is electronic. There are many people in this audience that remember credit cards being stolen on the internet. It's just time.

17:12Just like in your world, time is a thing. This is a brand new technology. And so, I think cars are better today than they were 100 years ago. Planes are better today than they were. Phones are better today than they were 25 years ago. So what about those things? They will be resolved with time. And it's interesting that you mentioned hacking and kind of I guess security elements, but that is the beauty of blockchain and the beauty of things like NFTs. It's this impenetrable technology that's a lot more secure, a lot safer. But it's the perception that people have. No, no. That's what you gotta change.

17:50That's right. It is safer. The problem is, you're the custodial. When your money is stolen through a fake credit card transaction, you call the bank and they fix it. When you are the person that owns the keys to your assets on the blockchain, if you make a mistake, which is what he's referring to, it's gone. I lose every password, so that's a problem. So anyway, it's just early. It's just early. Okay, interesting stuff. So I want to talk about the kind of business and marketing of esports. So diving into the business side of esports, what are your, Gareth, What are your strategies for promoting teams, engaging fans and attracting sponsors from a business and celebrity perspective?

18:32Have you got any thoughts on that? I think it's just like saying, everything changes with time. I think you look back to when I first started, you were on just the front cover of a magazine that you could only see it when you went into a shop. Now you can post something, for example, on my social media that can straight away go to 50, 100 million people within the space of a second. So, yeah, things have changed. I think in terms of gaming now, it's so accessible to everybody on streaming platforms, on, like I said, social media platforms. Everything's really accessible quick, and it's just changed with the time.

19:08And I think, yeah, I think it's become a lot easier to market things and to promote things now than it ever has been. Because you don't have to travel to places. you can literally do what you need to do where you are, click a button, upload it, and it potentially goes to the world. So, yeah. But it's how you get over the clutter. Yeah. Yeah. And have you seen, I guess, any interesting strategies or kind of points of attack from other companies in the esports space that you thought, well, it's really interesting how they're trying to get people's attention and garner that attention from people or recruit new people?

19:44Yeah, I think it's just the way you potentially run your team, the content that you kind of create. You have obviously a lot of YouTubers, content creators now that can create a different kind of atmosphere around a team. They can make it more fun, more serious, more kind of what avenue you would like to take. And like I said, it's just so easy to kind of market that and get it out to everybody to kind of support that team or get involved with that team. It's really easy to kind of go down that space these days. And I think it's been really fascinating just watching that trajectory as well. Like you said, back in the day, you're on the front of a magazine, that's it.

20:21And now there's just so multifaceted, there's so many avenues, so many ways to reach out to celebrities and reach out to fans. And it really is such an exciting time, isn't it? And it's only going to grow and get better. Yeah, that's the crazy thing that you never, you always get to a point, you think, how can this get better in some clever mind? Yeah. Like these guys in the world that have such amazing talent and such vision that they create different avenues to make things even better. And yeah, I think that's what makes the individual more exciting than, for example, AI, which is a bit more straightforward.

20:54Yeah, yeah. Well, it's interesting that you just mentioned AI. So for the last 10 minutes of this discussion, I want to talk about artificial intelligence. And I think we can't talk about gaming, esports, Hollywood. We can't talk about that without AI infiltrating because, you know, it's a massive talking point at the moment. So with the rapid advancement of AI, playing a greater role in the entertainment industry, I'd like to discuss the implications on AI and storytelling in business and what role you see it playing. And I'm going to just throw that out to anyone, if anyone wants to take that.

21:23I'm spending some serious time in this space. I think, again, similar to the blockchain, similar to the internet in the past, there's a lot of opinions and a lot of curiosities. There's a ton of fear. there's a smaller group of optimism and looking to go on the offense. Here's what I can promise you. One, it's not gonna go away. So if you're gonna put your head in the sand and hope it goes away, it's not. AI is gonna be a humongous implication as a technology for everyone in this room. I think number two, like most technologies that are big, it's gonna save us a lot of time. There's a lot of things that a lot of people do here today, spend a lot of money on today on humans or infrastructure, hardware or software, that AI implications are going to make dramatically more efficient.

22:12There's also a lot of creative ways to work with it. So for me, I spend most of my time thinking about human behavior, pop trends, why people are wearing their hair the way they are, or why they wear hats or sneakers, all that stuff. I now am using AI as a thinking partner. I'm literally asking a bunch of AI tools, questions like, why is long hair coming in? Why are caps back versus not? Why are people consuming this beverage? And so I think for the creative class, they default into thinking AI's gonna take away my job instead of realizing AI's about to become your thinking partner. You're gonna have curiosity.

22:52The same way that many people here use a search engine to expand on something they're thinking through, that is child's play compared to what AI bots are gonna be able to do and AI machine learning infrastructures are gonna be able to do. So I think for the creative class, for this industry, things are gonna be produced quicker because of the speed and I think people are gonna come up with bigger and more exciting ideas because the technology's gonna guide them in the same way that a search engine was better than going to the library and looking it up on the encyclopedia, it made it faster, it made it quicker, it made it more dynamic.

23:30I think those are two things that are going to be very clear in this industry. Yeah. So like we've... Go on, Michael. What were you going to say? No, no, go on. No, I mean, just as a creative person, I saw a writer typed in an image, a Ridley Scott image, a Michael Bay image, a Tony Scott image, and I saw it. I said, where did you get that? Because I could recognize some stuff that my team had done. What I realized is it was cool, but AI has no soul. AI is just mathematics. And mathematics does not have a soul. So I'm not worried about it. I'm worried for my music friends, but AI can't predict the shot that I'm going to create.

24:11I always create new stuff in my films. They can't. They're not me. But I am very worried, first of all, that it's going to make people lazy. It could be a tool, yes. I hear it from medicine. It's great. But I'm very worried that it could be used for nefarious reasons. We were just talking about deep fakes back there. There's all this news about. Of course. And they can take three, four seconds of your voice. They've got enough pictures of you from magazines and whatever. And they can make you say whatever you want. And that's going to be a big problem. Pretty soon, you're not going to know what to believe in the world.

24:44But the worst thing I'm worried about, because of the nefarious of where humanity sometimes goes, I was in a room where the U.S. military, it's a special room. It's where the two men hold the two keys that can end the world. Now, that's a very scary room to be in, okay? But they have communication to Russia of all different types of communication. And four times in our lifetime, we've had fake launches, almost launches, that could end humanity. So that's where I don't worry about it. That's just me being a movie director, okay? We always do end-of-the-world kind of scenarios. It's a good movie.

25:24It's not fun to think, but I'm worried about the nefarious things that AI could... Yeah, and I think at the moment there's not enough regulation, there's not enough kind of understanding of it. And I think to your point, Gary, if it's used kind of to complement things or to work side-by-side, it's got potential. I think Michael's point is remarkably right. I also remind everybody that there used to be a world without atomic bombs and then technology created them. And yet here we are 70 years later. I think it's very easy to default into fear. I think it's actually the biggest issue in the world.

25:58I think fear is weaponized. I think fear is at scale. It could be a cool movie too. Yes, for sure. And I'm very empathetic to it. And I think deep fake will be enormously a big issue in the world. I fully agree with that. But I also know, back to my earlier point, this is where technologies like the blockchain are better than technologies like the internet. With the blockchain, when I upload my videos about me on the blockchain, it's gonna be very verifiable that it was me. I think it's one big game of cat and mouse, right? To Michael's point, there's gonna be the bad guys and there's gonna be the good guys and there's always those technology advances.