I'm actually really high on the metaverse. Not in the short term (next 5-ish years) but in the long term (15-20+ years).
Oddly enough, it was the Unreal 5 Matrix demo that swayed me. I think super realistic graphics is the missing piece (over the current cartoony graphics that we see today). Once you get a Quest like device capable of Unreal 5 level graphics then I think it starts to take off.
I also think younger generations (who will be young adults in the 2030s and 40s) that grew up on games like Roblox (which now has a VR version) and Fortnite will be more amenable to spending time in virtual worlds.
I suspect that the metaverse of the 2040s will be more of a stationary experience. Sort of like the internet of the 1990s. The metaverse of the 2060s becomes much more mobile with very, tiny and light AR devices.
It's definitely cool, amazing even, but a little uncanny. Watching Zuck specifically in the side by side, you could see his neck muscles and chords move as he talked, and he talks very clearly with a lot of lip movement. His avatar had no neck movement at all, and the lips didn't open much.
Lex was a little closer I think, but to me they both came across as photorealistic lifeless marionettes. This is not to insult the tech at all, it's beyond impressive, just my feelings while watching it.
> they both came across as photorealistic lifeless marionettes
Which is exactly how they look in reality anyway.
Quite ironic that this technology had to be demonstrated by two of the most famously expressionless characters in the tech world.
So this is obviously a big deal.. But I'm imagining a Black Mirror angle.. Will advertisers buy up some of your background space.. and pay for your intimate reaction data? They'll see how you react to everything in incredible detail. Will you be forced to wear these e.g.: while working and this could turn into some kind of surveillance apparatus with the data shared with your employer? Could interviews be done with these on and you'll be evaluated by AI?
What is actually cool about it? I haven't watch the full interview, but is the avatar thing cool?
I can also imagine this tech being fairly easy to replicate by other companies, I think Google and Apple will have their own versions of this very soon.
In a hypothetical future, there is some D&D platform that integrates both AI and VR. Imagine a sufficiently advanced "DM-GPT" that can create both the narrative and visual environment for a first-person immersive D&D campaign. I might be 80 years old by then, but I'd play the shit out of that game.
Unless I’m missing something, I believe all the big pieces are in place for just such a D&D game already, assuming one is starting with an environment and some key scenarios and virtual components and also a lot of great system prompt and trigger prompt sequences are programmatically in place and therefor every aspect is not autonomously generated. Stitching it all together would be an engineering and design challenge, but from the procedurally generated VR spaces I’ve seen and the recent advances with leveraging GPT-4 (among other models) for DM and NPC roles, I really do believe the core elements are in place. And I’d play the hell out of that game too!
I see Lex occasionally looking down (~16.47) and was wondering if he was referring to some notes. Not sure how one does this with a Quest strapped to your head.
Oddly enough, it was the Unreal 5 Matrix demo that swayed me. I think super realistic graphics is the missing piece (over the current cartoony graphics that we see today). Once you get a Quest like device capable of Unreal 5 level graphics then I think it starts to take off.
I also think younger generations (who will be young adults in the 2030s and 40s) that grew up on games like Roblox (which now has a VR version) and Fortnite will be more amenable to spending time in virtual worlds.
I suspect that the metaverse of the 2040s will be more of a stationary experience. Sort of like the internet of the 1990s. The metaverse of the 2060s becomes much more mobile with very, tiny and light AR devices.