Arcade AI

I was excited to see the recent launch of Arcade. It's awesome -- the ability to use AI to imagine up a product, then get it manufactured. Initially, it's all focused on jewelry.

The jewelry space is a bit baffling to me in general. Tiffany engagement rings carry a premium due to the brand. Lab grown diamonds are much cheaper than natural diamonds despite looking exactly the same (or better). Is there going to be a similar distinction between AI-designed goods and human-designed ones?

In Arcade's case, I think it'd be cool to get Hannah something super custom to her that I couldn't buy in stores. This Christmas, she'll probably get a bracelet and the charm will be her family's home in Ireland.

Buying something from someone else's Arcade shop doesn't seem very appealing to me as I know all they did was type in a prompt. It feels a bit like a knock-off even if it's manufactured by an "independent maker". Arcade shops will probably be dominated by influencers that now have the ability to launch a custom jewelry line to sell to their followers.

Outside of the influencer crowd, I think there's a ton of potential for existing brands to start offering 1/1 or hyper customized pieces to their clients powered by similar tech. It'd be a large step up from the ability to only add a monogram or initials to a ring. A lot of people work with jewelers to build custom engagement rings already, but this could be a way for large brands to offer similar services at scale. Perhaps manufacturing is more of a constraint than design here?

It's going to be fun to watch Arcade grow and expand product lines.

-Dan