[This story from the BBC explores the implications of several recent, and older, examples of media companies subtly altering the ways they present reality to consumers without informing them, essentially as the author writes, “add[ing] additional steps between us and the information and media we consume, often in ways you’d never notice at first glance” and thereby altering our perceptions of objects, people and events in the real (nonmediated) world. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Illustration by Serenity Strull/Getty Images] YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos. The results could bend reality YouTube made AI enhancements to videos without telling users…

[A new version of the classic 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” has been created specifically for the state-of-the-art immersive film and performance venue Sphere (they’ve officially dropped the “The”) using advanced artificial intelligence and other software tools along with 4D physical effects. Learning more about it makes me even more anxious for a “presence field trip” to Las Vegas. The Reuters story below provides lots of details about the project (see the original version for five different images). A commentary at MediaPost notes implications for marketing and advertising. Visit the Sphere website for much more information, including an 8:02…

[This story from Northern Virginia Magazine describes important work being done by George Mason University assistant professor Li-Mei Chen on the use of presence-evoking virtual reality to help caregivers learn about and empathize with the experiences of people with dementia. Note the links to related efforts and resources near the end of the story. See the original version for a second image. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Li-Mei Chen/George Mason University] Virtual Reality Shows Caregivers What It’s Like to Live with Dementia The technology allows caregivers to see scenarios through the eyes of their patients. By Stephanie KanowitzAugust 19, 2025 It took…

[The promotional message below from World Table Tennis (WTT) describes a global virtual table tennis competition open to the public and scheduled to take place this fall alongside an in-person professional player competition that will be held in China. The virtual competition will use the Eleven Table Tennis platform, known to provide a particularly realistic simulation of play (e.g., see the 11-minute video “Eleven Table Tennis – Realness Test and Beginners Guide” on YouTube). As the message below notes, the platform now offers a mixed reality mode that lets users bring the gameplay directly into their physical space, which should…

[Computer science researchers at Princeton University are developing a system that brings the physical world into the virtual one via ‘invisible’ robots. The story below from the University provides the details; for more information including videos, follow the links within it, particularly the one to the “Reality Promises” website. Coverage in Scienmag – Science Magazine makes the connection with presence clear, without using the term: “What sets this work apart is its focus on dissolving the traditional barriers posed by robotic presence. Usually, robots in physical spaces are intrusive and palpable, often breaking immersion. By rendering the robot ‘invisible’ through…

[In this long but extremely interesting essay from his blog, the CEO of Microsoft AI (and a cofounder of now-Google’s DeepMind), Mustafa Suleyman outlines what he considers the substantial psychological and sociological perils of “Seemingly Conscious AI” and the medium-as-social-actor presence experiences it evokes (though he doesn’t use that terminology). Note his advice in the section near the end titled “The next steps.” –Matthew] We must build AI for people; not to be a person Seemingly Conscious AI is Coming By Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AIAugust2025 [snip – see original version for introduction] AI progress has been phenomenal.…

[Researchers in France are exploring how sounds can be used as a substitute for tactile stimuli, with obvious implications for evoking social presence. The Audio-touch project is described in the post below, which combines text from coverage at Techno-Science.net and a news release from Sorbonne University. For more information, see the project’s webpage and read the group’s recent publication: Alexandra de Lagarde, Catherine Pelachaud, Louise P Kirsch, Malika Auvray. Paving the way for social touch at a distance: Sonifying tactile interactions and their underlying emotions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025, 122…

[Here’s another example of how a diverse, interdisciplinary team can come together to create a rich presence experience that is both educational and entertaining. This version of the story was created by combining elements from a Kingston University news release and a modified version of that release posted on the Medievalists blog; see the latter version for a one-minute video (which is also available on Vimeo) and follow the link at the end of the story for much more information about the project. –Matthew] King Athelstan in Virtual Reality: New Project Brings England’s First King to Life A new interdisciplinary…

[The widely-cited special report from Reuters below describes the context, events and implications of one of several recent tragic incidents in which vulnerable people have been harmed at least in part as a result of their medium-as-social-actor presence experiences with AI-powered chatbots. It’s a long but important story; readers are strongly encouraged to visit the original version, which includes ten more images, three animated graphics featuring excerpts from chat transcripts, a short video, and links to related stories. –Matthew] [Image: An avatar of Meta AI chatbot “Big sis Billie,” as generated by Reuters using Meta AI on Facebook’s Messenger service.…

[While virtual (and even mixed) reality can evoke and extend presence experiences by isolating the user from their location in the real (nonmediated) world, a common complaint is that the need or desire to return to real world activities typically ‘breaks’ presence. As the UploadVR story below reports, a new app for Meta Quest headsets addresses the complaint by making it possible to interact with one’s phone (ironically, another medium), without having to exit a virtual environment. See the original version of the story for a 21-second embedded video and a second 1:40 minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew]…

[The application area – pharmacy and the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic diseases – may be different, but in many ways this story from Auburn University about how a professor and a professional colleague outside academia are developing an innovative use of presence-evoking technology (here virtual reality with haptic gloves) to educate and build empathy, is typical. See the original story for six more images and a 1:50 minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] Virtual reality, real impact How a Pharmacy professor is teaching empathy to students and understanding to patients By Amy Weaver, Office of Communications…

[Until relatively recently it was entirely reasonable to assume the media technologies were merely a channel through which humans communicated, that one or more people created the messages and sent them via letter, email, photo, or audio or audio-video recording. Today it’s increasingly likely that the text, images, sounds and video we encounter were either created entirely or altered substantially by generative AI and other advancing, easy-to-use and widely available technologies. The author of the essay below from USA Today argues that while in some contexts the ability to easily generate and enhance effective messages is valuable, in more personal…