Meta fundamentally doesn't understand what the Metaverse is going to be.
They picture a virtual space where you, a human, will go to interact with other humans you know and love.
They are thinking MMO Metaverse.
What it's actually going to be is a place where you go mostly alone into a virtual space that's being actively curated for and in response to your interactions with it.
Most people aren't going to care about hanging out for hours in VR with Aunt Patty whose political rants they can barely tolerate on FB.
But being able to bring back dead pets or loved ones to interact with, or have simulacrums of celebrities who want to be your friends, or experiences that are being tailored on the fly specifically for you and using eye tracking and pulse to reengage your disinterest?
The Metaverse is going to be the place where AI comes alive in ways it will be prohibitively expensive to do in real life with robotics and manufacturing. And ultimately what that can offer will beat out all other media.
We may have limited invitation of loved ones into our curated spaces, but it's mostly going to be a solitary (and yet intimately social - AI therapists/friends are going to end up well beyond Eliza) place.
Meta is a company that for over a decade wasted the data gathering opportunity of finding out what people DON'T like to the point it's damaged society.
They're just not going to "get it" in order to succeed as long as Zuck is CEO, in spite of very talented engineers.
As someone who's never played Animal Crossing, this sounds a lot like my impressions of the game, only its more dynamic and customized to you.
>simulacrums of celebrities who want to be your friends, or experiences that are being tailored on the fly specifically for you
If Aunt Patty spends her time hanging out with and unloading her crappy opinions on AI Paula Deen instead of spewing them publicly on FB it could be for the better. Although it seems like it could only make people's filter bubbles much worse.
They picture a virtual space where you, a human, will go to interact with other humans you know and love.
They are thinking MMO Metaverse.
What it's actually going to be is a place where you go mostly alone into a virtual space that's being actively curated for and in response to your interactions with it.
Most people aren't going to care about hanging out for hours in VR with Aunt Patty whose political rants they can barely tolerate on FB.
But being able to bring back dead pets or loved ones to interact with, or have simulacrums of celebrities who want to be your friends, or experiences that are being tailored on the fly specifically for you and using eye tracking and pulse to reengage your disinterest?
The Metaverse is going to be the place where AI comes alive in ways it will be prohibitively expensive to do in real life with robotics and manufacturing. And ultimately what that can offer will beat out all other media.
We may have limited invitation of loved ones into our curated spaces, but it's mostly going to be a solitary (and yet intimately social - AI therapists/friends are going to end up well beyond Eliza) place.
Meta is a company that for over a decade wasted the data gathering opportunity of finding out what people DON'T like to the point it's damaged society.
They're just not going to "get it" in order to succeed as long as Zuck is CEO, in spite of very talented engineers.