Interfaces for contemporary large language, generative media, and perception AI models are often engineered for single user interaction. We investigate ritual as a design scaffold for developing collaborative, multi-user human-AI engagement. We consider the specific case of an immersive staging of the musical Xanadu performed at UCLA in Spring 2025. During a two-week run, over five hundred audience members contributed sketches and jazzercise moves that vision language models translated to virtual scenery elements and from choreographic prompts. This paper discusses four facets of interaction-as-ritual within the show: audience input as offerings that AI transforms into components of the ritual; performers as ritual guides, demonstrating how to interact with technology and sorting audience members into cohorts; AI systems as instruments "played" by the humans, in which sensing, generative components, and stagecraft create systems that can be mastered over time; and reciprocity of interaction, in which the show's AI machinery guides human behavior as well as being guided by humans, completing a human-AI feedback loop that visibly reshapes the virtual world. Ritual served as a frame for integrating linear narrative, character identity, music and interaction. The production explored how AI systems can support group creativity and play, addressing a critical gap in prevailing single user AI design paradigms.

In early September, Warner Bros. released a teaser for A Minecraft Movie, the studio's new film based on Mojang's nearly 15-year-old sandbox game. Directed by Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess, it was, frankly, very goofy. Jack Black was Steve; Jason Momoa was sporting maybe the worst hairdo he's ever had. Everyone involved, even the animated creatures, seemed to think they were in a different movie. But that wasn't what the trolls latched onto.

Lucasfilm has decided not to renew The Acolyte for a second season, according to Deadline and Variety. Fans won't get to see how the show was supposed to end and won't get to know how the plotlines its creator, Leslye Headland (Russian Doll), teased at the end of the first season would unravel. Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar called The Acolyte "Star Wars at its best" in his review, discussed how unique its premise was, and drew parallels between the series and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Deadline says the show had a strong start and garnered 4.8 million views in the first day it became available for streaming, reaching 11.1 million views after five days. However, viewership fell in the coming weeks, and its finale was reportedly the poorest performing finale for a Star Wars series.

The rise of generative AI models has led to equal amounts of clapping and handwringing. One worry is that, as Kevin Kelly put it, "artificial intelligence can now make better art than most humans." So where does that leave us? The mistake is to assume that the meaning of "better" will stay the same. What's more likely is that the goal posts will shift because we will move them. We have changed our collective tastes in response to technological progress in the past.

The AI song that gains awareness and turns against its creators is now an old song. Before machines finally catch up with us, the next technology revolution has yet to come. In the game ARG "Acolyte" is already at the door. The assistants are female and female AI assistants. Designed according to the wants and needs of users, they plan appointments or comb the Internet for inquiries or conversations.

For those of us working in virtual and augmented reality, our days are spent thinking of better and better ways to create more lifelike virtual worlds. It's easy for us to believe that one day we will be living in a sim indecipherable from "base" reality -- or even more likely, that we're already living in one. This year at Burning Man, the Metaverse Scholars Club, a non-profit committed to building an ethical metaverse, is creating an immersive theater/mixed reality experience reflecting these ideas. Our backgrounds are as augmented and virtual reality creators and community builders and theater. I'm Jodi Schiller, director of the immersive experience -- a professional with more than 20 years experience creating theater as well as a drama therapist.