[This short story from The Strait Times reports on a recent wedding between a woman and a digital companion she created using ChatGPT; the event was “planned by a local company that specialises in “2D character weddings” and has “arranged about 30 weddings for people with non-human partners, from anime characters to AI companions.” A related story from  The Strait Times titled “I let an AI bot ‘love’ me for a week. Here’s what went wrong“ includes this: “This experiment was part of a larger exploration into how people are increasingly turning to AI for emotional and practical support.…

[Two technology companies have partnered to advance an ambitious vision of thousands of people on Earth experiencing and learning about space via real-time telepresence. Coverage from The Cleveland American below provides some details; for more, see the press release via EIN News and the websites of Arkisys and Limitless Telepresence. –Matthew] Arkisys and Limitless Telepresence Partner to Bring Real-Time Space Interaction to Earth By Misty TateNovember 13, 2025 Two pioneering technology firms, Arkisys and Limitless Telepresence, have announced a groundbreaking collaboration aimed at revolutionising the way people on Earth experience and interact with space. The partnership, unveiled in Los Alamitos,…

[This Daily Dot story reports on a viral video by Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson that demonstrates and draws attention to the dangers of presence-evoking deepfake videos. I’ve added additional details and some viewer reactions from coverage by NDTV following the Daily Dot story below (both stories include more images and the video). –Matthew] Neil deGrasse Tyson shows how AI can be used to mislead—even in science “That’s not me. It was never me.” By Anna GoodOctober 31, 2025 Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s latest StarTalk video‘s introduction started off looking like a conspiracy video. An AI-generated Tyson claimed, “Lately, I’ve been…

[In this story from The Conversation, two researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder explain how motion sickness presents more than an annoyance to astronauts and describe their work exploring the effectiveness of presence-evoking virtual reality in reducing it. See the original version of the story for three more pictures and a video. As the authors note, their results have implications beyond space travel. Coverage in Interesting Engineering (which includes a different, longer, video) expands on that point: “As the team points out, these results could have applications beyond just helping astronauts. If perfected, the same principle could help passengers…

[The technology used to evoke presence need not be digital, as exemplified by the art experience described in this story from the Philadelphia Inquirer. I’ve lived here for 33 years and I hadn’t heard of Grounds for Sculpture, but I really want to visit. See the original version of the story for six more images. –Matthew] [Image: Columnist Stephanie Farr (far right) and reporter Michelle Myers look up at the 14-foot sculpture by Seward Johnson, “God Bless America,” 2012, aluminum and wood, 168 x 108 x 70 inches, Collection of the Seward Johnson Atelier, © 2012, The Seward Johnson Atelier,…

[The author of this essay from UnHerd uses French theorist Jean Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality – “simulations that become ‘more real than the real’” – to support an argument about the potential negative impacts of presence evoked by AI-generated erotica. For more on Baudrillard see today’s first ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Abdoul Latif] ChatGPT will kill our erotic imagination By Sohrab AhmariOctober 15, 2025 OpenAI boss Sam Altman has announced that ChatGPT will soon permit adult subscribers to create custom erotica. The move will no doubt amplify the already-growing calls for Congress and other public authorities to…

[As presence-evoking technologies and their impacts on us as individuals and societies continue to evolve, the work of French theorist Jean Baudrillard, author of the book Simulacra and Simulation (1981) seems increasingly prescient and relevant. In addition to this essay from Nigerian Sketch, see “How the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard predicted today’s AI 30 years before ChatGPT” in The Conversation and today’s second ISPR Presence News post. –Matthew] With AI, We’re Now Fully in Baudrillard’s Hyperreality By Farooq A. KperogiOctober 29, 2025 It seems our world is inexorably moving in the direction of replacing the authentic with the synthetic.…

[In this essay on his website, Thor Martin Bærug argues for the incorporation of technology design features that encourage users to overlook the role of the technology in their experience, i.e., that are more likely to evoke presence. The focus here is on museums, but the ideas certainly can be applied more broadly. –Matthew] How We’re Building Museum Technology That Gets Out of the Way By Thor Martin Bærug, Advisor, Strategist and Analyst in Digital Media & ProductsNovember 5, 2025 There’s a photo making rounds on social media. It’s the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – that magnificent vaulted corridor…

[Another innovation in the design of visual displays has the potential to substantially enhance presence experiences, as reported here by Phys.org. See also the recent ISPR Presence News post “Scientists develop retina E-paper display with 25k pixels per inch, matching human vision.” –Matthew] [Image: Optical and scanning electron microscope images of a nano-LED device that uses AC power instead of DC power, which could be a game-changer for sharper near-eye displays. Credit: Tao Tao] AC instead of DC unlocks nano-LEDs for VR headsets and near-eye displays By American Institute of PhysicsEdited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert EganNovember 4, 2025…

[The creator of Collective Body, an “intimate, immersively embodied VR experience” currently on a global tour, describes the project and its origins, design, and impacts in this interview from The Dance Enthusiast; see the original version of the interview for four more images. For more information see a story from Playbill and a review from The VR Critic. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center] THE DANCE ENTHUSIAST ASKS: Sarah Silverblatt-Buser’s “Collective Body,” an Interactive Virtual Reality Dance By Sarah Cecilia BukowskiOctober 20, 2025 Collective Body is an interactive virtual reality experience that guides participants through movement explorations to…

[An interdisciplinary team at the University of Miami is studying the effectiveness of visual arts training via presence-evoking virtual reality for teaching medical, nursing and physical therapy students. As one of the researchers notes, “Through guided discussion of art, students learn to embrace multiple perspectives, tolerate ambiguity, and support their interpretations with evidence, which are abilities that translate directly to the bedside.” See the original version of the story for two more images. For a related story about a virtual reality nutrition training program, see a story from New Mexico State University. –Matthew] [Image: A virtual reality session with six…

[The PC Magazine report below describes a recent deepfake video of a keynote address that was streamed as the actual address was being delivered by the CEO of NVIDIA. The incident is just one example of how AI-based videos have expanded to deceive viewers of real-time events. On his blog, technology writer Shelly Palmer had this take: “The good news is that no credible reports suggest the scam moved NVIDIA’s stock price or resulted in major financial losses. The bad news is that this kind of impersonation is not only super-easy to pull off, it’s getting harder to detect. Get…