RIP metaverse? – Apparatus

Not only Google, but also Facebook was taken by surprise by ChatGPT. Meta director Zuckerberg has therefore quietly pulled the plug on the Metaverse to focus entirely on AI. Or not?

The Metaverse plays a prominent role in cyberpunk, science fiction that revolves around high-tech internet in which you can wander through virtual worlds. In cyberpunk novels, much of the storyline takes place in these virtual worlds. In practice, however, it turns out to be unruly. Virtual worlds such as Second Life and games with VR goggles have never made a big breakthrough, although they are popular with a niche of gamers.

Zuckerberg’s dream

For several years now, PCs and VR glasses have been powerful enough to generate a convincing VR experience. And Mark Zuckerberg had therefore counted on the fact that now was the time for virtual reality, the metaverse. He envisioned a future Facebook where users could talk to each other directly in the virtual world, instead of having to type messages.

The dream sounds appealing enough. You put on virtual reality goggles and suddenly you’re on a tropical island, in an alien garden where large mushrooms grow instead of trees, or just trite on a terrace in Utrecht. Especially in corona times, the Metaverse would have been a godsend, because you don’t have to meet physically. And of course it also saves a lot of travel time, and therefore CO2 emissions.

The end of the Metaverse

However, it is also important for a development whether the time is right for it. Now attention is being grabbed by artificial intelligence, more precisely by generative networks such as Chat-GPT and Google’s competitor Bard. Facebook, sorry, Meta, also wants to fully commit to this. That is why the budget for the Metaverse, for which the company had made no less than $ 43 billion (half of Luxembourg’s GDP), has been significantly reduced. The demise of Metaverse, as Business Insider claims?

Or is the Metaverse not dead after all?

According to some, it is now the end of the Metaverse. But maybe that’s too premature. Because the novelty of generative artificial intelligence will probably wear off in a few months, and then there will be more attention for the Metaverse. And it is precisely that generative AI that will help to quickly build realistic virtual worlds. As Meta also pointed out.

Although it probably won’t be as big as Zuckerberg once thought. Because why would you meet in a virtual world if you can just go into town with your friends? Unless another scary disease breaks out, or those friends live on another continent.